We decided to visit the Cu Chi tunnels today by public bus for an adventurous day out. On the first bus there was the driver, the conductor and his wife who had a broom, cleaning cloths and fruit knives all stored on the bus. There was a bunch of flowers on the dashboard. As we progressed out of town the bus picked up speed and the conductor stood at the middle doors and manhandled passengers onto the bus shouting to the driver to move off as soon as the poor people boarding had two feet on board.
On the second bus we had drum and bass music played loudly through the speakers! We got slightly concerned as the bus wasn't going in the direction that we had on the routemap on our phone but eventually the driver tooted his horn and indicated that we had arrived at the stop for the tunnels.
We sat and watched a 15 minute black and white video about the Cu Chi area before and during the war. The content seemed informative but the tape was worn out and the sound track terrible. Then a guide took us quite rapidly through the tour. The tunnel area we had chosen to visit is authentic - there is another location where the tunnels and entrances have been enlarged to accommodate the fatter western tourist. I wasn't sure whether I wanted to enter but I did and am glad I did so.
Even I had to crouch to get through and once ended up crawling. There are bats roosting in the tunnels - supposedly rabid, and we disturbed a couple. There are 250 km of tunnels used by the Viet Cong in this area and they had operating theatres, sewing rooms etc. This is an underground meeting room - the others at the table are definitely models!
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