Our focus of the day was the famous underground tunnel system that the Viet Cong built in Cu Chi. This 250km system lays 47 km northwest of Saigon. Cu Chi was an area that produced many crops, including rubber, and was known for a farming by day / fighting by night population.

Our first stop was a briefing room where we could see a cross section of the many layers of tunnels. Most tunnels were 9 meters below the surface but there were many layers that could take you much deeper. The tunnels served two purposes - movement of the fighters from one attack to the next and connection of critical living quarters and meeting rooms. Since the soil in Cu Chi had a large clay percentage, they were able to make very hard walls with simple hand tools.

The construction technique and layout were meticulously planned and executed. Air shafts were disguised on the surface to look like anthills or termite colonies. Smoke from cooking was vented out through long shafts containing wet bamboo so that the smoke stayed close to the ground. Maps were never made of the tunnels. Each section was "local" so that only some people who regularly inhabited the section knew of all the traps and passed that information by word of mouth.

We were able to go into an enlarged section of tunnel. You had to stoop over at all times and it was no wider than a few feet. With the exception of the lights put in for tourists, the tunnel is pitch black. Most of the group made it to the first exit at 60 feet. Mom, Dad and Robin passed it by accident and had to go another 60 feet to the next exit. Only two people went the full 300 feet in the dark, cramped and claustrophobic tunnels.

The area also had demonstrations of the brutal traps that were employed. Most were adapted from killing animals but some were invented using un-exploded ordinance from US bombs. It is ironic that many of these adapted devices killed American soldiers and halted tanks. Almost all of the traps were lethal because the tips of the stakes used were coated in poison. In the event that a soldier lived, they would be critically wounded.

After Cu Chi, we stopped at a pagoda on our way back. It is the oldest one in the city and is surprisingly large. Behind the pagoda, there is an expansive building which has the alters and even personal areas where people have shrines to their ancestors. It is a pocket of peace in the middle of crowded, noisy Saigon.