Lets let Saigon be bygone

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June 25th 2007

Published: June 25th 2007

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Starscream

militant mudflaps

some truck on the Laos/Vietnam border.the drivers were sleeping in hammocks under the truck.

wellisee wellisee wellisee.
vietnam eh?
huh.
not done a blog thing here yet, should do, its been a bit much.
for a start we had some hassle getting here from Laos as most of us had no visas (i had mine already as im awesome) so we had to hang around in the lamest place ever, some shitty border town on the Laos/Vietnam border, Bao Lao or something.people were in no way friendly and ther was only ripping off going on, this was a taster, an apperitife if you will of vietnam.it was generally ass and i wish to forget it.across the border the ripping off got worse, assholes out to get you.
ill deal with this now as its an issue in all of the vietnam we've seen and other things happened of import. basically, everyone you see, or more importantly, everyone who sees you, is out to get your $$$$$$s.one way or another they want it.its not a poor country by any means, especially compared to those around it.you get hassled and hustled by everyone, guys on bikes become 'taxi drivers', children become ''poor orphans' (with parents and money, shhh), old people become 'crippled beggars' (you get the

Imperial City,Hue

Ruins of forbidden city place,the big boss and his mates holed up in here and ignored the world for a while.fun.

idea), and EVERY shop keeper looks you over and works out a new price, not just white people tax but however much they recon they can rinse off you. its really annoying. they take it so far most of the time that we laugh and leave, we get stung 4 times the price for most things but alot of the time people try for alot more, you ask the price and they go "uuhhhh, hmmmm, XX$, nonono XXXX$".alot of violent robbery in some places, directed towards foreigners, Na trang was the worst.can be funny to watch the change in people as soon as they see white people, they grow a limp, a pathetic look in their face and magnets in their palms which always gravitate towards you.give them no money and they walk off all normal again and carry on shopping and having fun.
in saigon now, or Ho Chi Mihn City,its big and full of money for the most part.like any big city in europe. at night/early morning, well dressed, well groomed women take their toddlers out to the bars and nightclubs to guilt trip you into buying gum or some shit for loads of money, my usual response

More Imperial City,Hue

The dude wasnt nice or popular but i like his taste in self imprisonment.You could pay to sit on his throne dressed in his gear and have all his royal subjects mince around you in full imperial gear and have a parade.Tasteful?oh yes.

is to tell them to take their kid to bed and they pull a super cheesy "sad" face, point at the kid and say "give me money then i will". we saw this in other places but the people were obviously poor, or at least not very well off and were normally displaced tribespeople or burmese refugees. in vietnam theyre just normal middle class people hustling the foreigners.
pisses me off alot, these people whoring their kids out just for more money, although its not a huge thing its really affected my view of vietnam, i see alot of greed here, more the further south you go. it sickens me when i think of how poor some of the people in Laos and parts of Thailand were how nice those people were, and we havent even got to Cambodia yet.bagging and foreigner tax are normal and i can deal with them happily, Vietnam is addicted to $$$s.
oh dear Vietnam, youve got me all righteous and indignant.

moving on (grrr).
we made our way to Hue, which was a nice, semi-traditional riverside town.quaint and beautiful. its in the middle of vietnam and retains some of the old

Electric Tree.

Yanks used this against the Vietcong in the war,bottom bits underground, top looks like a tree.has loadsa sensors in which pick up noise.if/when they do it automaticaly calls an airstrike on those co-ordinates.kinda mean

style. saw the old imperial city which was mostly ruins and walls.found a rad bar and made friends with the owner and his little bro who he worked like a mule.cool guys though, Foo and Qui. spent alot of time on the beach, which you had to hire a motoped and ride too, more on driving in vietnam later (its rad). for the most part we were the only whiteys on the beach and this was obviously mental for the locals. we were surrounded by people ALL.THE.TIME. pointing, touching, grabbing, laughing, getting more people, repeat.most were cool, just interested and some were realy friendly, alot of kids selling pinapples or crisps or water, cun to play aboot with. my tattoos and piercings are a big deal for people here, they always come up to me in the streets and just grab my ear or nose or touch chest and rub my tattoos.
i dont like it.
they rarely comment on it, just point and touch, very overtly and for a long time, crowds gather and they dont go away easily some times. saigons not as bad but the Hue beach was one of the most uncomfortable times of my life.

