The Tunnels of Cu Chi

The Tunnels of Cu Chi get around 300,000 visitors a year. It is very well organized with scads of tour guides who take individuals or groups through a series of stations, including hunkering down to crawl through a portion of the tunnels. The tunnels were a honeycomb of meeting rooms, hospitals, bomb making rooms, kitchens, and firing positions, interspersed in a total of 160 miles of tunnels in Tay Ninh province, which lies 30 miles northwest of Saigon up to the Cambodian border. It lay under the area of operations of the U.S. 25th Infantry (Tropic Lightning) Division and the 1st Infantry (Big Red One) Division. A lot of death and destruction was rained down on the area by advanced U.S.weaponry, yet the people around Cu Chi continued to frustrate military operations with guerilla tactics and highly motivated resistence. The GIs were bravely fighting for an ill-conceived policy that supported a corrupt South Viet Nam government only because it was anti -communist. The popular front of Vietnamese - rice farmers by day, guerillas by night - were extraordinarilly courageous in their fight to rid their land of foreign devils from 10,000 miles away. There was an old Vietnamese saying that said the emporer's rule ends at the village gates. How poignant that was. Pictured above: A destroyed U.S. tank from home-made land mine from U.S. ordnance, rubber tree plantation that was re-planted from utter destruction, a B-52 bomb crater and natural vegetation that has come back from a large landscape that looked like the surface of the moon after napalm and tons of ordnance, a termite mound disguising a ventilator, an under ground meeting room, a small access hole to the tunnel system.

Flight to Vietnam

Believe it or not, flying to Vietnam in a commercial jetliner brought back memories of coming here 40 years ago. Yes, GI's flew to war via Pan Am, TWA or other commercial airlines that were profitable at that time. Maybe that's why they were making money. They had umpteen flights every week completely full of soldiers in their jungle fatigues. It was sort of incongruous to be served meals by what they used to call stewardesses and then have the captain say, as we were coming into land at Bien Hoa Air Base, "It's currently 95 degrees out at Saigon. We hope you enjoy your visit and thanks for flying Pan Am."

Above is the Sophia Hotel where this writer is staying a few days. It is small but very modern and clean. It's in the heart of Ho Chi Minh City, but residents still refer to this bustling metropolis as Saigon. The taxi drive from Tan So Nhat Airport was an adventure. It was $10, which is very reasonable given that it was about 5 miles, but everybody drives with reckless abandon and think nothing of close calls. If you're there first you have the right-of-way. They make Parisian driver look like they should take assertiveness training.

Today, the tunnels of Cu Chi are on the itinerary. More about that, tomorrow. One of the amenities of this hotel is the internet connection in every room. Ciao.

Travel Costs

Let's talk about arranging a trip and expenses. The purpose of this site is to share information for those of you who might be interested in a similar journey, and to be, it is hoped, educational.

Start by accessing sites on the web for the most economical flights, like Expedia or CheapOair. You enter dates and destinations and they will list a plethora of flight possibilities and costs within seconds. The quoted price is surprisingly reasonable but does not include taxes and fees. For example, this writer's flight started @ $764 round trip. Taxes and Fees are $470. Flight insurance is highly recommended, which means you could change your tickets under certain emergency conditions with a penalty of 3 to 4 hundred dollars. The insurance was $55 for a grand total round trip from Cedar Rapids to Ho Chi Minh City @ $1289.

Likewise, google the web for hotel reservations. For very decent hotels in Viet Nam, they average about $50 per night. See their on-line brochures for amenities, such as complementary bottled water, transportation services, etc.

Some people get shots for preventing hepatitis B and malaria a month in advance. Call up CDC.gov for more thorough information. This writer's nephew lives in Hong Kong and has traveled to VN and feels that shots, other than the usual tetanus, etc. are not necessary. For example, malaria is not prevalent in the coastal cities, as the .gov site indicates on a map. Also, the site recommends preventive measures for diseases if one chooses not to be inoculated. So, depending on where you are going and your present health - malaria prevention shots have cardiac issues - it's a judgment call.

