Cu Chi Tunnels and a cruise along the river

Just call me Jackie Chan our tour guide said when he came to pick us up. Turns out this guy (real "English" name is Jackie) is an absolute character - and a definite part of the landscape at Cu Chi. We'd booked a small group tour to take us to Cu Chi - an hour and a half or so out of the centre of the city. The van was equipped with the most spacious chairs I have ever seen in a Transit van, and we settled back for the drive out of the city.

It seems like most tours in any country involve a stop at a factory of some kind. You get a demonstration of some type of local specialty (usually crafting something) and then get taken to the adjacent retail outlet where there are many bargains to be had. This tour was no different. Near to the entrance to the tunnels, we stopped at a local artisan house where disabled people make hand crafted Vietnamese items: pictures; bowls; jewellery boxes and the like. We got to see the artists painstakingly going through their small component of today’s creation – and it was spectacular. The intricate building up of some of the art works, using tiny components of broken duck egg shells, the minute carving of mother of pearl and washing the nearly completed products to get a perfect finish – all were on show today. Well worth the stop!

Finally at Cu Chi tunnels, Jackie encouraged us to watch the show introducing a brief history of the area, how the tunnels came into being and what happened during the course of the Vietnam war. Given he has been guiding for quite some time and worked as an interpreter for the US Navy during the war, he was very adept at leading us through each of the key 25-odd areas to see - and providing his personal insights and stories. He pointed out bomb craters and demonstrated how the camouflage entrances to the tunnels worked. One guy in our group was quite tall – and he fitted into the very small tunnel entrance without too much difficulty at all. Here is Helly having her turn.

Jackie also demonstrated the various booby traps that the VietCong set up, and showed us some of   the tunnel entrances. He told stories about an old American tank that had been shelled and many years later it’s only useful purpose is for tourists to climb on. We also saw demonstrations of rice paper making, and how the VietCong recycled artillery shrapnel to build more weapons.

Then the highlight of the tour – a short trip through about 250 meters of underground tunnels. They are very claustrophobic, windy, and just a bit freaky. The section that tourists can go through has seven exits. Jackie painstakingly took us through how the tunnels were situated underground and where each of the exits were if you didn’t want to go the whole distance. Karla bailed at the first exit (just a little bit too freaky and dark), whilst Helly toughed it out and went all the way through to the end at a pretty decent pace. We can’t imagine what it would have been like to actually live underground permanently – with over 2,000 surface booby traps and such small confined spaces to contend with.

The tour ended with a fabulous lunch at a nearby river sight before the trip back into the city. The 4 others in our group were great fun, and we enjoyed the company of our temporary friends!

In the evening, we treated ourselves to a cruise down the river aboard the Bonsai (an old Chinese junk, completely restored in 2017 after a freak accident had it out of service for a couple of years). The food was fantastic, the entertainment superb and the night scenery was simply stunning. Would definitely recommend this cruise to anyone visiting Ho Chi Minh City!

Ho Chi Minh City from the river cruise

And finally. here is a little taste of the countryside!