We joined an organised trip and before we went to the tunnels we visited a handicraft centre. Yes you might be thinking, this sounds like a typical “rip off “the tourist opportunity. Well, not this time. It is a centre that has been established for those people that have been born suffering from the effects of Agent Orange, to gain employment.. After more than 30 years people are still being born with defects caused by the effects of AO on the genetic structure of their grandparents and parents. Horrid deformities that, once again, make you realise just how futile and barbaric war really is.

It was very low key. They were making beautiful ornaments, plaques, bowls, vases, etc using mother of pearl and so on. What really “floated our boat” was the ingenious way that they used broken egg shells to make some fabulous stuff. Take a look at the pics which, sadly, don’t do them justice.

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AO was used to defoliate millions of acres of forest so that the VC couldn’t hide or grow food. The US used Vietnam as a giant laboratory because they really didn’t know the effects of using such huge amounts of AO and other chemicals, most of which contained huge amounts of dioxins. Some of the bases used by the US to store and load these chemicals into the planes are still contaminated and waiting to be cleansed…..over 30 years after the war finished!

The tunnels of Cu Chi are about 30kms outside HCMC. Whilst some of what we saw were reconstructions for the tourist, our guide, an ex South Vietnamese working for the US, confirmed that everything had been done in keeping with how it really was when he finally saw and understood what he had been fighting against all those years ago. We did get to try a real tunnel, 1.3m high and 0.80m wide. It was very hard work, very dark in places and was a little mind blowing when you think that people lived, died, married and had children down there for months on end. I did 30m of the tunnel, to get a feel for it, then decided that my back was more important. Cheryl, being a VC in waiting, managed to go 60m.

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When the VC finally sent the US home they had built around 250kms of tunnels around Cu Chi. In fact, the Americans built a huge base right on top of them not knowing they were there. It was months before they understood why they kept getting shot at night without being able to trace the VC. The ingenuity of the VC was quite outstanding:

By night, via the tunnels, they would rob the bases of the US whilst they slept. By day and night they would use what they had stolen to kill the “enemy”.

By night, they collected anything including scrap metal from bombs to recycle into there own bombs. Even going as far as collecting any UXO to recycle into their own ordinance.

When the US finally twigged what was going on they brought in dogs to sniff the VC out. What did the VC do? Collect US debris from the battle field, old clothes, cigarette packets, poo, in fact anything that smelt western. Then they laid this around the air vents and entrances into their tunnels to prevent the dogs picking up anything but friendly US scent. They also started washing with US soap that they had stolen in the dead of night so that the dogs would be put off the scent.

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Sandals made of US tyres for the whole family with a nice tread in the sole to prevent slipping. But there was more, when they were returning to the tunnels after a night of guerrilla warfare they would put the sandals on back to front so the tread made the US think they had gone a different way.

This ingenious list goes on and on and it makes you realise why the US did lose the war. They thought that fire power alone would win the war. Read some of the quotes from the US Generals who probably now wish they had never opened their mouths.

Sure, this was a one sided story but it makes you realise that if your cause means so much to you then you will find a way to survive and even prosper. The Spirit of the Blitz and all that!!

An excellent day out and well worth our tourist $.