April 15, 2015

For our first full day in Ho Chi Minh City, we decided to go see the Cu Chi tunnels. The bus ride took us about 2 hours outside of the city where they have an area set up for tours of the tunnels. Once we got there, the first thing that they go through is all of the different types of traps that the Viet Cong set up to fight the Americans. I have to say, I would NOT have wanted to be caught in any of these traps! They are very basic, but certainly effective…reminded us of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom type of stuff

Booby Trap

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Booby traps

Booby traps

Whew…it’s hot out here

Tank climbing

After going through the traps and seeing a little bit of the daily life of the soldiers, we got to go through the actual tunnels. In the first spot, we could try getting into one of the hidden entrance holes, it was tiny. They could slip into these holes really fast and cover their tracks so that they could pop up and down around the area undetected. The next part was going through the actual tunnels. The tunnels have been widened and raised to accommodate tourists. After climbing 100 meters through the enlarged tunnel, I cannot imagine getting through these at actual size…those guys had to be tiny.

Cu Chi Tunnel

Cu Chi Tunnel

Hayden in the tunnel

Invisible entrance

Coming back out…

Adam in the tunnel

Adam going in the tunnels

The craziest part is that they lived in these tunnels for years. Not only the soldiers lived here, but village people too. They had sections for families, hospital areas, cooking areas, they even had a “honeymoon” area for newlyweds. For the most part, the local people would live in the tunnels during the day and come out at night to tend their farms and take care of their homes. At the end of the war, most of the people that lived in the tunnels and stomach parasites and many were actually mostly blind due to the lack of sunlight.

Tunnel entrance

After the tunnels, we came back into town and went to the War Reminenents Museum. In the same way as the Hoa Lo Prison, it was very skewed to anti-Americanism. All of the propaganda posters talked about beating the American aggressors and told how the rest of the world is against America. I guess it’s true that history is written by whoever is in control. There was no reference at all to the Vietnam Republic Party fighting against Communist Vietnam. We went through about 2/3 of the museum because it got a little graphic for Hayden to see. There were sections about the effects of Agent Orange and other chemical weapons that were used…pretty nasty stuff. We went through some of it to give him the gist of the info, but stayed away from some of the really gritty pictures. I guess I didn’t pay good enough attention in history class because I really didn’t realize how many people died at that time…sad stuff.

After a bit of a heavy day today, we are heading out to the Mekong Delta tomorrow to go on a boat and to see some of the local area.