Ho Chi Minh City; The Cu Chi Tunnels

About thirty kilometres from the city of Saigon lies the beginning of an amazing network of tunnels consisting of 250 kilometres of underground passageways. They were created during the wars by guerillas to obtain refuge from falling bombs and raining chemicals. The first tunnels were dug during the French invasion and occupation but during this time only one level was created and during the US invasion two further levels were dug out creating a three tiered warren with sleeping quarters, meeting rooms, kitchens, fresh water wells, air vents and escape routes. We take two local buses to get to the Ben Duoc tunnel system and it takes a good two hours but only 12,000VND.
After buying an 80,000vnd ticket I am led into the woods in a small group by a guide who first shows us the outlet to an air vent which is cleverly disguised as a termite mound. He then leads us to a patch of ground where he brushes away some leaves to reveal a small manhole cover which hides one of the original entrances to the tunnels. Its a very small rectangular gap in the ground and feels instantly secret and slightly claustrophobic as we test out descending our over-sized bodies into the tunnel. We have to turn diagonally and raise our hands above our heads just to fit in the hole. It's quite a shock. We stop next at an underground surgery and operating theatre, the ceiling of which has been removed for ease of viewing. The guide shows us some booby-traps; leaf covered pits full of sharp spikes intended to maim US soldiers who strayed too close. They give me tingles down my spine. We descend below the earth into a short section of tunnel. I read that the tunnels have been widened for larger tourists to fit in but they're still very small and you have to crouch, almost crawl, through them. There are some bats hanging from the tunnel roof which suprises me due to the amount of human activity through them. You inevitably bump into them given the lack of room and send them frantically fluttering around your head. After emerging into a meeting room we make a further excursion 30 metres through the depths of the tunnels where the ceiling gets lower and the claustrophobic pressure increases.
The tunnels have already withstood the test of hundreds of bombs and don't look like collapsing any time. The ground here is very hard and the men who dug the tunnels could sometimes dig no more than 2 metres a day. It took 20 years to complete the 250 km network.