The Mekong Delta

  Mekong Delta, Vietnam
Monday, November 12, 2007

The first real adventure of my trip to Vietnam, and we start with the Mekong Delta.  We left the hotel at 8am so quite a late start as far as I'm concerned, and drove for about 3 hours before we reached the Mekong River.  On the journey, snatches of "Apocalypse Now" dialogue were playing in my head, accompanied by a backtrack of Wagner.  Can't help being tacky and obvious.



The Mekong Delta (Vietnamese: ðồng bằng sông Cửu Long "Nine Dragon river delta") is the region in southwestern Vietnam where the Mekong River approaches and empties into the sea through a network of distributaries. The Mekong delta region encompasses a large portion of southeastern Vietnam of 39,000 km². The area covered by water depends on the season.  During the Vietnam War, the Delta region saw fighting between NLF guerrillas and units of the United States Navy operating in small river boats and PACVs. As French colonization began in Cochinchina, the first nationalist revolt, on the name of the king, started in that Mekong delta and followed by the First Indochina War fought by the French with their "Dinassaut" on waterways and copied later by the US Navy Mobile Riverine Force. http://indochine54.free.fr/cefeo/dinassau.html.  A view of the "other side" in the struggle for independence and unity. http://hometown.aol.com/canedo/myhomepage/vietminh.jpg


Until recently, I believe, the locals (and therefore also tourists), had to cross to the islands of the Mekong by boat.  But not so many yeas ago a fantastic bridge was constructed, making the journey accessible in all weathers.  After we crossed the bridge, we took a small boat to cruise around the river and the many small canals that run between the regions and villages of the island.

There's so much to take in, so much to see and hear, I didn't know where to look first.  The island was lush and verdant, the water a murky brown, impenetrably deep in places.  There were tourist boats around, of course, but not that many.  What fascinated me so very much over the next two days was the river traffic of the locals, little wooden skiffs, larger boats with motors, ladies rowing along with their conical hats atop their heads.  Stunning.  I know I was moaning earlier that the tour was sanitized and made easy for tourists, but maybe its a positive thing because I got to experience and see more than if I'd been wandering around on my own. 

First we visited a tile making factory.  The skill and beauty of the work was something else.  We watched a young boy apply paraffin first to the mould so that the colours wouldn't run into each other.  Then he added different coloured pigments with the terracotta, smoothing as he went along.  Into a press, and moments later, a beautiful tile, the likes you would pay a small fortune for at Fired Earth.  The tile had to dry for some days before it could be fired and ready for use, but so beautiful and skillfully made.

Next, we went to a brick factory.  Fancy that,a  brick factory on the river.  Here there were at least six beehive-shaped kilns firing the bricks that were made by hand.  Different shapes and sizes produced to be exported to places like Japan.  The heat was amazing, how anyone could work here for so long was beyond me.  I decided not to buy souvenirs here, thought they might weigh down my backpack a bit too much and may also cause a problem or two in Customs!

Again on the river in the late afternoon towards our island home stay.  We sailed happily along and then transferred to local rowing boats where ladies in conical hats moved us swiftly to our next destination.  Then a brief walk of maybe 15 minutes along what may well be the island's equivalent of the A40, to our home for the night.  We stayed in a large and ornate house that belonged to a lady who had lived there many years ago before Communism took the property from her and her family.  It was interesting.  We were entertained by local musicians and singers, and although it was fascinating, I won't be rushing anywhere soon to find a copy for my iPod.  Oh, how narrow-minded of me.  I enjoyed the performance, but following stories of local life was difficult because of the language barrier.  The physical story telling was limited which also made it hard to concentrate.  Then we had a dinner of local foods, and it was very good.  I was stuffed and happy to go to bed early after a long and exciting day.



Sleeping in this amazing house with few walls was more difficult than I'd anticipated.  We all had army cot-style beds with sheets and slim pillows.  We also had mosquito nets which was a good thing being so close to the river.  What I hadn't bargained for was sleeping in the room that contained Buddhas, a Virgin Mary, and shrines and portraits to the ancestors of the house.  One very beautiful Chinese lady kept watching me from her portrait every time I turned over.  Oh, and the young boy of the house was also to be reckoned with.  A cute 10 year old who cheats at cards, he's interested in everything so he tried hard to go through my bag, sending text messages to I have no idea who (if you got one, sorry!), playing with my cameras, and plucking at my clothing.  He eventually left and I drifted off to sleep.  I found a blanket so I wasn't cold and in the end I slept well, although not for long.

