One of the places I was interested in seeing on this trip were the Cu Chi Tunnels. These are the tunnels that were designed by Vietnamese, first during the war with the French and then expanded considerably during the Vietnam War.
We got a much more different perspective on the Vietnam War than what we have heard back home. Our tour guide for the Cu Chi Tunnels appeared to be a strong Northern Vietnamese supporter. She seemed very proud of how the Viet Cong were able to get in lots of “American Kills.”
To see the tunnels up close and hear the stories is eerie. To see the booby traps and how they worked makes a chill go up your spine. The Northern Vietnamese were quite clever and resourceful in order to keep themselves hidden and to eventually win the war. Because the Viet Cong did not have the same technological resources as the Americans or the Australians, they needed to use more simple but creative methods. One of the things they did was put their shoes on backwards and walk away from a booby trap. These purposely left footprints, which then led American soldiers right toward the booby trap. The Viet Cong would wash themselves with soap they stole from the Americans. This allowed them to avoid detection from the dogs that the Americans used to track them. Since they had to cook underground they built a labyrinth of remote smoke outlets. Some of these outlets were 2-4 km away from the source.
The entranceways to the tunnels are especially small. In the interest of tourism, they made the entranceways a little larger in a couple of places so that tourists can get an idea of what it was like. We all tried to go into it. No surprise that Tom did not fit. He got stuck at his shoulders. They also made one of the tunnels completely larger so that tourists can walk through about 100 m of the tunnel. The photo on the left shows the entranceway that was made larger and the photo below shows an original entranceway.
There is a shooting range at Cu Chi Tunnels. Tom and I got the opportunity to shoot a M16.