Tunnel Heros

It was an incredibly hot day when we visited the Cu Chi Tunnels. Our tour guide was very funny and told us jokes that only he seemed to find amusing – why is it that every tour guide was an amateur comedian? He was about 65 years old and had fought with the Americans during the Vietnam War. During his entire time in the army he had tried to figure out ways to get out and he told us that there were in fact only two ways to get out of the army. He either had to cut off his trigger finger or have more children. It seems that the army had a policy that any man with six or more children was exempt from military service. So during his 8 years in the South Vietnamese Army, he fathered five children and just as the sixth was conceived, the war was over. Talk about bad timing.

Anyhow, he was very well versed in the war and gave us an excellent tour of the tunnels. The Cu Chi Tunnels were originally built in 1947 during the Indochina war against the French. However, during the conflict with the South Vietnamese, the tunnels expanded to cover 200km with some of the tunnels coming to mere meters of American bases. The tunnels were constructed in three levels:

• First level was where the Viet Cong lived day-to-day where their bunks, dining and war planning took place
• Second level was used as intermediary passages between the first level and the third level
• Third level was used solely for escape to the Saigon River
  

The tunnels were incredibly cramped, hot and musty. I’ve never been claustrophobic but after crawling 100m underground in these tunnels I was ready to emerge a “Tunnel Hero”.

Me emerging from a tiny tunnel opening. This was more complicated than it appeared.

An added bonus to this venture was the fact that I got to shoot an AK-47 for a bargain price of 50,000 VD (about $3.50). I squeezed off five bullets and because Lucy chickened-out at the last minute, I got to shoot her five in semi-automatic mode. Oh what fun!!

Oh yeah baby...that's me getting friendly with an AK-47. I have no idea where my bullets went, but it was darn fun pulling that trigger!