Organize a self-guided tour to the Kuchi Tunnels.
For the first time I heard about the dungeons of the Vietnamese partisans - the Cu Chi Tunnels - from a friend who, having visited, described them as “the best excursion” he had been on, “it’s very cool there, you can climb through the tunnels and shoot with any weapon from the Vietnam War.”
After googling and reading guidebooks, it turned out that the tunnels dug by the partisans are located in different parts of Vietnam, and some of the most famous and largest (the length reaches 200 kilometers) are located at a distance of 40-50 kilometers from Ho Chi Minh City, where we arrive and where our journey begins in Vietnam. We planned to spend almost three full days in Ho Chi Minh City, one of which was devoted to visiting the tunnels.
It is believed that an excursion to the Cu Chi Tunnels (sometimes called the Cu Chi Tunnels) is the most popular in the vicinity of Ho Chi Minh City and many travel agencies located in the city organize trips there. And one of the options to see the tunnels is to buy an organized excursion in one of them. It is not expensive, 5-10 US dollars per person, starts by bus early in the morning from the center of Ho Chi Minh City. We went our own way and decided to go to the Kuchi tunnels on our own.
There were two reasons for this:
- not particularly fond of organized excursions
- starts at 7:30
The time lag from Moscow to Ho Chi Minh City is 4 hours and a couple of days
This is a short time to adjust to local time and getting up so early is difficult.
Cu Chi Tunnels: how to get there
- By ground public transport. There is no direct communication; transfers must be made.
- By water transport. An interesting method, but it required more time to develop and implement.
- Taxi. We settled on this option.
How to economically get to the Kuchi (Kuchi) tunnels by taxi
Leaving the Grand Hotel Saigon where we were staying at 11:00, 30 seconds later we were already communicating with a Vinasuntaxi taxi driver who did not speak English at all. The doorman from our hotel came to our aid.
Initially, we were offered to go by the meter, but we insisted on a fixed price. The driver contacted the dispatcher, and after that an offer was made to us, which we accepted without haggling - 1,280,000 Vietnamese debts, trip duration 6 hours. Looking ahead, I’ll say that according to the meter, our trip would have cost 1,900,000 wons, that’s how much was accumulated on the taximeter, which was working the entire trip, and this is not counting the time that could have been turned on for the wait, which was 3 hours.
Road from Ho Chi Minh City to Cu Chi Tunnels
The distance to the town of Cu Chi, next to which the Cu Chi tunnels are located, from the first district of Ho Chi Minh City, which is the main attraction for tourists due to the many business and shopping centers, hotels and various tourist attractions, is about 40 kilometers. From there to the tunnels, which they obviously got their name due to their proximity to this settlement, is another 15 kilometers. Thus, from the center of Ho Chi Minh City to the attraction the distance is 50-55 km.
At first we wandered through the streets of Saigon, crowded with mopeds and cars; it was difficult to determine the boundary between the city and the suburbs since the city itself was replaced by urbanization with a continuous row of buildings along the highway, including residential buildings, various shops, workshops, etc. And only after an hour and a half of driving, the landscape outside the car window began to resemble a country one. The one-way journey took about two hours, although we did not make a single stop.
Tour of the Cu Chi tunnels
At the entrance to the territory where the tunnels are located, there is a booth where you can and should purchase tickets. The cost of a ticket for one adult was 70,000 debts ($3.5), a child's ticket costs 20,000 ($1).
After driving another 200 meters after the ticket office, the road came to a square where, in addition to cars, a tank, a plane and a helicopter from the Vietnam War were parked. By the way, in Vietnam this war is called the American War. Having got out of the car, we immediately went to the large gate shown in the photograph, but the man in uniform who was guarding it turned us around and directed us in the opposite direction. 
Three minutes later we were already at the entrance, next to which there was such an exhibition of war artifacts. They checked our tickets and gave us further instructions, which were as follows: we need to walk 200 meters through the jungle, find a cinema and watch a movie lasting 20 minutes. 
On the way to the cinema we came across this installation. 
There was no one else in the cinema hall under the canopy except us, and we sat in the first row opposite a switched-off ancient TV above which was a portrait of Ho Chi Minh. A few minutes later, an employee appeared and turned on the movie. The movie turned out to be black and white and it was clear from everything that it was filmed a long time ago.
The history of the Kuchi tunnels
The film talked about how peaceful peasants lived happily, grew rambutans, bananas and rice on fertile lands, and then foreign invaders came. And the peasants had no choice but to take up the hoes with which they cultivated the rice fields, dig tunnels up to 10 meters deep and 200 kilometers long and begin to fight the adversaries.
Almost all residents of the area, including women and children, took part in the construction of tunnels, as well as in partisan warfare. They waged a heroic struggle, initially armed only with agricultural implements. Gradually, they obtained weapons from dead American soldiers and extracted explosives from unexploded bombs and made homemade mines from them. At the beginning of the fighting, the population numbered about 10,000 people, by the end no more than 2,000. At the slightest suspicion of helping the militia, the Americans destroyed entire villages.
