Hey Daddy-Oh!!

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Greetings greetings - I'm happy to announce the arrival and departure of my first guest - my Dad!!! YAYYYYYY! So, my dad was in Hong Kong writing a case study, and he was able to come visit for a few (short) days. It was pretty sweet! I picked him up from the airport on Wednesday, showed him my place (in the flesh, as opposed to an inadequate internet posting), went for dinner at a nice restaurant, then played pool/drank some brews at one of my regular hangout spots. I have to admit, I was mildly apprehensive about driving him around on the back of the motorbike, but it went alright. He was a bit overly cautious at first - the prospect of traveling in HCMC traffic is daunting to any first-timer. He handled it well! We took it easy on day two - I drove him around the city for an hour or so, then we went to the War Remnants Museum. I haven't done anything touristy yet because I knew I would have guests, so this was quite an experience for me.
The Museum was very well done, and clearly biased against Americans (I expected nothing less). It included gruesome photographs from massacres, everyday enounters, post-napalm bombings...anything and everything, essentially. There were fetuses in formaldahyde that had been ruined by the affects of exposure to napalm, paintings done by children about the affects that war had had on their lives. While I looked at photographs and read accounts of the atrocities that American soldiers had committed, it was hard to believe that I was at all similar to them. In some ways, we assume that we are literally not able to commit the sins of the past, or the present...the average (western) person is too far removed from real, visible threats or battlegrounds, or anything remotely similar to what so many in the world must deal with. Looking at/reading these accounts, how COULD i possibly understand any sort of relationship between myself and the persons under criticism? I could not even feel sympathy for them; they had been too demonized.
The following day, Dad and I went with a tour group (my first REAL tourist experience in three months) to the Cao Dai temple and the Cu Chi tunnels. Cu Chi is about an hour's drive or so from HCMC, and it is one of the places that was a guerllia strong-hold against the USA. There is an elaborate maze (appx 250 km) of underground tunnels. They house kitchens, sleeping areas, meeting rooms...all the bare necesseties for survival. The Vietcong stayed underground for days at a time when the area was crowded with US soldiers. In addition to actually getting to crawl through one of these tunnels (enlarged to fit the western physique) we saw a number of boobie traps set for western soldiers. Upon seeing the tunnel complex, I soon gained a compassion for western soldiers that was certainly lacking the day before. As we went though the day, my sense of humanity and the conception of my niche within that realm changed considerably. Suddenly I was less sure of what I would be capable of if challenged in the ways these men were. I began to question my rationality and what my reaction to any given situation would be. I suppose I got a (never-before-seen ) glimpse of the fragility of our collective state, and the susceptiblity we have to the environment we're in. The accounts I'd read the previous day were more understandable, and though I don't in any way condone them, and relatable. At the end of the day, my contempt was entirely for the government officials who make these decisions and feed biased rhetoric to the masses, hoping to send others (ignorant of what's in store) out to do the dirty work. I felt I could not blame the Vietcong nor the American soldiers for the crimes they both committed.

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Photos

Cao Dai Temple
This is the outside of the Cao Dai Temple, appx 2 hrs outside of HCMC. It's flashy enough in the day - just imagine what it looks like with fluorescent lights at night!

Inside
The guidebook describes the inside of the temple as "walt disney'esqu". I quite agree.

AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!
I told my dad to look scared, but I think he just looks happy...maybe surprised in a good way...oh well! I suppose acting isn't my Dad's calling. I tried to get him to put his whole head in, but was probably lucky to get his arm.

Booby Traps
Some of the many booby traps that the Viet Cong used against US soldiers. They used the metal from tanks that had been damaged and disarmed. Some of the traps were left over from hunting tigers, etc before the War.

Plum Tuckered Out
Isn't he cute?!? After an exhausting dayof riding on the bus and seeing sights, my Dad needed a little rest.

Comments

[Mom]

hunk
what did you say that hunk's name is?