Saigon - Cu Chi Tunnels

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While my room was cheap it was a prison as well. Staying in Saigon without air con or at the very least, a large window to open is hell. I couldn’t sleep for the sweat dripping from every pore of my body. When 6 am came I was already away a good long while and had a cold shower, not by choice, there just wasn’t any hot water and to be honest it did feel good. Breakfast was a nice change; I had 2 fried eggs and a baguette with some Chin Su sauce, chilli garlic and tomato sauce. It was a nice change from Pho!
The ride to the tunnels took around 2 hours stopping at a craft workshop. Arriving at the tunnels you are ushered to a hut (cinema) where you are educated on the history of the local people and their plight...the barbarous (Capitalist devil) Americans. Apparently when they were in the area the G.I’s fired like “Crazy Devils” at women, children, ducks and pagodas. After the lesson was finished we were escorted to one of the secret entrances to the tunnels, it’s no wonder the Americans couldn’t find the tunnels, the Vietnamese were very resourceful and the tunnel system itself is very clever. Four very thin people from the group volunteered to crawl through a 40ft section of the tunnel that was not modified for tourists and they said it was challenging not only because it was cramped and dark but also because of the heat. The rest of us would wait our turn in the main section of the tunnels which we would visit after being shown examples of the traps the Viet cong used to injure and kill the American invaders, we saw the rolling traps which were full of nails and would puncture the victim dozens of times as they fell into the pit, the good ol' Punjee pit and at the end of this section was a door trap which designed in such a way that if you react fast enough to catch the section heading for your face and chest the next section will swing up and catch you anyway, most likely in the crotch or belly. This done it was time for some shooting! Lots of people didn’t shoot partly because of the cost, partly because it encourages war etc and some just didn’t like bangs. War is hell and guns shouldn’t be as easy to obtain as they are, that said in a controlled area you can have fun and regress to living the dream of yourself as a 10 year old, I spent £20 on bullets which was approx 2-3 full days budget inc food, accommodation and transport but it was worth it, I fired an M16 which packs a punch and then I went back and fired the M60 machine gun. It felt like Rambo and the surprising thing is that there’s very little recoil on it. It was now time to face my fear, the tunnels. The tunnels were widened for tourists and I suppose everything in perspective the Vietnamese are much smaller than us anyway so they would have to be wider but it still didn’t take my fear away. Inside the tunnels are small lights every few metres but they don’t give off a lot of light, they only serve to show the way, thankfully there’s are exit every 20m so you don’t have to go far if the experience gets too much to handle. It really didn’t help me when some of the women ahead wouldn’t shut up about how cramped and dark it was. I found out they were claustrophobic too because I got out when they did. After the next exit I decided to get back in for some more tunnel action and to face the fear and I coped much better by myself.

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