Thursday, 25 September 2014

Cu Chi Tunnels, Vietnam War

This was a fascinating tour. We visited a complex tunnel system the Viet Cong used during the Vietnam War.

A map of the tunnel could never fall into the hands of the enemies because it was never written, only memorized by each Viet Cong soldier.




Trap, where a person can  fall in and down into the spikes.


Nothing to see here, I thought...


The Viet Cong moved liked ghosts on the battlefield, they would show up in one spot and quickly disappear into the tunnels and appear in another spot. The tunnels were built for Vietnamese men size  so their enemies could not get into the tunnels unless they were slim.





This guy can't make all the way down the tunnel, that's for sure.


Entrance to tunnel, one of many.


Air vent for the tunnels. The entrance was laced with chili so that enemies' dogs would not go near it to inspect it.



Some areas were full of traps for the enemies, they would fall in and get spiked in various way, all covered by grass and leaves.




Available at the gift shop there.


Drying out the rice roll wrappers (used for Vietnamese spring rolls), takes about 2 hours. Had to walk through the area to get to the other part of the tunnel :)



Shoes were recycled and made from rubber tires.  Shoes were shaped so that it looked like you were walking in the opposite direction to confuse the enemies.







Smoke vents from the tunnels (from cooking etc.), just looks like burning leaves and soil.



Leftover bombs from the area.


Back in Ho chi minh, we also did a city tour. When Saigon fell in 1975, the CIA building was famous for a picture of the last of the Americans evacuating Saigon (renamed to Ho Chi Minh City after the Americans left).





View from the Notre Dame Catheral of the building.





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