Cu Chi Tunnels

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Today we took a tour to see the Cu Chi Tunnels which showcases part of the underground tunnel system used by the VietCong during the Vietnam war. We paid 5$ each for the tour which included a guide and transportation to the tunnel. We paid another few dollars entry fee into the complex. Our tour guide, Mr Binh (pronounced Mr Bean!) was funny and entertaining. He also was a US war vet who served during the Vietnam war, for the USA. We got an interesting insight into this war from him! He would point out all the inaccuracies in the displays of booby traps and soldiers and tell us how the war really was!!

After a stop to a handicap handicraft workshop, with items made by victims of Agent Orange which was used during the war, we arrive to the Cu Chi Tunnel complex. We tour the grounds, including seeing sample booby traps, bunkers, hide outs, tanks and a shooting range. Throughout the tour, we learned about the cunningness of the Viet Cong and learned that over there, they call it the “American War”, not the Vietnam War!!

Finally, we made it to the tunnel, the highlight of the whole trip!! We got to crawl through 400 metres of tunnel, which was the longest 400m of my LIFE!! The tunnel was 1.3m high, 1m wide and 8m below ground. I am not usually claustrophobic or anything, but when the people ahead of us in line stopped to take pictures (which wouldn’t come out clear in the bad lighting), I nearly pushed them over to make them continue on! And if I thought I was cramped, imagine how Mike felt! There were “escape routes” every 50m or so for people who are scared and, not surprisingly, Mike and I made it the farthest in our whole group! Yay us! We made it to a section where it got so small that we had to slide flat on our backs when a tour guide started yelling at us that we’d gone too far and had to get out – oops! Real troppers we were! What a cool day trip!!

Later that afternoon, we were back in HCMC, spending more time at amazing Ben Thanh market, where we held off again on buying too much, except a North Face backpack which we paid a whopping $6 for a 50L bag! Score! We spend the rest of the evening wandering around the city and having a few beers before boarding a midnight bus to Da Lat.

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