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Thursday, June 12, 2014

Cu Chi Tunnels, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam: April 2014 #CuChiTunnels

According to History.com, in order to combat better-supplied American and South Vietnamese forces during the Vietnam War, Communist guerrilla troops known as Viet Cong (VC) dug tens of thousands of miles of tunnels, including an extensive network running underneath the Cu Chi district northwest of Saigon. 

Soldiers used these underground routes to house troops, transport communications and supplies, lay booby traps and mount surprise attacks, after which they could disappear underground to safety. To combat these guerrilla tactics, U.S. and South Vietnamese forces trained soldiers known as “tunnel rats” to navigate the tunnels in order to detect booby traps and enemy troop presence. 

Now part of a Vietnam War memorial park in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), the Cu Chi tunnels have become a popular tourist attraction.

These are some of the photos taken during the trip with the final year students of International Relation Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak.


Ticket counter:

The souvenir stall: 

Don't know how to convert to USD? This is the formula: 
For example the item is 120,000 Dong, ignore the last 4 digits. It becomes 12. Then 12/2 = USD6.00
Another example, if the item is 100,000 Dong,  ignore the last 4 digits and it will become 10. Then 10/2 = USD5.00. Got it?



The staff at the entrance:

Briefing by our tour guy:




The Trap:

Demo by the staff:

The entrance of the tunnel... I couldn't imagine how they can live in the tunnel for months and years...

The Tank:

There is a shooting range in the park for those who want to shoot!!! The photo is showing the price of each bullet according to types of gun. Minimum purchase is 10 bullets. 

The bomb...




At last, bought the hat before leaving Cu Chi Tunnels. It cost me 140,000 Dong here. The War Remnants Museum is selling the same hat for 100,000 Dong only...  


I'll update this post soon with some other photos which were taken by another camera.