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Published: February 21st 2009
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Saigon
Dude sleeping on his motorbike, how this is comfortable, I have no idea! Let me begin by clarifying that Saigon is the same location as Ho Chi Minh City. All the locals still call it Saigon but Vietnam had a famous leader named Ho Chi Minh who felt the need to change the name of this city from Saigon to his own name. I'll refer to it as the locals do because I'm too lazy to type out the whole name. The two main reasons we chose to stop in Saigon was for the War Remnants Museum and the Cu Chi tunnels.
We walked to the War Remnants Museum our second day in town, we figured it was better than taking a cab or a tuk tuk so we could see some things along the way. We stopped at the post office to mail some things home then headed out on the town. We saw the Notre Dame Cathedral and the central park which had flower gardens all over. We found our way to the War Museum then grabbed a bite to eat before we headed in. I had heard that the museum was very graphic and right to the point and it was true. I won't get into all the details but
Saigon
American tank outside of the War Remnants Museum. it is truly horrifying what the USA did to Vietnamese people. I know there are two sides to every story so I would like to learn a little more about the States involvement because all the captions below the pictures were very bias. Some of the pictures didn't do a very good job of explaining the pictures and it seemed like whoever was in charge of writing the captions was still pissed off about the whole thing. The other thing that really grabbed my attention is the affects of Agent Orange." There were reports of people being born severely deformed as late as 1976. The part that really hit me is that there are numerous people in the streets begging for money with severe deformities so I assume some of them may have been a victim of Agent Orange. Like I said, I'm not going to say a whole lot on an issue that I'm not very informed about but this did seem to be a very dirty thing the US did. The museum was extremely quiet while everyone took it all in, it was pretty eerie! We only had about an hour there because we arrived at 4 and
Siagon
Just another Tuesday! it closed at 5, but this was just enough time to see everything. On the way back we stopped and grabbed some coconuts from a street vendor and did some people watching during the crazy 5 o'clock traffic.
That night we grabbed dinner at a restaurant with really good food then headed out on the town. Bryan and I split from the girls and headed out to the bar. We ended up meeting a Vietnamese girl on the way to a bar called, "Apocalypse Now," and she told us she was headed there too and that it would be much faster to take a cab. She didn't speak very good English so the 3 minute ride was pretty silent. When we pulled up she would not let us pay, she paid then ran off into the bar leaving us outside. We thought it was a bit strange but didn't think much into it. On the way to the door we met a Vietnamese guy who was living in Canada for the past 30 years, he was able to get us in the bar for free and we say with him. This guy was great to talk to because his
Saigon
Ladies, check out my coconut! English was really good, he wouldn't let us buy any drinks so that worked out well too. Girls kept approaching us around the end of the night and it took me a while to realize that we were surrounded by hookers, haha. There were a ton of dirty old guys there negotiating prices and leaving with them. Kinda crazy! When we left that girl from the cab magically appeared again so we told her we'd pay for the ride back this time....sure enough she turned out to be a hooker too! So, I guess when she paid for the cab to the bar, it wasn't out of the kindness of her heart...it was an investment, a poor one at that. I don't know if she ended up going home alone that night, but I did!
The following day came pretty quickly, we woke early and headed to the Cu Chi tunnels after breakfast. It was about an hour cab ride from our guesthouse and the a/c was on its own schedule. The Cu Chi tunnels are one of my favorite things I've done so far on this trip. It was absolutely amazing what these Vietnamese farmers did. Plus it
Saigon
I swear, there are no rules on the roads here. If it moves, it's good to go! was like running around in a live version of The Legend of Zelda, which I've always wanted to do so as you can imagine I was pretty freakin excited! There are hundreds of kilometers of little hidden tunnels all over, under bushes, leaves and trees. The guide took us around and showed us all the cool things that we would definitely pass if we were on our own. The had 3 levels of tunnels all for different purposes. The first and second level were for fighting and hiding, while the 3rd level was for hiding. They made ventilation chambers for breathing and for smoke ventilation from cooking. They would make the smoke come out about 40 meters from where they actually were underground and the whole would be disguised by by bamboo trees or the rock pictured in the photos. So, when the Americans saw this they would bomb the area with the smoke and it wouldn't affect the Vietnamese. Plus there were numerous booby traps all around the forest that contained the tunnels and there was no way to know they were there unless you lived in the area. Even if soldiers did see them run into tunnels, they
Saigon
1,2,3 & 4....yup, 4 people on a motorbike! would break off into different directions so the soldier would have no idea where they went, plus they were so narrow the soldier probably couldn't fit. We were able to go into some of these tunnels but they were widened to double the size for tourists, I could barely maneuver. I asked where they stored all the dirt and he pointed to some of the large holes in the land from B-52 bombers, he said, "they would just fill in the holes!" On top of all that, they were extremely crafty people. They built all there bombs and traps with things that American soldiers would leave behind. Also, there sandals were made out of old tires that Americans also left behind. I thought these tunnels were incredible and I learned so much along the way. I will tell you that I did feel like a bit of an ass hole for being American even though I was born well after this was had ended!
Saigon was a pretty cool city with a lot of history and quite a bit to do. This is another city that I could have spent a little more time in if I had the
Saigon
Just a typical electrical pole in the city....I can't imagine how long it would take to find one wire if it was damaged! time!
Vietnam is a beautiful country and I would love to come back some day when I have more time. Lastly, I would like to bring to everyone's attention that the national currency here is the "dong." As you can probably imagine this raises one rhetorical question in my mind as well as a pretty humorous situation that I'd like to share. So, here we go:
Question-
Do you think that in Vietnam they use the expression, "put your money where your mouth is?" There is a language barrier so I haven't gotten to the bottom of this one!
Funny Situation-
The morning after a night out drinking at the bar, I literally watched this kid we met look into his wallet and say, "Wow, I blew a lot of dong last night!" I promise, I did not let this one slide!
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