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The underground war

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Chris Taylor

Dear Travel Guru,

My family has decided to take a holiday in Vietnam. I don't really see what we can do there, except go to the beach - which was exactly what we did last year in Thailand. I love the beach, but this time I want to do something a little more interesting and adventurous.

Adventure Seeker

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Thanks for your letter, Adventure Seeker. Vietnam has an incredibly long and beautiful coastline. In fact, the country has nearly 3,500 kilometres of coast, and that's a lot of beaches. But Vietnam is a lot more than beaches - the food, for one thing - and, for anyone looking for something a little adventurous, a fascinating outing is a trip to the Cu Chi tunnels.

The Vietnamese have preserved a section of the tunnels they used to fight their enemies, first the French and then the Americans. What's more, you can wriggle down there yourself and experience what it was like to be a Vietnamese resistance fighter or an American 'tunnel rat'. There's no need to worry. The tunnels are perfectly safe and kept clean of spiders and insects. Some of them have been widened especially for tourists. Above everything, the tunnels are an interesting lesson in how determined the Vietnamese were to drive the occupying foreign forces out of their country.

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Travel Guru

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