Just came back from Vietnam today... while waiting for my flight, suddenly "Chu Chi Tunnels" struck in my mind. I remember I had visited this place on 14th Feb (Valentine's Day) this year, instead spending more time with my then girlfriend (my wife now).
Though I have visited Ho Chi Minh many times, but this is my first visit to the tunnel. The is entrance fee, but I've forgotten how much it cost me. Hehe. In fact, in my personal opinion, this place is worth the visit. I did really experience how does the Viet Cong (known as VC) fighting with the Americans during the Vietnam War era.
These tunnels was once a network connecting underground tunnels across the Cu Chi district. It is used by the VC as hiding spot as well as hospitals, meeting points, kitchen, food storage, weapon cache etc. From another website, it stated that at its height, the tunnel with parts of it which were several levels deep, stretched over 200kms from Saigon to the Cambodian border.
During the visit, we are allowed to see what it looks like in the bunker. Some of it have fake VC doing their daily routine such as dismantling the bombs, digging tunnels etc.... which it can bring you back to the time where they are having the war.
Besides that, you may also see the remains of bombs, bomb crater, granite, old tanker etc. Others than that, there is a shooting range where one can choose which weapon they would like to use for shooting. Most of the visitors like M16, and some even choose machine gun. Different weapons come with different price, and will be provided with the bullet for shooting.
The tour guide showed us how the tunnel is working, and even enter the tunnel himself to show the size of it. However, the tunnel has been modified to cater for the larger size of tourist who can experience to enter the tunnel. In reality, the size of the tunnel is really small and this has prevented the American soldier from entering the tunnel during the war.
Besides that, the tour guide also explained in details how the booby trap is setup by the VC, made of bamboo spikes. There are lot of variances of the booby trap, about 10 different types. The tour guide explained how each trap is working and the consequences if someone falls into the trap. I only can say GOD BLESS should you falls into the trap.
At the end of the trip, I saw smoke came out from the ground. I was wondering why there is smoke suddenly came out from nowhere. The tour guide explains that there is underground kitchen. The smoke will came out when someone is cooking.
On the way out, there is lot of "showroom" where the bunker is decorated as hospital, kitchen, meeting room etc etc.... You can visit each of it. Besides that, there is video show which explains the whole story of the tunnel and also the Vietnam War. Oh yea... they make use of the car's lorry tyre to make their sandal, and it is very lasting...
