insert video of Nha Trang hotel

Friday, 26Jan07

Highlights: Cu Chi tunnel tour, night market

Today’s Vietnam battle-ground tour was one of the coolest experiences I’ve had. Over 200 kilometers of tunnels were dug under ground, meandering all about this region (Ben Duoc) 75 km northwest of HCMC.

According to the tour booklet, “The tunnel network represents the undaunted will, intelligence, and pride of the Cu Chi people. It was used for living, dining and meeting. Of course it’s main function was for participating in the resistance against the enemy and for saving the country. It is also a symbol of the revolutionary heroism of the Vietnamese people…as they lived and fought during the resistance against America. The model of the strategic hamlet is the place where America and their lackeys controlled people. The restored Cu Chi Liberation Zone shows… the activities of boys and girls joining the army with zeal to fight the aggressors.”

The “America and their lackeys” language isn’t bothering me anymore. This place is amazing.

Before thinking that digging tunnels is an easy feat, the earth here was given the name “iron mud” because it was so tough to get through.

video Cu Chi 1:

video Cu Chi 2:

Another amazing thing, aside from all the booby traps & deliberate hazards, was that the Vietnamese intentionally capitalized on their small size, and built these tunnels so skinny and narrow,, most foreigners wouldn’t fit! I can’t imagine how they accustomed themselves to the claustrophobia, but I guess when the alternative is to have bullets and bombs whizzing by you,,, one learns to adjust quickly enough.

They had bottle-necks built-in, both to prevent bigger people from following, and as a defensive point. The tunnels were pitch black,,, so feeling around with your fingers was how you got around. I’m sure they had some torches,, but there weren’t a lot of air holes, so fresh air was scarce. I get claustrophobic just thinking about it.

And while we’re on the subject of air quality,,, rising to the surface to relieve yourself was hazardous to your health,, so all of that happened down in the tunnels too. Between thin, damp air and breathing crap for months at a time in skinny, underground burrows… it’s amazing how they soldiered on. Human beings can adjust to the most inhuman conditions to survive. Amazing.

I will point out for the viewers that these tunnels weren’t built overnight,, nor were they originally intended for battling Americans. I did get that much satisfaction from a tangent comment… These tunnels were begun in 1948 and took 20 years to dig.

1948,,, hmmmmm… who were the Vietnamese fighting back then? Oh yeah! Some colonial European power who was not American.

The engineering that went behind these tunnels is amazing. The video explained it a bit, but there were 3 levels. Whole rooms were carved out below ground… water wells… kitchens, sleeping & meeting caves… frequent turns were factored in to confuse invaders and mitigate grenades.

Aside from genuine awe at the construction of these tunnels, it was amazing walking the battle grounds of “Nam”. True, it isn’t a bright spot on America’s record,, but it happened. A lot of valiant people fought & died here 30-40 years ago in these very woods.
May it never happen again here.

Another odd but funny tourist experience was the “National defense shooting range”. There was an assortment of 8 types of rifle or machine gun that we could fire for a few dollars. We paid by the bullet. 5 shots for $6.50
Sure! Why not? I took 10 in the AK-47. Figures, my rifle jammed or misfired 8 out of my 10 first shots! Feeding them in one at a time did the trick, as I attempted to poke a few holes through the tiger target 100m away.

After shooting, the tour continued. There was a section of tunnels enlarged for tourists to scurry through. It was a 30 meter stretch,, but with the pitch black, step up & two turns on hands & knees… it felt long. My friend Meg couldn’t get herself to go into the tunnels. The only moments we could see anything were when the flashes of cameras went off. Thank-goodness for digital cameras!

There was a blown up U.S. tank, demos of various booby traps, a model ‘health’ facility (underground hospital clinic)… I can’t imagine what that must have been like.

