Cu Chi Tunnels

We took a tour today of the tunnel network used by NLF guerillas during the vietnam war. The guerillas built over 200 km of tunnels, which gave them a decisive advantage during the war. The tour started with a low quality black and white propoganda video talking about the simple and peaceful life of the peasants before the "crazy devils" (Americans) came in and started killing everyone. The peasants rose to the occasion and even little school girls would follow the mantra of "a plow in one hand and a rifle in the other" (bring on video of school girl turned Rambo).

Next, we were shown one of the tunnel entrances. I'm sure half the American soliders wouldn't even fit into these entrances (I barely fit in, myself). Then came the displays of all the different traps with barbed spikes used by the guerillas. Ouch!

Molly's least favorite part (and my favorite) was the shooting range. I got to shoot an M16. Jamie (our Scottish bloke who just got back from Afghanistan) tried out the M60 aka Rambo gun. Fun stuff, but terribly loud, and a bit nerve wrattling.

After the shooting range, we crawled our way through about 100m of underground tunnels. They were enlarged a little bit for the tourists, and had a couple dim lights in them, but were still rather dark, dank, and claustrophobic. The guerillas spent their days in the tunnels and would move around at night. I'd surrender....