Vietnam

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Trip Start Jan 15, 2006 Previous
Entry Trip End Apr 28, 2006 Next
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  Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Friday, March 31, 2006

Vietnam...

South Africa has great food, cool animals, and friendly people. India is just so intensely different from any place I've ever been. And Vietnam has history, the nicest people, and the Mekong River is so calm and peaceful. These three countries are my favorite so far...all for different reasons, but still all favorites.
I visited two different places within Vietnam regarding the war. The first day I went to the Cu Chi Tunnels and the last day I went to the War Remembrance Museum. The Cu Chi Tunnels is this 200km tunnel system created by the northern Vietnamese during the war. We were able to walk through parts of the tunnels-I have a visual for ya... Get out of your chair for a second. Squat, then duck your head. Now try to walk around like this. Can you believe that people lived, worked, and fought the war in this position for sometimes years at a time

"We need peace"

. I'm a little person and I was aching from walking like this for ten minutes, I can't imagine doing it for much longer than that-I'd be permanently bent in half. Also while we were there I watched a documentary type video about the war. Seeing this movie made it clear how biased history can be. Hearing about the war from a northern Vietnamese perspective, hearing about all the people who received awards for killing the most American soldiers-I'm still not sure how I'm supposed to respond to this. Am I supposed to side on the side of the Americans because that is who I am? Or, am I supposed to keep an open mind and accept it as yet another cultural difference? I have yet to figure this one out-I see the images in my head, I replay the phrases used in the documentary through my head, I just don't have a conclusion to tie it all together.
I went to the War Remembrance Museum by myself on the last day. Colgan was off doing a SAS sponsored trip, and Rob and Erin had already seen it earlier in the week-so I was left to do it on my own. I saw hundreds of pictures from the war. I wish you could have seen them too-but at the same time I wish they had never been taken. I can't believe people actually positioned themselves to be able to get these photographs. The captions were the worst-"moments after this picture was taken, John Doe was killed." Through a photographer's eye, these pictures are amazing-everything is captured: the pain, fear, hatred, and determination

Bridge

. But from a civilian's or a soldier's (I can only assume) perspective, the pictures are horrible, awful, and disgusting. I spent an hour and a half at the museum very emotionally confused. Along with everything else, the images are squished into my brain and I'll never forget them. Whenever I start thinking my brain is full more manages to get added to it. It's all a bit overwhelming-not sure if that is a good thing or a bad. My favorite part of the museum was the display of children's artwork regarding war and peace. Children aged four through fifteen submitted artwork that followed the theme of "emotions on war consequences. Wishes for friendship and peace among peoples." It was really cool to see the kids' take on the war-refreshing and full of hope.
Most of my time in Vietnam was spent on a SAS sponsored trip to the Mekong Delta. I had a really good time, but I think the trip was too long. It was a three-day trip and it could have easily been packed into two. The Mekong River community depends on the river for many reasons. It's their primary source for food, transportation, business, and more-life in general revolves around the river. The first day we spent in thirty foot boats motoring up river for several hours. It's not like I haven't spent the last three months on water, but being on the river was really relaxing. We stopped a few times along the river-to eat fruit, listen to music, watch them make candy and poprice (rice instead of corn)

Floating market

. We stayed in this bungalow on the side of the river. No windows, no doors-we each just had a cot with a mosquito net surrounding it. I didn't really sleep well that night, but I didn't care-it was still cool. On our last day in the Mekong Delta we went to a floating market. I posted a picture that shows a little bit of how this works-it looks like chaos, but people just steer their way through these masses of boats. When you want to make a purchase, you just pull up alongside and do business. Our guide told us that the vendors travel long distances along the river to congregate at these floating markets and then stay until their product is sold out-which could be a day or a week. Most of what they were selling were fruits and vegetables. Our boat pulled alongside another selling pineapples. I used to not be a fan of pineapple, but I've learned to like it and this was definitely the best pineapple I've ever eaten. Too bad I can't bring one home...

I did a lot of shopping in this country. Everything is extremely cheap-which does not mean I spend less, it means that I can buy more. Haha. Brand-name rip offs are everywhere-everything from Northface to Louis Vuitton. DVDs are a dollar - all of them pirated I'm sure (some more obviously than others). My friend bought one and it was clearly videotaped in a movie theater because you can hear people laughing in the background

I don't know how I felt about this

. I'm going to have a major problem getting all my stuff home. The airline is going to make a good profit off of me when my bags weigh in overweight and there are two extras as well. Packing is going to be a whole day's project. I'm looking forward to it, but at the same time, I'm not. (sigh) Wish me luck!

I'm going to cut this off here...sorry it was so brief. I tend to write a lot of words, but I never feel like I say all that much-there is always so much to say. I might have used this analogy before, but this semester had caused my brain to feel a bit constipated-getting my thoughts out of my head is not always an easy process. There are just too many images, too much information, too much of everything-it's all very overwhelming.

Next stop...Hong Kong!

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Row Row Row your boat

Sailin' in my rice hat

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