We're not in Michigan anymore!: Cambodia-Vietnam Vacation: Day 15-Ho Chi Minh City

We had another early start to our morning with breakfast…

and checking out before taking a bus to Cu Chi Tunnels-an immense network of connecting underground tunnels that are part of a much larger network of tunnels that underlie much of the country. The Củ Chi tunnels were the location of several military campaigns during the Vietnam War, and were the Viet Cong's base of operations for the Tết Offensive in 1968. The tunnels were used by Viet Cong soldiers as hiding spots during combat, as well as serving as communication and supply routes, hospitals, food and weapon caches and living quarters for numerous North Vietnamese fighters. The tunnel systems were of great importance to the Viet Cong in their resistance to American forces, and helped to counter the growing American military effort.

Learning about the tunnels, seeing one of the openings, seeing a map of the tunnels and seeing how the system worked.

Now you see me, now you don’t. The space underneath was so small and quite scary to be in!

These holes would be shot into as well as grenades thrown into and poisonous gas blown into…even the ricocheting bullets would be deafening and cause ear drums to burst, anything to get to their enemy

Many different types of traps

Lots of living spaces below ground level.

For the Viet Cong, life in the tunnels was difficult. Air, food and water were scarce and the tunnels were infested with ants, poisonous centipedes, scorpions, spiders and vermin. Most of the time, soldiers would spend the day in the tunnels working or resting and come out only at night to scavenge for supplies, tend their crops, or engage the enemy in battle. Sometimes, during periods of heavy bombing or American troop movement, they would be forced to remain underground for many days at a time.

They worked out their cooking system to have the smoke come out further away and do their cooking early in the morning to look like steam from the ground.

Sandle making

Part of the tunnel complex at Củ Chi, this tunnel has been made wider and taller to accommodate tourists. There is a 75-mile long complex of tunnels. Hallie didn’t end up going in which was good. I took the other girls in and it was very intense! It was okay while we were moving thorugh the tunnel, but if someone stopped, we (Alaina and I) got stressed-that feeling of not being able to go forward or backward and feeling trapped underground in a space we were bent over to get through. I kept yelling ahead, “Can we keep moving?” It got to be too much for Alaina and I was happy to get out of there as well, so when the next opening came, we made our escape. Kyla loved it and wanted to go back in with daddy. It gave me a little taste of what they went through during war time and I can’t even imagine what that would have been like. I was so claustrophobic and it was under good conditions! They would have been in these tunnels up to a couple months at a time, with young children who were scared….can’t imagine! They had to really fill babies tummies to keep them from crying. Some babies were even born in these spaces and were blind for not seeing light for so long. So incredibly sad-I couldn’t help but cry when I got out just from my little experience of it.

Snack time

We went through a shooting range area that was so loud and a bit unnverving-Halllie really didn’t like it. We saw a few more interesting things before heading back to our hotel. We stopped by the market breifly (Kyla was obssessed with wanting to buy things everywhere….we’ll have worry about her later on!!), grabbed a late lunch and head for the airport.