Saigon is actually quite a cool place and we had a lot of fun there. Our friends, Jake Zee and Amanda Huggankiss, joined us on our second day and will be with us until they leave Hanoi on the 10th of May. Kate and I had both been looking forward to their arrival as it will be nice to travel with other people if only for a short while. Saigon pure and simple is mayhem. Around the clock mayhem, but it does have great food and it’s also the home of some of the cheapest beers anywhere. 50 cents AUD for a bottle of ice cold ‘Saigon Green’ which can be enjoyed at street level on little plastic chairs at anyone of the thousands of eat and drinkeries.
As we all know when we hear of Vietnam the first thing that springs to mind is the War. It’s not for me to comment on who was right or wrong or to speculate on the politics of the whole affair other than to say that the legacy of the conflict is still present today and Saigon and it’s surrounding areas are home to many interesting and historical places left over from this particular chapter of history.
On our first day we visited the old Imperial Palace which was kind of a war operations head quarters complete with bomb proof bunkers and shooting range. The war remnants museum was also a fascinating place that we looked at on our first day complete with old air force helicopters, planes and lots of special artillery. The museum was a bit grim as it had lots of photos of people and scenes from the war, all of which were very uncensored if you know what they mean. I’m not terribly squeamish but this place had actual foetuses and deformed babies pickled in jars all allegedly due to the use of Agent Orange. Not very nice.
The War remnants museum also had a replica of a prisoner of war camp run by the South Vietnamese and used to house and torture prisoners from the North; bear in mind the North are now in charge of things in Vietnam. No doubt the camps to house the prisoners from the South weren’t much different but that isn’t mentioned in this particular camp. The camp was replete with replicas of the ’Tiger cages’ which are six foot long by about two foot high and wide barb wire cages that were used to house, wait for it, seven prisoners!
The cages only a foot or two taller housed fifteen prisoners! Mind blowing stuff. The rest of the place had all the tortures used against captives outlined in detail complete with pictures which really got your stomach churning. As I say, no one side is worse than the other but it’s hard to reconcile the Vietnam full of smiling friendly people of today with the Vietnam you know existed during the period of the war. After a bit more of a look around some of the other barbaric displays my stomach had had enough and it was time to leave the war remnants museum and it’s macabre displays to the confines of history.
On our second day we decided to go see another war related tourist attraction, if it can be called that. The ’Cu Chi Tunnels’ are a nerve racking and hair raising seventy kilometre drive out of Saigon. This place has a myriad of tunnels lying under the ground that were used by the North Vietnamese and Vietcong for wreaking surprise havoc on the South Vietnamese and American troops during the war.
The tunnels today are claustrophobia-inducingly small and this is after they have been widened for the benefit of the modern tourist’s larger backside! You can actually buy bullets and fire M-16’s and AK-47’s as part of your authentic Vietnam War tourist experience. Jake went for the M-16 and fired his 10 bullets in about a second in a half but I was content to sit this one out. The noise is absolutely deafening from just one gun so the thought of a whole battle field of these things going complete with artillery etc is a sobering one. Jake’s hearing in one ear was in fact much reduced for the remainder of the day!
When the time came to actually crawl through the tunnels my nerves really began to jangle. It is so small and confined and this is after the widening, that it is hard to imagine how people lived, fought and survived in them. I made it through the one hundred metres or so in one piece but it was certainly scary. They now have exit points along the way for large backsided westerners to pike out of, but the actual soldiers of the time certainly were not afforded this luxury. We read that a skilled NVA or VC soldier at the time could cover the seventy kilometre journey through the tunnels to Saigon in just over three hours! Crazy stuff.
After all the history lessons, gun play and claustrophobia of the tunnels we were certainly feeling extremely fortunate to not have lived through this particular period of history in this region, on either side of the conflict. We have all gained a new level of respect for the combatants and the people affected regardless of which side they found themselves on.
Saigon wasn’t all bombs and history though and on one particular afternoon Jake and I decided to brave the chaos known as Saigon traffic on a rather small scooter in order to find, what else, a skate park! Rumour had it there was one over the Saigon river that was worth a look so with no map and only some sketchy directions to follow we set about trying to track down a roll. The traffic was nuts! People swarm all around you and with all the honking and tooting it is pretty hard to concentrate on looking out for a skate park of all things. We ended up on a huge freeway with trucks on either side of us nearly using us as a couple of pale speed bumps and in the end our three hour search came to nothing. I wasn’t too disappointed as I thought if we made it back in one piece then that would be a kind of remarkable achievement in itself. We were literally ghost white when we made it back to the hotel and this is in spite of being covered in all the dust and debris from the road on our journey. Think about that….
So after four days in Saigon it was time to pack our bags again and head for the Southern Highlands town of ’Da Lat’. Saigon had been interesting for it’s history and also from a sheer chaotic point of view. Before I go I want to leave you with this in order to give you a little insight into just how hectic traffic is here. We learned that in Saigon alone each month there are 150 fatalities from traffic accidents, almost all involving motorbikes and scooters. That excludes injuries and works out to five people killed on bikes in the city every day. Vietnam in total has 1400 traffic fatalities, again excluding injuries, every month! Makes our three hundred or so every year look pretty mild in comparison. So now it was off to Da Lat for a slice of highland life and to check out some of their so-called ’whimsical’ attractions. But more about that next time.
Cu Chi Tunnels
Viet Cong uniform. The black and white checkered scarf signalled that the person was a Viet Cong.
Below are a few photos of the Cu Chi tunnels. These have been widened for us fat tourists.
The Viet Cong used to make termite mounds as air tunnels. The South Vietnamese/American used to try to find tunnel openings by using sniffer dogs. However, the Viet Cong were smart and they disguse their smell coming out of the termite mounds by ripping up american uniforms and scattering them around the 'termite' mounds.
Viet Cong torcher methods.
There were many traps were were shown. Here are just a few.
This is a door trap. The Viet Cong would have this attached to their door and when the soldier entered the house they would be pierced. Our guide called this the lady boy trap..
A trap used by the Viet Cong. The American would fall into this trap and...
...be spiked by the bamboo spikes
Me coming out of the tunnel door. It was a tight fit.
A hidden door to the tunnel. The Viet Cong would disguise the door by covering it with logs or leaves - they would be disguised better than this though.
Drinking at one of our hangouts. The beers and food were dirt cheap.
Drinking again.
Tim getting his cat out after a few drinks.
War Remanents Museum.
The guillotine.
Another torcher method where the prisoner was shackled to the ground.
The tiger cages. The smaller cage held around 5 people and the larger cage held around 15 people. They used a similar method with small rooms with little or no air holes.
Propoganda posters which supports North Vietnamese fight.
Propoganda posters which supports North Vietnamese fight.
Weaponary from the war.
The street in the backpacker area after it had poured down with rain! The street was cleared of motorbikes!
The man with the sugar cane. They peel the outside green layer off and white part of the cane is what you chew.
Me eating sugar cane. You chew it and drink the sugary syrup and spit out the ruffage. No wonder there are heaps of vietnamese with really bad teeth!
This man was able to fit a heavy suitcase on the back of his bike. He spent about 5 minutes trying to balance it and then drove off using his hand to stop the suitcase from falling off the motorbike.
Here are a collection of photos to show you how crazy the traffic is in Ho Chi Minh.
Often you will see a whole family on a motorbike. The parents would be wearing helmets but the children wouldn't. They law only recently changed - many be in 2007 - making it illegal to not wear a helmet. This doesn't apply if you are riding a bicycle though.
In this photo you can see that there is a tiny chair fastened to the bike where the baby sits.
No comments:
Post a Comment