Cu Chi Tunnels

Yesterday saw us go on a day trip an hour north west of Ho Chi Minh City to Cu chi which has become famous in Vietnam for its 150km worth of tunnels underground which the Vietcong hid in during the war between the North and the South and to hide from the Americans. These tunnels took 17 years to build and stretched all the way to the Cambodian border and to the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City.

The tunnels were designed for Vietnamese sized people so it made it very difficult for the Americans even when they discovered tunnel openings to fit down them. The Vietcong people lived down these tunnels for years building 3 levels of tunnels, the top level just below the surface had classrooms, kitchens and the weapons stores then another level down had the living areas which had discreet air holes back to the surface and the 3rd level even deeper down was the escape route tunnels where there were miles upon miles of different routes and exits.

The exits were extremely discreet in fact our tour group completely walked over one and our tour guide pulled us back cleared some leaves off the ground and came across a tiny hatch which you can see from the photos only just fitted Kris inside. Needless to say I didn't volunteer to try!!

Then it was onto the tourist tunnel basically one of the original tunnels which they have widened specifically for western tourists. The tunnel was 1 metre high and 1/2 metre wide, you could go through them with exit points every 20 metres. After learning of my slight fear of being underground I declined but Kris managed 60 metres underground, a lot of the group panicked as soon as they got in and came out at the first point as there was no turning around in there!

It was a fascinating day with another eye opening realisation how lucky we are not to have had to endure war in Milton Keynes.