#1 Saigon/Cu Chi

#1
12.24-25 Saigon/Cu Chi

We arrived on Christmas Eve in Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City. The 2 weeks of our trip happened to be the top tourist season in Vietnam out of the whole year. Saigon was packed with whities. The Vietnamese were certainly trying to accommodate their Christian visitors in the backpacker quarter where we were staying. We roamed the streets wide-eyed, as xmas tunes blared from bars and flashy Christmas trees and gaudy decorations oozed from every crack and cranny. Somehow the pleasant summer weather, palm trees, and thousands of whizzing motorbikes didn't fit with the Christmas decore.

On Christmas day we decided to forego holiday cheer. Instead, crawled through the secret Viet Cong tunnel system at Cu Chi (Cu Chi is not the best place to do this, in case you are planning a trip to Viet Nam yourself. The Demilitarized Zone would be a more authentic experience). After a few hours bumping along the back roads of Vietnam (this phrase will be repeated through out the tale of our vacation. Many an hour was spent bumping along in buses) we arrived. It was a sobering experience.

The Cu Chi tunnels, 45 miles southeast of Saigon, are 75 mile-long underground maze of tunnels, composed of three levels. This was one of the most famous battlegrounds of the Vietnam War. The tunnels were the National Front for the Liberation of Vietnam's base of operations for the Tet Offensive in 1968. During the war, this area was declared a "Free Fire Zone", meaning the Americans just blanketed it with bombs and agent orange in attempts to root out guerillas, killing thousands of civilians and destroying everything (as usual) in the process. Walking down the paths in the woods, you have but to glance right or left to see massive bomb craters, 40 years later.

Before you visit the tunnels, you are herded into a room by a soldier, and under a portrait of Ho Chi Minh, showed a video of real war footage from Cu Chi. As bombs fall in waves, villagers run for cover and Viet Cong shoot back on screen, the narrators voice speaks:

"Cu Chi, the land of many gardens, peaceful all year round under shady trees ... mercilessly American bombers have ruthlessly decided to kill this gentle piece of countryside ... Like a crazy bunch of devils they fired into women and children ... The Americans wanted to turn Chu Chi into a dead land, but Cu Chi will never die."


Trap doors leading to the tunnels are hidden under leaves, with separate mechanic opening mechanisms a a few yards away. In the worlds of Wiki,

"The tunnels were used by NLF guerrillas as hiding spots during combat, as well as serving as communication and supply routes, hospitals, food and weapon caches and living quarters for numerous guerrilla fighters... American soldiers used the term "Black echo" to describe the conditions within the tunnels. Life in the tunnels was difficult. Air, food and water were scarce and the tunnels were infested with ants, poisonous centipedes, spiders and mosquitoes. Most of the time, guerrillas would spend the day in the tunnels working or resting and come out only at night to scavenge supplies, tend their crops or engage the enemy in battle." The thought that people actually lived in these tunnels was hard to grasp. Babies were born in these tunnels. In fact, our tour guide tells us casually, the young woman we had seen serving coffee a few minutes ago was born inside the Cu Chi tunnels.

To protect from the enemy, the tunnels were kept pitch black, and dotted with hidden traps doors leading to spiked pits and other gruesome deaths, the placement of which Viet Cong and villagers had to learn by heart. Though widened for tourists, the original tunnels were tiny holes, through which the smaller Vietnamese could crawl. Western tourists would never even fit into the holes, and even entering the widened holes was a horribly claustrophobic experience. I didn't make it to the 2nd or 3rd levels, I had to leave.