The Cu Chi tunnels

During the American War, the villages around the district of Cu Chi supported a substantial Viet Cong (VC) presence. Faced with American attempts to neutralize them, they quite literally dug themselves out of harm’s way, and the legendary Cu Chi tunnels were the result. Today, tourists can visit a short stretch of the tunnels, drop to their hands and knees and squeeze underground for an insight into life as a tunnel-dwelling resistance fighter. Some sections of the tunnels have been widened to allow passage for the fuller frame of Westerners but it’s still a dark, sweaty, claustrophobic experience, and not one you should rush into unless you’re confident you won’t suffer a subterranean freak-out.

There are two sites where the tunnels can be seen – Ben Dinh and, 15km beyond, Ben Duoc (both daily 7.30am–5pm; about $5 entrance, not generally included in tour price), though most foreigners get taken to Ben Dinh. If you don’t want to squeeze into a minibus (around $4 per person), four people will pay around $40 for a taxi following the same itinerary. Another option is to go by boat and return by bus – contact "Delta Adventure Tours" for details.

The guided tour of Ben Dinh kicks off in a classroom, where a wall chart, a cross-section of the tunnels and a black and white movie bristling with national pride fill you in on the background. From there, you head out into the bush, where your guide will point out lethal booby-traps, concealed trap doors and an abandoned tank, but it’s the tunnels themselves that are most thought-provoking. While negotiating them, bear in mind that people lived below ground here for weeks on end. There are several models showing how unexploded ordnance was ingeniously converted into lethal mines and traps, and a demonstration of how smoke from underground fires was cleverly dispersed far from its source. If the temptation to play at being a guerrilla gets too strong, you can shoulder an AK47 and shoot off a few rounds ($1 per bullet) at the shooting range. The tour is usually rounded off with much-needed refreshments of tea and boiled roots, often the only food source available to tunnel-dwellers.