Today we were up early and away to the Cu Chi tunnels, we went by speed boat as it was slightly quicker than the bus and we got to look around well before all the tour buses arrived. Our guide was very knowledgeable but quite intense, he really stared at you when he was talking – quite unnerving.

Once again the photos are all out of order, here is Trev climbing into one of the tunnels, we only got to try them for size at this point, later on we had the opportunity to go in one.

A booby trap pit

We also had the opportunity to shot guns – Oh boy, they were so loud, but you could here them all the way through the bush, so it gave quite an authentic experience. Trev shot an AK47 which is what the Viet cong used and I shot a M16 which is what the Americans used. We were asked if we wanted to shot off a whole magazine of a automatic machine gun mounted on the back of a Jeep, but that was around $250USD, so we declined!

A guide showing how they got into the tunnels

These are rice paper drying on bamboo racks, all through Vietnam these are made every day, you can tell the hand made ones by the pattern on them. The ones we get in NZ are all machine made and very hard and brittle, they keep theirs wrapped in big leaves like banana leaves to keep them supple and ready to use.

There was even a sewing machine for making the viet cong uniforms. Some of the tunnels had big rooms in them for making weapons, cooking and dining, the rooves had been taken off so we could see inside.

The Vietcong sandals made from car tyres

We then had the opportunity to go into a part of the tunnels (there are over 250kms of tunnels), I went to go in, but decided it was not for me. There was another group right up behind me and I felt very uncomfortable, they had widened it slightly for westerners, but even still I backed out.

Here is Trev coming out the other end, he doesn’t look happy, he said it wasn’t a nice experience and that I had made the right decision not to go. We had the choice of doing 20, 40 or 60 metres, one lady did 60 and wanted to go further! She was Irish and not a small lady either.