Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)

---

The flight from Bangkok to Ho Chi Minh, or Saigon as it is better known (although this actually only refers to District 1 of the city) took just over an hour. From the airport I shared a taxi with a couple of Yanks, who were staying at a hotel way out of my price range, so I headed off to find somewhere a bit more affordable. On my way I bumped into John, a guy who I'd met whilst in Laos. He told me that he was staying cheaply down some alley, but sadly they had no room. Luckily a guesthouse a few alleyways down had a room for 6 bucks, which was a bargain, even if it was on the top floor of the building.

That night I went out with John and his girlfriend Sarah to the 'Go2' bar and afterwards we headed to 'Apocalypse Now', which was busy, but full of old westerners trying to get with young Cambodians.

The next day I met up with John and Sarah again and we decided to walk to the War Remnants museum, which used to be called the museum of American War Crimes, but was changed because it offended the Americans. Just as we were leaving the park in the centre of the city, about 3 blocks from the museum, it started pissing down with rain. I immediately thought of Forrest Gump and his month of rain in Vietnam and feared for the worst. We took shelter in a kind of sports shop but the rain wasn't letting up, so we purchased cheap raincoats and decided to brave it.

Everyone tells you that the traffic in Saigon is insane, but nothing prepares you for the actual sight of hundreds and hundreds of mopeds and motorbikes that litter the city's roads, many of which have in excess of 3 people on them (the most I saw was 6). The roads are constantly rammed, and there appears to be no lane discipline whatsoever, with scooters even driving over the pavement to avoid the roundabouts and junctions! In order to cross the roads in Ho Chi Minh, and in Vietnam in general, you can't just dash across as you would in other cities, you have to walk very slowly and confindently, and pray that the bikes and scooters anticipate your next move and swerve to avoid you. After crossing roads in Ho Chi Minh, anywhere else in the world is a relative breeze. Worse still is when it's raining. Imagine the same scenario but where the drivers cannot see because of the rain in their eyes, and they are all trying to put rain jackets on whilst still driving!

Finally we arrived at the museum, and luckily, most of the museum is indoors. The first room we went into basically gave information on the war, with various pictures on the walls. There was also a room of photographs from both sides, some of which are very moving. One section of the wall is dedicated to the photographers who died during the war. A lot of these photos have won photography awards around the world, and although the subject matter is morbid, you can't help appreciate how impressive some of the shots are.

Once it had stopped raining, we headed to the outdoors part of the museum that showcased both US and Vietnamese tanks, aircraft and weaponary.

Probably the best known part of the museum was next, which showed images of those affected by the war. There were very disturbing images and accounts of those who had lost friends and family during the war, and those who had been injured and deformed by the war. The Americans dropped the chemical Agent Orange over Vietnam to disrupt the agriculture, and thus halting the progress of the VC. Agent Orange however, is also a carcinogen and had disasterous effects on deformation of babies during the war. Some of the pictures in this part of the museum are almost unbearable to look at. The museum also has on display in glass jars, foetuses deformed by Agent Orange. Although people were, I didn't feel like using my camera in this area of the museum. One of the walls in the same room showed images of a VC prisoner about to be shot, and the caption by the photographer read something like "I called for the soldiers to wait so that I could take a photo, and when I had turned round and walked away, I heard the shots". There are also images of VC prisoners tied to the back of US vehicles and being dragged to their deaths. The one photo that I will never forget is of US soldiers sitting round with the bodies of 2 Vietnamese soldiers lying in front of them. Upon closer inspection, you can see the bodies have no heads, and the heads are being propped up by the US soldiers who are smiling for the camera. The caption below the image reads something along the lines of "We cannot condemn these soldiers as being evil, but it shows how the evil that is war can brainwash its participants".

The last section of the museum were actual prison cells where VC prisoners were held during the war. The museum is not an enjoyable experience, but definitely unmissable, a reminder of how devastating war is on the human race.

That evening we went out for some food and met up with a few of John and Sarah's mates, but had a relatively early night because we were booked on a tour to the Cu Chi Tunnels early the next morning.

Again, my Khao San Alarm clock let me down and I woke up at 5 to 8 and had to run to the pick up point. On the way to the tunnels our guide started by telling us a bit about the tunnels, which were dug by the VC in the south of Vietnam, so they could live underground, and attack US strongholds undetected. He then went on to tell us about his love life, and how he had a girlfriend but she was stolen from him by a Canadian. This was all over the mic to a bus full of Tourists. He then went on to say that it was OK because his ex had a younger sister but there were complications with the father accepting him. I couldn't believe that he was saying this, and started laughing to myself, at which point he turned and said to me completely dead pan "why are you laughing?" , to which I had no response. The guide finally finished by asking us what country we thought he didn't like. He then told us it was the Israelis, always complaining and being generally rude apparently. It was only after he had said this that he asked the bus if there were any Israelis onboard! Luckily there were none. I guess you had to be there to appreciate how strange it was to listen to a guy speak about his personal life to the people he's supposed to be guiding.

