We try to organise everything independently when travelling but ultimately, when the cheaper option is an organised tour, we go with it! Therefore, we booked a trip to the Cu Chi tunnels where we were staying, at Pioneer Hostel in HCMC.
At 8am our hotel owner walked us down to another hostel to meet the bus. Our guide, Ken, was on the microphone immediately, introducing himself and telling us about the day. Coming from such long travels in South America we are still surprised by the efforts of South East Asia guides. This is normal here! What you’d expect from a guide, is what the guide actually does. Nice!
The bus ride there took ages due to the city traffic. It was 3 hours before we got there, including one stop at an ‘Agent Orange sufferer’s centre’ to be shown an art of painting involving egg shells. Nevermind, 11.15 we got off of the bus and went in. There were SOOOO many huge groups of tourists there but our guide did a good job of rounding everyone up and keeping us altogether.
The visit to the tunnels involves walking around the jungle looking at tunnel life. We saw air holes, entrances and smoke that was coming from inside the tunnels. At each stop our guide explained how the aspects of the tunnels were disguised from American soldiers. I won’t ruin it by writing it here but it was all really, really interesting. We saw stomach-churning booby traps which were made by the Vietnamese from B52 bombs and left in the jungle. All of them left me feeling a bit funny. Horrible to think that men were caught in those.
There was a strange stop where some of the group opted to shoot guns at the shooting range. That was the most ‘touristy’ aspect of the day, but we waited it out, eating baos instead.
Time to enter the tunnels! The tunnels go down in three stages. I think they last 120m in total, but every 10m there is an exit so that you can get out if feeling spooked. They get dark, low and really, really hot but worth the run to see how the Vietnamese fought, lived and hid in there. They were impressive! I thought it was going to be all mud down there but it’s a really well built structure. Having said that I am sure some has been reinforced for tourist visits. By the time we got to the end I think the majority of our group had bolted at some point, and our guide went to pick them up from the various exit points. They wouldn’t make good fighters!
Last, but our most entertaining stop, was trying to fit in to the tunnel entrances (the ones which hadn’t been adapted for tourists!). We took turns to take off the hidden lid and squeeze in to the tiny hole. First the girls, then the guys, working up to some with some really broad shoulders which we thought would never get in, and if so, wouldn’t never get out again! Luckily we all did.
That was the last stop before another mammoth journey back in to the city. But hey, you can’t help the traffic! All in all, a really informative and good day. A great guide and, having now visited I’m not actually sure if you would be able to enter without an organised tour so save yourselves the hassle and book at Pioneer. Great day!
Cost| 200,000 VND (90,000 VND plus 110,000 VND entry fee).