While watching the film, the audience became much larger; about 30 people came. We decided to move on without watching the movie, so as not to go in a crowd, but the employee insistently asked us to stay. Then the realization came that the excursion would be organized. The film ended and a Vietnamese-looking man in a green uniform introduced himself as a guide and asked to approach the panorama to the left of the TV. Yes, I forgot to mention, the excursion was held in English and it was quite passable. 
The Cu Chi Tunnels are an extensive system of underground passages that were dug and used by guerrillas, most of whom were local residents, to fight American troops. The entrances to the tunnels were carefully camouflaged and were extremely difficult to detect. The tunnels had an extensive system with many exits, including exits under the water of local reservoirs. The underground passages were specially made very narrow, so that it would be difficult for people with a European build to move around them.
Architecture of the Kuchi tunnels
The Kuchi tunnels have three levels, the first lies at a depth of about three meters, at this level are located most of the rooms dug underground in which headquarters, hospitals, kitchens, rest rooms, living quarters and other domestic premises were located. One could stay in these rooms for a very long time; one could practically live in them without going to the surface. Oxygen was supplied underground using ventilation systems, which were made of bamboo and, like the entrances to the tunnels, were carefully masked.
Deep wells were dug in the tunnels from which the partisans obtained water. Food was prepared in underground kitchens, including using fire. To ensure that the enemy could not detect the tunnels by the smoke emanating from underground, a special multi-level system of filters was provided, through which the smoke was so purified that it was no longer visible on the surface and the smell was not felt.
The second level of tunnels is at a level of 5-6 meters. The partisans hid in them during bombings and special operations of the American army. It was possible to spend some time at such a depth, but it was impossible to live there, since there was not enough oxygen and it was very stuffy.
The third level reaches a depth of 9-12 meters. They descended to such depths only in emergency cases when the Americans sprayed poisonous gases or during bombardments with heavy bombs. Even the most powerful bomb could not penetrate to such a depth. But it is so deep that a person could stay there for no more than a couple of hours.
With the help of such traditional agricultural tools, local residents dug many kilometers of underground tunnels.
The partisans conducted very effective combat operations, carrying out deadly attacks from them and taking refuge in them after the completion of operations.
To combat them, a special unit was created, which was called “Tunnel Rats.” Soldiers of small stature and slender build were specially selected for it so that they could move in the tunnels. A huge number of soldiers died during the operations, falling into deadly traps placed in the tunnels. They failed to achieve great success and to fight the partisans they actively used terrible chemical weapons, poisonous gases, all-burning napalm and agent orange. Due to the effects of chemical weapons, even those who managed to survive remained disabled.
The area under which the tunnels were located was repeatedly subjected to carpet bombing.
The first stop was 200 meters from the cinema. We came out into a clearing strewn with withered leaves. The guide deftly cleared the foliage in one place; under the foliage there was a hatch covering the entrance to the tunnel.
Moving 10 meters away from this place, the guide opened another camouflaged entrance.
Tourists are invited to try to go down the hatch and walk, or rather crawl, to the neighboring entrance. You can estimate the size of the entrance from the photograph; any person with normal or even overweight can climb into it without much difficulty. The guide said that the entrance to the tunnel and the tunnel itself in this place were specially expanded so that European tourists could climb into it and move around it relatively comfortably. It is more convenient to do this by raising your arms up, since the body is somewhat extended and the arms do not increase the volume in the pelvic area.
But the expanded tunnel is not equally comfortable for everyone.) But despite certain difficulties, this Malaysian lady in the body managed to descend into the tunnel.
Having squatted down, the entrance directly to the tunnel opens.
The tunnel is relatively dry, but very stuffy and hot. But we visited during the dry season and on a sunny day. I'm not sure if the situation is the same during the rainy season. The walls seem to be plastered with something, and the floor is earthen.
The tunnel is illuminated by several electric bulbs and you don’t have to move blindly. But as you understand, this was made for tourists and during the war the partisans did not have such amenities.
The length of the section along which tourists are offered to walk is about 10 meters. There are two ways to move through the tunnel - squatting single file or on all fours. As you understand, this is not very convenient, especially if the distance is considerable, but walking 10 meters through this tunnel will not be difficult for a person in normal physical shape.
In order for you to move comfortably in the tunnels, you need to wear comfortable sportswear and one that you don’t mind getting dirty, since the probability of this tends to 100%. It is advisable to wear sports shoes, since the tunnels in flip-flops are extremely uncomfortable. They always try to fly off, especially when you start to sweat, and you start to sweat quickly and very profusely, since moving in a tunnel is a decent amount of physical activity in a hot and humid atmosphere.
About half of the tourists decided to crawl through this tunnel.
The photo below shows one of the ways to disguise the ventilation of tunnels - disguising it as a termite mound. The hole in the tubercle is the ventilation hole. You couldn’t stay in the tunnels for long without ventilation, and the ventilation had to be masked in every possible way, because enemies could use it to determine the location of underground passages.
The guide suggested finding a ventilation hole on another hill nearby. This could not be done because it was a real termite mound and there was no hole in it.)
The sign on the tree marks the crater from the explosion of bombs, which were dropped in huge quantities on these lands.
The guide said that the ground in this area is very hard, like asphalt. It became denser due to explosions from the gigantic number of bombs dropped.
One of the many modifications of the death trap that was used by the partisans.
