Unique experience in legendary Cu Chi Tunnels

The most popular trip out of Ho Chi Minh City is to the Cu Chi tunnel complex, where villagers once dug themselves out of the range of American shelling. The tunnels of Cu Chi are often twinned with a tour around the beautiful Cao Dai Great Temple in Tay Ninh. 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.