Cu Chi Tunnels - Vietnamese ingenuity on display

15.05.2019

Our guide showed us how the Vietnamese devised clever ways to hide access to the tunnel system; today, more than a million tourists visit the Cu Chi Tunnel System each year

We had just come through a stretch of the tunnel here; I had to crawl on all fours and was quite glad that the tunnels no longer had rats, venomous centipedes or snakes

Most of the time, soldiers would spend the day in the tunnels working or resting and come out only at night to scavenge for supplies, tend their crops, or engage the enemy in battle

Located 60 kms NW of Ho Chi Minh City, the Cu Chi tunnel network is an extensive labyrinth stretching to the Cambodian border; they were built over 25 years beginning in 1948 by the Viet Minh during the war against the French

This woman is making traditional rice paper that was used to wrap around food much like a tortilla; there were numerous employees, like her, that demonstrated trades and skills used during the war

The tunnel site had a shooting range where tourists can fire AK 47s, M30 and M60 machine guns and M16s; the noise from the range was deafening as we walked by

Not only were the tunnels home for thousands of Viet Cong guerrillas, but they were also a complicated network of trenches, bunkers, booby traps, bomb shelters and an amazing air ventilation system

The tunnel complex was very well organized and effectively presented; given the size of most tourists these days the tunnels have been enlarged from their original size

The Vietnamese used bamboo for many critical functions including building and for water; the Cu Chi Tunnels were the Viet Cong's base of operations for the Tết Offensive in 1968

We watched a propaganda film which definitely showed a pro-Vietnamese bias but it was hard to defend what the Americans did here; the tunnel system is an amazing 250 km long!