A hospital above-ground bunker in which even surgical operations were performed.
And this is an underground bunker, which during the war apparently served as a headquarters. After examining the premises, the guide suggested going through another tunnel, but immediately warned that the task would not be as simple as in the first tunnel.
The tunnel distance is about 50 meters and there are turns. The path does not go horizontally, first it goes down and then goes up. There weren't many people willing.
Passing this tunnel became the apotheosis of this excursion for me; it turned out to be the most interesting, physically difficult and emotionally intense test! As they say, size matters, and distance certainly does too. We had to move in single file; the tunnel was hot, humid and stuffy. The air was stale. Not even halfway through, the T-shirt became wet through and sweat flowed down my forehead into my eyes. The muscles in my legs began to ache, my lower back began to ache, and each subsequent step became more and more difficult. From time to time I automatically tried to straighten up, and the ceiling immediately reminded me where I was and that I couldn’t straighten up to give my muscles a rest. And although I do not suffer from claustrophobia, at such moments you begin to become well aware of the feelings of people who are afraid of closed spaces, and there is a great desire to leave this uncomfortable place as quickly as possible. 
Movement was also complicated by the fact that I had to carry a backpack in front of me on outstretched arms, which weighed at least 5 kilograms. It was impossible to leave it behind my back, since in this case I would have to plow it along the ceiling of the tunnel.
The pulse increased greatly and felt like it went off scale at 150 beats per minute. There was a great desire to get to the exit as quickly as possible. My muscles ached quite a lot and several times I caught myself wanting to go on all fours, and only my wife, who was cheerfully moving in front, and my pride did not allow me to do this!) The end of the distance was also complicated by the fact that I had to move uphill. In the last meters, my legs practically began to beat to capacity and were close to complete disobedience. But then the light dawned, it became easier to breathe, and here was the exit from the tunnel! Having got out, it took effort to stand up straight, my legs were weak, my pulse was off the charts, and sweat was pouring out like hail. The joy of being on the surface knew no bounds! And I once again wondered what it was like for the partisans to be in the tunnels, especially when they were poisoned with all sorts of terrible chemicals.
To summarize, if you attend this excursion and want to crawl through the tunnels for a more or less significant length, you must keep in mind that it is not so easy and you need to have a certain physical preparation. It is strictly not recommended for people who have claustrophobia and do not want to get rid of it.
The end of the tour was a snack in the style of Vietnamese partisans. The treat included boiled cassava root (the guide called it tapioca) with a seasoning made from peanuts, salt, sugar and several spices. Cassava is a very nutritious fibrous plant, vaguely reminiscent of potatoes without a distinct taste. It was this plant growing in the tropics that became the main food product of the Vietnamese during the war.
Traditionally, the main dish of Vietnamese people is rice. But this culture requires a lot of attention and effort from the peasant. During the war, the Americans did not shy away from any methods and actively bombed rice fields, preventing peasants from cultivating them, and also burned fertile lands with fire and chemicals, making them lifeless, in order to weaken the local population. And cassava, which, unlike rice, is very unpretentious and does not require human attention for growth, became the main food product for people, did not allow them to die of hunger and served as a source of energy for partisans fighting the invaders.
By the time of lunch, I had not yet had time to really catch my breath from passing the last tunnel and ate without much appetite. But my wife liked the treat and even asked for more.)
This was the end of the excursion. On the way to the exit, the path passed by various workshops in which various things used during the war were made and installations showing the life of the inhabitants of the Kuti tunnels.
For example, in the photo below, a man is making flip-flops from rubber from tires of various vehicles.
Those interested can purchase such shoes for 80,000 VND (3.5 USD)
But these guys are hacking away at an unexploded bomb in order to get explosives out of it and make anti-personnel mines.
And this stand presents the deadly fruits of their creativity.
Right at the exit there is a shop where you can buy various souvenirs, such as a keychain made from a machine gun bullet. We collect magnets, but we didn’t find anything interesting on the subject of the Kuti tunnels; we only sold pop magnets, which are sold everywhere.
Shooting range near the Kuchi tunnels: shooting from weapons of the Vietnam War.
Then we moved towards the shooting range, which we had heard about. Immediately, leaving the tunnel tour area, we saw a billboard that indicated that the shooting range was 1.5 kilometers away. We covered this distance at a leisurely pace in 15-20 minutes. Part of the road ran along a very picturesque lake, which you see in the photographs. A Vietnamese couple from Hanoi brightened up our journey by telling us a lot of interesting things about Vietnam.
There is a catamaran station on the lake and those interested can ride on them. In the photo below, it can be seen on the right side in the distance. 
To reach the shooting range, you need to turn right at a certain moment (or left, depending on which side you go around the lake) and move 150-200 meters away from the lake.
This is what the entrance looks like. 
After going through this tunnel, we found ourselves in the room in which the shooting range office is located. You can shoot from 7 types of weapons presented at the stand. I asked if they had a bazooka, they said they didn’t.)
Cost of cartridges at the Kuchi Tunnels shooting range
You can see the price for one cartridge for them on the cash register window.
