For Mom, Love Steve

My target for the whole first part of this journey has been Saigon primarily to get my motorcycle fixed. It was a constant drag on the trip as I was constantly worrying about breaking down and not being able to get it fixed. Of course the wreck both hurt and helped as it got me to Saigon in a hurry and probably cut off a few days travel time. And now, Sasha is up and running at about 80% (give or take as I don’t know what a good running Minsk is supposed to feel like.)

After such a stressful 24 hours, I felt like a need to spoil myself so I splurged a bit and got a $10 room which had air-conditioning, real hot water, refrigerator, satellite tv, and wi-fi. It was the most accessorized place that I have had in a looooong time. But hey, I paid my dues and with the cost savings I received for the transport and the repairs I easily broke even for the week that I stayed.

The first couple of days I really didn’t do much as I was hurting pretty good and I was needing to find out what was going to happen with Sasha. I spent the day hanging out at the hotel using all my accessories with the occassional jont to the outside of the tourist area for some street food. One new food that has cropped up is in thanks to the French who were here, was the baguette. Somehow it got adopted by the Vietnamese and has become a staple snack food. It is another one of the cart foods which brings them front and center on my menu. My dinner consisted of two with laughing cow cheese, one Vietnamese special which was a mixture of pate’s and veggies, and one Schwarma like baguette I got from a special cart I found in the tourist sector. That and a bottle of Coke of course.

Once I got the happy news about Sasha I figured that I should get back to my duties as a tourist and see a few things. For those without the know, Vietnam was the setting of a big civil war which the United States participated in. North Vietnam and the Communism side won that war but at a pretty high price for both sides. Saigon was the pretty much symbolistic end of the war and therefore has a few of the more noteworthy tourist destinations.

Since I was a bit rusty doing the tourist thing, I figured I would do a couple of smaller things first then follow up with a full on tour package. Outside of the usual temples and markets, Saigon has two major must sees. First is the Museum of Chinese and American War Crimes but for the sake of tourism money we will call it the War Remnants Museum. Basically it is an often one-sided view point of the Vietnam War but with the neutrality being that war is hell and unfortunately it is the local people or innocent bystander which get caught up and victimized the most. I was really targeting seeing this Museum as on my world tour I have missed two significant Museums, the Apartheid Museum in South Africa and the Genocide Museum in Rwanda. The following day I hit the other significant spot which was the Reunification Palace. For me it was like a really big outdated Holiday Inn with pretty much same 1970’s style motiff. What it is really known for was the formal surrender of the South Vietnamese Government on the morning of 30 April 1975 when Communist tanks rammed the gates and entered the complex. It was a dramatic scene recorded by photojournalists and shown around the world.

North Vietnamese Officer who entered the room where the Head of State was waiting with his improvised cabinet: “What’s up?”

General Minh: “What’s up?”

The most interesting parts that I found were the underground tunnels which housed the war room and communication centers and the roof where they had laid out two big bullseyes where in 1962 the President was so hated that his own air force bombed the place trying to kill him. Pretty hilarious.

Intermixed with all this information gathering I spent some time in the Ben Thanh Market as this was my breakfast and lunch spot. It was also a good place to girl watch as it was blatantly marketed with pretty girls working in all the stalls. The food layouts were pretty close to Thailand so it was a good place to plump up a bit. I also spent a few hours a day just relaxing in one of the many tree lined parks just people watching.

For my ultimate tourist experience I decided to take a tour to the Cu Chi tunnels. It is actually in a suburb of Saigon but with Saigon being massive, it is roughly 70 kms on the other side of town. Even though Sasha was up and running again, I wasn’t, so I shelled out the $5US for the tour. One thing about travel in Vietnam, it is actually way cheaper bussing it then any other transport. With this package, it included transfer and a guide. Entrance was another $5US, so in all it wasn’t too bad for a half day experience.

The Cu Chi tunnels are a vast 250km interwoven catacomb of tunnels used by the VC to reek havoc on US and South Vietnames forces around Saigon. Reading about them is one thing, but to actual see and use them (although the tours involve visiting enlarged tunnels to fit the massive Western tourist), brings a whole new sense of understanding. A basic description is a shoe box sized opening which were entry points and also easily camoflauged. The tunnels were dug at levels roughly 3-6-9 meters deep with different rooms dug out for a 24/7 lifestyle under ground. The reasons they were so effective was the old brains before brawn. For every style of attack the Americans mounted, the VC countered it with some sort of ingenious counter measure.

Troops- camoflauged entrances as well as escape tunnels that allowed them to escape any incursions.
Overhead bombing- build chambers in a pyramid fashion which creates self supporting pockets.
Tunnel rats- Booby traps
Dogs- wash with American soap and wear leave American worn clothes around entrances.
Agent Orange- The following fires to eliminate the dead cover mixed with the humidity created rain which put out the fires.
Carpet bombing the whole area- that worked but it was too late and the war was over.

The area of Cu Chi and the people became a highly celebrated win for the New Government of Vietnam.

Our tour started now with tunnels, but with the usual “detour” to a “government” sponsored “handicap and victims of agent Orange” workshop. There we are given a half an hour to watch how them make artwork and are able to purchase souvenirs from a huge showroom. Fun. After that detour we were taken to the tunnels where our bus full with guide in tow were shown examples of the tunnel network. It was really funny when we were all standing around a big bamboo spiked trap with a fence around it (to keep the tourists from falling into it). A lady actually asked if it was an actual trap and how could the soldiers fall into it when there was a fence around it. Oh that shook me to my core. We were then taken to the firing range for some artillery action. No there is no bazookaing a buffalo or shooting an old man. It is basically a souvenier shop with an attached shooting range. I opted for a M60 as you gotta do stuff that you aren’t able to do anywhere else. I hear there are other places in Cambodia, but at least this will get it out of the way. One of the better experiences were when we were allowed to do a 50M stretch of tunnel. Pretty damn cramped and this was the westernized version. The ones who did it were in their for probably three minutes and when we got out it was a huge sense of accomplishment. Pretty damn amazing how the people persevered (they must have been pretty pissed off). With that we were done and taken back to the tourist zone. It was a decent experience and a must see to at least get a tiny grasp of what it was really like.

And Saigon was done.

Ben Thanh Market with the food stalls where I ate brekkie and lunch.

Museum of Chinese and American War Crimes.

Seafood stalls.

The Reunification Palace.

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