The Incredible Mr Bein

Photo Album. Recently, the wife & I took an impromptu trip to visit the Cu Chi tunnels, some 70 km northwest of Saigon (HCM City) and the experience will be one never to be forgotten. If not for the somber history that is associated with the Viet Congs underground maze of tunnels, its for the indelible memory our guide and War veteran Mr. Bein made on us.

We arrived in Saigon on one of a hundred overnight buses that hog the north south roads in Vietnam. We arrived at our customer service-heavy Madame Cuc's Hotel #127 around 6:15am and on a whim, thought to ask about these tunnels shortly thereafter. We had about 30 hours in this historical town and were ready to MAXIMIZE!! Luckily 2 seats were available and we rushed onto the 8am tour bus. Immediately, the man in the red San Francisco Police Dept hat had our attention, albeit because I was asking him so many questions about logistics (leave it to Andy) and he got a bit huffy.

This man was a wealth of information about Vietnam and the 2 Vietnam Wars of the 50s, 60s & 70s (yes, there was one with the French before the American War). He was an officer for the Southern Vietnamese (our allies!) during the war we know as the Vietnam war and actually was living in the US before returning home to fight. He was stationed not far from the Cu Chi Tunnels, at a US navy base on the river. He was a tiny passionate individual who somehow can cope with revisiting the madness of his war every day. He told us how the VC (VietCong) began digging tunnels in the 50s during the War with the French (the first Vietnam War) and continued as the American War heated up. The crazy thing is that the US & allies built their large Army base protecting Saigon, right on TOP of a section of their tunnels!? Didn't we have ANY intel? The tunnels ended up zigzagging around the region for 250+ km! They were made on 3 different levels, 3M, 6M & 9M underground & were ingeniously constructed to thwart any American or S. Vietnamese efforts to drown them out, send in troops or dogs and also enabled the sneaky VC to recede to lower levels when bombs or grenades were engaged. At most the underground crevices were 1.3M tall and 0.8M wide and often they shrunk down considerably more. The VC built air holes for breathing, trap doors to combat intruders and water and they lived underground during the day only to come up in the evening to hammer the base and its surrounding villages secretively at night. A large part of the VC's rations & ammunition were stolen from the base in the odd hours and it took years & hundreds of deaths before the allies realized what lied below them.

We were taken to the jungle and shown a number of humbling and melancholy episodes. From a Pro-North video berating the Evil Americans, to examples of torturous booby traps & hidden sniper holes the visit was a little scary. As the 2 hour walk continued Stacy & I became more and more introspective about the entire conflict & quiet. We were absorbing the stories more than clamoring up on bombed out US tanks taking photos. It was a hard place to swallow indeed. Mr. Bein had told the group we would be allowed to shoot real guns from the war towards the end of the tour and while at one time we had felt intrigued, by the time we shakily approached the gun range with rounds POPPING and BLASTING every few seconds, we were quite anti and content to walk away. Well actually Stacy needed to and I followed after trying to understand why. What Andy needs to understand is to just let the wife do what feels best for her and not to wonder why. (I'm working on it!).

We we finally led to the famous tunnel that we, as a group would be able to traverse. It ran for 100M and would be led by an experienced man in green fatigues. It was dark and started out roomier than maybe I thought. I bumped into the girl in front of me twice because I never saw her. Stacy followed behind as the tunnel wound around, never in a straight line (a design strategy to make it hard for intruders to see at a distance) and got smaller and smaller. It was claustrophobic and a bit nerve racking as others would call out to slow down or "where are you?". Every 30M above ground (more like 80M down below), the tunnel had a staircase to the surface. Stacy decided as did a number of others to eject. I continued on and dropped down a few meters before I scratched my left shoulder on the ceiling. The crawl space became extremely tight for me and after considering the possibilities turned back. Lucky for me no one behind Stacy had overtaken her and pushed forward. I was able to return to the stairwell and escape the confines of the earth. It was incredibly hot and sweaty down there, never mind the tightness of it. About 1/3 of the group made it all the way to the 4th stairway and I had to clap for them as that was no easy task.

We listened to Mr. Bein and his stories about other tours and jokes about evil rulers hiding down there on his past visits. I feel we received the most inspired and educational briefing we could have possibly received about the region and the War. All because Mr. Bein could put himself through it day after day. I'm sure it is somehow medicinal for him to talk about it and explain his feelings and the truths of his experience.But I saw him get choked up a number of times. I really can't imagine.

To the Incredible Mr. Bein, Thank you.