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Ho Chi Minh City

This entry was posted by Catherine on Sunday, October 25th, 2009 at 12:00 and is filed under Vietnam.

We arrived at this bustling capital and it is hot and raining. We have a cheap and cheerful dinner at a restaurant called Pho 2000 and there are pictures on the wall of Bill Clinton eating there. The menu is limited. Unlike me, who can eat the same thing day after day, Marc likes a wide variety. He actually insists on it. Of course he missed out on delicious Pho.

Pho 2000

The next day was a day we will never forget. We went to a living museum of the Vietnam war (the American war as it is known here and in most other countries around the world). First we saw a Vietnamese war propaganda video. It was all about honoring the “American Killer Heroes”. That is actually what they are called. It was unsettling.

Propaganda Room

Three Level Tunnel System

Making the trip that much more interesting and adding an invaluable dynamic is our new friend Tom. We sat with him and his wife on the boat cruise in Halong Bay and also shared a sleeper cabin with them on the train. Tom let me know that he had been to Vietnam before and had actually lived here for a year. He was a marine in the Vietnam/American war. It was so fascinating to hear his stories and his perspective which was worldly (he has lived all over) and not very American-centric. We are loving and thriving in his company.

So this living war museum is set in the jungle. After the propaganda video (which Tom assured me the US had the exact same videos–from an American perspective), we saw a demonstration of how to get into the secret tunnels that were used by the Viet Kong. Only for the skinniest of us…

Demo of Tunnel Entry

Now You See Him…

Now You Don’t

The Hole He Went Into

The we went to view some of the horrific and barbaric booby traps which were beyond horrible. The guide was so proud of them. I asked Tom if he ever saw them and he replied “absolutely”. The Viet Kong had the idea to injure, and not always kill the Americans. As Tom explained, wounded soldiers need expensive infrastructure. Dead–you’re dead and you get sent home in a body bag. Patrolling American soldiers would step on the ground and would fall into a huge hole covered in spikes which the Viet Kong had soaked in toilet water for weeks, so avoiding infection was next to impossible. The warfare used during this war was barbaric. Spikes everywhere.

Trap With Spikes

More Horrible Traps

If you wanted to, you could buy a round of bullets for various weapons at a firing range conveniently located next to the concession stand. (We hated this and thought it was in terrible taste). You could purchase a round of ammunition to fire an authentic M6 or other weapon used during the war. Tom could identify the different weapons through the sounds they made when fired. I was worried that the sounds would trigger memories and he was going to have a melt down. He assured me that he was fine and “SO over it”.

Twisted Nature

Posing With Viet Kong

There was a series of tunnels that the Viet Kong built and lived in during the war. Tom said that his unit had what they called tunnel rats. The shortest and smallest guys would be sent in to find and smoke out the enemy. Tom was lucky because he wouldn’t fit. The Viet Kong lived underground during the day light hours. There were three levels of tunnels. We had the opportunity to go through a 15 meter portion of a level one tunnel (the biggest) which they increased in size for the tourists “with big asses–like the Americans”. Despite the fact that the width and the height had been increased by 1/3 it was TINY although the first level was the big one. I went behind Tom and in front of Marc. I was anxious and kept thinking about what happened to Pooh Bear when he went into the rabbit’s hole… The tunnel was dark and little. You had to crawl through it.

Entry to Level One

Tunnel For Tourists

Tom met a Viet Kong soldier at the end of the tunnel and introduced himself as a Marine. It really was a moment of full circle. Once we excited, I took pictures of them both. Tom said that Vietnam was the only place he had ever been to that he really believed he would never leave. He lost his entire unit but came home without a scratch on him. He never thought that he would be back vacationing here.

Peace For All

It really was such a pleasure to meet Tom. It changed the dynamic of our experience and our time spent in Vietnam.

Later that day, we went to the war artifacts museum and it was mostly full of pictures and weaponry. Outside the museum there were tanks and helicopters. Again, it was very one sided, but it was hard to see. So many disturbing pictures. The pictures of the after effects of Agent Orange were the most upsetting. The deformations and birth defects were so unsettling and made me think every minute how lucky I am to be Canadian–the more of the world I see, the more I am convinced without a shadow of a doubt that Canada is the GREATEST country in the world.