The tunnels of Cu Chi are all interesting, terrible, remarkable and tragic at the same time. The war that was fought here from 1967 to the withdrawal of US troops in 1973 until the bitter fall of Saigon in 1975 was both unique and brutal.

Today, a full 30 years since the fall of Saigon, the countryside of Cu Chi is still pock marked with craters of bombs that were dropped from B-52s that flew bombing raids out of Thailand. Thousands of tonnage of shrapnel and even maybe unexploded ordnance still litter the countryside. The foilage today is noticably young with very few trees older than 30 years as the entire area was literally bombed to a desert and whatever trees that were left standing were decimated by the defoliant Agent Orange.

Military hardware still litter the countryside. Bombed out M48 tanks, M113 APCs, Bell UH-1 Hueys still stand where they fell today.

And the Tunnels....they are still there, largely left intact despite years of aerial bombing & gassing. All 200km plus of it in fact. Linking villages and houses, the tunnels still zig zag the green countryside as it did during the days of Operation Crimp (1967) & Cedar Falls (1968). Tens of thousands died here, many remain lost today inside the dark depths of Cu Chi.

They had surgical theatres, hospital wards, dining rooms, kitchens, military planning rooms underground. Troops lived for years in these tunnels as the surface became too hazardous to live on. Children were born in these tunnels. In fact the entire NVLA (North Vietnamese Liberation Army) southern region headquarters was at Cu Chi, the southern most point of the famous supply line that is known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail. From Cu Chi, they were able to launch attacks into Saigon such as the Tet Offensive.

So extensive were the tunnel network that it went directly under the US firebase at Dong Zu near Cu Chi. Well camouflaged trapdoors no larger than an A4 sheet of paper enabled sneak attacks from within the base. VCs would suddenly pop out of nowhere, take a shot and disappear back into the tunnel and be hundreds of meters away by the time everybody knew what had happened.

Today, the tours could take you to one of 2 places where the tunnels are open to tourists. One is right at the edge of Cu Chi on the banks of the Saigon River (in the village hamlet of Pham My Hung in the Ho Bo Woods) and the other nearer Cu Chi at Benh Dinh (at the edge of the old Michelin Fil Hol Plantation). First level tunnels have been widened to accommodate wider girths but you still have to do the duckwalk. Larger individuals will have to get on all fours. Second & third level tunnels are much spookier in that they are not only deeper (up to 15-20 meters underground), they are also much narrower (definitely need to belly wiggle your way through). Not for the claustrophobic or for those with a known heart condition.

We went in for a full 100m level 2 stretch that zig zagged downhill and had several junctions and exit points. I took the first exit at 70m and clawed my way up 20 meters and out dripping wet with sweat. This was my 3rd visit but this time I knew the tunnels had finally gotten to me.