Saigon

In Vietnam there are 90 million people and 40 million motorbikes. There are more motorbikes in Saigon, now known as Ho chi Min City, than anywhere else in the country.

My bus ride through Cambodia was 4 hours longer than expected so when I arrived I was tired and frustrated. It was easy enough to find the hostel, I only backtracked once, and I was in for the night once I arrived. I chit chated with some girls who arrived after me who had also been on my bus. One was from Whales and the other from Halifax! I slept very well until the maid came in at 8 to change the bed above mine! So rude! The girls and I spent the day touring the city. It was hot but we managed to see most of the big sites before booking some tours for the next day. We enjoyed some Vietnemese food and then ran into a guy I'd met in Phnom Penh. We sat with him and had some drinks. After a frustrating process of paying an enormous bill (people had been arriving throughout the night) we left and sat on the street. Finally, at midnight I called it a night and went to bed. I would be up early for my Cu Chi Tunnels tour. So far I was a bit disappointed in Saigon.

The Cu Chi tunnels were built by the Viet Cong as protection from Americans during the war. Using these they could hide and travel, even live, underground while the US troops searched above ground. The Vietnemese didn't have the same resources as the Americans and used many traps and such that seemed to me to be barbaric. While I know they were fighting for survival I was also picturing an American soldier watching the man in front of him fall in the ground and get impaled. It was an ugly war, not that any are pretty. We saw the tiny entrance holes that the Vietnemese used to access the tunnels as well as the tunnels themselves. I've never thought of myself as clausterphobic but the tour guide told us we would need to crawl on our bellies for one portion so I was quite apprehensive. Then the tourist in front of me stopped mid tunnel to take pictures and after more than a minute in the airless space I had to ask him to keep moving. Every 20 metres is an exit and I took the first one. I wasn't ready to crawl through a space that small. I went through another portion of the tunnel later with no one in front of me and it wasn't too bad. They've been enlarged and have lights for us "big" foreigners. We had a stop at a shooting range, where I did not partake, and a snack of boiled tapioca, which they survived on in the tunnels, before heading out. It was an interesting tour.

I met another Canadian in my room and 4 of us headed for some more traditional food for dinner.

The next day I was excited to be seeing Andy and Rachel again. First stop was a travel agency to buy an open bus ticket which allows you to buy all your tickets up front and then book as you go. We decided to go the War Remnants Museum but found it closed for lunch when we arrived. We had some lunch ourselves and tried the museum again. 3 hours later, after an exhibit of pictures,  I felt appalled and confused about this war that stripped a third world country of vegetation, health, and freedom. Students learned in school how to make bombshelters, weave baskets and hats, and how to protect themselves....not exactly what children should be learning. I didn't understand what had happened but knew that so many people died, both American and Vietnemese. Many innocent women and children were murdered. And since the use of Agent Orange many ripple effects are still being felt. It was hard not to feel anti American after all the pictures showing the terrible war on a beautiful country. I know there are 2 sides to every story. And there are many young innocent US soldiers that perished as well!

We had a nice dinner afterwards and then it was time to get organized for my bus trip that night!  I wasn't too sad to say goodbye to Ho Chi Minh......plus I was heading to the beach!