Out and About in Vietnam

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Thought I'd do a little update on non-school related things and the few outings that I have been able to go away on...

So I have managed to get out and about a bit over the past couple of months. I went on a day trip to the Cu Chi tunnels one weekend which was interesting. This was an extensive network of underground tunnels which the Viet Cong guerilla fighters used with great success against the Americans. They would pop out of tiny camouflaged holes in the ground, fire a few shots and then disappear again. The tunnels were used for transporting people and supplies, and they even had hospitals and communication centres in them. The Americans were unsuccessful in dealing with the tunnels - even when dropping tons and tons of bombs on them. The tunnels are absolutely tiny, and we got the chance to go down inside one (which had been made twice the size for us fat Western tourists). Even though it had been widened, it was still an absolute squeeze, especially for me being so tall. There were six exits along the tunnel and I only made it to the second one before I had to get out of there. I don't normally get claustrophobic, but it was horrible down there - so hot and cramped and muddy! These guerilla fighters would stay in these tunnels all day, which were infested with all manner of dangerous and disgusting animals. We also got to see all the booby traps that they used - all of them were pretty brutal, normally some variation of a disguised trapdoor with spikes below. It's no wonder the Americans didn't do so well against them, I would have been scared out my mind fighting against these guys!

On the same trip we also stopped off at the Cao Dai Holy See temple in Tay Ninh. This is a relatively new religion, only formed in 1926, and is syncretistic (yes, I had to look that word up too). It means that they fuse lots of different beliefs together - they believe in nine main deities, including Jesus, Buddha, Confucius, and the military strategist Jiang Ziya (no, I don't know who he is either). Kind of a good idea though, cover all your bases just to make sure you get to at least some form of heaven. Or is that the definition of sitting on the fence? Well anyway, the temple is a beautiful building, full of colour and decorated so intricately. Most of the followers attend the temple once or twice every day, and wear completely white robes. It was interesting to see them worshipping inside the temple, but unfortunately it is a massive tourist destination and there were about ten times as many tourists as worshippers. So for me it didn't really feel very genuine, it came across as a bit of a cash cow for something that they knew was popular with the tourists (although I'm sure this isn't completely true...).

I headed to the War Remnants Museum one afternoon (originally named the 'Exhibition House for US and Puppet Crimes', then tactically changed to the 'Exhibition House for Crimes of War and Aggression', and then tactically changed once again). As the previous names suggest, it is slightly on the biased side, but it's a real eye-opener. There are plenty of images and stories there that I had never seen or heard before. Some seriously bad atrocities were commited in that war, I'm sure by both sides, but the ones showcased here by the American soldiers were horrific. We're talking gruesome photos of soldiers holding up severed heads, pictures of them massacaring innocent women and children, and scenes of horrific torture. Not a place to go after lunch for sure. But it certainly makes you think about the pointlessness of war, waste of life, and the things that it makes people do. Apparently, a lot of the North Vietnamese had no idea why the Americans were there, they just saw it as an invasion of their country and were trying to protect it. The effects of Agent Orange and napalm though were particularly startling. Just walking around the city you see so many disabled and disfigured people. I'm making assumptions, but I think it's fair to lay the blame for a good majority of these on the chemicals used during the war. It gets passed down through the generations, and it is still effecting American soldiers and their families too.

Christmas and New Year were difficult this year, it being my second one away from home. It was the first time I have been somewhere hot for Christmas too, it was really weird - didn't feel like Christmas at all. For Christmas Day I went to one of the poshest 5 star hotels in town for a 4 hour all you can eat and drink buffet of some of the best food I have ever had in my life. The fact that I've hardly eaten any good Western food in the past year just made it all the better. By 6pm I was so tired and full I just went home and went to bed! New Year was a bit of a shambles as almost everyone I knew here left the city, and the one person I did know was at a bar that I couldn't get to because the crowds were so thick. Honestly I have never seen anything like it. The main roundabout in town (which is huge) was jam packed with motorbikes not going anywhere - the only way across was to climb over them. Then the pedestrianised area was just as bad, but with people. I thought there was going to be an accident as there were so many people no one could move, and people were pushing and shoving. It was so hot too and I couldn't bear it so I went and found a quiet bar and just had a beer on my own for the New Year! Not exactly what I'd had in mind, it made me really miss home and all my family and friends, but that's just one of the things you have to deal with when living abroad I guess!

