About an hour outside HCMC, the Cu Chi tunnels consist of 450 kilometers (!!!!!!!) of underground tunnels used by the Viet Cong to operate around Saigon during the Vietnam War. They are a mandatory class trip for Vietnamese schoolchildren, and everyone I told about my visit asked me if I ate the potatoes! The famous potatoes are narrow white sweet potatoes that the Viet Cong subsisted on because they grew easily underground; for the record, yes, I did try them and they were tasty.

The tunnels served as underground villages for the Viet Cong. The area had been bombed so much that there were barely any trees; anyone above ground could be spotted and shot from 5km away. So, whole families lived underground, manufacturing weapons, growing food, etc. There were workshops, kitchens, strategy rooms etc. up to 3 levels underground. There were also airshafts, and tunnels emptying out into the Saigon river.

Even the shallow, clean, enlarged tunnels built for tourists are so dark and damp it seems unbelievable that anyone would choose to live there. Many who did were starved, stunted, and sick when they emerged. “Tunnel rats” were American soldiers chosen for their small stature and tasked with entering the tunnels and fighting hand to hand with whoever they encountered there. It was considered more or less a suicide mission; seeing firsthand what both sides endured underlines the ridiculousness of war.

My tour guide was a septuagenarian war vet named Tuan, and his stories and explanations were the heart of the visit. The company I used was Vietnam Adventure Tours; I highly recommend you use them and request Tuan. He only does the Cu Chi tour, because he is not a tour guide per se, he is a sociable, fit, elderly man who speaks English incredibly well (he was an ARVN officer) and wants to tell visitors his truth before vets like him are gone in another generation or so.