We purchased 30 rounds of ammunition, 10 each for the guns that were most interesting to us - the Kalashnikov assault rifle, the M-16 rifle and the M-60 light machine gun. One cartridge cost 35,000 VND (1.6 USD), and the total order was 1,050,000 VND (49 USD). I had to pay in cash, cards are not accepted! Keep this in mind.
In exchange for money, they give you a receipt that states what cartridges you purchased. You go to the shooting range with it and give it to an employee.
When going directly to the shooting range area, it is better to immediately put on the headphones that hang near the doors. When they shoot, the noise is hellish. I tried without headphones, the shot was ringing in my ears. Really very loud! But the shooting range workers, a guy in a green uniform, somehow works without them. I have a strong suspicion that they are already half-deaf.)
These guys, according to the receipt, select the cartridges, load the gun and explain how to shoot. Shooting is not a complicated science, you aim at the front sight, pull the trigger.
When we went to the shooting range, I immediately found an answer to the question that crept into my mind, what if suddenly there was a psycho in it and he started shooting at those around him?!). To do this, he will first need to tear the weapon away from the stationary stand to which it is tightly attached. Because of this, the rotation angle does not exceed 15-20 degrees left-right, and up and down no more than 5.
Shooting is carried out at targets that are located quite far away at 200-250 meters. There are no targets on them, and there are no optical instruments through which you can look at the shooting results. Therefore, this shooting range is an attraction for those who want to shoot with automatic weapons. Tourists are not offered to shoot for accuracy and hone their skills.
M-16 rifle
AK-47 assault rifle
M-60 machine gun. I probably liked shooting it the most. Caliber 7.62, powerful sound of a shot, cartridges flying out of the tape drive mechanism - class! By the way, an interesting fact: due to its appearance and shortcomings, the design of the machine gun was nicknamed the pig, which in Russian means “pig”.)) Personally, I did not notice such a similarity.
The way back: Cu Chi Tunnels - Ho Chi Minh City
After the shooting, we returned to the taxi driver and headed back to Saigon. The return journey took about an hour and a half. The total travel time was 6 hours 40 minutes. Since we agreed for 6 hours, the taxi driver asked for an additional payment of 60,000 dong. Thus, the total cost of a trip along the Saigon-Cuti-Saigon tunnels route, lasting about 7 hours, was 1,340,000 VND (63 USD). This amount was paid to the taxi driver by bank card. Vinasun taxi cars are equipped with terminals for withdrawing money from a plastic card. This is a pleasant and important option. By paying with a bank card, we save on fees for withdrawing cash from an ATM and earn Aeroflot bonus miles, which we actively use to purchase tickets.
Tour “Kuti Tunnels” and shooting range summary
We liked the “Couti Tunnels” excursion and we recommend it to all tourists who visit Saigon. There are no age restrictions, it can be interesting even for children. For those who want to climb through the tunnels, remember that this will require physical effort. People with severe claustrophobia should avoid this part of the program. It is better to wear comfortable clothes that you don’t mind getting dirty and sports shoes (not flip-flops). Girls will be more comfortable in shorts or pants. I recommend taking wet and dry wipes. In the process of climbing through the tunnels, your hands get dirty, so you don’t have to walk until the end of the excursion with dirty hands. You can wash them only at the very end, before snacking on tapioca.
Still have questions about the Kuchi Tunnels? Feel free to ask them in the comments under this post, I will be happy to answer!
Deep in a black-black hole sits a black-black (from dust) “Charlie” and waits for his prey!
Similar legends circulated among American troops when they discovered a secret underground city of partisans in Vietnam and began to die in it.
In 1965, the 25th Infantry Division Q41A was stationed near the village of Cu Chi near Saigon. There was the main center of guerrilla resistance in South Vietnam, the main base of the communist North. The United States planned to quickly crush the resistance, thereby gaining final control over the southern part of Vietnam and demonstrating to the communists “Kuzkin’s mother.” But almost immediately strange, mystical things began to happen in the American camp. Despite the strengthened security of the perimeter, shots were heard in the tents at night, and the next morning officers were found dead in them. In the bushes right in the center of the camp, surreal shadows flashed, fired very real shots and disappeared to God knows where. The Americans strengthened security to the limit and began a large-scale operation to clear the surrounding area. Thousands of soldiers bulldozed the jungle and "cleared" the area with napalm, destroying all settlements as well as sources of water and food. The ghosts continued their attack.
It took four months to unravel the mystery: by coincidence, the base of the 25th division was located exactly above the underground partisan city! It was a network of tunnels with a total length of more than 250 kilometers, which was dug in the clayey Cu Chi soil, ideal for this, at the beginning of the 20th century, during the French occupation. However, the Americans did not rejoice at their discovery for long. Yes, they discovered “holes” (more precisely, at that moment the American command was only beginning to guess about their presence, without even close to imagining the scale of the tunnel system), but how to deal with them?
For several years, the destruction of the underground Cu Chi guerrillas in the so-called “Iron Triangle” was an American fix. To begin with, simply discovering the entrance to the tunnel was an almost impossible task: small holes, into which a person could hardly squeeze, were ideally masked by turf and leaves. However, sometimes the Americans managed to find an entrance, for example, by pursuing the Viet Cong.
