A sobering day


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Asia » Vietnam » Southeast » Ho Chi Minh City
August 6th 2010
Published: July 28th 2017
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Geo: 10.7592, 106.662

The following morning was an early start for the final day of our group tour. We boarded our bus to meet our local guide whose job it was to show us the ingenuity of the Vietcong fighters at the Cu Chi tunnels. To our great fortune, the local guide was a war veteran, who had fought alongside the Americans and ANZAC troops for the South Vietnam army, and was happy to answer any questions about the war, his role and his life since then. A thoroughly interesting and charming man, he had seen a fair share of suffering at the hands of the NVA and the Vietcong, and was able to give real-life examples of the tactics used. When asked if he was ever badly injured, he replied, "Only once, I was only slightly injured. I was riding on top of a tank when we hit a Vietcong mine. The tank rolled over and I was thrown 5 metres into the air before hitting the ground. I remember it now, What I do not remember is afterwards, I was in hospital for 20 days." The following sobering words really made his courage stand out, "I was lucky. I fought in the army for 7 years and was never badly hurt. My brother fought for one year, and lost his arm." Stories like this have punctuated the beauty of the country, showing the sadness and savagery of the recent history of Vietnam.

At the tunnels, we were encouraged to watch a video of the atrocities of war, and how the Vietcong used the 250km of underground tunnely to launch their assaults on the Allied armies. Before we went in, our guide warned us that it was propoganda for the Communists and indeed it was. The film spoke of peaceful villages, innocent children, heroism in wounding or killing Americans and how the local Cu Chi people were given honours such as "Number One American Killer" for their work for the Vietcong.

A museum worker then showed us the intricacies of the tunnel system, how the smoke from the cooking room was channelled out through various pipes to reach the surface over 100metres away to confuse the enemy. He demonstrated the area covered by the tunnels, and it was vast. Then we went outside to view the different booby traps laid to injure and slow down the US army. It was rare, said our guide, that the traps would ever kill, but one dead is less demoralising and destructiuve than 1 injured and 2 stretcher beareres needed to take him to the hospital. The traps were (although I hate to admit it) absolutely ingenious: rotating trapdoors, hidden under piles of leaves which would collapse when stood on, revealing a pit of sharp bamboo spikes, smeared with poison (made from the Vietcong's faeces, which was nice!); rotating platforms with metal spikes on, which would flip up to punture the legs, necks, armpits and heads of solders; fishing traps with metal spikes sticking out of the bottom to pierce the feet of any solders unfortunate enough to step into them... the list is endless. They showed us a traditional Vietcong workroom, with the local people using the exploded weapons fired against them to build a supply of gunpowder to create land mines; metal to melt down and forge spikes out of and casings to provide ammunition.

We were then shown a tunnel which survived from the original network, which was covered by a small lid, made of wood so that in the monsoon season it would swell and seal tightly to prevent flooding of the tunnels (I told you they were clever!). The museum worker then proceded to slide down into a hole maybe 40cm by 20cm wide, and cover himself over with the wooden cover with sticks and leaves atop it. He then asked if anyone else would like to try, The wiry New Yorker with the group slid in, no problem, as did the Sheep Farmer from Adelaide. Never one to resist a challenge, I slid down easily into the dark pit, covering myself up as I went. Fluid as water, no problem. Feeling pretty pleased with myself, I emerged from the hole, only to find that I lacked the tricep strength to haul myself out of the hole again. I tried 3 times, but in the end, 2 kindly gentlemen took an arm each and pulled. Not my most graceful moment, but I was glad I had done it anyway!

Then it was onto the tunnels themselves. Only a few sections survived the carpet bombing of the US planes once the Vietcong had been sufficiently tortured to reveal their location, and one of these has been preserved in 3 sections. A wide "tourist section", hollowed out to allow Westerners to gain access; a slightly smaller tunnel in the middle and then one which was the original size. Although Stacey and some of the others hesitated, I was eager to take on the tourist tunnel, and clambered in, crouching along the 20m or so until the first exit. No problem, so I decided to try the 2nd section. To be honest, it was not much smaller than the first section and I managed the next 30m or so. The final section worried me, as the food here has been pretty good and I feared my waistline would have hindered me! However, the local guide told me that it was the same as the 2nd section, so on 3 of us intrepidly inched. It got to the point where I had to be on hands and knees, and it was at this point that I regretted my decision to wear shorts! The tunnel got very narrow in the middle, as we traversed a 'bottleneck', used to keep the larger Allied army from following their slim and nimble enemy. It was dark, hot and sweaty down in the tunnels, but the feeling of triumph on completing the entire 100m was worth the crippling crawl for the last 15 or so metres!

The tunnels themselves, along with the very understanding viewpoint of a man who saw his comrades and regiments infiltrated by Vietcong spies, gave a real insght into the reasons behind their defection to the other side. However, seeing their brutal and cold-blooded wounding and killing methods made for very uncomfortable viewing and learning.

Lunch was a local restaurant, with no menus, you either had chicken noodle soup, beef noodle soup, rice with egg or rice with beef. They ran out of 7-Up, they ran out of chicken, they ran out of beef, then suddenly introduced shrimp to the avilable options and the food was delicious! The hygeine and sanitation of the place was probably not up to scratch for the UK hygeine police, but it was piping hot and not a single plate was left empty! All for the princely sum of 1.50 for both Stacey and I to have a meal and a drink. Aaaaaah!

The afternoon was spent in another humbling and sobering place: the War Remnants Museum. The displays showed the effects of the Agent Orange, dropped by the US bombers which caused (and still causes to this day, through infection of soil and hormones) birth defects and disfigurements, as well as cancers and Cerebral Palsy. The displays were horrific, but had to be seen to understand the atrocities committed by the Allied side, and to show the other side of the coin from this morning. We saw images of US soldiers torturing the Vietcong and Vietminh soldiers; the vast bombing of the vast areas of civillian land, and the war crimes committed. The whole exhibition was very propoganda-based and one-sided, but again it was something that needed to be seen to understand the very recent history of this country.

Dinner was in a rooftop Vietnamese BBQ joint, complete the monsoon rain beating down through the open-sided covering roof. The place was heaving with locals, and we were warned to order 2 drinks at a time as the waiters were unlikely to be attentive! All part of the Oi Chai Oi! (Oh my God!) of Vietnam life! A gas burner was lit at the table and food was brought out in chunks for you to BBQ yourself - noone else to blame if you came down with food poisoning worryingly!! Stavey and I ordered goat and giant chilli and garlic prawns. The goat was delicious and came to the table in chunks. However, the prawns came to the table on skewers, still twitching and wriggling, something which had not crossed my mind before - (prawns are always cooked alive!) The first 2 on the burner were quite disturbing for me, and were almost enough to turn me vegetarian (I even apologised to them!) but after that, I got into the swing of things and they were delicious. I'm sure that Karma will one day catch up with me, and when Giant prawns take over the earth, I'll be first to be skewered and placed on a hot plate, with salt and lime juice for dipping! We ate like kings until we were stuffed, and it came to 300 000 dong, which is the equivalent of 10 pounds. Can't complain can you!?

Went to a bar, said our goodbyes (our tour leader has made a dvd of all of the group photos and shots he has taken of us throughout the trip as a parting gift! What a star!!!) Then it was off to bed! Night Night! xxx



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