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Published: October 10th 2011
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Before you read about our trip to Ho Chi Minh City (or Saigon) it may be worth having a little read about the Vietnam war. The main reason for this is so that you can appreciate how terrible and disastrous it was to Vietnam and also so that you can correct anything we put in this entry that may be wrong! We have been confused considerably about who was fighting who, why America got involved and why it kicked off in the first place.
We started our first morning in Saigon with a brisk walk around the city, taking in the craziness of it all and trying to find the War Remnants Museum! One of the main reasons for our visit to this country was to learn about the war and see for ourselves what it had all been about. The history behind it was never taught to us at school, they mainly focused on 'that' battle that happened in 1066.
The museum was definately worth a trip out and this was realised as soon as we got to the gates. In the front courtyard, were 3 tanks, two fighter planes and two helicopters.
These vehicles were still in the conditions
that they had been through after the war, some with the odd bullet hole or panel missing and it was great being up close!
Behind a wall in the courtyard, was a replica cell and also an execution chamber. The chamber had a guillotine, complete with a bucket underneath where we guess the heads just dropped into! Around the chamber were stories of why this was used and facts and figures about how many were beheaded during the war. We cant remember the exact figures but there were a lot of heads dropping in the bucket.
In the cell was a model of a Viet Cong prisoner in what they would've been made to wear ( basically a cloth for undies) and above the cell was a glass window for the guards to keep an eye on the prisoner.
Outside were two posters titled torture techniques, these did exactly what it said on the tin and described the various torture techniques that were used. These varied from taking out teeth to burning the prisoners sex organs. Not the easiest thing to read we'd have to admit.
After we had been depressed outside, we went inside to get a bit more
depressed. It all is really hard stuff to understand that these such things went on only 50 years ago but it does make you understand how disastrous war can be.
Inside the museum were posters from nearly every country protesting against the Americans being in Vietnam. The USA seemed to have done more harm by being there. We read a story in our travel guide of US troops going into a Vietnamese village (My Lai Massacre) and killing everyone in sight. Some soldiers even raped and killed the civilians. This was all told to be kept secret from the public but many soldiers, who refused to kill the innocent people, returned and made their story public.
Also in the museum were pictures of people who had been effected by the gas, Agent Orange. This was probably the most disturbing part of the tour, as the pictures we very in your face. As they are in this way though it does once again show the public how horrible this war was and how it has effected peoples lives even after the war.
The following day, we went to Cu Chi Tunnels, which is about 2 hours drive away from the city.
The tunnels here were basically dug out so that the villages could escape the B52's that came overhead and also as a tactical advantage against Americans.
The ones we went down were made bigger for the public as the civilians back then would use smaller tunnels as these were stronger. It did give you a understanding of how claustrophobic it must have been, especially since bombs were going off over head and collapsed a lot of the tunnels.
Once we had been given a lesson in the man made weapons they had used such as booby traps and swinging spikes in doorways, we had a movie to watch which didn't exactly go in favour of the US.
After the movie, we had chance to go to a shooting range, the bullets were scarily cheap and Chris chose a machine gun. Natalie didn't like the idea that she would be shooting a gun that may have killed someone so just came to watch. We thought because it was such a big gun that there would be a big kick back like in Men in Black, but it wasn't too bad to handle. We pinched a few bullet shells as well but
realised afterwards that we may not have been allowed to fly with them in our bags so got rid.
We are now in Cambodia, we started in the capital Phnom Penh and heading to Sihanoukville in the morning.
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