Day 21 Saigon - Cu Chi Tunnels

Today we went on a tour of the Cu Chi Tunnels, which we had booked through our hotel. Only US$5.00 in comparison to the US$25.00 options we had seen elsewhere.

Even though the day was incredibly hot and humid, it was interesting and going through only 25 metres of the 50 metre tunnel open to tourists, was unnerving. It's hard to believe that 16,000 people used the 3 levels of the 250 km of tunnels over a period of 20 years. Barely big enough to squat in, we crawled most of the way. We had the luxury of dim lights in the tunnel, but in one part it became pitch black...spooky!

To survive they created a sanitation system, a way to hide the smoke from their cooking, ventilation and many different traps to snare the enemy.

The whole time we were being guided through the grounds, in the distance the sound of gunfire could be heard...also a little unsettling had we not known tourists can pay to fire guns, which were mounted and unable to turn to face anything other than the targets.