The Journey to Vietnam - 1998

Next, we made our way to the Cu Chi district. The road trip there was just as interesting as the place itself. What green colors!! So many plants I had never seen before! It was so overwhelmingly beautiful that I couldn't believe my eyes.

Along the street, I noticed thousands of upright, narrow cane "screens" covered with semi-transparent white circles. When I asked Truk what these were, we pulled over. When I stepped out of the car, these things sounded like Rice Crispies. They were actually sheets of rice paper, drying in the sun. We went inside of one house, where several women were making these. They let me sit down next to the fire and try it myself. Instead of a beautiful circle, my rice paper came out as a lump of burnt starch. The women told Truk that I should probably practice more before making this my new career.

We got back on the road and finally arrived at the first tunnel complex. Just before we entered the reception room, Truk warned us that the video we were about to see was an old VC propaganda film. Bob looked tense. I could tell he was expecting to be insulted.

We went inside and sat down with other tourists. One guy, clearly an American veteran, watched with his wife and two teenaged kids. Actually, the film wasn't that bad. I don't think the organizers of the tunnel complex intentionally showed a VC film: it was just the only footage they had from the sixties. After the movie, a young woman dressed in VC black pajamas, Uncle Ho sandals and a checkered VC scarf used a pointer to describe the tunnel complex. Her costume was not meant to freak anyone out: it was just done for the tourists to get the full affect. Throughout this part of the tour, I kept watching to see the American vet's reaction: he seemed genuinely interested and not the least bit upset by the show.

Next, we crossed the highway and met our tunnel guide. This guy was dressed in North Vietnamese army fatigues, complete with hat. He was very funny and eager to answer all of our questions.

He showed us demonstrations of booby traps. There were awful trapped doors that revealed terrible looking devices meant to slice and dig into body parts the more the victim moved. We saw "mines" made from Coke cans. We saw bomb fragments and casings. But what got me the most, for some reason, was the row of captured M-16's. One of them had the name "Pennie" carved into the stock. Bob and I looked at each other. I felt a lump in my throat. This must have been some GI's wife or girlfriend.

We followed our guide through the trails. When we got to one innocent looking group of trees, he showed us an area less than two square yards. He told us to try to find the tunnel entrance. We looked around, clearing leaves and trees. Even on my hands and knees, even though I knew the general area of this opening, I couldn't find it!! Throughout the tunnel tours, we were asked to find the entrance several times. I never could find it, but Bob even surprised the guides by ALWAYS locating them on the first try.

Our guide opened a tiny wooden lid. He jumped in, pulled the lid on top of him, and, within seconds, vanished without a trace. When it came time for us to try, the length of Bob's foot was bigger than the length of the lid! Bob tried to get in, but at six foot three inches, he could not get beyond his waist. I just barely fit, but immediately after getting in, I couldn't wait to get out.

Next, we walked along another trail. We were asked to find the tunnel system's smoke ventilation holes. We could not. We discovered that they were hidden in fake termite mounds. I had to look very closely to see the tiny plume of smoke escaping. As we walked along the trail, I noticed just how dense the vegetation was: if I had strayed from the trail, I wouldn't have been able to see two feet in front of me. The guide asked me how the VC would have known that I had just passed the trail? When I said that I didn't know (I was trying to be very careful and very quiet), he showed us a little fern. When the fern is touched, its leaves immediately close: the VC used this fern all of the time to determine the presence of American troops.

Next, we went into an actual tunnel complex. As soon as we stepped in, our guide informed us that if this had been during the war, we would have already stepped on a trap door, complete with pungee sticks. We got on our hands and knees and crawled blindly. In less than a minute, I was drenched in sweat, my legs were killing me, and I was panicked. If could barely squeeze through the passages. I nearly had a heart attack when the bats hanging above my head touched my hair. Our guide informed us that these passages had been enlarged by 100% to accommodate tourists. I emerged from the crawl into a deeper tunnel, this time with a high ceiling and a long wooden table. The back wall was covered with Communist flags and military maps. I was amazed: the room was spacious and well furnished. Our guide snapped a picture of me in front of the maps and flags, with the VC jungle hat, angrily raising my fist against the Communist propaganda. The guide laughed at my enthusiasm.

We sat down at the table, and were served "VC snacks" by a woman in full VC gear. Our snacks consisted of pressed "rice balls" (flavorless, sticky rice pressed into small cubes), awful green tea served in thimble-sized cups and flavorless boiled root (I forget the name, but its related to the potato). Conspicuously lacking from our traditional VC meal was boiled rat: I was pleased that the tour was not THAT realistic.

We rooted around some more, and came across a tunnel operating room, an "education" room and a kitchen. When that tour ended, we went to another tunnel complex, where I got to climb aboard that Huey. We walked to the firing range and shot AK-47's. Since Dad owned a gun shop, I'm a pretty good shot. Unfortunately, the condition of those rifles made it nearly impossible for me to hit my target (I only hit 1 out of 10!). We walked along the trail some more and arrived at an American tank that had the entire middle shot out by a VC mine. I looked around the tank. It seemed so tiny!! Bob and I climbed on top and Truk took our picture: I was wearing the VC jungle hat.

As we left the tunnel complex and headed back to Saigon, I decided that my decision to see this stuff was a good one: I came out of that experience with some appreciation of the frightening "tunnel" war. I was terrified in those tunnels, and I was just a tourist!!