Cu Chi Tunnels

On my last day in Vietnam, I went on an SAS trip to see the Cu Chi Tunnels and to visit a village in Tay Ninh.  Located about an hour and half from the port in Ho Chi Minh City, the Cu Chi Tunnels are a very popular tourist attraction.  They are significant because they are what the North Vietnamese (Viet Cong) created and used to fight both the French and Americans.  During the Vietnam War, the Viet Cong used the tunnels as a base from which they could launch attacks and then escape underground without anyone knowing where they went.  Even if a tunnel was discovered they had several strategies to keep the American soldiers out, including the bottle neck traps they had in the tunnels.  This meant that an area of the tunnel was so small that it was too big for the Americans to fit through.  The Vietnamese usually weighed no more than 100 lbs and were easily able to slip through.  The tunnels also had multiple levels where the deeper you went, the narrower the tunnel. 

While we were there, we were able to see trapdoors and underground living areas.  It was unbelievable how smart the Viet Cong were.  For example, when they cooked, they would make it so that the smoke would not go out above them but it would instead go out somewhere else, so their location would not be given away.  They were so good at hiding that the American soldiers mistakenly built a military base directly over one of their tunnels.  Our group was able to travel through one of the tunnels.  It was so tight and most of the time we were crawling on our hands and knees.  We were only down there for a few minutes but when we came out we were dripping with sweat.  I cannot imagine living down there where it is extremely narrow, dark, and hot.