More from 29th .......

Marie started into the tunnel and then thought " no friggin way" and turned around quickly. The people in front of her were stalled out and the tunnel is extremely stuffy and hot. Our guide, Jimmy, said "No farting" because there is no air movement! LOL. It goes for one hundred meters with several exits along the way. I encountered a people jam by the third exit so I also ducked out. No fun being stuck in there. This stretch of tunnel was actually enlarged so the tourists could fit and experience a bit of what it was like for the Vietnamese. The original tunnels were much smaller and they crawled on their bellies pulling themselves along on their elbows. Scary! The tunnels originally also had narrow air shafts for ventilation but only enough for the soldiers to stay for a couple of hours.
The people of Cu Chi started building them in 1948 as a defence for their village. Cu Chi was an important military point during the Vietnam war as it was the gate way to Saigon. That is why there was so much fighting to control the area.
The trap shown has bamboo spikes. We also saw several other types of booby traps. Very scary! The image of the manakins sawing the bomb shows how they salvaged ammunition, which did not detonate, from the Americans and then utilized the gun powder to build land mines.