My first weekend in Vietnam I took a
guided tour of the Cu Chi Tunnels But first, we stopped at the firing range. This is the only gun range open to the public in Vietnam They have many different weapons
from the Vietnam War that you can try out You can shoot with assault rifles like the M16 or AK47 Or shoot a machine gun like the M60 Unfortunately you have to pay per bullet, and it’s very expensive I would have loved to have shot a machine gun But I didn’t want to spend millions and millions o
f dongs to do it So I opted for the AK-47 😊 I have no idea if I hit the target or not But it was fun When you first arrive at the Cu Chi Tunnels,
there are a lot of old war machines to gawk at Plenty of Instagram opportunities Then you’re off into the jungle with
your tour guide leading the way You’re free to come here without a tour,
if you have access to a private vehicle Our guide was a Vietnamese veteran from the war He actually served here at the Cu Chi tunnels during the war So, what are
the Cu Chi Tunnels? They’re a vast network of underground tunnels dug out
and expanded throughout the entire Vietnam War Close to 250km of tunnels were dug underground 120km are preserved and accessible to the public today And these are only part of a larger network of
underground tunnels that span the entire country The tunnels weren’t just used for
transporting weapons and supplies Entire cities of people lived in these underground tunnels
for up to 12 years to survive American bombings There
’s a limited supply of oxygen inside The deepest levels are 12 meters below the ground Many of the people that lived down here in the darkness of the tunnels went blind when they finally emerged after the war The tunnels may seem small and narrow... But they have actually been widened to accommodate tourists They have also been cleared of pests During the war the people in the tunnels didn’t just have to deal with the bombings, the darkness, and rampant disease They also had to share the tunnels
with rats, snakes
venomous centipedes, ants, scorpions, spiders, and parasites This is what the hidden tunnel entrances
were like during the war And this is one of the types of traps that the Viet Cong built Waiting to crawl through another section of tunnel... There was a bit of a tourist traffic jam And we’re off... This section was the deepest, longest,
and narrowest part of the tunnel You really had to get down on your
hands and knees to squirm through
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