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HELLO I WILL UPDATE THIS THING SOON (:
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Monday, December 20, 2010
Day 2:
Cu Chi Tunnels!
Woke up early, went for breakfast! We had a place to visit today, the Cu Chi Tunnels, an iconic battleground during the Vietnam War and a symbol of Vietcong guerilla warfare.
Breakfast at the hotel was pretty decent, and for a tiny three-star hotel, we were very impressed by the décor of the place, and how they managed to utilize the super tiny floor space to the best benefit.
Cu Chi Tunnels! Went on a small minivan with 6 others from the same hotel (Queen Ann), and that minivan joined up with another tour bus! It was quite a cool arrangement, which meant that to give greatest flexibility, our tour was not organized by a single agency, but rather just joining other travel groups who happened to go towards the same area at a certain time. Today’s travel was with TNC travel agency.
The bus had a lot of westerners! Prettaee~
Okay. So what is Cu Chi Tunnels, and why is it so signifigant?
Cu Chi was a farming village north of Saigon, and it provided some vital path to the city and neighboring American bases if I’m not wrong. However, shelling started, and the farmers were forced to dig tunnels to hide from the mortars.
From farmers they became soldiers, and they put up heavy resistance to the American forces with their complex, tiny, booby-trapped tunnels, hundreds of kilometers in length, dug by hand with a small bamboo basket and a hand spade.
The tour brought us to the village of Cu Chi, where traces of trenches were still visible everywhere. The smell of cordite hung in the air- punctuated by the sharp reports from a nearby war-weapons shooting range.
First stop was a video showcase, where we sat in a hut the size of a large classroom, and a video was shown to us to give a general outline of the history. It was quite a refreshing change from the usual American version of the events, and it was pretty funny to sneak peeks at these gweilos every time the heavily accented narrator talks about the peaceful village being razed by American bombs.
There was a cutout diagram of the tunnel system, pretty cool! The tunnels were broadly classified into three levels.
First level was 2-3 meters underground. This was the living quarters, and ambush areas. Concealed exits too small for Americans (but about right for Vietnamese) were scattered everywhere, in every household, in forests, in neighbouring villages, even 70 km in the city of Saigon itself. How the digging was done, I have no idea. Sheer grit and determination. :/
Second level was the stockpiles, bomb shelters, and booby traps.
Booby traps are crazy. But that’s for later.
Third level was the escape routes, the long-dist tunnels, and entrances to the Saigon River.
Overall, it was a pretty self-sustaining feature, with wells and escape routes within the tunnels. By day, they were local farmers, by night, they turned into the Vietcong, fighters for liberation. They developed a saying: A rifle in one hand, and a hoe in another, that’s the spirit of the Vietcong warrior.
Okay I digress.
Next was a visit to the tunnels! We went down one of the concealed exits (it’s really like, concealed into the forest floor you know) and found super narrow paths la! Have to do some kind of duck-walk to get through, and it totally kills the knees. Without some electric lamps, it’ll be completely pitch—black. Quite scary! My mum was freaking out after about 10 meters, and we left the tunnel the next exit. Or not it would run up to about 150 meters.
We saw the traps next. Pretty gross stuff. Most were concealed animal traps made larger for human purposes. There was the traditional bamboo spike-pit trap, a few traps that drove iron barbs into you as you fell through, a really devious one called the rolling log (two logs with short spikes sticking out, so if you step on one and try to step away you’ll just fall into the other) and another with a variation of a seesaw with spikes.
The tour guide activated each on in turn by prodding a stick through, and it was really quite disturbing. All the iron barbs are made like fishing hooks, with a wicked backward-pointed barb that causes serious damage when attempting to pull out. Hope to get pictures out soon!
Hmm what else what else.
They made shoes! Vietcong sandals. Made out of truck tires. They’re surprisingly sturdy and comfortable, and best is that they don’t use any glue! So it’s practically impossible to spoil. Most of the security guards in the area also wear these sandals.
Went back, shopped abit, and now yeah, it’s pretty late. Going Mekong River tomorrow, hope there’s internet access there!
2:23 AM
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