CuChi Tunnels, VN

This is the "new" jungle that has grown back after the VN war ended in 1975. This is also the jungle where that 1 mosquito bit my foot and I contacted Dengue Fever!

These are just an example of the American bombs they collected. If the bomb didn't explode then the villagers would retrieve it and refill it with their own amunition. Then turn around and use our bombs on us!

An actual termite mound! I was stunned to see how big they get. The villagers would hollow out the inside and then place this mound over the tunnels bamboo breathing tubes that stuck out of the ground. Our dogs & soliders would walk right past the tubes!

This is one of the real entrances to the tunnels. The Chu Chi people were so small and considered us "fat Americans" even though we were'nt. My friend Mike tried to enter this and his hips wouldn't allow him through. In the war, the US would hire small people [tunnel rats] such as the chinese and send them down the tunnels to report back what they saw.

This is a miniature display of what the actual tunnels looked like underground. 25 years of hand digging and 250 miles going north, the tunnels were completed. They went 40 feet below the surface of the ground.

Getting ready to enter the tunnels. I did fine without any claustrophia! At one point we had to sit on our heels and slide down a small hill as we entered the 2nd level under ground.

Following Mike, who was following our tour guide who had a flash light.....some places we could just walk hunched over and others we had to crawl. In war times, the villagers carried laterns.

Washing my hands in water coming out of a bamboo trunk at the end of the tunnels.

This is just one of the awful booby traps the ChuChi's set up for our guys. The traps were not meant to kill but just to slow us down so they could get away. This one is called "the Souvenir" because as the leg goes into the box, the spikes go into the thigh as he would yank his foot away from the spike at the bottom. Our men would have to take the trap with the man still attached with them back to their base in order for the surgeons to remove it from the leg.

It was a very surreal, eye opening tour....very sad!