So... Ho chi Minh, wow.Much much busier than Hanoi and much much more "western". You can actually walk down pavements where in Hanoi they were full of street stalls, and there's restaurants such as KFC and Pizza hut! (refusing to go there) . There are around 9 million people living in Saigon, if my memory is correct from what we were told and approx 5.5 million of those own motorbikes. WOW!. Yesterday we got up early and went on a tour at around 8.30am around the city. 1st stop was the War Remnant's museum which is home to some old tanks/planes from the war and has 3 floors of pictures and information from the war. Personally i was quite shocked by it all. The second floor was full of pictures of victims and in action shots. Pictures showing US soldiers holding up body parts of dismembered Vietnamese like a trophy, pictures of children shot dead on the ground. One in particular has stuck in my mind and that was of a old man , sitting on the floor, looked like he wanted to cry. The caption next to it told that the photographer shot that shot, turned his back and heard 2 rifle shots.... he didn't turn back to look. This seemed to be the case for a few of the pictures. Certainly makes you think about the effects of the war. There are many sides to this story indeed and it is very easy to forget in all the commotion about all the innocent lives being lost. On that same floor there was a gallery of pictures of the victims of the Asian Orange. Victims of the many chemical bombs that were dropped by the Americans in the war. These victims suffered horrific burns and injuries, of which i think are probably too horrific to describe on here. The sad thing is, Vietnamese people are still suffering. They are on their 3rd generation now and babies are still being born with deformities such as cleft lips, not properly formed limbs etc all because of these chemicals that were dropped. The Museum also had a replica of the "coconut prison" on Phu Quoc Island( don't think we'll be visiting this one) which kept prisoners in "tiger cages" you can imagine what they were like and had 5-6 prisoners in them at a time. There was also descriptions of the many ways prisoners were tortured.. made me feel sick to my stomach reading about it.
After this we went to a small cafe to try some authentic Vietnamese coffee. I passed on this after finding out the coffee beans are actually in fact from a weasel. Without going into too much detail, basically, weasel eats coffee beans, coffee beans go through weasel's body and then people collect coffee beans after, wash them and hey presto, you have your coffee. Once we had been here, we were taken to Chinatown and the Binh Tay market which specializes in wholesale products. Can find anything here, literally!. We then went for lunch before going to the Reunification Palace. It is not lived in now, but occasionally used for meetings and functions. It was once the President's house during the time where North and South Vietnam were separated and is famous for the two tanks bursting through its front gates and a soldier running to put the Vietnamese flag up the day that the war ended. Only a few rooms are open to the public to see, these include the extensive basement full of maps and rooms to plan military operations and so on. The movie room, dance hall and meeting rooms. We then went to see the Notre Dame cathedral, materials were shipped over from France specially to re-create the Notre Dame exactly as the one in Paris but only this one is smaller. Across the road is the General Post Office. , The biggest one in Saigon mainly admired for it's architecture.
That brings us onto today. We awoke again early and left 8.30am to go to the Chu Chi tunnels. We were picked up by our tour guide "Mr Bean" no joke! who is 61 years old and a old Vietnam War Veteran. Only , he was a captain on the US side who fought around the Chu Chi tunnel area in the War. On the way in the bus to the tunnels he told us about the War, and what he did. He told us many stories which were very interesting and it was nice to see another side of the war.Such as, how the VC deceived them whilst in the tunnels or as he put it "f****ed with his mind". The VC used to wear sandals made out of rubber, now you can imagine in the dry ground it is easy to spot where they are walking. The thing is, the VC always knew where the Americans were, the Americans never knew where the VC were as they were underground and the tunnels had many exits, most like the Vinh Moc tunnels go onto the Saigon River. Anyway, the VC only came out at night to do their things(wash clothes, shower etc. etc.) during that time they wore their sandals backwards on their feet so it looked like they was travelling the opposite way to which they actually were. Clever eh! Another story he told us was how, in the tunnels, every so often there were ventilation chambers for obvious reasons. Now he came along with his dog one day (they used dogs to sniff out the VC in these ventilation holes to which they then put gasoline and chemicals down to try and drive the VC out). But the VC were clever, to deceive the dog they put cigarettes- and other things the Americans used- to trick the dog into thinking there was just an American down there and it's ok!. However on this one particular occasion, they also had put chilli powder and black pepper in the hole so when the dog sniffed it, he started sneezing and sneezing and that was him. He could not smell anymore, his nose was burnt. The VC knew this was one of the primary ways in which the Americans could find them. He also told us he was in the same bunker as John Kerry. His family fled Saigon when the war started, his mum and dad died and his brothers and sisters are now in Australia. He only found them years after the war ended when the embargo on Vietnam ended. He is now in the middle of writing his diary which he hopes to be published.I def will be buying it if i ever see it on the shelves.
When we arrived at the tunnels we watched a 15 min video on the lives of the Chu Chi people. Over 20% of women fought for the Chu Chi in the war. Mr Bean then showed us all the booby traps the Chu Chi set, I can tell you, I would not liked to have stepped on those! But as Mr Bean puts it, you cannot blame them, it is the only way to protect themselves as they had no weapons. They made weapons out of old bombshells (of which the Americans knew this and used to put dynamite in. As the VC were sawing through the Bombshell it would get hot and sparks would occasionally fly, which could alight the dynamite and BOOM!. However, again the VC were clever, they put water over it as they were sawing to cool the metal down.). They also used bamboo and sharpened them creating traps(mostly for the dogs the Americans used, for food or other animals) . After seeing all this we descended down into the tunnel, 100m of it (just to see what it was like) . Luckily there were several exit points along the way just in case someone suddenly decided they were claustrophobic... easily done down here!. It was like the blind leading the blind, i have no idea how these people lived down there, especially since some of the tunnel has been widened for tourist purposes, of which i'm quite glad!. Mr Bean certainly helped by telling us someone got stuck the week before! But anyways, in the tunnel it is very dark, and small. you have to crouch and walk at the same time to walk through. There is the odd steep drop , or incline (used to stop flooding or to confuse the enemy should they get in) and you have to be careful with tho, bit scary navigating through all this in the dark though!
Anyway, enough for now.On my way to the Mekong Delta in half an hour so will keep you updated
sara xxx
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