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Published: September 12th 2008
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Ho Chi Mihn City! The busy streets filled with motorbikes and vendors offering up anything you can imagine..."massage, marijuana, boom boom."
we started our day pretty early due to the fact that the buss arrived at about 6am. We did the norm by avoiding the offers of guesthouses on the buss. We walked the streets with our packs to find a nice coffee shop in the middle of a section of guesthouses. It made for a perfect place to check prices and rooms and then make our move. After a good morning milkshake that i couldn't resist.... "One Frozen Snickers please." ...We made our way to a good priced guesthouse where Jeff and Krista were lucky enough to get a room right away. Kevin and i were not so lucky. We were told to got to about 3 different rooms so we can shower and set our stuff down only to be moved after about 10 min. Since we had a whole day we decided to walk around and check things out so the guesthouse can get the room thing sorted. Finally about 12 hours later we were able to check into our actual room. A jail cell with a shower
that you can literally sit on the john and wash your hair. This sounds terrible but is pretty much a standard set up. I haven't tried it yet but it might be a time saver...i just think it could get messy.
During our walk around town we made our way to the Reunification Palace where you can walk through war rooms and radio rooms below the presidential type quarters. It was pretty cool but just felt like a run down version of the Regan Library. We also made it to the war museum which was really interesting and very depressing. Photos of solider in the midst of battle, American G.I.'s made out to be the most evil being in the world. One picture that really gripped me was of an American solider holding the remains of a corps that had been blow up by a mine. It was probably the most graphic photo i have ever seen.
Also, they had a section on the results of chemical warfare that the Americans used. Agent orange and napalm have ruined many peoples lives for generations and continue to do so. On display as proof, were to disfigured fetuses that were very disturbing.
Practicing safe sex is important
AIDS and HIV are running wild in these parts I know Vietnam was a horrific war but i felt like this museum almost took the point too far. Americans were depicted as an insane force of war criminals. Where as the Vietnamese did nothing wrong. I wasn't there but i highly doubt that it was as one sided as it was shown. One thing i did like about this place is that it showed a full scale version of the terrible thing that war is. If you look at it right, you can see from the pictures that nobody wins and everybody suffers.
Unfortunately the one sided propaganda didn't stop there. The next day we made our way to the Chu Chi Tunnels. Which were where the Viet Cong had built a series of levels under ground to fight the US troops. It was Amazing! Our guide was a Vietnamese US troop that returned to Ho Chi Mihn when the war was over. He had a very interesting perspective on the war. He was in the middle of two sides that he loved...his people and a country that had given him so much prosperity. He told us stories of the war and told us tricks that both sides used
to catch the enemy. The VC were tricky with the way they fought. Put it this way if i had to pick an enemy they would not be my first choice. Traps set to capture people and dogs, shoes worn backwards to throw of trackers by making it look like they walked the other direction. Supplies stolen from US troops used to benefit VC. For example. The US would use dogs to sniff out VC in tunnels. So the VC had to use the US ammo boxes as toilets. They are a metal box that seals completely waterproof tight...that way ammo wouldn't get wet...but for the VC it was used as a toilet and closed that way the dogs wouldn't smell the poop. So many different tricks and all we could do is burn everything which only made the clay based tunnels turn into a solid base like if you fired pottery in an oven. I climbed into a sniper hole where VC would hide and wait for the enemy. It was barley big enough to get my waist through. I also climbed in the tunnels that we hot and super tight...even after they had made them bigger to show
tourist. We went to a shooting range where Kevin shot a few rounds off with an AK47. Also, another reason why they were so effective. The AK was waterproof...US guns were not. Good luck because it rains almost everyday here. Needless to say this was a great tour and it defiantly sparked a huge interest in this war for me. This is often the case when traveling. I find myself getting interested in things i have never cared for before.
After a long depressing day of being made out to be the absolute scum of the earth...we decided that we need a good pick me up...so we went to see Batman...again. I loved it even more the second time. However the kid that was literally talking on his cell phone during the movie was a little annoying...and popcorn just isn't the same. Oh well, the movie is amazing and makes up for the experience of seeing a movie in another country.
On our journey to Cambodia we took a boat tour along the Mekong Delta. We were shown life on the Mekong and surrounding villages. We were taken through the floating markets and shown how to make rice paper. The
tour was pretty sub par but some of the sights on the Mekong are amazing. The section we were in is more of the working section where people sell and produce goods so it was more polluted and run down. As we got farther away it cleaned up. We stayed at was was called The Floating Hotel for one night and the made another day of boating to the Cambodian Border. Holiday in Cambodia!
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how bad does that Pirates shirt smell? its obvious you never wash it because the logo disappears!