Epic Travel → Asia & the South Pacific → Vietnam → Cu Chi Tunnels

♦ Intrepid Top Pick!

Location: Southern Vietnam

Time Required: 3 hours

Red Tape/Notes: Ben Dinh is the more touristy version of the tunnels; Ben Duoc is more authentic. Both are part of the war memorial park, and the entry fee is the same for both. Typical hours are 7am – 5pm. Arrive at 7am if you want to avoid crowds.

What’s Nearby?: Ho Chi Minh City, Cao Dai Temple

The Cu Chi Tunnels were the base of the Viet Cong Tet Offensive in 1968, and are quite interesting to visit. A network of tunnels runs for miles and miles, of which the Cu Chi Tunnels are one part, but the significance of this area during the war makes it notable. The fighters actually lived in the tunnels – there were hospitals and family quarters, ammunition and food supply areas – essentially an entire town underground. The conditions were terrible, though, since air, food, and water were scarce, and they shared the tunnels with poisonous centipedes, venomous spiders, scorpions, and any number of other undesirable bedmates. Typically the soldiers would come out at night, but depending on troop movement or bombing frequency, they sometimes had to remain underground for days. Yikes.

A significant portion of these tunnels and the surface area around them has been preserved as a war memorial park. Some of the tunnels (specifically those in Ben Dinh) have been enlarged to allow Westerners to fit (and even artificially created), but even these modified tunnels will not be comfortable for larger and/or claustrophobic people. Luckily they do seem to have eliminated the majority of spiders, centipedes, etc. In addition to the tunnels, you can walk the grounds and see the different styles of booby traps that were employed and visit the underground conference rooms that were used for planning. We watched an introductory historic video in one of these with distinctly anti-American sentiments infused into the recounting of the history (not that I can blame them really – no one likes being bombed or shot at), which I actually really enjoyed. I liked seeing something that seemed “real” as opposed to white-washed with political correctness – although the video was very old, and it’s apparent that those sentiments have long since faded for virtually everyone. They’ve placed some mannequins around the site, dressed in Viet Cong garb. I liked standing next to them and feeling tall.

Epic Travel → Asia & the South Pacific → Vietnam → Cu Chi Tunnels