Blogs from Cu Chi, Ho Chi Minh City, Southeast, Vietnam, Asia

We took the hour and a half bus ride to the Cu Chi Tunnels, they're located 30 kms from Ho Chi Minh City. It is an area where the Viet Cong lived. They dug tunnels to live in to protect themselves during the 1960s/ 70's war with America. The tunnels stretch for for over 200 kms as far as the Cambodian border. The Viet cong set many traps to stop the American soldiers and thus the Americans were unable to flush them out so they turned their artillery and bombers on the area, transforming it to a moonscape. Some of the tunnels have been preserved and visitors are able to get into the narrow openings, the tunnels are accessed by trapdoors hidden on the jungle floor. They were an ingenious system that included living quarters, hospitals ... read more

Today the 3 Amigo's head to Tay Ninh to visit the quite South Vietnamese people for those in Cao Dai Sm - This is a unique religion that you might never expect to encounter, arriving in time for its noon time prayer service, you enjoy peculiar hymns with followers attired in brightly coloured gowns (red, yellow, blue and white). The colourful painted 3D sculptures adorn the many pillars both within and outside the temple with its unusual shaped roof, while inside looking down down the long hall you see a most impressive brass ball with the all seeing eye. This occult practices from Taoism, theories of karma and rebirth from Buddhism, and a hierarchical organization (including a pope) from Roman Catholicism. Well worth the visit. Next stop, was the underground villagea Ben Dinh in Cu Chi ... read more

Today was a day in which I learnt alot. Today we got up at 6:00 in the morning, got ready and ate a breakfast of 2 boiled eggs with juice by 6:45. We went down stairs to be escorted by our escort to the port. Once we got to the port we had to wait a bit because 2 people hadn't arrived. When everyone had finally arrived, we got on the boat to start our 1.5 hour trip to the Cu Chi tunnels, this is where the Vitnamese dug tunnels to protect themselves from the American bombs. it was an underground village connected by networks of tunnels. it consisted of bedrooms, kitchen, hiding rooms, bunkers, oxygen tunnels and water rooms but no "happy stations" (that's how they refer to toilets here), if you needed to go ... read more

Yesterday we went to Cu Chi tunnels. It was dark in the tunnels, also small and long. We saw a movie about the war. There were people shooting guns but kids were not allowed. The day was good because i went on a speed boat.... read more

I shuffle through the tunnel, making enough noise to be heard in Saigon. My thighs burn with cramp forcing me to change position - I’m in danger of being engaged spread-eagled. My pack causes me to get stuck and I have to jiggle it off and hold it in front of me. I’d been separated from the platoon that I had arrived with. I had studied their faces during the journey here. I could tell they were green, first timers. This was my second tour of ‘Nam. I’d spent three comfortable days in Saigon before now. The mushrooming city was how I remembered it. Every bit of available space occupied, either by tall, impossibly narrow, skyward-shooting apartment buildings, mopeds or people it seemed. Our position was just outside of the city, at the Viet Cong tunnels ... read more

Before we came to Vietnam, one of the things we really wanted to see was the site of the Cu Chi tunnels. It's only an hour in a taxi from Binh Duong so a group of 5 of us went of exploring for the day. Wikipedia has a lot of information about the history of the tunnels. There are actually two sites, fairly close to each other, and very similar. The first one we went to was Ben Dinh and we were horrified at the number of tour buses and enormous groups of tourists. It was not what we had expected! Nevertheless, we continued on into the jungle and were soon entering an underground hut to watch an informative video. The tracks continued deeper into the jungle and before long a Vietnamese soldier popped up out ... read more