Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City and the Cu Chi Tunnels

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After a much less exciting bus trip, we arrived in our final stop, Saigon. Throughout the trip we had heard nothing but negative things about the city, so we were a little unsure about the wisdom of spending our last three days here. Turns out, the critics were wrong and we loved Saigon!

We checked in to our last guesthouse and hit the streets of the backpacker area in search of dinner. Saigon is known for its tall skinny buildings built leaning on each other AND its crazy, crazy traffic. 75% of the traffic is motorbikes and you have no hope of ever waiting for an opening to cross the street. Instead, you must look straight ahead and walk at a constant pace (do NOT stop or change direction) and, like the Red Sea, the traffic will part for you to cross.

Like most other destinations, each restaurant has someone out front attempting to entice you in to their place. After numerous calls of "cheap, cheap", Pat heard the magic words...."cheap beer" from the man in front of Cafe Q. He was not lying and we sat down for some 60 cent bottled beers and delicious fresh spring rolls. The employee, Tin, was very friendly and made us feel like we had found our new 'place'. We eventually walked to another block and sat down for dinner, only to have Tin walk in and tell us it is the same restaurant.......I had wondered why our spring rolls were delivered by motorbike!

The next morning we sat out to explore the city and book our tour to the Viet Cong tunnels in Cu Chi ($5 for the whole day...and then some). We walked down to the river, saw the Congress house, the Post Office, and a wedding at Notre Dame cathedral (and you thought it was in France). We attempted to enter the market and check out the goods, but 5 feet into the market a woman grabbed my hand and refused to let go. Once free, we ran for our lives. My one requirement for the day was that we eat lunch at The Black Cat Cafe. They have an onsite bakery for Vietnamese bread and I had a fabulous curried lamb meatball sandwich.

In the evening we returned to Q Cafe and decided to stay put for dinner since we were unsure how many of the 'other' restaurants were actually the same place. Tin was once again a great host and we met Luen, the owner, who shared her dinner with us.

The next morning, we headed out to see the two major sites in Saigon: the Reunification Palace and the War Remnants Museum. We started with the Reunification Palace, or the Palace of the President of South Vietnam. It is the famous site of the tanks crashing through the gates, signaling the fall of South Vietnam. Strangely, the palace has been left exactly as it was so it's a bit of a time warp.

Outside the palace they have replicas of the two tanks that crashed through the gates, as well as a stolen US plane that was used to bomb the bunker portion of the palace late in the war. The palace itself is a fantastic display of 70's architecture, not as glitzy as other palaces, but much more my style. Inside you find conference rooms, reception halls, offices, movie theaters, and the super sweet gambling hall in the main building. From the roof you can see a helicopter near the spot that was bombed late in the war, before you proceed into the bunker.

The bunker is much less pretty than the rest of the palace, but does have a great display of antique computers, radio equipment, and the actual maps used for the war. The president's war time bedroom is decidedly spartan.

The final stop in the palace is a movie room showing a decidedly different version of the war. Pat wanted to buy the video to show to his classes, but for the first time, we couldn't seem to find it to buy. The entire video basically frames the war as the country of Vietnam fighting the imperialist Americans who attempted to disrupt the reunification of Vietnam. It had a catchy song as well and left us singing "Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh" as we left. Brainwashing probably....

The next stop was the War Remnants Museum. On the grounds they have even more tanks, Hueys, heavy artillery guns, planes, whatever they could find. Inside, there's a more even handed treatment of the war, but very disturbing none the less. The first room, strangely donated by the state of Kentucky, contains a detailed history of the events leading to the war (many casting the US in less than positive light) and photographs of the events. There was also a collection of photographs taken by professional photographers who were killed in the war. Very thought provoking.

The next room contained an impressive display of posters from countries around the world showing their support for North Vietnam during the war and a fair bit of the peace movement in the U.S. This was followed by the most disturbing room of all: the Agent Orange Room. Picture after picture of horribly deformed babies, children, and adults along with their first person narratives of experiences. Regardless of politics, it's hard to ignore the evil of chemicals that affect generation after generation.

After the museum we found a great Indian place for dinner and pulled up a plastic kindergarten chair at a street stand. They sold 60 cent plastic jugs of beer served from a 55 gallon barrel. A completely packed sidewalk, to say the least. We ended up sharing our table with 3 Vietnamese men, one of whom was a veteran of the South Vietnamese army. It was nice to hear the other side of the Vietnamese story and share some good laughs with local people. Pat even got to practice his sign language when a deaf girl joined our party. We learned sign language for "Australian" after she pointed at us and mimicked a kangaroo. We couldn't figure out an animal for the US, so Aussies we be.

On our last morning, we checked out of our hotel at 8am and headed out for the Tunnels tour. Out tour leader was a radio operator and translator for a US major during the war, so we enjoyed listening to his fact filled Vietnam war history on the 2 hour bus journey. Once we arrived at the tunnels, we saw it was a mix of actual tunnels and cheesy dummies dressed up as Viet Cong. There was also a shooting range where you could shoot a variety of military weapons. It seemed like a poor idea at the site of so much violence.

Later, we got to crawl through one of the tunnels that has been expanded to twice its original size to allow for fat Westerners. There are 100 meters of tunnels to go through, but there are exits every 25 meters. We exited after the first 25 meters.......even at double the size, the tunnels are cramped, dark, and dank. We walked to one of the other exits to watch other members of the group make the full journey. At the 75 meter exit we hear screaming and find out there is a bat flying around in the cramped, dark tunnel. We congratulated ourselves on choosing to exit.

On the way back to Saigon, there was a loud pop and the bus lost its transmission. Starving, we slurped down some noodles at a road stand and hopped on the public bus back to Saigon. Since we still had hours before our 11:50 P.M flight, we wandered down to the Institute for the Blind for a massage. For less than $3 you can get an hour massage from a licensed blind therapist with a promise of no "funny business". Just the thing before a long, long, long flight back to Fargo.

Of course, we went back to Q Cafe for dinner where they asked why we didn't come the night before. We had quickly become their favorite customers. Luen had dishes made especially for us: Spicy Cuttlefish (Squid, I think) and Spicy Fish for Pat. They also gave us a farewell cocktail and insisted we keep in touch. I also had a awkward moment of having to take Luen's pulse after Pat told her I was a doctor. She seemed fine to me 😊

She told me numerous times to go back to the US and make lots of money (as doctors do!) and then come back to Vietnam. Should we ever find ourselves back in Saigon our first night is on her. Then she hailed a cab, negotiated a great rate, and after some hugs we were en route to the airport.

Watching the bright lights of Saigon, it was hard not to feel sadness that our trip was coming to an end. So many great experiences, stories, and people......the trip of a lifetime.

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