Ho Chi Minh city (Saigon) and Cu Chi Tunnels

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February 25th 2012

Published: February 29th 2012

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Margot and Diego

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I had the cheapest dinner of my life last night, and it was actually really good! For less than $1 each, we both got full plates of rice, veggies, fresh Vietnamese herbs, mildly spicy sauces, and egg (for me) and meat (for Diego). We were exhausted by the end of the day, so we just went back to the hotel and slept after dinner. The next morning we visited the Chu Chi Tunnels outside of the city. We usually avoid organized tours whenever possible, but this tour was very interesting and informative. The tunnels were originally built in the 1940’s to be used against the French and at that point were about 17km long. Throughout the Vietnam war, they were extended to over 200km, dug by hand through very hard dirt that was then dumped in the Mekong river to hide the evidence. The tunnels were built very small so that western soldiers could not fit into them. They are not really “tunnels” like we think of them or like movies portray them. They are more like human-sized gopher holes that you had to crawl through on your hands and knees. These tiny “tunnels” connected to larger underground “rooms” where the

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$1 dinner place, actually really good!

soldiers actually worked. There is a 100m long section of one of the tunnels that has been slightly enlarged for Westerners. Even with emergency exits every 20 meters this was definitely not for claustrophobics - - even the “enlarged” section was tiny and really quite frightening. We still had to bend all the way over and keep our knees bent in order to fit, and at some points we had to crawl. Parts of the tunnel were dimly illuminated and parts were pitch black - - it really gave me a new appreciation of what the people went through who lived and worked in those tunnels for weeks at a time. Our guide said that when American soldiers found tunnel entrances, they would through tear gas in them to smoke the Vietnamese soldiers out. I can’t even imagine what that must have been like. Aside from the tunnels, there were also working replicas of really painful looking traps that our guide demonstrated using a bamboo pole. Our guide explained the various kinds of mines made by the Viet Cong from scrap metal left over from recycled US shells, unexploded ordinance, etc. One was particularly tricky - - it had a

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Model of how the Cu Chi tunnel system worked.

little hole on top for a small stick that disguised the mine as a small tree. The area is still littered with enormous B-52 bomb craters, and throughout the tour we heard constant gunfire from the tourist shooting range (you can try M16s, AK47s, M60s, etc if you want - - we did not). It all made for a pretty creepy experience.

After an overpriced lunch at the restaurant on the grounds (70,000D ($3.50) for lunch? What? That’s a rip-off J)) we headed straight for the shower at our hotel (I must have sweated gallons crawling through that 100m tunnel). Then we went back out to the street to look for dinner. In order to escape the tourist hordes near our hotel, we walked the 30 or so minutes back to the area near the lunch lady’s stand, where we found another street restaurant in full swing, with about 100 tables spread out on the sidewalks on both sides of the street. We had a feast for less than $15 including drinks, and did not see another tourist the entire time we were there. The other customers at the restaurant were extremely friendly, even with the language

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TINY tunnel entrance, impossible to find when the cover is on.

barrier, and cheered us multiple times with their beers. They even asked us to move to sit at their tables! On the way back to the hotel we stopped to watch some schoolchildren practicing their kung fu and muay thai, but I was exhausted by then so we did not stay long.

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