Cu Chi Tunnels

The crew got up early for the drive out from our hotel to the tunnels at Cu Chi. Cu Chi is the area where the Viet Cong entrenched themselves in over 250km of tunnels in order to fend off the American offensive. It has since been converted into a war memorial museum with 2 sites where the tunnels are maintained for visitors to enter. In our previous visit Yen and I visited the Ben Dinh site where the tunnels have been mostly rebuilt and widened for a broader range of tourists (i.e. big white people). This time we opted for the slightly further Ben Duoc site, which has had some of its original tunnels maintained, the safer of which have been opened to the public. 

We were with two other couples on our bus to Cu Chi, one from Ireland and the other from the Philippines. One of them was interested in the shooting range so we stopped there before starting the tunnels. Although we didn't opt in, we all went in to check it out and got to see all the original guns and weaponry from the war that were available to shoot. The guy on our tour opted for the AK47, though did seriously consider the machine gun. The only thing we all noted was the volume. These guns were way louder than we imagined and tv shows and movies just don't do them justice. 

Next we were off to the tunnels. We got started with a bunch of captured and left-behind tanks, airplanes, helicopters and artillery. Surreal to be standing right beside them, touching them, getting in them, and then imagining where they've been and what they've seen.

The first tunnel was just a short one which had a well inside, so less of a classic tunnel and more of just a room that happened to be below grade. We all went through this one, with its small entrance and exit carved into the side of a hill/mound but not too difficult length and a good size inside its purpose built room. It was a good confidence booster for what was to come. 

The next tunnel's entrance was a hidden trap door randomly camouflaged in the ground. It was rectangular and I had to squeeze my chest through diagonally with my arms above my head to get in. I believe it was just over 10 meters long. My crew all went ahead of me and the Irish couple was going to come after me. By the time I squoze through the entrance, those in front of me had disappeared down the tunnel and around the corner. I turned my phone flashlight on and started down the corridor. I had to squat walk as the ceiling was probably the height of my chest. If I took a deep breath in my arms would both be touching the walls. A few feet in and I was breathing as though I just ran a marathon. Yes it was hot and I was squat-walking, but I think it was actually claustrophobia setting in. It really hit me when I realised I was getting closer to the other end of the tunnel and there was a back up of people (all my family) climbing up the exit and I couldn't just go at my own pace. I could also hear the Irish couple behind me as they climbed down the entrance, effectively trapping me. I stopped where I was, trying to take deep breaths and hoping to wait out the bottleneck at the end while trying to convince myself it didn't exist. It didn't work. I had to continue on and that little wait to get out could not have been little enough. I was not made for this. I wouldn't have lasted a day. 

There were a few more displays and short tunnels to see before the last one. Some of the displays were of the various traps they would set out in the jungle and even inside the tunnels, for the American soldiers that were both small enough and brave enough to find and make it into the tunnels. It has always both deeply disturbed and yet still fascinated me how much effort and ingenuity people put into harming other people in terrible ways.

The final tunnel was much longer than my nemesis and had the option of an exit at the 15, 30, or 50 metre mark. I graciously opted out this time but Oren, Iyla, and their cousin Evan went in. They even stayed in until the bitter end at 30m! Great work - they were each offered positions in the Viet Cong forces.

Highly recommended by all as a really great experiential history lesson that everyone enjoyed and learned a lot from.