Sunday arrived after a full night of uninterrupted sleep, thankfully. At the top of today's agenda? A venture outside of town to the legendary tunnel network in the Củ Chi district, northwest of Saigon.
While our visit was to a portion of the tunnel network preserved for historical and tourist purposes, this section was a small representation of the full network of interconnected tunnels. The tunnels once spanned more than 150 miles across southern Vietnam. Mind-boggling given that these underground tunnels were often dug by hand, only a short distance at a time.
Both locals and military forces began digging the network in the 1940s while fighting for independence from France. The original tunnels were expanded extensively by the Communist military, or Viet Cong, during the Vietnam War. Viet Cong soldiers used the tunnels to transport supplies, communicate with troops, plant booby traps, and mount surprise attacks – after which the tunnels provided a quick way for them to disappear. The tunnels also housed the soldiers during combat and contained sections for meeting, eating, and sleeping.
Because these tunnels were buried beneath both jungle and farmlands and the Viet Cong soldiers would wear similar clothing to the local farmers, they could easily blend in with the local communities, making it extremely difficult for US troops to distinguish a soldier from a farmer.
The size of the opening to one of these tunnels was shockingly small and easily camouflaged on the jungle floor.
The ingenuity behind the tunnels was impressive, to say the least. They consisted of three levels. The first level was about three meters deep and included meeting rooms, cooking and dining areas, medical clinics, and bunkers. The second level was about six meters deep and was used for sleeping, weapons manufacturing, and storage. The third level was 10 meters deep and was used for water wells, secret escapes, and where tunnels were interconnected.
Not a great pic, but the display shows the three levels of the tunnel system.
While walking through the site, we could see large craters where US B-52s had dropped bombs. It's difficult to walk the path above these tunnels without acknowledging the death and carnage that occurred on this land to both US military troops and local Vietnamese people – including civilians.
Our guide, Phi, somewhat enthusiastically showed us examples of all the different booby traps laid by the Viet Cong to wound, kill, or capture our troops.
After our tour, we returned to Saigon and enjoyed another incredible group meal at Hoa Tuc, a Michelin-recognized restaurant. The highlight of our five-course tasting menu was the sea bass with lemongrass, pickled shallot, and green pepper.
Checking out of our hotel, we said goodbye to Saigon and boarded our bus for the two-hour commute to Mỹ Tho, in the Tiền Giang province of South Vietnam. This was our embarkation spot for the Mekong Jewel, our river cruise "home" for the next seven nights.
Our Inspirato tour group comprised about 60 people, and we were divided among three buses marked red, yellow, and green. We ended up on the red bus (shocking, I know) and quickly decided our bus was the cool bus. As luck would have it, it proved NOT to be the cool bus by at least one definition. The air conditioning on our bus was broken; we proceeded to ride for two hours with no air...somehow references to "cold like Alaska" got lost in translation. This brings me to the topic of temperature and heat on this trip.
Nothing, and I mean nothing, could have prepared us for the heat and humidity we experienced across South Vietnam and Cambodia. Have you been to New Orleans in August? Or how about Disneyworld in August? Yeah, not even close to the insane Vietnam heat and suffocating humidity! You will hear more about this, as it's definitely a theme woven through our trip!
Our evening aboard the Mekong Jewel included a welcome dinner and an early bedtime. Monday, our first full day onboard, includes exploring a couple of the island farming communities that line the Mekong Delta.
PS. I'm not sure if it was jet lag, the extreme heat, the challenge of being on and off buses for some of our tours – or a combination of all these things, but my photos from the first few days of our trip were really subpar. Sheesh!
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