Often you visit places and the history is so old it doesn’t really seem relevant to you. Here in Ho Chi Minh that is definitely not the case. Most of the history we have been reading about is since the Second World War with lots of twists and turns and involvement from France, America, China and Russia. I personally think Vietnam would have been so much better off without so much outside involvement but who knows what type of communist rule the people would have ended up under.
A trip to the War Remnants museum was very sobering, especially the display about the American use of Agent Orange chemicals and the ongoing affect that is having on children being born into affected families or in areas with land and waterways covered in the chemicals. The photo exhibition also showed what lengths the war correspondents went to in order to document the reality of what was going on. In the American War they played a big part in exposing the real truth and eventually helped gain US public support to pull out of the war.
I (Janet) had read a novel before coming here called Saigon (thanks for the recommendation Judy and Phil) which tracked the history but within a fictional love story. This meant that when we arrived in Ho Chi Minh (formerly Saigon) I recognised buildings of importance from the history which was great.
The Hotel Continental was where many of the war correspondents stayed when in Saigon. We also saw the rooftop where all the American CIA staff where helicoptered out from when the USA pulled out.
The new Independence Palace was completed in 1966 to replace the Reunification Palace that had been bombed. I have never seen such a gawdy but modern palace complete with rooftop nighclub, cinema, bunkers and shooting range!
Then we went to see the Viet Cong tunnels used very successfully from the 1940s to the 1970s. For an army with very little arms and sometimes hugely outnumbered in soldiers, they were incredibly resourceful and clever in their use of the tunnels. They spread over 250km with three depths of tunnels to prevent flooding, to hide booby traps, live in, enable cooking and use of wells.
These were extremely narrow, hot and claustrophobic and the 100m tunnel we made our way through had been made a bit bigger to fit Westerners through!
And then for the real fun bit – firing an AK47. We each had 5 bullets to fire (no auto as you had to pay per bullet). It was fab!
And to finish off the city – it’s always good to get an ariel view (even if two beers cost 323,000 VND or $14 – which for Vietnam is very pricey, so well done to Pete who didn’t have a heart attack paying the bill).
Oh and just one video of the crazy, crazy traffic!