Once at the tunnels, you have to pay the admission fee and the watch a terrible video, probably produced in the '70s and never updated which is basically Vietnamese propaganda against the US. It even praises 2 or 3 VC guerrilla soldiers who killed American soldiers by calling them 'American Killer Heroes'! If I was an American in the audience, I'd be very offended.

Our guide then took us around the tunnel sights, which, in my opinion is largely a money-making operation which I didn't find that interesting. You get to see various methods of hiding from the enemy, including a hole with a camoflagued lid that I didn't want to try out for fear of getting stuck. There were also a collection of nasty looking, Indiana Jones style, booby traps which would all be a very nasty way to go. We were then taken to a army run shooting range, where I got a well earned drink (it was baking) and fired an AK-47 and an M-60. The ear protection they gave you was bloody useless, and they only gave it to those firing the weapons, not those watching, so I'd advise taking earplugs if you're going to haev a go. The M-60 was a beast, and the chain of bullets I'd purchased lasted about a split second, but was fun all the same. When John was firing his M-16, the cases were flying out of the side of the gun, and one boiling hot shell hit me on the leg. That's safety standards for you in south east Asia.

We then sampled Vietnamese tea, which was horrible, and some kind of potato thing which was dipped in sugar and peanuts, also horrible. This is apparently what they ate in the tunnels, being careful to design their chimneys so that the smoke escaped far from the tunnel, to avoid detection.

The last thing we tried out before the journey home was a crawl through the tunnel network, which is not for the claustrophobic. The fact that the guy in front of John stopped every 5 seconds to take a picture of his girlfriend didn't help. Crawling through the tunnels confirmed what I had thought previously, it would be bloody horrible living in them.

Having felt that I hadn't done Saigon's central sights justice, I decided to follow the advice of the Lonely Planet and take a walking tour around the city before getting my night bus to Nha Trang, up the coast. So with the book in my hand, I headed off.

When you walk around any city in this part of the world studying a map, you imediately get mobbed with taxi drivers and moto drivers trying to convince you that you should take a ride with them, but I felt that the exercise would do me good, and did my best to ignore them and found the first stop, the restaurant 'Pho 2000', pho meaning noodle soup. If it's good enough for Bill Clinton, then it's good enough for me. And it was, the beef stew with noodles was fantastic.

I then went to an indoor market, again suggested by the LP, called Ben Thanh. I'm used to being harrassed my the market stall owners, but in here it was something else. People were actually grabbing my arms and pulling me towards their stalls. I decided that I couldn't be arsed with it after a short while, and headed for a more traditional outdoors market, next on the walk. As I approached a roundabout, I looked at the route I was supposed to take, 2nd exit on a 5 spoke roundabout. But there were about 8 exits, bloody lonely planet.

After getting lost I decided to ask a moto driver for some help. He told me he knew where the market was, and I agreed to geta ride there for 50 cents. He actually drove straight past the market that I had seen down a side street, and so I ended up giving him directions!

I'd heard about this Vietnamese coffee where they let weasels pick out the beans, and then take it from their poo. This is supposedly because the weasel has good taste in coffee and only eats the finest beans. I found somewhere that sold it, but sadly you could only buy the beans in bulk. After a short walk I found Vietnam's answer to Starbucks, and ordered a cup, that came to about 2 quid! It tasted just like any other coffee I'd had in Asia to be honest, but when in Rome.

My walk then took me to the Opera house, the Notre Dame Cathedral, the Hotel de Ville, the Post Office, which looked more like a train station, and finally Reunificaion Hall, which is what the VC stormed during the war, declaring Saigon to be liberated. It was actually closed by the time I got there, but I managed to blag to the guard that I just wanted a couple of snaps of the outside, and got in.

On the way back to my guesthouse, I passed a load of people playing badminton, which is huge throughout south east Asia. Having left the park and heading in the wrong direction for 5 minutes, I turned back on myself and found the way back home, checked out of my room, grabbed a bite to eat and waited for the bus to Nha Trang, which turned out to be not quite what I had expected.

---

Comments

[Classic Punk]

Not Offended
>>>It even praises 2 or 3 VC guerrilla soldiers who killed American soldiers by calling them 'American Killer Heroes'! If I was an American in the audience, I'd be very offended. Don't worry, we're not offended. We (the US) were in their country, killing THEM, after all. Eye for an eye.