The Cu Chi tunnels is the network of tunnels near Saigon in which the Viet Cong fought against the US army. As well as the tunnels there were sniper pits, only a very slim western girl could fit into a sniper pit. The tunnels are on 3 levels, the top layer is where they would eat, tend to their wounded and having meetings. The second layer was where they would sleep and the third layer was where they would retreat when the US soldiers went down the tunnels to catch them or when they would send down their dogs.
The booby traps that teh Vietcong set to injure the American soldiers or their dogs were so effective that soldiers refused to go down the tunnels and dog handlers refused to send their dogs down. The US tried to bomb the tunnels using napalm but the chemical mixture of the napalm bombs meant that when they landed on the top of the tunnels it cooked the clay soil and made the tunnels stronger.
Most ironic is how the VC tunneled under an American base in the belief that they would never use any kind of bomb on their own base and so they would be perfectly safe.
The tour guide was an ex-South Vietnamese soldier who after the war spent 3 years ina re-education camp. He was funny and he seemed to be re-educated. He told how the VC were recognised because they werethe only people who wore western style sandals made from old tyres and so had white strips on their feet which was protected from the sun. I also fired an AK47 rifle. The guy that showed me how to use it was a VC vet, he seemed a rather nice chap.
I suppoe it is ironice that the battle fields are now big money earners for the Vietnamese and a lot of those tourists are American, talk about reparations!!
