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The Cu Chi tunnels where the VC lived under the yanks. It was a really fascinating place, the tunnels are 3 levels deep under the ground, and it was no plain old tunnel, there was a dining room, a kitchen, a hospital and a bedroom. There was even a bloody well they had built! It was a pretty hardcore set up.Therte were trap doors set in the ground, and I reckon i could have joined the VC, cos they were the perfect size for me to hop in and out of. Several larger members of the tour group got wedged in, which was pretty funny.
Theres a section of the tunnels that you can crawl through, and it not for the cluastrophobic, I cannot believe that they managed to live in them for so long,
so small and dark and narrow. Apparently they didnt have a bathroom down there, so can you imagine what the smell would have been like? Add bombs dropping and gunfire rattling and you have a pretty good recipe for what have been Hell.Its hard to believe that the war was
only 35 odd years ago. From the traps that we saw it looked like a medival torture chamber, spikes driven into the ground, a swinging thing that was studded with bamboo sticks that would slam into a persons full body. The traps and stuff the VC set seem so primitive, but i guess all they had to work with was bamboo. It was
truly amazing. Our guide was a kid in the war, and he was shot. His
brothers and sisters fought too and both killed. He showed us his big
scar where they got him in a foxhole. Pretty crazy stuff.
I got chatting to a couple of kiwis at the tunnels and ended up spending the rest of my time in Saigon with them and an English couple. I have been celebrating Tet in true Vietnamese style and i am now bloody knackered. Its just been a huge party for the past 3 days. I was supposed to catch a bus up to Mui Ne beach this morning at 7 am, but annoyingly I overslept and missed it. Ahh well, Im catching a sleeper bus to there tonight. The beach is supposed to be gorgeous and I could definitely do with some vegetating time. Everyone I have met so far have come down from the top to the bottom, then onto Cambodia, and apparently Hanoi is bloody freezing! So, i want to stay in the south for as long as possible cos its boiling here.
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