Machinegun Dandy

Shooting tribespeople was a gentlemans sport.Get some!

was also really fun and they didnt mean to be rude, they just saw me as a freak or something and my being there gave them the right to stare and touch.obviously.
tattoos were illegal until 2 years ago so anyone with a tat probly got em in prison, most arent very good. its cool seing buddhist monks with militant prison tats tho, arrows through hearts, daggers, eagles etc.awesome.
we also visited the old vietcong tunnels and did the war tour. the tunnels are mad.so small i couldnt ever stand straight and had to crouch alot, plus they made the tunnels wider for yank tourists. some hundreds of people lived there for 6 years. they had family rooms which were about the size or half a single bed and were just holes in the wall. they also had a maternity room, whish was slightly bigger. there were over a dozen kids born in the tunnels. their first years, the formative years, where spent in constant fear and paranoia, people dying everywhere and explosions constantly, trapped in a tiny network of underground holes and tunnels.shell shock times 100 when youre 4 years old.every child born in the tunnels is completely

Cheerful war art

we saw plenty like this.you can pick up the general theme of it all quite easily.

mute and a bit messed up to say the least from the unimaginable horrors they were born into.we met one dude who was born in the tunnels, he was in his 30s, looked 60 and was so excited to see foreigners and was the nicest guy.he couldnt speak but he made excited noises alot and helped show us around his old home.full on heartbreak.i wont forget him even though i never spoke with him, he was living proof of something awful im not supposed to think about or look at.war is never good for anyone except the companies who build the bombs.
from Hue we went to Hoi An which is like a Vietnam themed resort for rich old americans. nice but too cute, kinda fake and well spendy. better beach.way better. spent more time there.
next was Nha Trang which was properly on the sea and was cool. rented a motobike n rode around checkin out the local history n culture. some rad stuff.giant white buddhas you can go inside and rock out in. weird old towers. really nice harbour area with loadsa old boats and people rockin aroung in little coracles next to em, rocks in the water

Family room, vietcong tunnels

i was on my knees taking this photo and i could just fit in.90 families lived there.there were smaller rooms.

with little houses built on, idylic. very touristy night life, coupled with a violent mugging if your lucky. im cool so im safe but some of my friends got robbed by the old 'motorbike taxi' guy/gaggle of prostitutes tag team.tricky, plenty of violent crime stories from familiar faces on the road too.
then we get to Ho Chi Mihn City, or Saigon.the further south you go the more western it gets,Saigon is the apex of this cultural cash curve.
its massive, 12 million people.11 million own motorbikes or scooters.the streets are like rivers, full of minnows all traveling with the flow but heading towards their own goal. no real road traffic/safety laws exist in Vietnam.perfect for renting a scooter.Thailand was fun to drive in but Saigon is something else. me n bella rented a bike and i drove all over Saigon, checking stuff out.its awesome.cant describe how insane it is to ride a scooter, surrounded by hundreds more all just doing whatever the hell they like.good communist rhetoric in practice here, do as you please just dont hurt anyone.it works too. so much fun!way better than in Hue or Nha Trang, plus i kinda know what im doing now,

maternity room, vietcong tunnels

15 meters underground, under constant bombardment.small.made of dirt.good one.

ish, so its better.
we accidently took a river ferry to this island in saigon, on one side of the river are all the huge super hotels, on the other are loads of massive billboards and ads, the ferry took us there.funnily enough, behind all the advertising and big names and money, theres alot of poverty, the slums are literaly behind the adverts, or under them, tiny houses on stilts. no money.people were very surprised indeed to see us there, foreigners dont go there, its not pretty or fun. interesting though, the nature of the economic divides in places are always though provoking but never is the metaphor so obvious.chinatown was cool too.and we went to this restaurant on the top of one of the rich people hotels for the amazing views.most expensive beer and fries ever.
we also went to the war museum.
oh my days.
not cool guys, not cool. loadsa rad tanks and guns and planes outside.good start. big boy toys.
inside it was more heartbreak.photos of suffering and murder. weapons of pure hate, racial propaganda, deformed foetus' in jars etc. the chemical weapons used against the vietnamese kinda made a mess of things.defoliates used to kill

outside the tunnels

quite pleasant really, cant have been all that bad eh?crybabies.

plant life to uncover the ho chi mihn trail left the landscape barren, scarred the people and crippled their children.yay. the agent orange bombs were the biggest bombs ive ever seen, alot of shit kept inside.we saw the 'tiger cages' where they kept and tortured north vietnamese political prisoners.grisly. photos of countless tortured poeple, one really got me. 470 women, north vietnamese, refused to salute to the national colours, so the southerners threw (american provided) phosphorous grenades at them.
nice.
it was totally grim basically.

i had alot of fun in vietnam really, only saw the south, which is the most commercial, capitalistic bit.Hanoi is probly really cool.i also really like the vietnamese buddhas, theyre different all over south east asia, some here were like manga superheroes.oh yeah and we saw this huge vase like twice my hight made of 8 TONS OF COCONUT.thats cool.was super old.

so.

to summarise my time in vietnam:
beautiful country, amazing beaches and mountains and rivers, really awesome.
its expensive and theres incredibly greedy people everywhere, kinda spoiling it.
i love riding a scooter in saigon.
the war was bad.

cambodia tomorrow.
yss.
everyone be good now, ill catch yo