However, what to do next? Smoke out partisans with poisonous gases? But this was useless, since a complex system of water plugs and sealed hatches that separated the levels perfectly protected the main tunnels from gas attack. Go inside? For this purpose, they created a specially trained unit of “tunnel rats” - puny, reckless soldiers equipped with headlamps, wire telephones, pistols with laser sights... The Viet Cong welcomed the “rats” with open arms and prepared for them such an underground quest, consisting of traps and ambushes that only half of those who went down into the “holes” managed to get out from under the Vietnamese soil alive. Meanwhile, full life was going on in the tunnels: there were hospitals, cinema halls, and canteens. Children were born there. Tactical meetings were held in the tunnels, from there reconnaissance was carried out and sabotage was planned in Saigon and throughout the South.
The Americans managed to destroy Cu Chi only in the late 60s. The region was hit by B-52 carpet bombing, against which the partisans were powerless: the shells left craters up to 20 meters deep, while the tunnel system most often went no more than five meters underground. However, this was already the final chord of the war. Exhausted Americans, weakened by internal anti-militarist sentiments and condemnation of the world community, were forced to withdraw their troops. The destroyed but not surrendered underground city, in which approximately 6 out of 16 thousand people survived, celebrated its victory.
Now that you have a theoretical basis, we offer you an unforgettable journey through the Cu Chi tunnels with all their traps, riddles and attractions, and in the midst of resistance!
Click on the picture to enlarge
This ends our fascinating tour of the Cu Chi tunnels. By the way, in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) any taxi driver will take you for $20 to allegedly see what remains of Cu Chi. Only, most likely, it will be an attraction specially dug for tourists.
But the real tunnels (or rather, what’s left of them) lie away from the tourist routes. The jungle has long grown above them, villages have been rebuilt in the neighborhood, and local boys go there to play partisans. On the one hand, innocent fun, but on the other... Who knows?
Saigon was a stronghold of the American army, soldiers and officers lived here, but they only dreamed of peace. Constant terrorist attacks and attacks by lone northerners did not allow the Americans to relax. Until the end of the war, they did not suspect that right next to them in the forests west of Saigon, an entire city called “Charlie” was functioning underground. You don't have to be a fan of the Vietnam War to want to take a look at this underground museum, a museum of human resilience and the struggle for freedom.
In one of the offices of the Vietnamese company TheSinhTourist you can buy an excursion to the Cu Chi tunnels for 200-300 rubles. The bus will take you straight into the jungle. An English-speaking guide will lead you through history.
The underground city stretched for many kilometers in width and several levels down.. Through camouflaged hatches 30x40 centimeters, and sometimes smaller, nimble Vietnamese partisans after night sabotage, the pursued Yankees disappeared into the underground labyrinths. Large American military personnel could not get into the narrow holes and were forced to blow up the passages, which did not bring significant results due to their length and ornateness. Tourists will also be offered to try to crawl into one of the hatches and disguise themselves.
If you take your eyes to the side, it is almost impossible to detect the hatch under the foliage. Some of the tunnels have been expanded for tourists. Even the expanded tunnels do not exceed 1-1.2 meters in height. You can go down into them and experience for yourself what it’s like to be in an earthen trap that has become home for thousands of Vietnamese. The tunnels constantly wind and change level stepwise, so as not to be shot through by pursuers and provide the opportunity to set up ambushes and traps. The latter occupy a separate exhibition in Ku Chi. It becomes clear what the Americans were so afraid of in Vietnam. Fighting an invisible enemy, the soldiers fell into the most ingenious and nightmarish traps, which became the whole of Vietnam for the United States.
If you have the courage to walk along the entire length of the tunnels, without running away halfway to take a breath of fresh air, then you will find yourself in an underground kitchen, where you will even be given some dishes from the meager partisan rations to try. Not only did partisans live underground, near the village of Ku-Chi, but residents who had escaped from American atrocities and high-ranking military personnel also took refuge there. An American tank fell into one of the tunnels, which, having covered it with flooring, the Vietnamese turned into a command center. The Americans could not understand where tens and hundreds of partisans were disappearing, so they simply flooded the entire surrounding landscape with napalm, while simultaneously liberally spraying the perimeter with bombs.
If you look closely, the entire ground in the area of the village of Ku-Chi is dotted with craters, and the thin trunks of young trees hint at what this land was like during the war. In numerous buildings of the museum, tourists will get acquainted with the household items of the Vietnamese during the war, the structure of life, weapons and crafts. Bombs, rusty bullet-ridden tanks - modern Vietnamese can look at them with pride, because their ancestors went through the most terrible and difficult trials and emerged victorious.
In the souvenir shop you can buy crafts made of tin, wood, silk paintings and many other souvenirs created by hand by the local population, and not by a factory in China. And the most important thing that partially takes you back to the hot times of Ku Chi is the constantly heard shots in the jungle, and sometimes bursts of automatic weapons. The fact is that at the end of the excursion, tourists will have the main attraction - the opportunity to shoot at the training ground with real military weapons: a Kalashnikov assault rifle, M16 and even a Rimbaud M60 machine gun. Just know - pay for the cartridges.
Amazing experience. After visiting Ku Chi, it is impossible not to be imbued with great respect for this small people, so strong in spirit. And if you went on an excursion from Saigon, you will invariably return to Ho Chi Minh City.
