Tunnel Vision

We set off at 7am on a coach full of Vietnamese tourists for the 2 hour journey to the tunnels. I instantly fell asleep (what a great skill!) whilst Daniel made mates with the lady sitting next to him who was from Hanoi using the tour guide as an interpreter. When we arrived everyone obviously needed the toilet and as we were sitting at the back of the bus like cool kids, we were last in the queue which meant the tour group very nearly left without us, in fact they had already started moving so we ran to catch up.

I should probably start by saying that the Cu Chi tunnels were a series of tiny underground tunnels the Viet-cong used during the war with America, they actually used to live down there like Borrowers or something. The first thing we were shown was a hole which was the same size the actual tunnels would have been and a man got in it to show how small it was, it really was tiny! Even for someone of my size! Next was the traps they used against the American soldiers and these were vey sneaky and impressive if not rudimentary. They consisted of underground pits of nails covered in a spinning false top so that if you stood on one end it would tip and you would fall in the spike pit! There were various other contraptions along a similar theme, my favourite was probably the one used on a door frame which is a board full of spikes you hold up and then swing forward when someone tries to come in the door, brutal!

We also got to actually crawl through the tunnels although they were wider than the original ones and made so tourists can have a similar sort of experience. There are 3 different levels of tunnel going further underground and getting smaller so down we went all cocky like, no problem man! It was so dark down there and very hot! As we crawled along following each other, we got to the second exit and big tall Dan had had enough and wanted out, I definitely could have gone further but I didn't want to embarrass him, haha! There was only actually 2 girls who went the whole way and they were tiny but came out dripping in sweat saying they could hardly get through, I was then very glad we came out when we did! To end off our experience they gave us some yam to try, it was my turn to be a chicken then (you know I'm no good with food!) but Dan had some and couldn't get enough of it so if any of you want to buy him some he would love it!