Cu Chi Tunnels

Cu Chi Tunnels- Saturday May 10th
We drove for about an hour and a half out to the Cu Chi District of HCMC. As soon as we turned off the highway it was as we entered a whole new world. The landscape changed dramatically from buildings and stores side by side along the road to acres upon acres of rice fields with the farmers working along the rows. The Cu Chi Tunnel area is just a short bit off the highway, so we did not get these magnificent views for long but it looked exactly like a picture out of National Geographic. Upon arriving on site, we hiked back to the entrance to that we would be touring. It was very interesting to see how different the terrain was compared to the hiking trails at home. The land was much more like clay than a typical dirt forest floor. As we got closer and closer I noticed that the landscape was continuing to change, but this change was obviously man made. Littering the land were huge craters about fifteen feet in diameter and at least 8 feet deep. It hit me at this point what had happened on the land that we were exploring, and it was so hard for me to understand how after so many years the Earth could still be ridden with all of the bomb craters from the war. We were shown a video of the war from the Vietnamese perspective, and it was very difficult to watch as it made it all seem so real, especially sitting in the middle of the forest. After a briefing from our tour guide, we were taken to the fighting bunker. It was disguised as a termite mound so the US Soldiers would have a difficult time finding it. It was at this point that we were able to drop down into a hole that was of original size and crawl around to see what this bunker was like. It was only about 3 feet under ground and lights had been put in for for tourists, but it was still one of the most terrifying things I have ever done. Little did I know what they had in store for later. After exiting that short tunnel we were taken to the health, meeting, and cooking bunkers. Each one had stairs as an entrance, so we did not have to drop down into any more holes. In the meeting room bunker there was a set of mannequins depicting an officer and his men sitting around a table. From here we had two options, we could drop down into the second level of the tunnels and exit that way or we could stay on the first level. I, along with the majority of the group, chose to enter the second level of the tunnel,. This area was 6 feet underground and not lit beside the entrance and the exit. When we first entered my heart started racing and I was really struggling to keep up because I had my backpack on and the roof was only 3 feet tall so you had to squat the entire time. As if it wasn't terrifying enough I had no idea where I was going or what animals were around me. We had to go down a "slide" and back up on the way out. My adrenaline was so high by the time that I got out that I felt as if I was going to pass out. I had absolutely no energy left and was both physically and mentally exhausted. After this they gave us a traditional snack that many of the soldiers had, and it was some type of root that was dipped in peanuts. It was actually pretty good for what they had in the middle of the woods. We were also shown how they diffused the smoke from the cooking bunker by diffusing it over many meters and having a small opening for the last bit to exit. We were then shown many of the traps that were set for American Soldiers such as a turn table with bamboo spears under it that the solder would fall on and be impaled. At the end of our visit we were taken to a boat on the Saigon River for lunch. It was a fantastic view of the river before it enters HCMC. This meal was up there for one of my favorite meals of the trip. It was traditional Vietnamese food with a lot of seafood, beef, and pork, but you could tell that it was very fresh and very well prepared. On the way home from the tunnels we stopped at the Cu Chi District Cemetery. All of the districts has their own cemetery, but the Cu Chi one is much larger due to all of the death from the war in the area. It was a very humbling experience (which seemed to be the motto of the day). There were rows upon rows of grave sites. Two of these site stood out to me the most. The first was a 14 year old soldier. He had died in battle, having war be the only thing he ever knew of the world. The other was a 97 year old woman who had taken care of the citizens and soldiers during the war and was given a grave site right next to a commanding officer. She just passed in 2012, but her legacy was still being remembered. We were the only group in the cemetery, and we were also told that there are not many Americans that visit or even know about the site. Shortly after leaving, we reached the highway and once again entered the modern world that we know today.