Located 70km north-west of Saigon lies the Cu-Chi tunnels. During the Vietnam war between 1965 – 1972 buried beneath the ground lay a network of tunnels where the north Vietnamese Vietcong would hide. Viet meaning Vietnamese and cong meaning communist. The Vietcong were also know as the NLF (National Liberation Front)
American soldiers used the term "Black echo" to describe the conditions within the tunnels. For the NLF, life in the tunnels was difficult. Air, food and water were scarce and the tunnels were infested with ants, poisonous centipedes, spiders and mosquitoes. Most of the time, guerrillas would spend the day in the tunnels working or resting and come out only at night to scavenge supplies, tend their crops or engage the enemy in battle. Sometimes, during periods of heavy bombing or American troop movement, they would be forced to remain underground for many days at a time. Sickness was rampant among the people living in the tunnels; especially malaria, which accounted for the second largest cause of death next to battle wounds. A captured NLF report suggests that at any given time half of a PLAF unit had malaria and that “one-hundred percent had intestinal parasites of significance.” In spite of these hardships, the NLF managed to wage successful campaigns against a conscripted army that was technologically far superior.
Like a chameleon in the jungle the enemy would hide in tunnels 4-5 metres deep. When we arrived with our guide, stood by a tree and asked if we could find an entrance nearby, nobody was successful in locating a tunnel hatch. Right under our noses, the guide brushed away some leaves and revealed a wooden hatch and rope to pull open. Hundreds of these secret doors still connect many tunnels. The American G.I.’s would use sniffer dogs to try and find them. To throw the dogs scent astray the Vietcong would confuse them with false entrances leading to traps.
Some traps can still be seen on display. The traps were given nicknames such as “see-saw”, “souvenir” or “no more happy boy”. The souvenir trap was a folding deck chair. When you stepped into the ground a deck chair would fold close and steel metal rods would remain embedded in your leg therefore forcing you to take the souvenir back to camp hospital.
In order to understand how difficult it was moving through a tunnel, they have shortened and widened the tunnels for tourists to experience. I sampled a 30 metre long tunnel coming out the other end with a very stiff lower back as you need to bend down and walk through this way or end up with a sore head. To finish off our tour we sat for a green tea and tapioca snack much like what the Vietcong would eat & drink. Close by we could hear AK-47 machine guns fire off $1.00 bullets in a rifle range. Perhaps an unkind reminder of the sounds that once were in the tunnels of Cu – Chi.
