Are You Claustrophobic? Remove Cu Chi Tunnels From Your Vietnam Itinerary

If you are claustrophobic or generally feel uncomfortable in narrow spaces then Vietnam’s Cu Chi tunnels are not for you. A video of a woman moving through the tight tunnels is now raking in likes on Instagram. In the video, the woman, a tourist named Sydney, crawls through the slim tunnels as her camera captures how restricted the tunnels are. The woman seems unfazed by the narrow tunnels and walks through them with an excited smile on her face. The text over the video reads “POV: The first night of Minecraft survival”, referring to the popular video game Minecraft.

The Củ Chi tunnels are an immense network of tunnels located in Ho Chi Minh City. They were part of the massive underground tunnel network that was used by the members of the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War. The Viet Cong members used these tunnels to transport supplies, travel great distances without alerting the enemy, and take shelter from the USA’s air ofences.

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Today, the government of Vietnam has preserved a 75-mile (121 km)-long complex of tunnels at Cu Chi as part of a war memorial park. Visitors can get inside the tunnels. Vietnam’s tunnels were a valuable resource for the Viet Cong, but their confined nature also resulted in the spread of diseases and many soldiers perished inside the tunnels. The Cu Chi tunnels are mostly seen as a solemn spot representing the harsh realities of war.

Commenting on the above-mentioned video, an Instagram user criticised the woman for her cheerful reaction to the tunnels and wrote, “Not right – have a little respect for what happened there.”

Many people commented about how the video made them feel anxious. Expressing this sentiment, an Instagram user wrote “Omg anxiety as soon as I saw her go in! I’m literally still feeling it.” Another person wrote, “I’m going here in a couple of weeks and absolutely not a chance in hell I’m going in that tunnel.”

This is not the first that a tourist has been criticised for taking insensitive photos of war memorials. In April last year, Maria, a producer at British media company GB News, shared a photo of a tourist sitting at the rail tracks of the Auschwitz concentration camp and smiling for photos. The unnamed tourist was sitting on the rail tracks that bought Jews and other detainees to the concentration camps where thousands were killed.

Criticising the tourist for being inconsiderate, an X user wrote, “I visited Auschwitz as part of a trip to Poland in 2019. The second you walk through the gates you feel this indescribable horror and sadness that permeates through your entire soul. I cannot imagine the lack of humanity to act like this there.”