First, there was music.  I ignored it.  Then there were barking dogs.  I ignored them.  Eventually the lady of the house opened blinds and let in the morning sun: at 5:45am!  Too early!!!  Still, I was up before most of the group and I had an experience of a shower.  The toilet/shower combination is popular and in I went because I totally stank from the travelling of the day before.  The water was cool but worth the shivers and I was happy to be clean.  It was only after I emerged dripping that someone pointed to the incredibly large spider I'd shared the room with.  Yuk!

Breakfast over, our bills paid, and we were off to the floating markets in the Mekong.  The markets are so important for the area.  Villagers travel from many miles away to bring their produce and wares to sell.  They live on houseboats for a couple of weeks while they sell their things before returning home to get a new load.  They have everything here: food, clothes, karaoke, even floating gas stations.  A riot of colours, tastes, smells, and sounds, again.



After the markets, we learned how to make pop rice (yummy) and rice paper, and that was the end of our tour of the Mekong Delta.  It was an incredible experience, one I never imaged I'd have.  I had to keep pinching myself to be sure it was real and that I wasn't dreaming.

Củ Chi tunnels

We drove for a couple of hours back towards Saigon so that we could visit the Cu Chi tunnels.  The tunnels of Củ Chi are an immense network of connecting underground tunnels located in the Cu Chi district of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and are part of a much larger network of tunnels that underlie much of the country. The Củ Chi tunnels were the location of several military campaigns during the Vietnam War, and were the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam's base of operations for the Tết Offensive in 1968.

The tunnels were used by NLF guerrillas as hiding spots during combat, as well as serving as communication and supply routes, hospitals, food and weapon caches and living quarters for numerous guerrilla fighters. The role of the tunnel systems should not be underestimated in its importance to the NLF in resisting American operations and protracting the war, eventually persuading the weary Americans into withdrawal.



Some history:

tThe district of Củ Chi is located 70 kilometers to the northwest of Saigon near the so-called "Iron Triangle". Both the Saigon River and Route 1 pass through the region which served as major supply routes in and out of Saigon during the war. This area was also the termination of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Because of this, the Củ Chi and the nearby Ben Cat districts had immense strategic value for the NLF (National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam). Mai Chi Tho, a political commissar stationed in Củ Chi describes the region as a "springboard for attacking Saigon." He goes on to say: "We used the area for infiltrating Saigon-intelligence agents, part cadres, sabotage teams. The Tết Offensive of 1968 was prepared-the necessary troops and supplies assembled-in the Củ Chi tunnels."

In the beginning, there was never a direct order to build the tunnels; instead, they developed in response to a number of different circumstances, most importantly the military tactics of the French and U.S. The tunnels began in 1948 so that the Viet Minh could hide from French air and ground sweeps. Each hamlet built their own underground communications route through the hard clay, and over the years, the separate tunnels were slowly and meticulously connected and fortified. By 1965, there were over 200 kilometers of connected tunnel. As the tunnel system grew, so did its complexity. Sleeping chambers, kitchens and wells were built to house and feed the growing number of residents and rudimentary hospitals created to treat the wounded. Most of the supplies used to build and maintain the tunnels were stolen or scavenged from U.S. bases or troops.

The medical system serves as a good example of Vietnamese ingenuity in overcoming a lack of basic resources. Stolen motorcycle engines created light and electricity and scrap metal from downed aircraft were fashioned into surgical tools. Doctors even came up with new ways of performing sophisticated surgery. Faced with large numbers of casualties and a considerable lack of available blood, one man, Dr. Vo Hoang Le came up with a resourceful solution. "We managed to do blood transfusion," Vo said, "by returning his own blood to the patient. If a comrade had a belly wound and was bleeding, but his intestines were not punctured, we collected his blood, filtered it, put it in a bottle and returned it to his veins."
By the early 1960's, the NLF had created a relatively self-sufficient community that was able to house hundreds of people and for the most part, go undetected by large numbers of American troops based, literally, right on top of the tunnels.


An above ground air vent disguised as a termite mound

Life in the tunnels American soldiers used the term "Black echo" to describe the conditions within the tunnels. For the NLF, life in the tunnels was difficult. Air, food and water were scarce and the tunnels were infested with ants, poisonous centipedes, spiders and mosquitoes. Most of the time, guerrillas would spend the day in the tunnels working or resting and come out only at night to scavenge supplies, tend their crops or engage the enemy in battle. Sometimes, during periods of heavy bombing or American troop movement, they would be forced to remain underground for many days at a time. Sickness was rampant among the people living in the tunnels; especially malaria, which accounted for the second largest cause of death next to battle wounds. A captured NLF report suggests that at any given time half of a PLAF unit had malaria and that "one-hundred percent had intestinal parasites of significance." In spite of these hardships, the NLF managed to wage successful campaigns against a conscripted army that was technologically far superior.

