Day One in Ho Chi Minh City

Oh.

My.

Word.

What a first day I had in Vietnam!

Allie and I went to the Cu Chi Tunnels (an incredible and expansive network of hand-carved underground tunnels built over a period of about twenty years by Viet Cong forces).

We knew going in to the trip that we’d have the opportunity to crawl through some of the tunnels, which is a must-do if you’ve gone through the trouble of the two-hour bus ride.

When we arrived to the spot, our guide brushes away some leaves to reveal the trap-door entrance to the tunnel network.

Roughly speaking, it’s a generous 12-inch by 14-inch rectangle opening.

I couldn’t help but have visions of the horrible trauma that would ensue were I to get stuck in this petite-sized entryway.

But one by one our group members were inching their butts and torsos through the opening…meanwhile, I’m still attempting to reconcile the size of the hole in front of me with the size of my lovely butt.

By now most of our group has crawled through the network already, so if I was going to embrace this adventure, the time was now. I think small, get half my body through the entrance with ease, Allie snaps a quick picture, hands me my camera, and bids me farewell with a smile.

Down into the tunnel network I go.

By myself.

Why anyone in their right mind let me go down into the darkness of the tunnels without a flashlight I have no idea…but it’s pitch black, my friends, pitch black.

So I’m using the flash of my camera to find my way on my hands-and-knees.

Snap a picture, crawl four feet, snap a picture, and crawl four feet.

Until I get to a fork in the tunnel network.

Once again. How anyone in their right mind let me down there without telling me which way I was to crawl, I do not know. But I chose to crawl to the right, all the while attempting to breathe deeply (the minute amount of oxygen that’s down there anyhow) and stay calm. 

I continue the crawl-and-camera routine.

Until the flash of my camera startles, of all things, a bat that proceeds to fly towards my face (mind you this tunnel is AT MOST three feet wide—not nearly large enough to feel even remotely comfortable sharing space with Mr. Bat, and certainly not wide enough to handle my dramatics).

I scream.

And the next flash of my camera reveals ever so kindly even more bats hanging every few feet or so from the top of the tunnel.

I have no choice but to keep crawling, but it doesn’t take long until I hit a dead end.

It’s at this point that I realize that right was not right after all.

I reverse crawl now, all the while lamenting how horrible it would be for some innocent tourist to find my carcass eaten away by the flesh-hungry bat species I was sure to be sharing my Cu Chi tunnel experience with. 

Once I made my way back to the fork in the tunnel network, I hear voices.

I literally cannot remember a time I was so relieved to hear another human’s voice as in that moment.

Three other SASers were behind me now, and one had a flashlight.

We crawl left and approach the exit.

I can hear Allie’s voice asking…“Is that Anna?”

Up and out I come.

I take one look at Allie and shout “THAT WAS NOT ENJOYABLE!”

Makes me laugh thinking about it actually.

I’m sure it was the adrenaline talking…but it reminded me an awful lot of the betrayal I felt getting off Space Mountain for the first time after my mother had assured me it wasn’t a  “fast one”.

We finished off our visit with an opportunity to shoot weaponry used in the Vietnam War for an extra fee. Try as I might, the irony of it all was indigestible—where forty years ago (which is nothing but a blink in historical terms), millions of human beings were being slaughtered (and it was indeed millions when you count U.S. casualties, along with Vietnamese soldiers and civilians), my generation will line up and pay to, of all things, shoot bullets.

It’s an irony that will prove invaluable to my Warfare in the Modern Era coursework, in addition to my own ruminations on how it is bombs and booby traps and bullets weaseled their way into most every decade of the twentieth century, and why they’ll most likely continue to do so.

My day was hardly finished after the Cu Chi tunnels, as Lila and I still had many adventures ahead of us that evening, including among other things, two lost shore passes, the most scarring cab ride experience I’ve had to date, dinner at a local night market (I’ve decided wrapping spring rolls is not my gifting), and a hilarious cyclo ride back to the boat (entirely epic, as usual)…but I’m going to tuck those stories away for another time, seeing as it’s late, tomorrow’s another full day, and this post is already longer than intended.

Love. Anna