Cu Chi Tunnels, Ho Chi Minh

It was another early morning for a day trip to the Cu Chi tunnels, two hours north of Ho Chi Minh. The Cu Chi tunnels are a huge network of underground tunnels built in the late 1940’s during the war against the French and later extended during the Vietnam war.

On the bus we discovered we were the only English people as the remaining 15 people were all Spanish. This was a complete coincidence as the four groups of Spanish people didn’t know each other.

Throughout the tour, we learnt about the tunnels as well as techniques used by the Vietcong to disguise themselves and the tunnels. They span multiple levels totalling over 250km, were used for hiding, launching surprise attacks, storing weapons, medical treatment and living. Conditions underground were described as border-line unbearable (rodents, insects, heat, lack of food and water, darkness and not to mention they were tiny). We crawled through 40m of tunnels made wider for tourists, with some lighting and airflow and despite that, 5 minutes was enough. We also saw a range of various jungle traps that would have been buried in the floor, hung on doors, attached to trees or hidden inside fake tunnels entrances. Little did American soldiers know but Vietcong soldiers would indicate the 'dummy' entrances by leaving a small cross mark on a tree trunk nearby. If an enemy entered through the wrong entrance, they would be met with a trap. The Vietcong also wore shoes which had footprints facing opposite directions to confuse American troops of their whereabouts. This was not dissimilar to the stuff from Rambo!

Our guide was really informative and even gave us some useful information about the Vietnamese language. It turns out the language has six different tones, with tone indicating the meaning of the same word. For instance, Xin Chao means hello (if said in a low tone), whereas saying this in a higher tone actually means ‘shut up.’ It’s likely we've been telling locals to shut up, but apparently the Vietnamese are aware of the difficulties in their language for tourists so understand what we mean.Leggi altro