A quick half day trip to the Cu Chi tunnels 50km outside of Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) was on the cards today.
It isn’t far but due to the sheer size and traffic of HCMC the going is slow and takes a good 1.5hours by bus.
We have a great tour guide provided by Sinh Travel, Anh. He has a loud voice and commands us to hurry and not be lazy. It felt like military simulation. He uses the word ‘bloody’ repetitively to get the point across and it is his version of placing an exclamation after a point he has made.
We get a good explanation of what the Vietnam war was about and the history of the tunnels. Apparently this kind of guerrilla warfare was already used during the uprising against the French in the villages around Cu Chi.
The Vietcong were very imaginative with these tunnels and brilliant at camouflage. In fact they had hospitals, kitchens, offices, air and water supply underground. The booby traps set up came from local knowledge for trapping animals. When applied to humans, it seems quite barbaric but I guess they used what they had.
They were big on recycling and their sandals were made of old tyres. Even the enemy bombs that hadn’t detonated were recycled to be turned into weapons. Perhaps more out of lack of resources. These were poor farmers originally.
It was good to hear things from a different perspective. Every side has their story. What I took away was that necessity creates innovation but that war is devastating affecting the immediately innocent and generations to come. 2 million civilians versus 1 million soldiers were killed. Agent Orange and mines still impact this community today.
A heavy thought but travel is not just frivolous fun, I want to learn from history and other cultures.
Any thoughts or opinions? Please leave a comment.