Day 42 (Apr 16 2013): Ho Chi Minh City (aka Saigon) Part I

The Quick Facts:

* Flew into Ho Chi Minh City on Monday night for two full days of touring in Saigon
* Visited the Cu Chi Tunnels, a series of underground tunnels used by the Viet Cong in their fight against the US during the Vietnam War
* Visited the War Remnants museum, which houses old US armed forces planes, tanks, etc, as well has four floors of pictures and items related to the war
* Stayed at the Bizu Hotel District 1 – a decent hotel, despite the postage stamp sized room, with an extremely friendly staff, a central location, and a very competitive price!

The Good:

* The Cu Chi tunnels were a must see, a really fascinating insight into how one aspect of the Vietnam War was fought on the ground

The Bad:

* The War Remnants Museum presents the North Vietnamese version of events – not surprising, but a little frustrating to read some of the propaganda

The last Donaldson to set foot in Vietnam was my father, in the early 1970s, as an officer in the US Army during what they call here the “American War”.  Forty years on, the country still remembers their fight for “reunification” but has very much succeeded in moving on: the trees and vegetation, once decimated by the use of Agent Orange and other defoliants, have all grown back; diplomatic ties with the US have been restored (since 1995); and the population distribution is skewed heavily to younger children who have no recollection of the war nor animosity toward US citizens – 43% of the population is under 24 years of age and only 13% is over age 55.  But this is not to say the war is forgotten – museums like the War Remnants museum and the Reunification Palace stand as reminders of the war and the South’s former independent status.  In the countryside, huge craters left by B-52 bombs still pepper the ground, a permanent part of the post-war landscape.  Also in certain rural areas active landmines still hide, waiting for an unknowing and innocent victim.

My first trip was the ~40 km (25 mile) ride northwest of Saigon to the Cu Chi tunnels.  The Cu Chi tunnels are a series of underground tunnels built by the local townspeople in the 1940s and 1950s and used by the Vietcong in their resistance against US-led forces during the Vietnam War.  The tunnels are tiny – sometimes only 40 cm wide – but have 3 levels (the first being 2-3m below the ground and the third 8-9m) and span a total of 250 km (150 miles).  The tour itself is well-run, even if it begins with a 10 minute anti-America propaganda film (see below), and succeeds in conveying the reality of the war in Vietnam: the dense jungle, never-ending rice paddies, the hot humid weather, and this network of tunnels that provided a serious competitive advantage to the enemy.  They all combine to show the difficulty, if not the impossibility, of the task laid out before our young men and women in the 60s and 70s.

But, as promised, here is a picture of the video room where they show you some anti-American propaganda:

And here is our tour guide, Billy Binh Tram (“Mr Bean”), who (if he is to be believed) says he trained US military to fight in the tunnels (the so-called “tunnel rats”) and spent 4 years carrying out missions with US forces in the area.

 

On to the tunnels, here is an entrance to one tunnel…

 

And that little hole is an air hole used so the VC could breathe while hiding in the tunnels…

 

Here is one of many booby-traps the VC set

 

And finally here are pictures from an actual tunnel during my 150m walk through one…it is *tight* in there, and I was glad to get out at the other end!

 

After the Cu Chi tunnels, I continued my day devoted to the war with a trip to the War Remnants Museum.  Inside, there are a bunch of photo exhibits about the war, all one sided depictions of certain events (some fair, some not), but outside there are a lot of old US military equipment that was left behind or captured as the south fell to the North Vietnamese army…

 

Leaving that all behind as best I could, we met up with our new Swedish friends Oscar and Annika (whom we met in New Zealand and are now also touring through SE Asia) for dinner, which was a lot of fun!

 
 

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