We’d had an easy start to the day and having taken our time over brunch we made our way to the tour office.
Woolly says – Although I’m not a great fan of guided tours we felt that this one would give us an opportunity to learn a lot more about the Vietnam war as well as making it easy to get there and back. We sat waiting in the office as more and more people gathered, I smiled engagingly at each new arrival listening to accents from around the world as they joined us. It didn’t look as though it was going to be an intimate tour and as the signal was given to board the bus I hoped that there was actually going to be enough seats!
The coach was full and as we drove out of the city and into the countryside I wondered how we were all going to fit into the tunnels, our guide started to tell us the history of the area.
Woolly says –I’d already done some extensive reading and was able to nod along with his spiel as he told us that the tunnels of Củ Chi were an immense network of connecting underground caves located in the Củ Chi District of Ho Chi Minh City and were part of a much larger network of tunnels that underlie much of the country. They were the location of several military campaigns during the Vietnam War, and were the Viet Cong’s base of operations for the Tết Offensive in 1968, providing supply routes, hospitals, food and weapon caches and providing the Viet Cong with resistance to the American forces helping to counter the growing American military effort. With over 250 kilometres dug out over the war years there was only a fraction left open now, but it would be enough for us to experience what the soldiers had spent there days in. Life in the tunnels had been hard, with air, food and water scarce, and the tunnels were infested with ants, venomous centipedes, scorpions, spiders and vermin. Most of the time, soldiers would spend the days 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. It didn’t sound like a place to linger! As our vehicle pulled into the car park and we climbed down our guide told us to go to the toilet, I looked at Jo and shook my head, I’d only been an hour ago when we had stopped for a rest break, the guide pinned his eyes on me and I scuttled inside the gents to see if I could oblige.
Given that the journey was less than two hours I had wondered why we had stopped at all, but it had become apparent that it wasn’t about meeting our basic needs and more about selling us stuff, we had ignored the stalls and loitered by the coach door waiting to carry on.
Woolly says – Having been given our tickets we followed a wide sloping path into the earth, it didn’t look narrow at all and I was slightly disappointed until the slope took us upwards and into the jungle. Our guide stopped and pointed at the ground where a bed of leaves lay covering the terrain, I peered at the leaves but failed to find anything particularly interesting until the guide moved a mound with his foot and revealed a trap door. It was well camouflaged and as each member of the tour climbed into the small space we sat and waited for nearly an hour as each person had their picture taken, I could see Jo sitting a distance away and not looking happy.
I’d given up trying to take a picture and tried to be patient about the wait, finally, once everyone had their picture I was able to spend a full two seconds getting mine!
Woolly says – The wooded pathways led us deeper into the humid jungle and I imagined how hot it must have been for the soldiers, as our guide showed us where the ventilation chambers were and how they had been cleverly made to look like termite mounds to blend into the landscape and explained how the Americans had used them to pump poison gas into the chambers that were running beneath our feet. Many attacks had been made on the tunnels and a huge bomb crater next to one showed us just how close they had come to completely decimating the underground network. As we wandered on I realised that Jo was now in front of the guide and moving a lot quicker than the rest of the group.
I’d grown bored of waiting for everyone to have a selfie at each and every point of interest and found that by staying in front of the group I could listen to the tour guide in front with his small group of six, take my picture and then listen to our guide for further information, it was working a treat.
Woolly says – We arrived at a clearing in the dense vegetation which had a handy bar and a rifle range for those that felt the need to shoot something, as we sat slurping a much needed drink to combat the humidity I watched the rest of the group taking more and more selfies, even I don’t need my picture taking that many times! A further walk into denser surroundings and we came to the tunnels that are still open, before the guide could say a word I clambered down the tiny steps and started my investigation of the tunnels themselves. The humans were struggling with the size and even Jo was bent double in her efforts to get through, for me it was wonderful and as I popped up at one entrance and checked the landscape I found I had completed several circuits before the women had managed to get through the first twenty meters. It would make a great place to play hide and seek! Once everyone had completed as much of the warren as they felt comfortable with and each person had taken there snaps we were led to some buildings that were covered in foliage and sunk well into the ground where the kitchens had been located. The cooking facilities looked old and well used, I stood scratching my head wondering where the smoke from the oven had gone given that there was no chimney. I left the kitchen area and paced around outside until finding a blacked piece of flat stone quite a walk away, which had pipes connecting it the stove but meant that it was no where near the cooks meaning that the smoke was running underground before seeping into the air so the chances of being spotted were much slimmer.
The small area had been the only place were the fighters had come out from the ground and then only as dawn was creeping in so there was less chance of being seen by the enemy.
Woolly says – We made our way back through the undergrowth and towards our transport, the demand was given to go to the toilet again which I choose to ignore even though the guide shook his head at me, some things you just can’t force! As we settled down for the journey back I sat starring at the passing landscape of fields and houses which had sprung up in the years following the war, as least with everyone sitting down I could enjoy the views instead of trying to peer between peoples feet to get a look at anything, I glanced over at Jo, she didn’t seem overjoyed with her experience either and I just hoped she had managed to take some pictures in amongst the selfie loving group.