The Củ Chi tunnels.

Ok, get the giggles out - it is a pretty funny name.

Last weekend Branden and I drove our motorbike the 70km from Saigon to Ben Dinh, and got a taste of rural Vietnam along the way. After a flat tire [Twice. Before we even left Saigon.] and pulling over multiple times for directions, we somehow managed to make it to the tunnels.

The Cu Chi tunnels were very successfully used by the Viet Cong during the war, and are a network of tunnels that spanned over 75 miles. There are 2 areas near Cu Chi that have been preserved for tourists to visit - and even get a taste of life in the tunnels. We visited Ben Dihn - the more "authentic" of the two. After walking through a bit of jungle, seeing examples of many of the traps the VC fought with, and bomb craters left from the Americans we took a break before going into the tunnels.

And by break, I mean that we visited the firing range. Not your typical firing range, we each took 5 shots with an AK-47 and Branden had a try with a 9mm. All for a buck a shot. Insane. Completely insane.

After we ran out of money [no really, we had to barter with them so that we got that many shots] - We headed to the tunnels.

Most of the tunnel network is about 90cm high and 60-70cm wide. For my American friends - that's just shy of 3 feet high by 2 feet wide. Throw in pitch black and damp and it's a claustrophobic's worst nightmare. Oh, and then there is the bottle neck section. The VC had areas of the tunnels that narrowed even more - further discouraging the Americans. Here, we had to crawl on our hands and knees.
We went just 100m. It felt like a hell of a lot more than that.

I really can't describe it. It was absolutely the coolest thing we have done so far in Vietnam. Amazing.

Check out the Cu Chi Tunnels set in my Flickr.