Cu Chi Tunnels

Being in Ho Chi Minh, one of the main attractions are the underground tunnels built by the Viet Cong (VC)during the war. They started digging them during the French colonization and then resumed during the US / Vietnam war. These tunnels stretch from Cu Chi to the border of Cambodia, which is over 250kn long. Just to give you an indication, these tunnels go down in 3 layers. They are about 37cm wide and about 60cm high. The VC lived in these tunnels coming up to one of the breathing holes every hour to get fresh air. I will explain more as the photos go on. 

Anyway, along the way we stopped at an art shop. This is one of the vases made from mother of pearl. 

they use egg shells to make paintings. Its absolutely incredible. 

They crush the shells and add colour to them and mix them with glue and then paint.

 This is the art gallery filled with textiles,paintings and many many other things. 

These are vases.

Here are some of the paintings made from egg shells. Hard to believe...

Look at this detail!

Amazing!

You ca't actually believe it when you look up close. 

 Egg shells, of all things...

Its just awesome!

Coloured egg shells...I got the flash right on the sun! It looks cool. 

Close up of some of the vases. 

More vases decorated with egg shells. 

We then carried on driving...arriving at the tunnels...

 This is an entrance to the tunnels. There are thousands of entrances dotted all over the show. They are covered with leaves and bamboo so you can't see the holes. 

Closer up of the size of the holes.

Me in the hole...its a rather small hole or i'm just seriously CHUNKY!

Coming out of the hole!

We then went on to see some of the traps the VC set during the war. You have probably heard of the bamboo traps covered in leaves and bamboo and when you step on them you fall into a hole of sharpened bamboo stems covered in poison. 

As you walk onto them it swings and pushes you down.

You then fall onto these spikes. 

These spikes are covered in Cu Chi tree poison, hence the name of the area and the name of the tunnels. There are hundreds of Cu Chi trees, which directly translated means: Cu = Poison ; Chi = tree. This poison will kill you withing half an hour. So if the spikes don't kill you, the poison will. 

These mounds look like ant hills. However they are breathing holes for the tunnels. When they were digging the tunnels they had no where to put the soil, so it either went into the river or they used it to make these mounds. They look pretty inconspicuous. When the US soldiers were walking through, they would see them, and then listen closely to the ground, and if they could hear voices underground, they would put pipes into the hole and fill it with poison gas. The other thing they did was have sniffer dogs that would sniff out whether people were down there, they would then mark it with a flag and bomb the area or agent orange it. 

Here is a better pic of the breathing holes. Also note the type of fauna / jungle surroundings!

It would be so scary walking through this place not knowing what was waiting and lurking underground, traps, in trees etc etc

US Army Tank. 

This is the Cu Chi used to make the poison spears. 

These are the different traps made by the VC. All of these are in the ground and when you step on one, it may not kill you, but the poison will. 

Imagine being caught in one of these. The more you move, the more the spears dig into you. 

If you step on the side you fall in, on the other side of the see-saw are huge spikes that hit you as you fall.  

 Vivid description by our guide Alex as to what this is used for!!! Yip it swings at your head from tree or somewhere!

Yes, punctures you straight through the lungs and heart. 

Some of these traps are so hectic. They are not supposed to kill you immediately. You get caught in them, your fellow soldiers come and help you get out, as they cut the snare/trap thing, a bomb goes off and kills the lot of you. 

I'd rather have a bullet to the skull thanks. 

As you open the door these come flying down and destroy you!

They put this fake people showing how they made weapons. This person is making dynamite. 

Making spears. 

Making spikes for the traps. 

Making bombs.  

A huge bomb. What they did was take the bomb shells melt them down and make the spikes to use for the traps. 

They have a shooting range at the tunnels where you can go and fire one of the actual guns used during the war. Here is the range...from AK47's to Bazookas!

The VC didn't have army boots...they had these shoes made of rubber. These shoes last for 2 generations. They are made from car tyres and are so hardy!

This is what they ate in the tunnels. They showed us how they made rice paper, dried in the sun and kept underground for up to 10 years. 

 It was the cheapest ad easiest way to have food. 

Here are a variety of tyre shoes. You can buy them for 75 000 Dong, about $3.5. 

B52 Bomb Crater! 

Going into the tunnel. Now this one has been made a little bigger so us westerners can fit into them. Its about a meter high as apposed to 60cm. 

Going into the tunnels, its manky and hot and uncomfortable and pretty stressful and miserable in there.  

See how big they are...these tunnels were one of the reasons the VC won the war. They could pop out anywhere and no one know where they were and what was lurking around. 

Coming out on the other side...it really wasn't very pleasant. 

All in all, it was so interesting and overwhelming. We have all seen documentaries and read books on the war and how awful it was. Seeing the conditions in which the VC lived and operated, not only men, but women as well was quite something. It was a real opener. Seeing the war remnants museum and these tunnels and traps leaves a bunch of mixed emotions about everything.