HOO CHI CU CHI TUNNELS

OK, the tunnels aren't warm and fuzzy as the post's title suggests. This is the setting for many movies on the Vietnam War, the Tet Offensive, where bumbling GIs die in the most horrific ways in booby traps, where demure-looking Viet girls keep machine guns under their conical hats and nasty Vietcong guerillas pop out from nowhere to take down unsuspecting Americans. All from the perspective of American film directors.

After paying for entry to Cu Chi Tunnels, we were led to what looked like a classroom. A small TV sits in a scratched wooden console cabinet. Next to it is a cross-section of what the tunnels looked like. The video, in black and white, was an eye-opener. It's the Vietcong take on the war on their turf. Military anthems play in the background as propaganda outtakes from the 1960s laud the valiant Viets for driving out the evil Americans. There were snippets of guerillas being sent off to battle by samfoo-clad girls doing traditional dances, how villagers rallied to feed and keep up the morale of the fighters, of female freedom fighters. Of how everyone laboured to salvage bomb parts and recycle them into new weaponry. Several Vietcongs were cited for being brave "American killer heroes". I kept looking about to see how the audience reacted to the show, but many were just poker-faced. No Americans in the group, I believe.

HB tried out one of the hidden tunnel entrances just for size. A Japanese man had gone in just before her. She slipped in easily enough but needed help to be hauled out. Need to work on those triceps, ya?

The camouflage was so good, you'd never know you were walking over a trap door. It's no wonder the Vietcongs could pop up in the jungle and then disappear in a flash. Wonder who swept the leaves over when they shut the door. The spikes, many made from the shells of fallen bombs, look vicious. The booby traps looked like they belonged in the dungeon of a psycho. Hidden trap doors that swing open when weight falls on it, dropping the victim into a pit of spikes; swinging spiked coconuts, doors booby-trapped with, yes, spikes that come careering at you when the door is pushed open. Very primitive weapons, but very ingenious.
The Vietcongs can become role models for today's greenies of the world. They recycle everything. Tyres of abandoned jeeps are even used to make footwear.

For US$1 a round, we could fire the guns used by the guerillas. So we did - we split the minimum 10 rounds and tried out the AK-47. HB, not having experienced a recoil before, was sore in her shoulders. But we couldn't see how we did as there were no removable target sheets. The only feedback I got from the man who was at the post was that I was aiming too high.


I was dressed in clothes that I was hoping to toss after reading logs by other geocachers about crawling in the tunnels. Alas, being in a tour group, we weren't given much time to explore and we simply followed behind the backsides of those in front. They surfaced, we surfaced. Then I saw some fellas at another exit. Damn! We could have gone on further. And clothes were still too clean to be thrown away!

I can't imagine the Viets traversing the tunnels and living in them day after day. It was supposed to be an underground village, with kitchens and workshops and all. Some exits lead right into the Mekong for a quick escape from the enemies.We ended off in a tent where we were offered tapioca with crushed peanuts, staple food of the underground dwellers. Just a snack to us. Cu Chi is just 30-plus km from Saigon, but it took 1 and half hours to reach town. We were back at about 8pm. The Viets sure drive at a leisurely pace!