The Tunnels of Cu Chi District - The Iron Triangle

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Up early and off at 08:00 on a bus tour to Cu Chi. This place is famous/infamous and a place the French and the Americans who fought there will never forget. There are approx 200km of tunnels in this area dug in to red laterite clay - which hardens like iron when dry and is pretty much the same when it's wet - it was certainly rock hard walking on it today. I know we're close when we pass through a large rubber plantation - this pre dates the War and must have been replanted since. The trees all had the 'white 45 degree line' cut into the bark at varying heights with a small wooden bowl to collect the rubber sap tied to the tree. Several locals are walking amongst the trees collecting it.

We arrive and trust the Vietnamese to make money out of the War - there is now a fully fledged visitors centre , guided walks through the woods, trap doors and a section of tunnel you can walk through - I didn't bother because I was more interested in the jungle that has grown back over 37 years. This was the most bombed, defoliated god forsaken 20 sq km of land there ever was in the history of warfare - the VC were very nearly wiped out but the guides don't tell you that, nor do they tell you about the american 'tunnel rat' unit who used to hunt VC in the tunnels armed only with a flashlight, knife and a pistol. We saw all the bamboo spike traps and a documentary (propoganda) film about the War. The VC lived in the tunnels, stored weapons including 105mm howitzers which they took down in pieces, oiled and reassembled for use when necessary! They ate , slept, planned, fought, carried out surgical operations, and even had babies in the tunnels. Women VC did the same jobs as the men and were front line combatants. The snipers would shoot from specially camouflaged 'spider holes' near to a tunnel entrance - the Americans rarely knew where the shots were coming from until several men were down and then the VC was off down the hole that yanks couldn't find - and when they did the VC had often traveled 200m underground and was up and off in another part of the woods. Every village had a tunnel entrance concealed and every family helped dig them - this started in 1948 when they were fighting French domination. When The Americans turned up they simply extended the complex right up to the US base perimeter fence near Cu Chi. The same base they raided during the Tet offensive using the tunnels as the launch point.
Today is very hot and there are AK47 and M16 shots being fired at the shooting range at the back -
$12 for 10 rounds - the shots are rather irritating and not adding to the 'experience' at all. However, I wouldn't like to have been here in full kit carrying an M16 in this heat and in these trees. It's easy to see why the Americans got spooked - you end up seeing little glimpses through the trees that may just possibly be another person but maybe not. By the end of the tour I was ready to go back - 1.5 hours on a bus in this heat - not fun.

As we enter Saigon district no 3 (there are 24 districts and 10 million people with 4 million motorbikes!) I notice 4 separate 'shoe shops' simply set up on the pavement in the space of a quarter of a mile on one street - seriously this place is full of contradiction and irony - the spirit of entrepreneurial endeavour is alive and well in a Communist country? Street hawkers selling Zippo lighters to Americans! Sorry but I think that's funny!

We get back about 14:30 and I get a taxi back to the hotel and have a shower. Then off for a wander getting the usual calls of 'motorbike sir?' anyway I manage to wander right around the block and conclude I am in the most expensive part of the city with Louis Vuitton, Prada and other top fashion brand name shops dotted around along with very expensive restaurants and hotels. Unimpressed I eventually find a street market selling everything, rice, noodles, live fish, clams, meat butchered in front of you, toiletries, clothes, hot waffles etc etc I find a street cafe at one end and plon k myself down for a feed. the proprietor doesn't speak english so I point at a tureen full of chicken strips in tomato sauce - this comes with rice, soup, and sliced cucumber - I scoff the lot and a wrong nod of the head results in more soup! Anyway this lot and a bottle of water was 20,000VD - This is stupidly cheap - about 65 pence! I've still not had my durian yet but I've seen plenty on sale on the street.

Tomorrow another tour - the Mekong Delta including a boat trip. I've decided that this will be the last organised tourist trip I do - I'll stick to finding a decent guide with a motorbike and get off the beaten track a bit more.

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