The Cu Chi Tunnels, as a tourist attraction, are located in a suburban area of the world-famous Saigon, but what tourists are shown is only a small part of the stunning military installation built during the years of American expansion by Vietnamese resistance fighters. The underground shelters, whose labyrinths stretch from the Cambodian border to Saigon, began to be built back in the 50s, when the people of Vietnam resisted the French colonialists. But during the invasion of American troops into the territory of Vietnam, villagers dug their part of the underground shelter and, as a result, the passages dug at depth united into one grandiose underground network, which became the base of the National Front for the Liberation of Vietnamese soil from the American aggressor. The true length of the tunnels is not advertised; according to some sources, the tunnels stretch underground for 187 kilometers, according to others – for 300. What is known for sure is that more than eighteen thousand partisans were hiding in the underground labyrinths with their families and that the area called by the Vietnamese “Iron triangle,” was built over fifteen years, one might say, with antediluvian means, under the very nose of the not particularly efficient American infantry. The efficiency of the Vietnamese can amaze even the Russians who built the White Sea Canal: not every nation is capable of processing tens of tons of clay without equipment, using hoes and shovels, destroying all traces of their work and digging hundreds of kilometers of tunnels.
Construction of the Cu Chi tunnels
The tunnels have a main axis, from which a system of intricate branches extends, connected to the entrances to other, parallel tunnels and underground shelters. The width of the passages is very small, the maximum width of which is only one meter, the height is also capable of allowing only a person of compact build to pass through - 90 centimeters. A four-meter brickwork is laid overhead, capable of supporting the weight of a 50-ton tank and the explosions of low-power bombs and light guns.
The underground system has several "floors", with countless entrances, corridors and exits. In the Cu Chi tunnels, sabotage, reconnaissance were planned and combat tactics were developed. It was through the tunnels that resistance fighters brought weapons, equipment and ammunition from Cambodia. There were living quarters, ammunition and food warehouses, hospitals, command centers, weapons workshops and even clubs with cinema halls. The design of underground kitchens is interesting, the air ducts of which on the surface were disguised as anthills, the smoke was filtered by special devices made from palm leaves.
A little history
In 1965, an American infantry division was stationed near the village of Cu Chi. The division's tasks included the complete suppression of resistance forces and gaining control over the south of Vietnam. But the American camp, despite the sound security of its perimeter, began to suffer, albeit insignificant, losses, mainly among officers. The Americans decided not to bother themselves much with reconnaissance activities and simply cleared the territory. Settlements, sources of food and water were destroyed, jungles were bulldozed, and napalm was actively used. But such barbaric methods did not give the American infantry the desired results; chance helped them uncover the secret of the underground tunnels of Cu Chi - the American base was located exactly above the partisan city. The bombardment of the ground began, under the surface of which there were tunnels. But the underground structure could withstand hundred-kilogram bombs, and the highly toxic dioxin mainly affected the jungle, which is still a sad remnant of that war, because the complex tunnel system was equipped with sealed hatches and water plugs. The use of napalm also did not produce results; the high temperatures of napalm, interacting with the humid air of the tropics, led to the formation of rain clouds and the rains successfully extinguished all the fires.
Then the American command ordered the Cu Chi tunnels to be cleared by infantry, but even here they met with failure, since the well-fed infantrymen could not squeeze into the compact entrances, which were not even an easy task to detect, since they were camouflaged. Even a specially created unit, into which fighters of a certain physique were selected, did not lead the Americans to victory over the partisans. The resistance fighters welcomed the American “tunnel rats” with “open” arms, arranging for them a real quest-action movie, where the puny Americans were awaited by ambushes and traps, which the Vietnamese people are great at! Only a few made it out of the dungeon alive from the once invincible elite squad. The Vietnamese partisans confused the dogs in various ingenious ways, and after so many shepherd dogs died in the tunnels, the trainers refused to provide their animals for underground operations.
When the Americans resorted to carpet bombing, the underground city suffered great destruction, but, fortunately, this was already the end of the war, and soon the United States withdrew its troops from Vietnam. Six thousand surviving resistance fighters celebrated the victory.
What is shown to tourists
Tourists in the Cu Chi tunnels are shown only a small, one can safely say that an insignificant part of the intricate multi-kilometer underground network. Information about the tunnels is carefully hidden just in case. The section of the tunnels that is open to tourists has undergone redevelopment, for example, the passages and hatches have been widened, since experience has shown that many tourists will not be able to get into the tunnels due to their fatness. For people with claustrophobia, visiting the Cu Chi tunnels is strongly not recommended, since you will have to crawl behind a guide through narrow passages in pitch darkness, when spatial orientation is completely lost.
In Ho Chi Minh City, travel agencies offer tours to explore Cu Chi. The tour lasts half a day and costs between 20 and 30 dollars. The tour includes watching a film made by the partisans. The film is shown in English. Also, during the inspection of the Cu Chi tunnels, tourists are invited to find the entrance to the dungeon, hidden in the jungle. No one manages to find the hatch, although it is hidden right under the feet of the tourists.
Near the tunnels there are small shops where you can buy souvenirs and ice cream. There is also a shooting range where tourists have the opportunity to shoot from MK-16 and AK-47.
