A Blast of Wind in your Ear

After a couple of crazy days in Nha Trang, we moved on to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City)..the plan now to try and include a wee bit of culture in our lives. The journey there was fine..for once we got a sleeper bus with decent sized sleeper bed and the exertions of the new year’s celebrations meant that sleep came a little easier…we arrived in Saigon at 5.30 in the morning and as we had decided not to bother booking anywhere to stay we were a little bit up the creek…anyways we wandered down a few streets until an old dear stuck out her head and asked if we needed somewhere to stay,…it was a wee guesthouse and was just what we needed. We also managed to pick up another pair of Canadians to add to the entourage, a pair of girls that were meant to get off at an earlier stop but slept through.. The 6 of us then got sorted and hit the hay… as you can imagine people were a wee bit lethargic after the journey…so rather than waste a day we decided to go to the war museum in the evening to begin our cultural experience..

It was horrible, I don’t claim to know much (if anything!!) about the Vietnam War but what I saw was some of the most disturbing scenes I have ever seen. Granted the Vietnamese are probably showing the absolute worst of the atrocities that the Americans committed and showing them in the worst light but it was beyond my comprehension what they did. They dropped napalm bombs but worse they used bio-warfare through a herbicide nicknamed agent orange which caused severe health issues for the Vietnamese. The amount of people born with deformities out begging on the streets is startling. It is no wonder then why they defended their country with such undying ferocity to ensure that the invading force was defeated. The war museum contained photos of some of the atrocities, people maimed and mutilated…the worst thing that it included was pictures drawn by kids…they drew pictures of them and their families with a big giant orange devil menacing down upon them…Dan lasted about 2-3 minutes and after 5 minutes after I was done..I couldn’t look at it any more…the American soldiers would rape the Vietnamese women and kill defenseless children in the most inhumane ways. One picture showed an American GI throwing a child up in the air and aiming to catch it on a bayonet on the way down…I know I said that the mood was going to slide when we reached Saigon but I didn’t realize it would be this bad…the worst part is that outside a lot of the implements of war were on show, a plethora of boys toys, planes, anti-tank guns and tanks…which obviously caught the eye of the boys…going inside and seeing the actual damage inflicted by those devices made me feel sick…I hope in 30 years time there will not be similar museums in Iraq or Afghanistan.

After that you can imagine that people wanted a pick me up. We met up again with Jess and two of her friends and went out that night…going crazy along the way..staying out till all hours of the morning. We had booked as well to go on the Cu Chi tunnels excursion the following morning leaving at 8am so it was horrible getting up for that. It has to be said though that it was amazing and well worth the experience. The Vietnamese had nothing bar some basic weaponry but the way they took the fight to the Americans and used the terrain and their ingenuity was incredible. The tunnels that they built were phenomenal examples of engineering. How they disguised them and used them to survive. Everyone was part of the army…one girl who received many awards was dubbed the “Hero American Killer” due to her exploits during the war…one of the many traps they invented was this contraption in the shape of a cross with nails on it. It was hung behind the door and when the American GIs were trying to break in to rape the Vietnamese women, it would drop…the result…no more children…once I get a chance to sort through photos I will put up photos of it…they had so many crazy traps that would maim the American GIs…before anyone thinks that I am all about the Vietnamese…well..they were no angels either and the Americans were definitely not as bad as made out..Some were…some were not….it’s fair enough I guess for the Vietnamese to portray the Americans as devils…it’s to be expected.

We got to crawl through some of their tunnels as well..they have been widened for the slightly more rotund people such as myself..that and the fact that the Vietnamese at the time were tiny..the tunnels had to be crawled through on their bellies more or less. Even though we could hunker down and go through them, it was not a pleasant experience even then…it was dark and disconcerting..they used to have a room every so often where they could store food, weapons, sleep etc.…they also had a shooting range where you could go fire some of the weapons used in the war…I passed on that one…

Whilst it may sound that I didn’t like Saigon, well, it’s tough to enjoy things like the war museum and the Cu Chi tunnels, the war museum in particular. The Cu Chi tunnels on the other hand were just an education in ingenuity. These people did not have any formal education yet through the knowledge of the local terrain and use of their simple tools they managed to repel the invading force and they did it without tanks..the way that they used guerilla tactics was ingenious and their organization was phenomenal.

A decision was made on our last night in Saigon that Laos has to be visited, so this means that we are going to have to burn a trail through Cambodia. Again another late night was had…which turned out not to be the best idea especially with a 6.50 start the following morning, an alarm call that was missed by myself and Jonny resulting in us nearly missing the bus to Cambodia….thankfully John, Jaime and Jamie managed to convince the bus to wait while John went to get us…sneaking into our room and nearly making us lose our lives with the roar he let…..

Next on the list is Phnom Penh, Cambodia…more from there..

Hughie
www.hughie.eu

p.s. I have just re-read over this and realize how miserable it sounds…but I defy anyone to be able to visit the likes of the war museum and come out of it unscathed…some of the Americans within the group said they felt embarrassed and ashamed by what they saw and how it was so different to the version that they have been taught…I have to say as well that I am delighted to have managed to get in with such a really good group of people…it makes such a difference when you have people around that can lift your mood…as this is the final Vietnam email, I just want to let people know that it is probably one of the best places I have ever been… The people are so funny, the children selling the books on the street have such a command of English at such a young age that they can banter with you on a level that’s scary…one girl in Nha Trang was the cheekiest monkey I have ever met…she had the lot of us in stitches with her sales pitches and smart-ass comments…its worth seeing as well just for what they can manage to pack onto a motorbike..the craziest we have seen would be an orange (mandarin) tree (a common site that is used as a new year’s tree, the highest one being about 10 feet high), a coffin and a picture frame…overall though an amazing place..and one I will definitely be going back to..