subject: Cu Chi Tunnels: A Trip To The Inside Of Vietnam [print this page] About 70 kilometers from Ho Chi Minh City, former Saigon, is the city of Cu Chi. A place that is visited by thousands of tourists and foreigners who want to know about the recent history of Vietnam. This town is known for its extensive network of underground tunnels that were built there during the war with the United States and contributed decisively to dominate the military struggle. Through these "huge underground roads" the Vietnamese guerrillas suddenly appeared and attacked their opponents.
These tunnels were originally used to fight the French. They stretched for hundreds of kilometers, and had bedrooms, kitchens, rudimentary hospitals, dining, and trenches, all connected. At present the tunnels of Cu Chi are an interesting tourist attraction because there you can see at first hand some of the best preserved and most important of these "underground spider webs." You can also view the many traps that the Vietnamese hid in the jungle to attack the Americans during the war.
When visiting the huge tunnels of the city of Cu Chi, you will have the possibility of firing with the weapons most commonly used during the war in Vietnam. Such is the case of the AK-47 (Kalashnikov) that was used by the Vietnamese army and the American M-16 rifle, first used in the Vietnam War by the U.S. Army.
The tunnels had everything needed for the subsistence of the troops: stores, meeting rooms, dormitories, hospitals, kitchens. Everything was conveniently equipped with a network of wells and ventilation holes to allow the life inside, besides thousands of traps waiting for any intruders. For years, the Vietnamese made this area the worst nightmare for U.S. soldiers.
At every step the enemy could appear a hole, carefully covered with dry leaves, that at the bottom was filled with spearheads of about 20 centimeters long and sometimes poisoned. The tunnel sections that can be visited have been enlarged to make them less uncomfortable and the lighting is much better now, so during your Vietnam holidays you will learn better about the history of the country.
The tour through the tunnels is incomplete without visiting the War Museum in Ho Chi Ming city, where you can appreciate the history and how hard it was for the Vietnamese to have to fight and live buried underground. In the museum you can also find remains of tanks and planes, torture cells, photo reports and videos with the most powerful images of war against the Americans.
