Located just north of Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), Vietnam, you will find 200km of layered tunnels that were used during the Vietnam War. During the war, Viet Cong soldiers used these tunnels to secretly travel underground to avoid detection. They are layered in 3 levels with each lower level becoming smaller and smaller in space.
Now, they have turned what was once a site of many deaths into a tourist destination that will allow you to try and relive (as close as possible) what life was like from 1955 to 1975. When we visited, we had an amazing tour guide that brought us to the site of the tunnels. Before climbing in the tunnels, they take you around the site which gives you a feel for how soldiers ate, slept and lived.
Once we got to the tunnels, they let us go where many cannot go. We were allowed to go past the first level of tunnels into the second layer. The problem is, a 2016 North American male, is much bigger than a 1970 Vietnamese male. So it was getting very very tight as we had to literally crawl through. Our Go-Pro cameras had to be drug along, that's how tight it was getting. This is not a place where claustrophobic people want to go. And although we were offered the opportunity to go to the third and deepest level, we had to decline, there was no way we we're going to get in, or out.
Not only was it tight, but it was humid, hot, and steamy. All giving you a sense of what life was like for so many people, for such a long time.
Once we climbed out of the tunnel. They showed us the many different kind of torture traps that were used on the enemy, followed by an opportunity to shoot off some of the weapons they used back in the war.
All in all, I 100% recommend visiting not just Ho Chi Minh City, but the entire country of Vietnam.
