Advertisement
Cu Chi Tunnels
...they were very narrow - ideal for the slender Vietnamese, but not for the USA troops.Our first day in Ho Chi Minh we decided to explore on foot; visiting the Independence Palace and the War Remnants Museum (Formerly known as the of Exhibition House of American War Crimes). Ho Chi Minh is a very large metropolis with thousands of mopeds lining the streets wherever you went.
The visit to the Independence Palace was cut rather short owing to an important meeting in the West wing of the building. The decision to shut the entire Palace did seem rather excessive considering the public area is no where near this event. Communication that the Palace was closed hadn’t reached any of the tour companies either as coaches were arriving in droves and hundreds of tourists were left stranded whilst the coaches went off to park. The coach operators returned only to find their customers could not enter the Palace grounds.
Thankfully the visit to the War Museum was more successful. The Museum gave quite a stark representation of the Vietnam war; it included displays with weapons used, various torture devices and a display of rather graphic pictures drawn by local school children showing their view on history. It also gave a detailed account of the suffering
Inside the tunnels...
...definitely not for the claustrophobic! caused by various biological warfare used by the American forces; notably “Agent Orange”. There were additional some large exhibits outside of captured enemy tanks, helicopters and aircraft.
We left the museum and headed south to the Notre Dame (Nhà thờ Đức Bà) cathedral; which was a miniature version of the Parisian one. As it was a Sunday there were large crowds around the cathedral whilst it held its afternoon service.
We decided to make our way down to the riverside; which unfortunately was under going new development but this showed to us that Ho Chi Minh was a city on the rise. That evening we ventured out around the to explore the various art and crafts that come out at night; such as painting and pottery craft.
It had been strongly recommended to us to visit the Museum before going to the Cu Chi Tunnels to give us a better appreciation of the historical background behind the war and suffering of the Vietnamese people. So on the next day we took the Cu Chi Tunnel coach which wound its way through the countryside some 20 miles from the city. Our guide took us on a tour through
the traps and tunnels which included seeing video footage of how the tunnels were built by the Vietnamese soldiers and how they were lived in and maintained. The tunnels were a very sophisticated network that allowed the Vietnamese soldiers to move around underground, undetected. Entering and exiting at various points to resist the advances of the American forces; quite incredible to think that most of them were originally farmers.
Our final afternoon in Ho Chi Minh we spent visiting the Ben Thanh Market and various beautiful parks throughout the city. The market was packed full of souvenirs, clothes and food stalls all set in very narrow walkways, we strongly recommend visitors make sure they keep their belongings safe! At the parks, it was truly wonderful to see families having fun and recreational time together - something which is sadly missing from many westernised countries these days.
Despite the persecution of the Vietnamese people and the atrocities that occurred it was strongly evident through our time in Ho Chi Minh that these same people were looking to the future and embracing it.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.111s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 9; qc: 56; dbt: 0.071s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
