Cu Chi Tunnels

Today we went on a half day trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels. About a 2 hour drive from Ho Chi Minh. To quote Wikipedia:

"The tunnels of Củ Chi are an immense network of connecting underground tunnels located in the Củ Chi district of Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam, and 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."

Quite an amazing place to visit. The guerrilla soldiers stayed underground all day, only coming out at night and some lived in these tunnels for over 10 years. The tunnels are tiny in most places which was done intentionally so that the US soldiers wouldn't fit into them! We had the opportunity to go through a 200m section of tunnel. Farida couldn't due to the damaged knee (as crawling would definitely be needed) but Andy had a go. It started off ok but then the tunnel got smaller and smaller and by the end he was on hands and knees with shoulders touching the sides ... not for the claustrophobic! This pic is him in the tunnels. An Irish guy on the trip dug tunnels for a living in London and said he had never been down or seen anything of the kind before.

Went out for dinner and a couple of beers. Whilst wandering vaguely in the direction of the hotel for an early night we bumped into a French guy who we had met in a bakery earlier that day ... quite a few beers later we rolled into bed at about 3am!