The tour took half a day, but was worth every minute. Most of the tunnels are reportedly abandoned now, as snakes and other animals have taken a liking to them.

power lines in Saigon look crazy to me. it's like a ball of yarn, as if volts of electricity weren't coursing through these things. some of them droop lazily down within feet of the ground. safe? i think not. just had to comment on that. a look at the rubber plantation on the way out to the Cu Chi tunnels
the tour began here, with a description of the tunnel system, how it was built and used. amazing stuff. i recorded most of it in the video
props to Uncle Ho! his image is all over the place here in Vietnam.

entrance to a tunnel. first one we saw today. every sunken meeting room had emergency tunnel exits (in case of bombing from Americans) map of the area
diagram (cut-away) of the tunnels underground. amazing 3 story development. i wouldn't want to become a resident though. the long hole down (with blue at the bottom) is an underground water well, by the way. the boxes under stairs are booby traps (with sharp bamboo pungee sticks) in case "heavy" Americans might try to follow.
most of these tunnels had to be crawled through. there's even places built so narrow, only skinny Vietnamese could fit through. Westerners would get stuck like angry Winnie the Poohs.

our guide leading us through the tour steps leading down into the tunnels. these have been enlargened so tourists (like myself) can fit into a few & see what it was like down there
this is a more typical entrance used during the war by the Vietnamese...
our "volunteer" is in there... looks like a tiny box to me.

mannequin of the 'black pyjama' local fighters. many were women. the uniformed soldiers mostly came from the north.
poor, beat up tank. still resting in the same place it was destroyed years ago by a mine. dents from bullets still testify of unpleasant days gone by. and of course "American Tank" written prominently on the sides.
Meg, deciding which firearm to employ at the armory

$1.30 per bullet... Rambo had left the building, but we each got 5 or 10 shots with something a little out of the ordinary my rifle of the day: AK-47. "When it absolutely has to be destroyed overnight, accept no substitute."
the firing range. our targets are the little blue boxes near the bottom. back down to the tunnels after squeezing a few shots off

inside the tunnels... dark as midnight down there- except when a camera flash goes off tunnel escape from area Commander's living quarters.
in the Commander's,,, eh, cave
another way out

We were fairly spent after coming back from the tunnels, but had enough juice to wander around the night markets a bit. Saigon is definitely cosmopolitan these days. I know several people who would find themselves in shopping heaven here. And it is pretty cheap, on the whole, to shop in Vietnam. $70 for a hand-made suit, knock-offs of any kind of hand bag, watch, cd, etc…
And springing up all over the place like flowers, are the real stores. Coming soon: Gucci, Armani, Prada, etc.

The number of hotels is booming as well. There are ten luxury 5-star hotels already, and the cheapest rooms in some of them start at $240. Vegas? What?

Thursday, 25Jan07

Highlights: Ben Thanh market, War Remnants Museum, Jade Emperor Pagoda, Cholon District (Chinatown)

We got an early start on the day in one of Saigon’s most famous markets, Ben Thanh. It was a short 15 minute walk from our hotel, full of interesting scenes of the routine of daily life in progress here for Vietnamese locals: men reading newspapers perched atop their scooters, women eating breakfast in front of their stores (baguettes!), sidewalk vendors selling their wares, kids on their way to school, bicycle cabbies trying to scoop up fares from passers-bye… the buzz of shopping for daily needs & a few extras.

reading newspapers on the sidewalk... selling vegetables from her bicycle...
or feather dusters from his bicycle... a moving market
and the ever-present, shoulder carried stand... ready to "set up shop" on a sidewalk near you,,, anytime.

little shrines for Buddha are found on sidewalks, in rice fields, on the side of the road. it looks random to me,, but i'm sure there's a reason why each place is picked. perhaps only to bring luck to those who erected it. that's good enough. more 'fresh eats' from the sidewalk chefs
morning routines unfolding along the city streets of Saigon
grapes for sale!

Ben Thanh market is a huge warehouse, packed with hundreds of vendors! From food to handbags, knock-off watches to silk dresses and suits, it was a bee-hive of activity. You have to be careful what you look at, because every glance causes the local vendor to pounce with enthusiasm to sell whatever you are “interested” in.

A Buddhist flavor also hangs over the market, with vendors appealing to your sense of giving them good luck by making their first sale. That line works both ways, apparently. “You want only 1? Buy 2! It bring you better luck!”

Fixed prices don’t exist here. Everything is up for negotiation & price haggling. Not to worry though, almost everything can be found at multiple booths, so playing one off the others is sometimes fun. Took me a while to figure that out. (=

The Ben Thanh market,,, first thing in the morning, as the stalls are just opening... the giant statue in the traffic roundabout across the street... i'm sure it's a Vietnamese folk hero, but it looks like Ghengis Kahn releasing a dove on horseback to me.
one of many booths,, packed with trinkets & novelties to stuff your suitcases with
there's a whole food n spices section as well

Ben Thanh market video:

I did pick up a few trinkets & things for folks other than myself. Ha ha. Part of the cultural experience I suppose. Had to get a new North Face bag ($6) to carry it all though. (=

After an hour of vigorous bartering, we pulled back & re-grouped out front by the statue that looked like Ghengis Khan with a dove, contracting a taxi to take us to the War Rembrance Museum.

