Cu Chi Tunnels...Ho Chi Min City/Saigon, Vietnam

Before entering the Vietnamese tunnels in the Cu Chi area about an hour outside Saigon, the guide explained the crude way in which the Vietnamese fighters were able to hold off the superior American armies. Included in this explanation was a 15 minute wartime propaganda film that told of specific battles and local heroes hailing from the Cu Chi region. The film didn't impact me as much as I thought it might as I'm so far removed from the Vietnam War, but I can't imagine being a Vietvet sitting through this film which praised and encouraged the killing of your friends. The video was shown in one of their original sunken bunker rooms. I watched from the back as some of the old men squirmed in their seats.

A charming mural depicting Americans dying in the jungles after stepping on the Vietnamese boobertraps and whammy-kablammies...


A huge amount of dirt was displaced during the digging of this massive underground network of tunnels and hidden rooms. The Vietnamese solved this problem by packing the dirt up against the roots of trees to look like giant termite mounds. Either that, or they'd use the dirt to fill in the giant holes left from B2 bombing raids...


Tunnel entrance...


Tunnel insides...



Exploration...


My first gun was an AK-47...Shooting range on site...I don't want to brag...but I hit the zebra 3 times.

After the tunnels, we all went to a beautiful restaurant alongside this river which was owned by a charming old lady. Turns out she started the youth movement for freedom in Vietnam during the 70's...


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Day 2 in Ho Chi Min City/Saigon included a bunch of fruitless shopping and a delicious Vietnamese fast food restaurant called Phu2000...