The Tunnels of Cu Chi in Vietnam: Unusual & Interesting Tourist Destinations
by www.SixWise.com
During the 1940s, the Vietnamese built an extensive network
of underground tunnels to use in their fight against the French.
Years later, the expanded underground maze became one of the
most well-known battlegrounds of the Vietnam War, allowing
Vietcong (VC) soldiers to pop up from the underbrush, attack,
and quickly disappear.
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A guide demonstrates a tiny exit hole of the Cu Chi
tunnels.
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Today, the Cu Chi tunnels, located in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
(formerly Saigon), are one of the country's most popular tourist
destinations, complete with tour guides, snack stands, and
even a chance to shoot an AK-47 rifle or M-16 for a little
over a dollar a bullet.
The Cu Chi Tunnels: What's to See
The Cu Chi tunnel system is about 150 miles long, and once
included an entire underground city of living quarters, meeting
rooms, cafeterias, hospitals and operating rooms, weapons
factories, bomb shelters, wells, and even theaters -- everything
necessary to conceal and house thousands of guerilla fighters
beneath the Vietnam jungle.
Tourists can see B-52 bomb craters, watch an old Vietnamese
propaganda film, and hear guides, clad in traditional black
"pajamas" and conical straw hats, explain the history
of the tunnels, and demonstrate how some of the various booby
traps (from sharpened bamboo stakes to trip wires that would
release a box of scorpions) worked.
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Though some of the Cu Chi tunnels have been widened
for tourists, others are still so small that you have
to crawl to get through.
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Tourists can also travel into the tunnels for a taste of
what the VC and U.S. "tunnel rats" (the elite group
of small-framed soldiers the U.S. military sent into the tunnels)
experienced. Many of the tunnels have been widened to accommodate
Western tourists, and some steps and light fixtures have been
added.
Still, the tunnels are a tight squeeze, about 3 feet high
and 2 feet across, with some areas that require crawling on
your hands and knees.
For More Information
If you're thinking of planning a trip to the Cu Chi tunnels,
the links below are a good place to start:
Recommended Reading
Six
of the World's Grimmest Tourist Destinations
How
to Travel Abroad Safely: Six Important Tips You Need to Know
in an Emergency
Sources
Visit
the Vietcong's World: Americans Welcome
The
Violent Underground
Cu
Chi: The Underground War