Cu Chi Tunnels: Gruesome and Amazing

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Cu Chi Tunnels
I was wondering how I could choose which travel agent to book through as they were all over the place and there were a gazillion of them. Realized later on, that it was best to ask your hotel. The owner of our hotel, Mr. Ly (Guest House is called Ly, so I am guessing that’s his name and he didn’t speak much English) was very helpful and booked us for a half day trip to Cu Chi for usd 5 each, although he had to call his son of 12 yrs to deal with us as he didn’t speak much English.
Early morning I had to get up even though I probably am the worst person to get up early, feeling quite grumpy. Came down to the lobby and saw few other people were also waiting for the guide to come over and pick us up for the trip. After about a 10 mins wait, our guide came but without the bus, so we had to walk abt 10 mins to go over to the agent’s office where the bus was waiting to take us to Cu Chi.
Its about an hour and a half ride from Saigon, roughly abt 70 km. It was a hot day but luckily the aircon in the bus was working as it should be much to our relief. Our guide was cordial with a bit of a sense of humour, so he started to fill us in about how our half day trip would go. As soon as we went over the city boundary the landscape became usual like any other Southeast Asian country so I decided to catch some sleep and be a little bit jolly!!
Reached Cu Chi in time and I must say from outside it didn’t look that much is happening. First we were shown a short video how the tunnels were built and how it worked. The gruesome video was quite graphic, but one must admire the determination, dedication of Vietnamese army who built these maze of tunnels which lay across 100 square km and fought off American army for 20 years.
We were also shown a model of how the three layers of tunnels been made and how they were made narrow purposefully so that it can not be breached by American army who were much larger than average Vietnamese. Then we were guided through the area where they preserved all very well, including underground bunker, traps and off course the tunnels. I must say, from the video demonstration and the model, it certainly didn’t look how it would actually feel. We have been guided inside the tunnel and it was fine inside the first layer as it was high enough to stand, although the damp smell from the soil was a bit scary. However when our guide asked us to follow him to the second layer which was another set of stairs underground, it became really scary. I chickened out, I felt damn claustrophobic, because the tunnel was dark, had a strong smell of dampness, and one needs to kneel down to pass through and they were so narrow you could only go in one direction, can not return should you change your mind. The tunnels in the third layer connect to the Mekong River which runs through Vietnam and Cambodia and this was their source of water supply back in those days. Hats off all Vietnamese martyrs who endured this to beat American invaders.
Finally we were taken to an area where one can have a real feel by shooting AK47 and other rifles and machine guns for usd 1 a round, somehow we didn’t feel like doing it as the noise level in that area was quite high, instead I decided to try out some local fried fish balls, it was awesome. Also they sell coconut water in a can, if you love that, it’s worth trying!
We also tried the local staple food Tapioka during the wartime. Its basically a sweet potato kind of thing. does not have much taste to it, very bland. Vietnamese people used to survive just on these during the wartime in their tunnels. They used to have it with a mixture of salt and sugar and warm green tea, that was all for the source of energy!
Came back to Saigon afterwards, randomly moved around in the district 1 area, had our dinner in a vegetarian eatery owned by a South Indian chap at the end of Bui Vien Street. Nice sumptuous meal in a few days, not bad to see us off to Hanoi tomorrow.

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Photos

Airhole
Disguised as ant nest

brit girls
hope I'm an not bearching any copyrights :p