The Tunnel Rats

Arriving into Ho Chi Minh City we were greeted with a cacophony of sound, colour and scooters, a far cry from our two weeks of slumber in Cambodia.  With Hannah’s mum arriving from the UK for two weeks we had planned a gentle introduction to the city, with a few days of exploring the streets to help her get her bearings and recover from the flight.  Having managed to smuggle three wheels of cheese and some cakes (miraculously) with no damage through customs she was a most welcome guest!  A little like other developing cities in South East Asia such as Bangkok most joy can be had watching the world go by rather than attempting to tackle the insane roads, crumbling pavements and searing heat.  Watching some of the five million scooters in the city and trying to see how many people can fit on a bike (five is the current record) whilst sipping a cold 333 beer passed a lot of time during the heat of the midday sun.    Alongside French colonial relics new high-rise buildings are transforming the skyline although much of the new found wealth in the city still resides with a minority (Vietnamese Communism would appear to have mistranslated the Communist Manifesto).  People hawking lottery tickets and cigarettes from suitcases mingle with limbless men on crudely built carts whilst huge SUV’s intimidate everything in their paths. 

Shopping Vietnam Style

It was a strange but very captivating city which caused problems when ambling aimlessly along, staring at the chaos unfolding around you.  Apart from the deep holes that litter the pavement the biggest danger facing us were the scooters that drove up every pavement and ignore every traffic sign, causing us to have nightmares about dodging demonic Vietnamese drivers (similar to how the Americans felt I guess!).  Only Hannah’s mum seemed un-fazed by them as only old people can.  Waving away every horn and glare with a few choice Anglo Saxon words and hand gestures she ploughed on with her chosen course forming an island in a tide of onrushing scooters, much to our fear and amusement. 

The concealed entrance to one of the tunnels

Leaving the city behind for an afternoon I headed to the legendary Cu Chi tunnels, home to a significant Vietcong presence during the war with America.  Over 250 km of tunnels were built in the area (one even went under the US military base) with tunnels dug at 4, 6 and 10 metres in depth.  Vietcong fighters would sometimes have to live underground for weeks at a time alongside scorpions, snakes and fire ants.  Our guide had given himself the name Tony although he was previously known as Sergeant Dao, a Tunnel Rat from 1966 – 1972.  Having spent six years keeping the Americans out it was slightly ironic that he was now guiding them into the tunnels but he was a very enthusiastic and eccentric guide. With his terrible English (he was an interpreter apparently) Tony told us anecdotes of his time in the war.  He had to crawl into the American camp to steal used toilet paper, copies of Playboy and clothes to put in the air vents to stop German Shepherd Dogs from discovering the entrances by confusing their smell.   He also explained how a friend had been ‘squashed’ from the pressure created from hundreds of B52 bombs that fell around them as he was sat up against a tree.  To combat this he used to stay above ground and rest in a hammock.  Rather than suffering the same fate as his friend he was swung around and around by the force of the bombs.  It was not all bad though, he explained whilst smiling, he had 7 girlfriends in 7 different villages at different tunnel entrances to help keep his spirits up!

Nowadays the tunnels have been widened and reinforced with concrete to give you a taste of life underground.  Even with the modifications a number of our group were a little too nervous or a little too wide to enter the tunnels (much to Tony’s amusement).  It was a strange experience crawling 10 metres underground and a little unnerving.  There was an opportunity to descend into and crawl through a tunnel of original size although having dropped down into the hole I was too big to fit through the rest of the tunnel.  Above the tunnels are some of the gruesome booby traps that ultimately contributed to the collapse of American morale helping cause the withdrawal in 1973.  

Wanting to explore more of the southern tip of Vietnam we left the city behind and headed south to the Mekong Delta and the disputed territory of Phu Quoc Island.