Put down your books and pick up a gun, we're gonna have a whole lotta fun...

I have to say that the highlight of my day today was when none of the 30+ people in my tour group at the Cu Chi tunnels elected to fire an AK-47 when given the opportunity. It might have had something to do with the cost of the bullets, but at any rate, there were no takers, and I was glad. I could hear shooting when we first arrived at the site. There's something decidedly unsettling about visiting these tunnels, and the not-so-distant sounds of an assault rifle being fired only added to my sense of unease. Our tour-guide, Minh, gave a really thorough explanation of the tunnels' importance and significance during the Vietnam conflict. If you're interested, you can read more here. Minh was a soldier in the South Vietnamese Army and fought alongside the 101st Airborne Division from 1965-1972. He explained that he wanted to be a Catholic priest, and had actually started seminary, before being forced to join the army in 1965.

I suppose I'd have to add the Cu Chi tunnels, along with the Killing Fields of Cheoung Ek, to that list of places I'm not sure why I wanted to visit. I will say this, I have never felt so claustrophobic as I did this afternoon, hunched over and creeping through 40 meters of reconstructed tunnel, before I made it to the promised "early exit" presumably added for other scaredy-cats like myself. I waited so that I could be the last through the tunnel, in case I just had to turn right back around, and was actually suprised I made it the 40 meters. It was hot and humid and dark and tiny (although the guide explained that these reconstructed tunnels were actually about 20 centimeters taller and wider than the originals). I started to panic about 20 feet before I saw the red light indicating the exit, and could not have been happier to climb the steep ladder that awaited me. I cannot begin to imagine how people spent days or weeks in these tunnels, and further cannot imagine the terror that was involved for the US soldiers charged with climbing in having no idea what was waiting for them. I can feel my chest tightening up just writing this, and all I did was follow a bunch of camera-toting tourists.

Both today, at the tunnels, and yesterday, at the War Remnants Museum, it has been interesting for me to see a glimpse of the Vietnam War through the lense of the experience of the Vietnamese. The museum was incredibly hard to take in, room after room of photos, many outlining atrocities commited by US forces in Vietnam (e.g. the My Lai massacre) and the aftermath of the "Agent Orange" sprayed throughout the country. The photos are heartbreaking, and I found myself growing uncomfortable, and, I'll admit it, defensive. Today during the tour, Minh asked if any of us had visited the museum. Most of us had. He said, "This is one part of the story. One side. Other side just as bad. Maybe worse." I thought back to that war photo exhibit I saw in Croatia, that showed the photos from Israel and Lebanon, and the reminder that war is terrible, for both sides. For everyone. Always.