Tunnels and traps of Vietnamese partisans.
Cu Chi is a rural area about 70 kilometers northwest of Saigon that has become a thorn in the side of first the French and then the Americans. The same case when “the earth burned under the boots of the invaders.” It was never possible to defeat the local partisans, even though an entire American division (25th Infantry) and a large part of the 18th Division of the South Vietnamese Army were stationed close to their base. The fact is that the partisans dug a whole network of multi-level tunnels with a total length of over 200 kilometers, with many camouflaged exits to the surface, rifle cells, bunkers, underground workshops, warehouses and barracks, densely covered with mines and traps on top.
They are quite simple to describe: these are underground fortifications that are perfectly camouflaged in the local tropical forest. The main purpose of their creation was to deliver unexpected blows to the enemy during the years of American aggression. The tunnel system itself was thought out in the most careful way, thereby making it possible to destroy the American enemy almost everywhere. An intricate zigzag network of underground passages radiates away from the main tunnel with many branches, some of them are independent shelters, and some end unexpectedly due to the geographical features of the area.
The cunning Vietnamese, in order to save time and effort, did not dig the tunnels very deeply, but the calculations were so accurate that if tanks and heavy armored personnel carriers passed over them, or were hit by artillery shells and bomb attacks, the recesses did not collapse and continued to faithfully serve their creators.
To this day, multi-level underground rooms, equipped with secret hatches covering the passages between floors, have been preserved in their original form. In some places in the tunnel system, special types of plugs are installed, designed to block the enemy's path or stop the penetration of poisonous gases. Throughout the dungeons there are cleverly hidden ventilation hatches that open to the surface in a variety of unnoticeable openings. Plus, some passages at that time could perfectly serve as fortified shooting points, which, naturally, was always a big surprise for the enemy.
And even this was not enough for the Vietnamese. The tunnels and approaches to them were equipped with a large number of ingenious death traps and masterfully camouflaged “wolf” pits. For greater security, anti-personnel and anti-tank mines were installed at the entrances and exits, which have now, of course, been destroyed.
Often, during wartime, entire villages lived in the tunnels, and this allowed the Vietnamese to save many lives. There were weapons and food warehouses, smokeless kitchens, hospitals for the wounded, as well as living quarters, camp headquarters, shelters for women, the elderly and children. It’s not like a village, a whole city underground! Even during hostilities, the Vietnamese did not forget about culture and education: school classes were set up in large underground rooms, and films and theatrical performances were also shown there. But, for all that, this entire underground world was carefully hidden and disguised
A three-level system of tunnels, secretly carved out of the hard clay soil with primitive tools by numerous groups of three or four people. One digs, one drags the earth out of the tunnel to a vertical shaft, one lifts it up, and another drags it somewhere and hides it under leaves or throws it into the river. 
When the team makes its way to the neighboring one, a thick pipe made of a hollow bamboo trunk is inserted into the vertical shaft for ventilation, the shaft is filled up, and the bamboo on top is disguised as a termite mound, stump, or something else. 
Only a Vietnamese could squeeze through such a gap. 
The Americans used dogs to search for entrances to tunnels and ventilation shafts. Then they began to hide captured uniforms there, usually M65 jackets, which the Americans often abandoned when providing first aid and evacuating the wounded. The dogs smelled a familiar smell, mistook it for their own and ran past.
If they did find the entrance, they tried to fill it with water or fire tear gas into it. But a multi-level system of locks and water castles protected the tunnels quite reliably: only a small segment was lost, the partisans simply brought down its walls on both sides and forgot about its existence, eventually digging out a workaround.
Now there are no disguises at the entrances, they have been expanded for tourists. 
The bunkers have been brought to the surface, and the flat roofs have been replaced with high slopes, so that it is spacious enough to comfortably look at the Viet Cong-shaped mannequins depicting guerrillas in their natural habitat.
Like many other things, metal was in terrible short supply, so the partisans collected numerous unexploded bombs and shells (and an absolutely incredible amount of them were dumped on a tiny patch; the jungle was simply demolished by carpet bombing from B-52s, turning the area into a lunar landscape), sawed , explosives were used to make homemade mines...
...and the metal was forged into spikes and spears for traps in the jungle.
In addition to the workshops, there was a dining room, a kitchen (with a specially constructed external smokeless hearth that did not give away the place of cooking with a column of smoke), a uniform sewing shop….
...and, of course, a room for political information. Only then was all this located at a sufficient depth underground
Let's look at the traps used by Vietnamese guerrillas during the war and how they ruined the lives of the occupiers.
Vietnamese traps, being very insidious and effective products, at one time spoiled a lot of blood for Americans. Perhaps it will be useful to you too.
The jungle in Cu Chi was fraught with many unpleasant surprises, from the already mentioned mines, which even blew up tanks like this M41, to the famous movie homemade traps, some of which can be seen up close.
"Tiger Trap" Ji Ai walks along calmly, suddenly the ground under his feet opens up and he falls to the bottom of a hole studded with stakes. If he is unlucky and does not die immediately, but screams in pain, his comrades will gather nearby, trying to pull the unfortunate man out. Need I say that around the trap in several places there are exits from the tunnels to the surface, to camouflaged sniper positions?