A visa is required to enter Viet Nam, along with a passport, of course. You may go directly through the VN Embassy in Washington D.C. or the VN Consulate in San Francisco, but it still costs you a fee. This writer recommends getting the visa through Vina International Travel in Chicago @ $95. They are very helpful and efficient. Phone 773.271.1873 or go to vinainter@yahoo.com.

All flights in the upper Midwest to Asia seem to go through Chicago (O'Hare Intnl Terminal, above). So, if you had relatives, say in Minneapolis, you wouldn't save anything by taking off from there. You would just have to fly Chicago for a flight to Hong Kong or Tokyo, etc. Also, you don't save anything by driving a rental car to O'Hare from Iowa. It's about the same as taking off from the Cedar Rapids airport. This writer is traveling from Cedar Rapids-Chicago-Hong Kong-Ho Chi Minh City via United Airways all the way.

Tet, Vietnam's Lunar New Year.

Departure has been delayed for lack of a visa due in part to the Vietnamese consulate in San Francisco being closed for Tet. The Vietnamese lunar new year festivities, known as Tet, which is like all of the U.S. holidays wrapped into one big celebration, has once again made manifest its ability to change an American's plans . One is bound to recall Tet of 1968 whereby until that time the U.S. military was quite sanguine about success in the Viet Nam conflict. There was talk of seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. It turned out to be a freight train. The highly motivated North Vietnamese Army and their popular front of South Vietnam, pejoratively called the Viet Cong, had been planning an offensive throughout the South for months. It all broke loose during Tet. The American Embassy in Saigon was virtually overrun for awhile as well as other cities, especially Hue, which was under NVA control for over a month. Militarily it was a disaster for the North with huge losses, but it was a Pyrrhic victory for the Americans. The U.S. public realized their armed forces, although brave, were not in control. Even Walter Cronkite, the CBS News anchor considered America's conscience, turned against the war. Unfortunately, the conflict continued for seven more years.

Beaches

With a 1000 miles of coastline, Viet Nam has the potential for some natural beach fronts. Any traveler is not disappointed. In fact many beaches are spectacularly beautiful, such as Da Nang, Qui Nhon, Nha Trang, and Vung Tau. Some are isolated and and untrammeled. This writer remembers coming across a remote beach near Qui Nhon that was the site of a Catholic Leprosarium. There was an undeclared separate peace. We left it alone and Charlie did, too.

Contrasting Climates

Why would I want to leave here and travel to the tropics in February? Today had a low of minus 28 degrees Fahrenheit, that's 28 degrees below zero. Cedar Rapids has four definite seasons: spring, summer, autumn, winter. When considering the entire year there is a temperature differential of 130 degrees in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. That's from a low of 30 below to a high of 100 degrees.

Viet Nam has 2 seasons: rainy and dry. More specifically, it is subject to a classic monsoon climate, but is divided into north and south climatically. In the northern part, the rainy season is from September through February. In the southern half the rainly season is from March through August. The Central Highlands and northward can be quite cool in the rainy season. This writer remembers temperatures as low as 40 degrees F in the the wintertime, er.. in the middle of the rainy season from September to March. In the flat southern part of Viet Nam, of course, the temperature ranges from quite warm to hot and humid, especially in the wet season from March through August.

The southern tip of Viet Nam is at about 10 degrees north latitude. Way up north around Hanoi, it's at about 22 degrees north latitude. All tolled, the entire length of Viet Nam is about 14 degrees of latitude. If you figure 66.7 miles for every degree, the length of Viet Name is about 933 miles.

Ancient History

Viet Nam's early history is shrouded in mystery. Legends passed down from generation to generation in a land that the Chinese called "Nam Viet" (Viet neighbors to the south) tell of a history as long as China's and independent of them.

The Viets are a non-Chinese people of Mongolian descent. They migrated south in 500 BCE. Having intermarried with primitive Filipinos and Indonesians, the Viet nationality was established with almost mystical and sacred bonds.

Where does the term "Viet" come from? You won't find the answer in traditional library resources or even a google search. It was told to me by Mrs. Lam, a teacher across the hall from me who was born and raised in Viet Nam. She left her home country and eventually became a teacher in the United States. She was a wonderful source of information about Viet Nam and a very fine friend and colleague. "Viet" comes from an ancient migrating bird from the north with whom the early peoples of Viet Nam identified themselves.