The last few days we spent in Saigon – what a relief it was too. For almost the entire length of our stay we have had terrible weather, and our whole plan was to hit all the beaches and do some surfing and other water sports. After three weeks of failing weather, we decided to spend our last days in the city knowing that we could do indoor things like…. shop, shop, shop, not buy anything, bargain with some crazy ass Vietnamese, still not buy anything, watch movies, bowl, and sight see around town. Oh and don’t forget all the eating.
We went up to the observation deck of Saigon’s biggest tower, it had great views of the city. Only problem was it was expensive for what you got. In a city where everything is 1$, we paid $10.00 each to go up. It was a good view and all, but the price seemed a little high. It was not even as tall as the space needle, but it was close. Advice: If you go up, make sure to grab a free water bottle or two (get your money’s worth!).
Chelsea and I also tried out a chain of restaurant’s from Singapore called Kichi Kichi ‘Rotary Food Express’. Essentially it was a hot-pot version of Blue-C Sushi except it featured fancy foods such as fish fins, wonton’s, noodles, frog parts and lucky eggs (fertilized goose eggs). On the right is a frog leg and ribcage. Taste? Not bad, it actually does taste like chicken. Thought of eating the meat off of something that looks like a muscular human leg? Rough.
It was interesting to experience the difference between the capital city of Hanoi and the economical capital of the country, Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). It is pretty clear that the south lost the ‘American War’ as they call it out here – it is overloaded with reminders everywhere. In the north there are museums and statues, but not like in the city formerly known as Saigon. I think that because the south was defeated by the north they felt like they had to gloat and have all of these reminders all over the city. In Hanoi there was not much of that, which I am grateful for. It gets a little overwhelming as an American seeing all this stuff. In Hanoi it seemed the focus was on winning victory from the French, whom they battled for independence for decades before the ‘American War’ even started.
The French occupied Vietnam for one hundred years before they won independence through years and years of war. You can see evidence of the occupation in the architecture, and in the fact that this Buddhist country is covered in Catholic cathedrals.
Our last day in Vietnam we went to the Cu Chi Tunnels. It is a war history monument, and it pays tribute to the members of the Viet Cong who controlled a small town called Cu Chi by using an endless maze of underground tunnels. As my friend Chris Stewart put it, “Go to Cu Chi tunnels to see some Full Metal Jacket shit.” That was exactly what we saw.
It is never entirely happy and enjoyable to go learn about the brutalities of wars past, but to visit from the side of the enemy, who lost the dirty, highly protested war to a very poor, communist country is even less enjoyable. It is not that it was not interesting – it just put an even fouler light on what we already knew was a dark part of our countries history.
The cool things? Here they are:
- Learning to shoot guns from some ex-Vietnamese soldiers. Chelsea shot a M1 Garang (sp?) and I shot an AK47. Chelsea shot a big ass gun for being her first one – the biggest one available! The AK47 was fun because I use that gun in Call of Duty (nerd 8==> ) and I got to put it on fully auto!
- Learning about the guerilla fighting techniques that led the North and the Vietcong to win the war. Booby traps, the tunnel system, the fighting style.
- Learning how they outsmarted all the American attempts to get them out of the tunnels. American’s sent in German Shepherds to kill the VC and you know what they did? Wear American clothes and use American soap. When the dogs found them in the tunnels, they wagged their tails and laid on their backs! Then the VC ate them because they were starving.
- Understanding what it took for 16,000 people to live underground for years. About 7,000 of them lived until the war was over. At the memorial, I crawled a hundred yards through one of the tunnels. It was dark, very cramped, extremely claustrophobic, and hot as hell twenty-thirty feet below the surface. AND, they widened the tunnel %50 so white tourists could fit in it AND added the lights. Imagining it without that makes me quiver. One of the tunnels was an escape tunnel that went all the way to Cambodia! A hundred km or more!
The not so cool things?
- Being the victim of all the jokes on our tour. Not many American’s visit the Cu Chi Tunnels, mostly Europeans and Vietnamese. We were the only people from the USA out of probably fifty people – and I don’t think that anyone knew we were American.
- Seeing pictures of dead Americans and cartoons of Americans caught in booby traps. I would not say this if it was not more than would be necessary at a war memorial – obviously some is okay, but it was a little much.
- Learning about all the ‘American Killer Heroes’, people who killed fourteen or more Americans single handedly – mostly by placing booby traps and land mines. One was a twelve year old girl who’s father died in the war.
- Learning that the majority of the landmines that ravage Vietnam today were placed by Vietnamese, contrary to popular belief.
- Learning that because Vietnam is communist (or, socialist might be a better fit) nothing is free. School for children? $10 a month for school, $10 a month for school supplies, $10 a month for transportation to and from school, $10 a month for uniform upkeep and $10 a month for lunch. That is $50.00 USD a month to have your kid go to school in a country where the daily wage is $3-4.00 Because of this, %60 of children do not ever attend school. This is just one of many things that might be different had the South won the war.
Chelsea and I talked about it and the thing that left a bad taste in our mouths is this:
In the USA if you go to a War Memorial Museum I feel like you get a semi fair view of what happened. Obviously this is not totally true, but it is much more true than it is in Vietnam. For example, last year we went to Pearl Harbor and the Arizona monument. I felt it was equally welcoming to Japanese and Americans wanting to pay their respects. Although the majority of the monument is recognizing those who fell in the Pearl Harbor attacks, and more so, those who died trapped in the Arizona, it also mentions the bravery and the skill the Japanese had in pulling off one of the greatest attacks in modern war history.
In Vietnam, it was welcoming in a sense. All of the people were nice to us. The problem was that there was an overwhelming sense of how evil America was, and how all the demon American soldiers needed to be killed. What was going on in Vietnam during the war was wrong – that is an accepted fact by most Americans. The big problem with our experience at the monument was that the America ‘bashing’ got in the way of any real history.
The whole memorial is talking about how the Vietnamese defeated the evil Americans and killed and shot many Americans, who could not outsmart the VC, and had to resort to using huge bombs and agent orange to fight them. The Cu Chi Tunnels were just another way to ‘kill Americans’ – they did not mention one time anywhere in the monument/museum that the tunnels were dug seventeen years before America had its political foot in the door, while Vietnam was fighting the French. It did not mention one bit that Vietnamese were killing Vietnamese before America decided to get involved. It seemed like the monument was trying its hardest to hide the fact that any sort of civil war occurred at all. It was merely the American war. And judging by the pictures and 
videos, Vietnamese truly loved shooting Americans and were not in any way subject to any PTST the way Americans were. Hell, in one video a little kid is laughing and shooting her machine gun!
I am glad we went and saw everything, it was quite the experience, although I have to say I was relieved when we got out of there. In my opinion, the Cu Chi Tunnels could use a few exhibits about how horrible war is, and how it destroys families and ruins lives. Vietnamese did die in the war, and the Cu Chi Tunnels being one of the biggest war memorials in Vietnam should have something to commemorating their own fallen soldiers.
The infamous tiger trap. The caption said that after an American would step through and get stabbed (the pit was actually deep) it would take hours for them to die in ‘agony’.
I wish I would have taken more photos of the stuff that put me off! Oh well.
Chelsea, climbing out of a tiny underground tunnel!
Here is a short clip of our shooting range experience!
Woah... totally eye opening! Thanks for sharing!
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