On New Years Eve I decided to get out of the city again and headed out to the Mekong Delta to visit the floating market and some of the villages round there. After a long bus ride from Saigon, we arrived at the boat and we went off to Cai Be floating market. This is where farmers from all over gather to sell their produce to the locals. People travel long distances to visit the market on their boats, and buy in bulk to save on cost. This isn't the biggest floating market by a long way, so there wasn't a great deal going on unfortunately, but it was still interesting to see. We stopped off at a local village to see how they made candy and other handicraft, and for a bit of honey tea. We then transferred to some smaller traditional rowing boats, so that we could travel up some of the smaller creeks in the delta. This was by the far the best bit of the trip. It was so quiet and peaceful going up these small creeks, you could see local villagers going about their daily life, and all the green vegetation surrounding the river was the exact picture of how I'd imagined Vietnam to be. We stopped off at a village for some lunch, and then went for a short bike ride on some rusty old bikes. I was just thinking how amazing it was that the bikes still worked when my saddle snapped off and I came close to getting rear-ended by a sharp, rusty pole. We headed back to the town of Vinh Long for a quick look at the land market before heading back to HCMC. It was a good day, again it was a bit of a tourist trap, but what can you expect going on one of these day trips. Hopefully I'll get the chance in the future to explore a bit more off the beaten path!

One of the few tourist attractions in Ho Chi Minh is Saigon Zoo. It's one of the few areas of green in the city, so it's quite a nice place to relax at the weekend. Not so nice for the animals unfortunately, which are locked up in some pretty small enclosures and look thoroughly miserable. One of the hippos was so annoyed it started peeing and then span it's tail round like a fan and sprayed it all over me. I don't blame him at all, I guess that's the only way they can amuse themselves in there. I would do the exact same thing to get my kicks if it was the other way around! They also had the most bizarre talent show going on there. The first act that we witnessed was quite an odd, old Vietnamese guy trying to open various hard and spiky fruits using his hands and forehead. We're talking durian fruit and pineapples here. Needless to say, there was blood pouring out of the sides of his hands and from his head. I don't just mean a trickle, it was pouring. He didn't seem to care though, he was parading around with his opened fruit, showing off to all the little kids lucky enough to be traumatised by the whole show. Nothing wrong with using a knife mate!

I've made a very limited effort to learn Vietnamese. It is a tonal language, so the same word can have about five different meanings depending on the tone you use. For example, someone was telling me the name of a traditional Vietnamese pancake, which I then repeated (what I thought was) exactly the same as her, to which she laughed and told me that I'd told her to 'p*ss off' in Vietnamese. I think I might avoid ordering that one at a restaurant, I don't want to get thrown out! So it's really difficult to get to grips with it - I feel much the same as I did when I first got to Korea and hearing all the new and different sounds that I'd never used before. Unfortunately as most people speak English here, it is really easy to fall into the trap of being lazy and not bothering - I'm trying to make more of an effort at the moment but, although it's no excuse, I've been so busy and tired from work recently the last thing I want to do when I get home is study!

After a couple of weeks of riding round on the back of motorbike taxis (xe om), I was fed up of using them and decided to bite the bullet and get my own bike. It's so annoying having to haggle every day for the price, and then spend 10 minutes trying to explain where you want to go to. I'd say the name of the road which they'd never understand, so I'd show it to them written down and they still wouldn't get it, and then finally show them a map which was still of no use to them. They'd then say 'let's go' at which point I'd ask them if they really knew where they were going, to which they'd answer 'yes' with that blank look in their eyes which screamed 'I've got no idea'. And then we'd spend the whole ride stopping and asking people the way. Which is fine every so often, but absolutely infuriating when it's twice every day! Interestingly, a lot of the xe om drivers fought for the Southern army during the Vietnam war, and as a result the government won't give them the relevant papers that allow them to work, and so the only work they can get is as a motorbike taxi. Anyway I was fed up of all this, and I've always wanted a Vespa, so managed to get hold of an old 1983 PX150 to get around on. The first challenge was that it is a hand gearchange, which I have never ridden before and took some getting used to. But the other challenge is the traffic. The way I'd describe it is if you imagine the beginning of a marathon, except everyone is on bikes, and lots of people are going the wrong way. Sounds crazy, and it is, but it also kind of works. I actually like the way of driving here - don't really worry about what is behind you - just react to what is in front of you. If you drive like that, it's actually not that scary at all. And it is all such slow speed in the city so it's not too bad.

I'm seeing my fair share of weird things here too. While eating my dinner the other day, I witnessed a little kid probably no more than about 8 years old take his pet snake out of a jar and swallow it. He then regurgitated it. Neither of them looked like they enjoyed the trick. About half an hour later, a different kid came and did the exact same thing! I felt like I should go and buy them a football or something, these boys need a new hobby!

Anyway on that note I'll leave it there. Sorry for the essay, I should try and write little and often rather than blabbing on like this.

Hope all is well with everyone, keep me updated on what you're up to!

Love Ross x

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Photos

Water Puppet Show
I still have no idea how they did this...