U.S. campaigns against the tunnels The tunnels of Củ Chi did not go completely unnoticed by U.S. officials. They recognized the advantages that the NLF held with the tunnels, and accordingly launched several major campaigns to search out and destroy the tunnel system. Among the most important of these were Operation Crimp and Operation Cedar Falls.

Operation Crimp began on January 7, 1966, with B-52 bombers dropping 30-ton loads of high explosive onto the region of Củ Chi, effectively turning the once lush jungle into a pockmarked moonscape. Eight thousand troops from the U.S. 1st Infantry Division, 173rd Airborne Brigade, and the Royal Australian Regiment combed the region looking for any clues of PLAF activity.

The operation was, for the most part, unsuccessful. On the occasion when troops found a tunnel, they would often underestimate its size. Rarely would anyone be sent in to search the tunnels, as it was so hazardous. Besides being too small for most Western men to fit through, the tunnels were often rigged with explosive booby traps or punji stake pits. The two main responses in dealing with a tunnel opening were to flush the entrance with gas or water to force the guerillas into the open, or to toss a few grenades down the hole and "crimp" off the opening. The clever design of the tunnels along with the strategic use of trap doors and air filtration systems rendered American technology ineffective.

From its mistakes, U.S. command realized that they needed a new way to approach the dilemma of the tunnels. They began training an elite group of volunteers armed only with a gun, a knife, a flashlight and a piece of string in the art of tunnel warfare. These specialists, commonly known as "tunnel rats" would enter a tunnel by themselves and travel inch-by-inch cautiously looking ahead for booby traps or cornered PLAF. There was no real doctrine for this approach and despite some very hard work in some sectors of the Army and MACV (Military Assistance Group (Vietnam)) to provide some sort of training and resources, this was primarily a new approach that the unit(s) trained, equipped and planned for themselves.

Despite this revamped effort at fighting the enemy on its own terms, U.S. operations remained largely unsuccessful at eliminating the existence of the tunnels. In 1967, General William Westmoreland tried launching a larger assault on Củ Chi and the Iron Triangle. Called Operation Cedar Falls, it was, in principle, exactly the same as Operation Crimp, but with 30,000 troops instead of the 8,000.


trapdoor, camoflagued



trapdoor, open!

On January 18th, tunnel rats from the 1st and 5th Infantry uncovered the NLF district headquarters of Củ Chi containing half a million documents concerning all types of military strategy. Among the documents were maps of U.S. bases, detailed accounts of PLAF movement from Cambodia into Vietnam, lists of political sympathizers, and even plans for a failed assassination attempt on Robert McNamara. With this one exception, Operation Cedar Falls failed to achieve its objective of destroying the communist stronghold in the region.

By 1969, B-52s were freed from bombing North Vietnam and started "carpet bombing" Củ Chi and the rest of the Iron Triangle. Ultimately it proved successful but futile. Towards the end of the war, the tunnels were so heavily bombed that some portions actually caved in and other sections were exposed. But by that time, they had succeeded in protecting the local guerrilla units in "surviving to fight another day".

Throughout the course of the war, the tunnels in and around Củ Chi proved to be a source of frustration for the U.S. military in Saigon. The NLF had been so well entrenched in the area by 1965 that they were in the unique position of locally being able to control where and when battles would take place, thus frustrating the Americans' overall military superiority. By helping to covertly move supplies and house troops, the tunnels of Củ Chi allowed guerrilla fighters in their area of South Vietnam to survive and help prolong the war and increase American costs and casualties until their eventual withdrawal in 1972.


a trapdoor!

The Củ Chi tunnels today  A command center in the tunnels. Today, visitors to the complex can eat meals underground, sampling foods that the underground Vietcong fighters ate.  Tour Guide showing how the Tunnel works.
The 75-mile-long complex of tunnels at Củ Chi have been preserved by the government of Vietnam, and turned into a war memorial park. The tunnels are a popular tourist attraction, and visitors are invited to crawl around in the safer parts of the tunnel system. Some tunnels have been made larger to accommodate the larger size of western tourists, while low-power lights have been installed in several of them to make traveling through them easier and booby traps have been clearly marked. Underground conference rooms where campaigns such as the Tết Offensive were planned in 1968 have been restored, and visitors may enjoy a simple meal of food that NLF fighters would have eaten.  Above-ground attractions include caged monkeys, tourist trap vendors selling souvenirs, and a shooting range where visitors can fire an assault rifle.

For me, the best bit of this tour was the shooting.  Yep, I got to get my hands, and bad eye sight, on an M30 and bullets.  I was rubbish but I had a go which was good fun.  None of the other ladies in my group had a go, not sure why.  I was a total piker at the tunnels, though.  I went down a little way, had a look and decided it was so not for me.  I have nothing but admiration for the men, women and children who used these tunnels.  They're far more courageous and brave than I will ever be!