The trap was covered to match the terrain: with leaves
Or covered with turf and grass
Or more humane traps, “Vietnamese souvenirs”. This is a pretty high-tech trap. There are pins at the bottom; in addition, ropes connected to nails are stretched under the round platform. When a soldier steps on an inconspicuous hole, covered on top with a piece of paper with leaves... 
The leg falls through and the first thing he does is pierce the leg with pins at the bottom, at the same time the ropes are stretched and pull nails out of the holes, which pierce the leg from the sides, while fixing it and making it impossible to pull it out.
As a rule, the soldier did not die, but as a result he lost his leg, and then received pins removed from his leg in a Saigon hospital as a souvenir. Hence the name.
The next few photos show a similar design. Ains
Und zwei... 
Dry 
Or is there a wider trap?
As you probably already noticed, special attention was paid not only to the task of piercing the adversary, but also to pin him in place and not let him get off the hook. This “basket” was placed in flooded rice fields or near river banks, hidden under water. A paratrooper jumps out of a helicopter or boat, OPA! - we arrived... 
The soldiers try to follow the trail
And for those who are unlucky, it’s time to go back.
However, it happened that the task was not to injure, but to kill. Then they put on grinds like this, in which G.I. quickly stuffed himself under his own weight. Once… 
Or two... 
Or three... 
For those who liked to enter the house without knocking, simply by knocking down the door with a valiant blow, such a device was hung above it. The slow one went straight to the other world, the quick one managed to put the machine gun forward - for such, the lower half of the trap was suspended on a separate loop and made a sofa out of his eggs. So the efficient one, as the Vietnamese guide put it, then went to Thailand, a paradise for transvestites. 
Well, the simplest, most reliable and popular design in the film industry. Since it flies much faster than the “home” one, there is no need to worry about having two halves. And so it will sweep away. The guide likes her the most. 
The traps were very diverse.
An ordinary wolf pit,
Painting in the Vietnamese museum. This is roughly how it happened.
Multiple injuries are guaranteed, and to get out…….
Leading Vietnamese production workers returned to their workplaces. Long nails, thin steel rods - everything will go into use. It is enough to drive more sharp objects into a wooden block, and the base for the trap is ready.
The magazine clearly shows that even women and children participated in the making of traps. 
Clamshell trap. The simplest and most common trap. They say that at one time it was mass-produced by Vietnamese schoolchildren during labor lessons. The principle is simple. Placed in a small hole and covered with leaves. When the enemy steps on it, under the weight of the foot, the boards are dented and the nails, previously smeared with manure, are pierced into the foot. Blood poisoning is guaranteed. 
You can go deeper:
Board with spades. It is made on the principle of a rake, at the end of which there is a board with nails. When the enemy steps on the “pedal”, the board joyfully jumps up and hits the soldier in the chest, either in the face, or in the neck, or wherever it hits.
Sliding trap. It consists of two wooden boards moving along guides and studded with pins. The boards are moved apart, a support is placed between them, and they are wrapped with an elastic rubber band (or Pilates tape). When the support holding the slats moves, the latter, under the action of the cord, slide along the guides towards each other. But they are not destined to meet, because someone’s soft body is already between them. 
A welcoming trap. Making such a trap is not difficult, and it will please you for a long time. You and your guests. You will need: two bamboo stalks, steel rods and wire. We connect the bamboo into the letter “T” and drive the rods into the headboard. We hang the finished trap above the door, connect it with a wire and invite a neighbor to come over, for example, to watch football. When a neighbor inadvertently crosses the wire, the trap flies whistling towards the guest. 
According to an old Vietnamese belief, hanging a rake over the entrance and smeared with manure is a sign of peace in the house.
Someone was “lucky” to run into this trap. It's better to dismantle it. 
crossbow
Log with spikes
A spike trap falls from above.
Stretch trap - “Bamboo whip”
Bamboo whip - a bamboo whip in action.
Caught a fish
Stretch underwater
Stretch on the trail
Luvushka - Buried cartridge
Or Cartridge trap - cartridge trap
Spike trap box - a trap made from a spiked box
Pointed bamboo stakes - pointed bamboo stakes
Spike trap pit - a trap made from a spiked pit
Trap bridge - bridge with a trap
Steel arrow trap - steel arrow trap
Barber - spike plate – “barber” - spiked plate
Helicopter explosive traps - helicopter trap made of explosives
Then the Americans paid dearly for their invasion. 
But since then there have been quite a few aggressions by the United States against other countries. It seems that they have drawn conclusions, but they are unlikely to come to the brave Vietnamese.
USA: irretrievable losses - 58 thousand (combat losses - 47 thousand, non-combat losses - 11 thousand; of the total as of 2008, more than 1,700 people are considered missing); wounded - 303 thousand (hospitalized - 153 thousand, minor injuries - 150 thousand)
The number of veterans who committed suicide after the war is often estimated at 100-150 thousand people (that is, more than died in the war).
South Vietnam: data varies; military casualties - approximately 250 thousand dead and 1 million wounded; civilian casualties are unknown, but they are monstrously colossal.
For more complete information, material was collected from many sites.
