We were up early again today for a trip to Cu Chi for a tour of the area where the tunnels were created during the resistance of the French occupation and then expanded by the Viet Cong in the late 1960's. The drive took a couple of hours through the crazy peak hour city traffic and then out to countryside with a mix of rice paddies and dairy farming. Much of the farming hasn't ever returned after the area was carpet bombed and poisoned with agent orange during the war. The people here have not been able to grow food anymore, there is no rice or fruit only grass and tapioca they have turned to producing milk.
The tour of the tunnels started with a short movie about the history of the tunnels. It was an old film from during the war and would have been propaganda to encourage Vietnamese to join the Viet Cong and to 'hunt Americans'. It was pretty descriptive and I can see why the American soldiers feared coming into the area given they were so ineffective against the clever and brutal tactics being used against them. The narration of the movie was very anti-American so I asked the guide what the American visitors thought of the movie when they came. She told me that they don't bring Amercans to this part of the tour as it makes them upset and angry. Always 2 sides to a story and I'm glad we had the chance to hear this one.
As we moved into the area of the tunnels we were shown an example of a hidden opening to the tunnels where the Viet Cong could just pop out and shoot then disappear again. Sarah just managed to get into the hole, Rich tried and got one leg in! What was more incredible is that this opening was double the actual size of the real ones. Another frustration for the Americans who were just too big to get down into the tunnels. We went through a short tunnel which had been made much bigger for us lumpy westerners. I can't even comprehend crawling around these tiny spaces for miles with children, wounded, supplies, bombs and all the gear needed to survive underground.
The tunnels are dug down into 3 layers, the living areas, meeting, cooking areas were 3 meters down, then these had tunnels connecting into the next layer of tunnels 7 meters below ground then on to the lowest and safest layer which was 10 meters down. The tunnels were 125kms in total length across a 5km square area. They had entrances under the U.S. Army base (the Americans didn't know that when they thought they'd be clever by putting a base close to the V.C strong hold) so the VC could attack without warning and also could escape into the river 5km the other way, hiding under river plants. Once the Americans worked out about the plants they poisoned the river. The V.C. then dug wells inside the tunnels for clean water. There were many ways of hiding the tunnel entrances, including in ant hills which also could be used for shooting hideouts.
Even the smoke from cooking was contained inside until early morning when it was released under the cover of the mist.
Many entrances were booby trapped with some very nasty and sharp devices hidden in holes designed to hold but not kill a soldier. The idea was that the injured man would call for help and once other soldiers came they would all be gunned down by the hidden V.C.
The Americans bombed this area more than anywhere else, firstly with agent orange to defoliate the jungle so the VC could not hide anymore, only to discover the tunnel system. The U.S. trained 'Tunnel Rats' in parts of the camps they found tunnels in. You had to be small so little Americans and fighters from Mexico & Brazil went into the tunnels. This was more effective but with the network being so complex with many booby traps many just got lost or were killed in the tunnels. The next plan was to use German Shepherd dogs to find and flush out people from the tunnels. The V.C started washing with the same soap as the Americans which effectively put an end to that tactic. The V.C. were also very resourceful in collecting unexploded bombs and reusing all the parts to make land mines, grenades and bullets. In the end the Americans resorted to carpet bombing with massive bombs from the B52 bombers which started to expose the tunnels and collapse them - even then the Vietnamese adapted building rooms in triangle shapes to with stand the shock and some of the tunnels 10 metres down were unaffected. Still so much time had passed the Americans had been forced to withdraw.
There were thousands of people killed here and the area was carpet bombed and poisoned. Children in future generations have been born with malformed bodies and permanent illness. There is a lot more to tell about this area's history but space won't allow here.
At the end of the tour we were given some tea and tapioca wedges and shown how rice paper for cooking is made. We also had the opportunity to fire the very big, very loud, very real guns from the war into a dirt wall using real bullets. Not on our list of must do's but apparently popular for American visitors.
This was another fascinating yet sobering experience and one to be recommended.
We were back HCMC for late lunch and were dropped of in the town centre. After yet another fabulous meal we set off for a wander around the more touristy part of town. We found a very nice shopping centre which was a bit upmarket and very westernised so after an ice cream and coffee we were back dodging motorbikes and exploring. There is some fabulous architecture in HCMC and the gardens are beautiful with many people out doing exercise, playing badminton and sepaktacraw (kick volley ball with a springy thing as described by Sarah).
It was a peak hour by the time we were on our way back to the hotel so it was a game of timing and artful dodging to get back. Dan had been checking out all the cool bike helmets people have so we were also on the lookout for a helmet seller. After being told they cost around $10 Dan was even more determined to have one of his own. He's pretty sure they will meet Australian standards for his bike!
After a cool down we were back out to search out a place for dinner and happily came across a man selling helmets. After being offered many options, Dan found 'the one' and was a very happy boy.
Now over to the family for their best fives...
Rich
Cu Chi tunnels - this was interesting and probably includes most of my five today
Thinking about what why and how a whole district was forced to live underground in terrible conditions for 20 years
The ingenuity displayed by the Vietnamese in such terrible circumstances. From living underground, hiding their existence, covering the entrances to the tunnels, creating and disguising the air vents and smoke holes, digging wells inside the tunnels, booby traps and evasion skills, recycling unexploded American ordinance to continue the fight with them all quite remarkable.
The scale of the tunnel system. Each individual tunnel so tiny. As you can see from the photo I cannot even get into the entrance of this "tourist sized" hole, yet there is 100s of kilometres, up to 20,000 people living like this.
Discovering that Ho Chi Min "walked like a man" too! (see picture)
Dan's face when he got a helmet he liked (see picture)
Sarah
The tunnels were cool. dad could only just fit
The tour of the tunnels was fun and interesting.
Getting into the tank was fun ( see pic )
Walking down the walking bit in the city towards the river
The pizza that I had for dinner was very nice.
Dan
I liked how they dug out the tunnels. It seemed to be really hard work.
I liked how smart they were in hiding the traces of where they had been.
The traps they used were really interesting and smart.
I loved buying my helmet.
The pizza we had was the best pizza ever.
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