Good morning, Vietnam

I just got back from a week visiting our plant in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam. On Saturday before I came home, I visited the Cu Chi Tunnels just north of the city. This is a popular tourist attraction that I had not thought of visiting. But Brad Harrison, an American who works at the plant, talked me into going. [See photos]

The tunnels were started in the late 1940's when the Vietnamese were battling the French towards the end of their colonization of the area. Their use continued throughout the American phase of the Vietnam War in the 1960's and 70's and eventually expanded to encompass 250 kilometers (150 miles) of underground hiding places. At its peak, around 10,000 Vietnamese lived in these underground burrows.

This is an entrance to one of the tunnels. It was a tight fit with my shoulders barely making it through the opening. Many of the tunnel entrances required you to crawl into them. The main passages were maybe 3 feet tall and about shoulder-width. They opened into rooms that functioned as living areas, kitchens, hospitals, hiding places, and even a tunnel that opened into (under) the river for escape. This is definitely not the place for the claustrophobic!