A Tale Of Two Cities

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Forrest Gump, Platoon and Apocalypse Now have all done a good job in convincing the general population to believe that Vietnam is a rugged, jungle-dense population full of unexploded ordinances and hostile inhabitants. It's hard to imagine that it could be anything else, right? What everyone needs to know about Vietnam is that as we strolled down the streets of Ho Chi Minh City (often abbreviated to HCMC) after a 14-hour bus ride from Cambodia, we both had a hard time convincing ourselves that we were not just simply out for a stroll along Queen street in Toronto on a Saturday night! Okay, so maybe we weren't ignorant enough to believe that Vietnam's capital of the south would resemble in any way those images that Hollywood tried to drive into our heads, but we certainly didn't expect it to be this big, bright, clean and posh city. Our first impression was: "what a cool city!" And, after 6 days here we still maintain that attitude. There are still a lot of people here that are selling things at every turn and the site of a mother with young children out on the street is still not uncommon, but based solely on the sites around HCMC, I would say that this country has rebounded from its 10,000-day-war rather nicely.

So how could this be? How could such a great city exist in a communist country? It's probably better to first dispell any misconceptions that we as westerners may have about Vietnam. Feel free to skip the history to get to the part of what we actually did, but if you're up for a little history lesson, here are some questions that we have had answered.

Is Vietnam still truly considered a communist country?

The short answer is yes. The more complicated answer is that it is almost operating under 90%!c(MISSING)apitalist-like standards. Case in point is that most private owned businesses are now just that: privately owned. In addition apparently Vietnam now has 2 other opposition political parties so really all signs point towards capitalism in the very near future.

If this is Ho Chi Minh City, where's Saigon??

Same Same, NOT different. A Tale of Two Cities is really one in the same. Ho Chi Minh, a former president of North Vietnam (the communist part), is considered by many to be the main reason why Vietnam is once again a reunified country. Otherwise they may have found themselves in a situation similar to Korea's division-complex-conundrum. Most of these same people would also agree he was the main reason for the whole Vietnam war so understandably there are a lot of people who oppose him. In any case, he died in 1969, (before he could even see the end of the "Vietnam war"), which immediately propelled him to a god-like status in the eyes of the Communist party. Because Uncle Ho (as he is so affectionately called here) was the founder and leader of the communist movement in Vietnam and because it is currently still under communist rule, the city formerly know as Saigon (capital of South Vietnam) is referred to (and has been since 1975) as Ho Chi Minh City.

So who won the Vietnam war?

Yes, we realize this is a heavy question and one that I would not want to answer on Veteran's Day in the USA. My knee-jerk reaction to this question is to respond with another question: does anyone truly win in war? However dropping all moral issues aside I would say a more appropriate starting point in answering this question lies in realizing who the Vietnam war was actually between.

To summarize the past century's history in Vietnam, they struggled out of Japanese and French rule by 1954 only to then argue over who's ruling, the north (communist) or the south (capitalist) Vietnam would be under. Since nobody could decide, they solved this problem how this problem has always been solved throughout history: they went to war over it. For years North and South Vietnam fought eachother. It wasn't actually until 1968 that the US jumped into the battle, honouring their "anti-communism" in Asia campaign that they vowed to take in the 1950's.

If winning a war were based solely on casualties per side, no doubt the US backed South-Vietnamese regime would have won. However, arguably the winner is the side that reigns afterwards and as Vietnam is still under communist rule, the North finally triumphed in the war. Therefore to summarize in a way that will hopefully keep out angry backlash from Vietnam war vets is that the US realized defeat was inevitable and withdrew all of it's troops 2 years before the actual end of the Vietnam war, leaving South Vietnam to fend the rest of the conflict on its own.

Ok, onto the good stuff!

The first thing that you notice in Saigon is the abundance of motorcycles. There are an estimated 6 million motos in the city of 10 million people! The roads are absolute mahem at the best of times, and from 4pm - 6pm I can only describe it as a truly death defying experience trying to get home. Getting around the city and having to cross these moto infused streets can also be quite the challenge. Some intersections have stop lights, but for the most part it is every moto for itself and it looks like a sea of bikes all weaving around each other nearly colliding with each other in their paths. At first when you have to cross the street you can find yourself waiting, and waiting, and still waiting for there to be enough clearance for you to quickly run across. However, to do as the locals do, they simply just step out in the traffic and walk slowly and casually across the street and miracously the traffic parts like the red sea all around them. At first it was a little scary, but as long as you remember the golden rule of not ever stopping, you can make it across relatively easily. Each time we crossed the street was an exhilerating experience and we felt like we belonged in the Frogger game then on the streets of Vietnam!

Another thing we noticed about Saigon is how many parks and green spaces the city has. During the day there are people walking along the paths or sitting under the shade of a tree. As the sun goes down people emerge from everywhere to particpate in aerobics classes in the park, play badminton with a group, run along the pathways, or do a tai chi style of stretching and meditation. After the sun sets, the parks become alive with young couples sitting on benches or on their motos, and with groups of friends socializing.

Since we decided to stay on in Cambodia working at Koh Ru, it left us with only 13 days on our Vietnamese visas. Knowing that we would need more than 13 days to properly transverse this huge country, we handed our passports over and applied for a visa extention. It being Saturday, and taking 4 working days to process left us in Saigon for 6 more days. Luckily there was lots to keep us busy and we scheduled a couple of day trips to the popular sites.

