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Published: September 4th 2006
My Tho city
Notice the tv antennas coming out all over the place from these houses built on the river
Okay, our final 3 days… We made it back into Vietnam, with my THIRD visa for the country - grrr. A bit of a tip for anyone going to Vietnam thinking they might stay longer than the one month allowed, just get the three month multiple-entry at home, it is NOT cheaper in Vietnam, and NOT easier, despite what we’d been told! Anyway, Ho Chi Minh City is a bit busier and more hectic than Hanoi, but we felt comfortable and at home being back in Vietnam after our 2 weeks in strange countries. We took a few day-trips into the Delta, and had some nice boat trips along the Mekong and into its little canals. We also visited the Cau Dai temple in Tay Ninh, which was a really fantastical building. The religion is a mix of all the world’s major religions mixed together. The experience was really the bad kind of tourism though. We arrived in time for a service then all the tourists just stared and took flash photography (despite being told not to) of them praying and talked and laughed, etc. We felt very embarrassed to be part of it. Afterward we visited the Cu Chi tunnels.
The documentary you watch is in sharp contrast to the War Remnants Museum (which discusses the horrors of war) and praises the “American-killing heroes” and how great it was for them to kill people. There were displays of the different booby-traps and other maiming devices used by the VC as well. We walked, or hunchingly ran because we were terrified, through the tourist tunnels, that they’ve enlarged for big fat white people. Even though they were bigger, it was still kind of terrifying, you’re really hunched over and the walls are touching you on both sides, and its twisty and very dark. We didn’t make it past the first level! There was also an opportunity to go through actual size tunnels, which I couldn’t face, but going into the entrance you’re really sitting on your heels - craziness! Our last night we sat in a park in Saigon, and watched all the little kids playing with their parents, and young lovers sitting on their motorbikes together. We “slept” overnight at the airport, which closes at midnight, and then spent the next 4 hours sitting beside the parking lot - a great ending to a great adventure!
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