Ok. Like I was saying earlier, I was expecting to find “bad guy” status spread out a little more evenly among three other recipients.
1) China has threatened to scoop Vietnam and it’s neighbors (Laos and Cambodia) into it’s firm grip for over a millennium. I have read of Vietnamese efforts, fighting tooth & nail to keep that from happening, favoring almost any fate over inclusion into China.

2) France conquered & colonized Vietnam for 95 years. Originally looking for a back door into China to draw more wealth for themselves & compete with the British, the French ruled this land for a lot longer than any Americans. Any colonial experience probably doesn’t feel good on the receiving end.

3) Japan occupied Vietnam for 4 years during WW II. I’ve read that they were “welcomed” by the people at the time (France was already crushed by late 1941, and couldn’t hold on to Colonial territories). However, I have yet to read of any Asian population who enjoyed the Japanese occupation period. (Korea, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines…) perhaps Vietnam was different.

But no. Yesterday’s hints at America’s “bad guy” status at the Reunification (President’s) Palace was but an appetizer compared to the entrée of the War Remembrance Museum (= ahh, good times.

If you didn’t know better, you might visit a place like this & never know that the Vietnamese battled anyone but the Americans. I’ve got no problem accepting that America has perpetrated some ugly things over the years in the name of ‘national interest’,,, I’d just like to spread the wealth a little.

Captured tanks, helicopters, airplanes and howitzers were artfully arranged in front to show visitors what their Vietnamese brothers were put up against. “U.S.” written prominently across the side.

Welcome to Vietnam! and just in case you forgot, you're in a Communist country now. Enjoy your day! yes,,, that's how i remember it too.

a few American trinkets left over from the good old days. souvenirs, as it were.

Next there was history hall. I am aware that there was a lot of resistance to the war, both at home and abroad. Most accounts of that (that I’ve read) don’t follow the logic that the North Vietnamese government did,,, namely “if you’re not FOR the war, surely you support us!” or something like that. But if anyone could compile a museum’s worth of protest photos and sound bites, and assemble them in apparent support for the Communist re-unification cause,,, it’s the War Remembrance Museum.

This museum, as a sidenote, opened to the public as early as 4 September, 1975, and has grown its collection ever since. They didn’t waste any time.
I can’t find on my map where the anti-colonial museum is, or the anti-Japan museum,, or the “keep China out” museum. Huh. Must be a misprint.

You're welcome...
she's not lining up in support of the war effort,,, so she MUST support the righteous Vietnamese government who is merely defending itself against the aggressive war propagated by the Americans. and that's why her picture is on display here,,, just a few photos down from John Kerry throwing his medals

Following the tour around, we went through the torture exhibits. It’s a stone replica of what once was,,, prisons, interrogation cells complete with photos and descriptions of torture techniques used on people, and a replica guillotine. Tools of the trade were on display- all of which made your guts curl up in your belly & think, “I’m glad that wasn’t me.”

It wasn’t obvious who was doing all the torturing. I’m not sure if they left that deliberately vague, or if it was just to represent what both sides were doing to each other, but the sense was that these things were being done to “patriots” of the Communist North. So- in so many words, even if the faces of the torturers were Vietnamese, Americans were behind this.

I’m not sure how we get credit for the guillotine, as King Louis 15th can firmly attest that this particular device has history in France. The tiger cages? I’m not sure America has a long history with that one either. Hardly a peep of gruesome acts done in prior era’s though… this museum focused entirely on America’s involvement, and the pain that we inflicted with our aggression. 95 years of colonialism gets a pass. So does 4 years of Japanese occupation during WW II. Good old selective memory.

standing outside the mock set-up of torture facilities in use at the time of the Vietnam war (and previous struggles against un-named European colonial powers) let's take this fine piece of American work.. oh wait-
some vague credit to the proper owners is a small consolation i appreciate,,, although attention is brought right back to America in the end. eh,,, short lived relief

unpleasant life in the Tiger cells Meg looks in through the cell door
the view from the top, where guards could patrol & keep an eye on the prisoners,, and taunt them from above.. throwing things down when they felt like it
another view inside the cage. both feet shackled