The War Reminents Museum
Located in the downtown area of Saigon is the Vietnamese government run War Reminents Museum. It is a collection of exibits displaying photos, US armoured vehicles, including a “Huey” helicopter, and F5A fighter, and an A-1 attack bomber, gorey relics, a reproduction of the tiger cages used by the South Vietnamese to hold the prisioners of war, and even a guillotine. The grounds surrounding the area contain the army vehicles and weapons, however the real stories lie inside the buildings in the form of photos (some prize winning) and displayed tortue weapons from the time. The photos depict the true attrocities of war, showing innocent faces filled with despair and fear, and the tortue weapons demonstrate just how inhumane people were treated. One of the most appaling photos, which truly depicts a gruesome image of the war, was of an American soldier returning from battle holding a Vietnamese soldier by his head and what was left of the carcas was dangling below. Brutal!

Perhaps the most attrocious area was the photo exhibit depicting the after effects of war on a nation, specifically from the use of chemicals, mainly Agent Orange, napalm and phosphorous bombs. Over 75 million litres of chemical spray was used in Vietnam during the time, and has since resulted in millions of birth defects on those children born from exposed Vietnamese men and women. There are even jars of malformed feotesus on display for your viewing pleasure.

Formerly known as the Museum of American and Chinese War Crimes, it is easy to pick out who the Vietnamese are targetting in all of the propaganda based material, however it was refreshing to see that the Vietnamese were not afraid to show the Western world the true horrors of war, and that the real victims are the innocent civilians.

Cu Chi Tunnels and a Cao Dai Temple
During the Vietnam war the Viet Cong dug an intricate underground tunnel system which stretched from Saigon all the way to Cambodia - over 250km! The tunnels allowed the Veit Cong to be able to launch surprise attacks on the stationed American troops as well as the South Vietnamese soldiers quite easily. The tunnels were several levels deep at some point, and had kitchens, weapon storage areas, trap doors, and even hospitals. Trap doors were camoflouged with the surrounding earth and the smoke from the kitchen was directed into vents which emptied into the air several meters away. After suffering great casualities from the night time sneak attacks, the Americans discovered the tunnels, and the underground network became “the most bombed, gased, and devastated area in the history of warfare” as they tried every means possible to flush the Viet Cong soldiers out.

Of course, now it is one of the most popular tourist stops in any visit to Saigon! We visited the tunnels as part of a day tour and were able to see the construction of the tunnels, the many boobytraps that they used as defences, and were even able to crawl through a section of widened tunnels - they had to make them bigger to accommodate our western bodies! We were able to walk through most sections in a modified squat position but some passageways narrowed to the point where we needed to slide through on our bums. It was extremely hot in the tunnels and very stuffy from the lack of fresh air and it helped to put into perspective what the Viet Cong experienced for so many years living below the ground.

As part of the Cu Chi Tunnel tour, we also got to visit the Cao Dai Great Temple which can best be described as a small village complex that lives and works around the Cao Dai religion. Cao Dai is a religion consisting of around 2 million Vietnamese followers and their beliefs revolve around 4 different religions: Christianity, Buddhism, Taoism, and Confusianism, however their diety they pray towrads is God. Cao Dai followers pray 4 times daily; 6am, 12pm, 6pm, and 12am. We were able to watch part of their 12pm daily prayer, where we saw around 100 Vietnamese all dressed in the colours of the religion - red, blue, white and yellow.

Mekong Delta Tour
The southern part of Vietnam is home to the end of the mighty Mekong Delta River before it flows out to the South China Sea. This area is famous for rice production among other things, and the many small villages are all infiltrated by brown water canals stemming from the Mekong Delta. We signed up for a day trip which brought us to the towns of My Tho and Ben Tre.

We travelled by boat to the first island stop where we were shown how they make their traditional rice paper and then enjoyed a Vietnamese style lunch. We were then brought to a place to sample the local fruits and be entertained by traditional Vietnamese instruments and singers. We then hopped on a horse drawn buggy to a shop that produced many products from bees, including yummy honey coated peanuts and tea with honey and lime juice which were given for us to sample. Next we got into a much smaller boat to take us through some very small canals. Our boat was ored by a very strong Vietnamese woman who took great joy in passing all of the other boats ahead of us! Finally, we made it to the best stop of all, the coconut candy factory. The canals in the area are lined with water coconut trees so they use coconut for many things. They showed us the process of how they take the coconut, grind up the pulp and then press it to obtain the milk, and then heat it mixed with 40% malt and 10% sugar. Then as it hardens they wrap it in rice paper and cut into small portions for sale. They make several flavours including our favourite of coconut mixed with peanut bits. Needless to say we bought a few packages! Although we felt shuffled along for most of the tour it was great to see all of the traditional products that this area is famous for…especially the yummy coconut candies!

We spent another couple of days just wandering around the city, taking in the sights and sounds, and tried not to get run over by the motos. We indulged in pho, a staple noodle soup in any Vietnamese diet, and enjoyed having new items on the nightly cuisine menu. We also drank copious amounts of Vietnamese coffee which is served to you in a small cup with your own personal percolator/filter pot on the top. Fresh grinds are put in, then water, and you wait until your own brewed cup of coffee drips into your cup. Couple that with condensed milk as sweetener and you have a fantastic cup o’ joe! Vietnam is famous for its coffee and we can definitely see why.

With the abundance of green space and beautifully coloured buildings, character rich small back alley ways, and possibly the best coffee we have ever had, you have a fantastic city that has quickly become one of our favourites!

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Photos

Do you think his shoulders fit?
He made it in successfully!

Fanning myself with millions of dong!
1,000,000 VND = $75 canadian dollars

In the tunnel
This tunnel has been made 2-3x its original size to fit our western physiques