With full hesitation, I went down with my friends to the tunnels. It was dark. It was cramped. It was hot. The tunnel went narrower and narrower as we went along. I had to crouch. And it’s not easy to walk in that position. We were told we could exit on some junctions of the tunnel, as it would only get more constricted as we go further. I’m not claustrophobic, but I just had to get out of there.

BOUGHT VIETNAMESE CONICAL STRAW HATS FOR THE TOUR

Visiting Ho Chi Minh for the first time, we knew we just had to go to the Cu Chi Tunnels. It’s one of the more famous tours in the city and it would be a shame if we didn’t see it. So, off we went, booking ourselves a Cu Chi Tunnel half-day tour on our hostel which, surprisingly, was very cheap at USD5.00 per person, inclusive of roundtrip bus transfers from our lodging [BOOK THE TOUR ONLINE].

OUR TOUR BUS, NOT BAD FOR USD 5.00

After bowls of pho from the roadside stalls along Pham Ngu Lao and banh mi take-aways, we boarded our bus for a two and a half hour trip north of Saigon. The Cu Chi Tunnels that are open to the public is located on the Cu Chi District and the tunnels we were about to visit extends all the way to the border of Cambodia.

LACQUER WARES ON DISPLAY

A QUICK VISIT TO A LACQUER WARE WORKSHOP

Roused from our sleep, we were surprised that we were being asked to alight from the bus. Even in our stupor, we knew that it wasn’t more than two hours since we were picked up from our hostel. It turned out that a side tour of lacquer wares was in order.

THEY MAKE, YOU BUY

We visited a lacquer workshop, seeing firsthand how locals create this Vietnamese craft by hand. The final designs were quite intricate and very polished; it was surprising that these are really manually made! And of course, we were urged to buy some, I think this is the whole point why we were dropped here, but they were totally okay even if we didn’t purchase any.

TRAIL ALONG CU CHI TUNNEL

An hour later, we were finally at Cu Chi. My friends bought traditional Vietnamese conical straw hats just for the tour and they immediately wore it during the briefing about Cu Chi Tunnels. Our guide was, of course, very Viet-centric in his talks, scorning the Americans all through out the presentation.

ENTRANCE TO THE CU CHI TUNNEL COMPLEX

BOMBS DROPPED OVER THE TUNNELS DURING THE VIETNAM WAR

We learned how the tunnels were made by Viet Congs during the Vietnam War in the sixties. The network was dug manually over twenty five years, with entrances camouflaged from above. The massive underground complex was home to about ten thousand people. It stretches for about 250 kilometers and it has everything from living quarters, hospitals, food and weapons cache, to actual military strategy rooms.

TOURISTS AT CU CHI TUNNEL

IMPROVISED BOOBY TRAPS INSIDE THE TUNNELS

The Americans tried to wipe these tunnels through numerous bombing, and when that proved ineffective, they trained soldiers, dubbed as tunnel rats, to actually penetrate these. And as we were soon to find out for ourselves, this wasn’t an easy task.

ENTRANCE TO THE UNDERGROUND TUNNELS

Of the original tunnels, those at Cu Chi have been preserved by the Vietnamese government as a War Memorial. This complex stretches for about 121 kilometers, some of them enlarged so tourists can go inside. These, of course, have been cleared of the many booby traps American forces have to go through during the war.

CRAWLING INSIDE CU CHI TUNNELS

The only thing us tourists have to undergo was really the narrowness of the passage ways. Once you go in, you can never turn back, that’s how narrow these are. Considering how these have already been widened, it still was just too much for me. Gasp. I need air!!!

 

Cu Chi Tunnel Half Day Tour 
Address: Cu Chi District, Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam
Tour Fee: USD5.00 per person | Opening Hours: 9:00AM to 5:00PM Daily
Entrance Fee: VND90,000.00 | USD4.00
GPS Coordinates Map: 11.142626, 106.460965 
HOW TO GET TO CU CHI TUNNELS BY BUS ~ DIY FARE IS LESS THAN A DOLLAR
From Park 23/9: Ride a Ho Chi Minh–Cu Chi bus
From Cho Lon Coach Station: Ride bus 94 to Cu Chi Station. From there take bus 79 to the tunnels.
►► BOOK DISCOUNTED CU CHI TOURS ONLINE