Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)
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Ho Chi Minh City,
Ho Chi Minh City,
Vietnam
Sunday, May 4, 2008
My first impression of Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) was the absolutely insanity of their traffic!!!! The roads are literally a free for all...I thought I'd seen crazy but this was something else...almost surreal. To cross the street you need eyes all around your head and superior dodging skills. I arrived in the city pretty late afternoon on a Sunday and guess what the museum's are closed on Monday's (so I was told which later turned out to be not true)...so not the greatest timing which meant a mad dash to the War Remnants Museum where I was able to squeeze in 45 minutes before it closed. The courtyard was full of tanks, planes (some used by the U.S. Air Force). There was also a full size model of the Tiger Cages which housed Viet Cong's prisoners. Inside the building were some very disturbing photos (most from during the war and some showing the effectsof Agent Orange...so not the easiest photos to look at).
The city is pretty great at night, all lit up with lots of people roaming the streets, lots of bars and restaurants to choose from, although I did up at a not so great one but the night was redeemed with a few drinks complete with all the top 40 hits of the 90s that everyone knows...so it was a great night.
Monday morning started off early and turned into a long, hot and exhausting day...but it was worth it. I took a day trip out of the city to the Cu Chi Tunnels. On the way there we stopped at a handicraft workshop where they plop all the tourists in the hopes that we buy the overpriced items and are told "we take visa card"...After a not too brief stop we finally arrived where we first got to watch a ridiculous anti-American film...you would think they only killed children...the propoganda is quite intense as you can imagine although it is interesting to see it from the other side's perspective. Then finally we were in the jungle seeing all the crazy booby traps, bunkers, sunken ground from Nepalm, hiding spots etc. I couldn't believe how well concealed the booby traps and hiding spots were (you'll be able to see in my photos when I post them). Then finally we got to go into the tunnels, they were really small and narrow, I basically had to go through on my knees and it was quite dark so it was hard to navigate at times. The system was quite complex from what I understand, over 250kms of tunnel which stretched from Saigon to the Cambodian border so this enabled the Viet Cong to control a large area near HCMC. Some parts of the tunnels were a few storeys deep, but we only got to go in the top level which was only like 3m underground.
Finally back in town (the tour was supposed to return at 2 but it got back at 3:30) I beelined it for the Reunification Palace but unfortunately it was already closed for the day...so after a bit of pestering the guard he let me on the grounds to take pictures for 5 minutes. On the grounds is the tank that crashed through the gates when Saigon was taken by the Nrth on April 30, 1975. Before this it was used as the presidential palace for South Vietnam. I really wish I could've gone into the building because it supposedly looks just as it was left. Afterwards I wandered over to the cathedral...not exactly something I was expecting to see in Asia, but apparently 10% of the population is Catholic making Vietnam the country with the 2nd largest Catholic community in Asia.
Then it was time for the night train...actually not too bad. A sleeper car with 4 beds (bunks)...where a night of Uno Cards and Oreos ensued and actually a little bit of sleep.
