Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam

Hello! It's seems like ages since we last posted, but that's probably because the pace with which we've been taking in our trip through Vietnam has slowed to more of a 'hey man, take it easy!' kinda speed. That's been a very welcome change and we've fitted in our beach 'fix' to prove it...

Our transit to Vietnam was via the popular and inexpensive bus from Phnom Penh to Ho Chi Minh City which took 6 hours and included a ferry crossing somewhere on the Mekong River. Simple enough, and prefered to the alternative which was a boat down the Mekong (our boat trip to Battambong was quite enough, thanks very much!). Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon, abbreviated to HCMC from here on) was buzzing with life, tourists and traffic! After the relatively modest town centers in Cambodia, we were encouraged by what we saw (more motorbikes than you could ever imagine!) and proceeded to find our hotel for the next few days. Now I'm not 100% sure why, but Navi and I let Ho Chi Minh pass us by a little - maybe it was the heat or some sort of 'travellers burnout'. Don't get me wrong, we enjoyed and saw the main sights (described later), but there was a definite feeling of laziness about our start to Vietnam.



Normally a new city means FOT followed by dinner, staying out, walking around and doing more of the same over the following few days, when we aren't doing some activity or the other. In the case of HCMC, we decided that what we actually wanted to do was find a cafe/restaurant/whatever, dig our heels in and watch the world go by. The reality was a little different but most entertaining nontheless. Due to cheap availablity of everything from books, software, DVDs and everything in between, and helped by a very uncooperative TV in our room, we decided to rent a DVD player for 3 days and buy Season 8 of 24. Jack Bauer's last and sure to be a corker, given everyones obessesion over Facebook only a couple weeks earlier. 24! I mean, are we travelling or what?! Hehe! Anyways, before I bore you to death with this little story, Navi and I convinced ourselves that we were doing the right thing, and proceeded to spend the next 3 evenings hiding from everyone, quickly eating our free hotel dinners and watched the entire season! Very, very nice. What's next? We promised ourselves this was a one off... Boooooooo!

Right then, onto the real stuff.



War Museum
We'd booked a day trip which included the all important War Remnants museum and other less impressive sights to try and understand the national perspective of the 'American War' (as the Vietnamese refer to it; known to you and I as the Vietnam War). Aside from the museum, the rest of the day's sights were nothing too special. It was ok for us - we'd been templed out in Angkor, and were less interested in the local markets and buildings in HCMC, instead wanting to learn as much as possible about Vietnam's recent history - another terrible event that until now as merely been the subject of history books and stories.
The War Museum stands proud as a reminder of what Vietnam has endured, following the French rule, and the struggle for unification/independance that led to Vietnam War. It was fascinating and humbling to see the Vietnamese perspective (perhaps with just a pinch of 'propaganda'), something that I don't think you'd get from the more accessible movies and text that the West has produced on the war. We learnt about 'agent orange' which was the herbicides and defoliants used by the U.S. military in its biological warfare program, and it's destructive effects on the current and future generations. We saw original artefacts such as weaponry of all sizes including tanks and jet fighters, photos of victims, civilians and their terrible suffering. Most importantly for me, we saw a timeline of events that led to the war, the war itself and the aftermath of it's 20 year operation. We were a little rushed through the museum so couldn't take in as much as we'd really wanted, but armed with this introduction we looked forward to the following day's tour which took us to the Cu Chi Tunnels.

Cu Chi Tunnels
These are the famous tunnels used by the Vietnamese military command and villagers for 20 years during the war. Everything was done underground, in a 121km network of tunnels and up to 3 levels of bunkers each designed for a specific need. Our journey to the tunnels took over 2 hours each way, but was well worth the trip. Our guide was knowledgable, aimiable and engaging throughout the day. Over 16,000 Vietnamese did everything in these tunnels during the 20-year-war: lived, cooked, survived, battled and healed the wounded. There's plenty of info on the net about the tunnels but here are some interesting facts we picked up.

• Methods to cook food without smoke appearing above ground included elaborate filtration systems which released smoke at the top of hills during the morning fog. If the opposition were to have spotted smoke, the tunnel-dwellers would have been bombed for sure so discretion was paramount.
  
• Human waste (without being too descriptive 16,000 peoples poos over 20 years... it's quite a problem!) was disposed of in the adjoining river with munitions boxes full of waste that were dumped at strategic points in the river - all transported underground of course.
• Various levels within the tunnels, 3 levels as deep as 12 meters helped prevent sound from escaping up above, trap doors used to avoid attacks with gas and water. Again, if the enemy had heard any sounds, death was guaranteed.
  
  
  
  
• Tunnels were often booby trapped in ingenious and horrible ways, and no maps were ever created requiring all authorised people to memorise their part in the 120+ km of tunnel.
• Malaria and fatal snake bites were a large contributor to deaths whilst in the tunnels.

Around the tunnel entrances and exits were examples of camouflaged work shelters: some used for workshops where unexploded bombs were made into more useful smaller ordinance; some used to make shoes from old tyres; and others used to demonstrate the terrible human traps that were used to maim and kill soldiers.



They were made all the more gruesome by using the victims own bodyweight against them, as they plunged in to te covered holes.

We also had a unique opportunity to walk through a short stretch of the tunnels which was challenging given the small crawl space and the sheer humidity. I managed it and emerged in a bunker. I didn't, however, have a go on the shooting range. Many boys were making their dreams come true by firing AK-47's and other frightening weapons. I mulled it over, but found the thought a little unsettling.

The day at the tunnels was fascinating, but whilst we were very much in tourist-land wanting to learn as much as we can, it was hard to shake the uneasiness by which these traps and the tunnels themselves were very real instruments of survival that have occurred in the relatively recent past.

Next stop.... THE BEACH!!!!

A handicapped handicrafts workshop, allowing the disabled a chance to work and live normal lives.