There’s a very popular LiveJournal post, Tunnel Rats at Work. It’s about the famous Cu Chi tunnels in Vietnam (for some reason the post calls them Cu Ti). I was there this summer, so I figured I’d write about it too. It’s probably the most popular excursion in Vietnam. The tunnels are located almost on the border with Cambodia. It takes 5 hours to get there from Saigon. And like pretty much any minibus trip in Vietnam, it drives you insane: all the locals tear around on motorbikes — when the bus overtakes a motorbike, it honks — the bus is overtaking motorbikes the entire way — so naturally it honks the entire way — and if you’re not used to it, after an hour you feel like you’re losing your mind. Anyway. The tunnels were built by the Viet Cong during the war. In practice, it’s basically a gigantic system of burrows covering several square kilometers. Finding the entrance to the system is genuinely extremely difficult. They brought us to a patch of bare ground about 5 by 5 meters: find the entrance. We searched for about 10 minutes. In the end we found it, but if the area had been 20 by 20 meters, we definitely wouldn’t have. And if it were just “somewhere in the forest,” there’d be no chance at all. The earthen hatch blends in completely with the surroundings.
Here some foreign lady tried to lower herself feet-first into the hole — and then she got stuck. Couldn’t go down, couldn’t get back out. They had to pull her out. They offered anyone who wanted the chance to crawl through one of the tunnels. They told me right away not to bother, because there was absolutely no way I’d fit. The people who did try said you crawl on all fours through terrible heat and suffocating air, inside what feels like a rat hole, with the constant thought that you’re going to be stuck there forever.
Here I’m pretending to be climbing out of the tunnel. But that’s a lie. I just walked down some steps to the exit of this hellhole. The most interesting part of the tour is the traps the Viet Cong used to catch American soldiers. There are loads of them on display there.
Old tricks are the best tricks. A pit with a flipping lid. At the bottom are sharp metal spikes. The pit is fenced off, of course, so tourists don’t fall into it (they sell souvenirs at the end of the tour, so for now the tourists need to be kept safe). It’s completely invisible, and the lid flips over at the slightest pressure.
Same idea, but for a leg. Your leg gets stuck, and the harder you yank it upward, the deeper the spikes dig into you.
Another one.
This was one of the most effective traps. There was no getting out of it on your own.
A variation on the theme.
This charming little thing was attached to a tree, from where it would swing at high speed straight into infantrymen. The guide enthusiastically demonstrated how the people it hit would gasp and convulse.
This one was specially for people who like kicking doors open. You smash the door in and this thing flies straight at your face. Instinctively you shield yourself with your arm. And then the lower part, which isn’t fixed rigidly but hangs on a rope, swings into your groin. “Ladyboy, ladyboy,” the guide shouted as he explained the consequences of getting caught in this trap. There’s also a shooting range on the grounds. You can fire actual captured American weapons.
you buy some ammunition and...
...let rip with a machine gun. By the way, firing a mounted machine gun is pure fun. There’s basically no recoil at all.
There are also lots of aerial bombs and other things on display. There are plenty of vivid photos and drawings showing what Agent Orange did to people. I didn’t even bother taking pictures — it’s not a pleasant sight. These days the whole area is a lovely green forest. But during the war it was kilometers of scorched earth. Leafless trees and all that. The guide said more bombs were dropped on this area than during the entire Great Patriotic War (the Soviet term for the Eastern Front of World War II). I doubt that, but it was clearly VERY intense there.
The mandatory end of the tour: everyone sits in a room that instantly brings to mind the old “red corner” (a Soviet-style ideological room or communal propaganda space) and watches television. On TV they show a 20-minute black-and-white film about the war. From above, Uncle Ho smiles down at you.