During the American War (what the Vietnamese call the Vietnam war), there existed a complex of tunnels underneath and around many US bases in the Saigon area. Some were three levels deep. In them, Viet Cong lived, ate, planned, cared for sick, and prepared to battle US troops.
On Sunday, we visited some of these tunnels, about 60km outside of Saigon. They are very small, built for Vietnamese sized bodies and not westerners. Some of them have been slightly enlarged to accommodate us.
Erin and I went with a guide and a Chinese couple. The guide hurried us thru the sites. We sat thru a 15 minute film, shot in 1967 by the North Vietnamese that talked about American devils and various heroes of the revolution and their prowess in killing Americans. You could have gotten the impression that the peaceful peasants of Cu Chi were minding their own business in paradise when MK-82 bombs suddenly fell from the sky. Erin and I had to stifle laughs during. It was comical really, a caricature in many ways.
After that, maybe in revenge for our imperialist bad attitudes, our tunnel guide tried to kill us.
I volunteered to squeeze down into a hidden tunnel entrance and did it, no problem. All my years of caving helped I think. Then he hustled us thru (timeout: a female Vietnamese singer on the speaker is singing Foghat's Slow Ride as I type this. Surreal) about 20 meters of tunnel. Remember the heat and humidity? It is worse in the tunnels, and with less oxygen. We duck walked rapidly, gasping for air, sweat streaming like rain. We finally got to a large room (pics below) and back up for air. Good experience, but glad it is over.
A bit later ("you hurry!") he said we were going to do a tunnel that was a bit longer - 50 meters. Like an idiot, I did not mentally compare 20 and 50 to see what I as in for. There were twists and turns, ups and downs. We lagged behind a bit and I had to get out my iPhone to use for light. The tunnel then got smaller so that we were duck walking with heads hunched over. We went downhill a bit and I'm thinking that i really don't want to go any deeper. Had to slide down a slope on our butts - no way to crawl really. We stopped a few times and yelled "rest!" down the tunnel (we heard the Chinese couple relay this to our guide) but really there was precious little air to gasp in and recover. I briefly wondered if they had rescue personnel who could take us out, or if anybody had ever died touring the tunnels, but decided i would have to wait too long for rescue and continued on. Finally we came to a very small hole to go thru head first, stand up, and climb out into a room.
Had we gone another 5 meters I might well have been crying like a little girl and asking for my Mommy. Fortunately, I did not have to reveal that side of me to anyone. I know Erin, behind me, was in a similar state of distress. We surfaced and were given a tiny cup of hot tea for our exhaustion. Oh, and some dried tapioca root with a salt and red pepper dip. How refreshing! (Not)
By the way, last pics are of a Mig-21 and Mig-17 that were parked in the parking lot, rusting away.
On Sunday, we visited some of these tunnels, about 60km outside of Saigon. They are very small, built for Vietnamese sized bodies and not westerners. Some of them have been slightly enlarged to accommodate us.
Erin and I went with a guide and a Chinese couple. The guide hurried us thru the sites. We sat thru a 15 minute film, shot in 1967 by the North Vietnamese that talked about American devils and various heroes of the revolution and their prowess in killing Americans. You could have gotten the impression that the peaceful peasants of Cu Chi were minding their own business in paradise when MK-82 bombs suddenly fell from the sky. Erin and I had to stifle laughs during. It was comical really, a caricature in many ways.
After that, maybe in revenge for our imperialist bad attitudes, our tunnel guide tried to kill us.
I volunteered to squeeze down into a hidden tunnel entrance and did it, no problem. All my years of caving helped I think. Then he hustled us thru (timeout: a female Vietnamese singer on the speaker is singing Foghat's Slow Ride as I type this. Surreal) about 20 meters of tunnel. Remember the heat and humidity? It is worse in the tunnels, and with less oxygen. We duck walked rapidly, gasping for air, sweat streaming like rain. We finally got to a large room (pics below) and back up for air. Good experience, but glad it is over.
A bit later ("you hurry!") he said we were going to do a tunnel that was a bit longer - 50 meters. Like an idiot, I did not mentally compare 20 and 50 to see what I as in for. There were twists and turns, ups and downs. We lagged behind a bit and I had to get out my iPhone to use for light. The tunnel then got smaller so that we were duck walking with heads hunched over. We went downhill a bit and I'm thinking that i really don't want to go any deeper. Had to slide down a slope on our butts - no way to crawl really. We stopped a few times and yelled "rest!" down the tunnel (we heard the Chinese couple relay this to our guide) but really there was precious little air to gasp in and recover. I briefly wondered if they had rescue personnel who could take us out, or if anybody had ever died touring the tunnels, but decided i would have to wait too long for rescue and continued on. Finally we came to a very small hole to go thru head first, stand up, and climb out into a room.
Had we gone another 5 meters I might well have been crying like a little girl and asking for my Mommy. Fortunately, I did not have to reveal that side of me to anyone. I know Erin, behind me, was in a similar state of distress. We surfaced and were given a tiny cup of hot tea for our exhaustion. Oh, and some dried tapioca root with a salt and red pepper dip. How refreshing! (Not)
By the way, last pics are of a Mig-21 and Mig-17 that were parked in the parking lot, rusting away.
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