Cu Chi Tunnels and War Museum

In it’s whole, today was spent learning how awful America (et. al.) were during the Vietnam War (or the American Agression as it’s called here).

In the morning we joined a tour group for the Cu Chi Tunnels, and started by seeing a workshop where people with deformaties from Agent Orange are given jobs to help make egg shell/mother-of-pearl inlay desks and things. Quite a way to begin. We then drove for 1.5 hours to the tunnels themselves and walked through a section of the actual tunnels. They’re impossibly small, with the littlest amount of room to walk on all fours thru (even as they’ve been expanded for tourists sake). We spent some time in the area also looking at various reproductions of the different types of stations/etc that the Viet Cong had mantained and setup to prevent detection as well getting nearly deafened by a non-sound-isolated live-fire AK-47 range. It was interesting (tragic?) to note that as we walked around, the remains of the war (defoliated jungles, bomb craters, etc) were everywhere to be seen.

After the bus came back to HCMC, we went to the War Reminants Musuem, which was incredibly enlightening yet horrifying. Seeing the things that happened on both sides of the war (and esp. getting the Vietnamese side of the story) was incredibly unique. Undoubtedly there was quite a bit of propaganda being thrown around but some of the images, stories and facts really make you question what we call our “American morals.” Even worse, a lot of the quotes and facts and situations are not unlike our America of today. From the war crimes that we’re committing in Iraq to the stories of the Vietnam past, they sound exactly the same. Some of the quotes they had listed you could just place them in today’s politicans (replace “Communism” with “Terrorism”) mouths and they’d fit.

Later in the evening, we tried to find the Jade Buddha Pagoda but were totally unable to, so we ended up grabbing dinner near our hotel and then went to the “fabled” Rex Hotel rooftop bar. For all it’s fabled-ness, it was a bit (okay, a lot) underwhelming, themed with a garden-green lights and a hanging potted plants mess. I much prefered the rooftop bar of the Majestic.

The tickets for the 8-hour bus ride to Phomn Penh are booked for tomorrow, departing here at 8:15am. From the best of my understanding we should be able to get Cambodian visas at the border crossing. The plan is to spend the rest of the day tomorrow in Phomn Penh and then head to Siem Reap the next day. If the visas don’t pan out, we’ll be stuck in the middle of Vietnam until it’s sorted out.

The Day in Ho Chi Minh City

For whatever reason, I got almost absolutly no sleep last night. It had probably something to do with all the episodes of Scrubs I watched on the TV (I heart Rupert Murdoch’s networks).

In the morning, I had breakfast at the hotel and then went to the airport to pick up Ami. The taxi driver was a friendly guy who kept trying to sell me more rides (“yes, I can give you tour of Ho Chi Minh City tomorrow!” and “here is my name-card, call me tomorrow!”). After waiting the sweltering heat for her to clear customs/etc, we made it to the Hotel Magestic right in the middle of district one.

We settled down and set off on a walking tour of the buildings in the area, including the colonial style “Hotel d’Ville” among others. All along the streets are vendors who are selling all sorts of tasty-looking things. I’m still a bit fearful of getting sick, so I’m going to wait a day or two to build up my courage to pick up a sandwich or other treat off of a street (vendor).

HCMC is a nice, quaint little town where you can really feel the “soul” of the city. It’s not as fast paced as say Shanghai (but then again, what is?), but you feel like there are people living and having normal lives all around you and I felt much more of them then the bustling Vietnamese economy. There were people squatting playing card games, folks taking naps in the blistering heat next to their soda cart, women moving their food carts across the crazy traffic.

Speaking of traffic, this place is nuts. There are about a billion (if not more) motorcycles criss-crossing the streets in a never ending traffic jam of epic proportions. It makes Xujiahui look tame! There are almost no foot powered bicycles, they’re all gas powered and it seems like most are made by Honda. Crossing the street at rush hour is pretty much a game of chicken: you walk on to the road and force the car/bus/motorcycle/etc to dodge you. If you fear them, they’ll own you.

Our dinner was a little resturant in the backpacker’s part of town, a vegetarian resturant where I had a “Mexican Burrito.” It was hardly Mexican, but it was still pretty good (total cost 2 entrees, plus 2 drinks: 49,000 VND, or about 3.5 USD). Every store, salon, shop and resturant has a sign up “Room for Rent” in the area, regardless of what the store front is doing, they’ll all be hotels if you have some money. The whole part of town is geared to the backpacker.

We cruised thru the area some more and bought tickets to go see Co Coi (sic?), the tunnels of the Vietcong tomorrow. It’s a 1/2 day trip (2 hours in a bus each way, 4 USD per person) and should prove to be pretty interesting. We’ll probably spend the afternoon tomorrow checking out some of the sights we missed (including the War Museum, I think it’s called). I also need to arrange some transportation to Cambodia for the day after, as we have to be in Phonm Penh on Sunday.

Heading to Vietnam and Cambodia

I’m taking off tonight for a week and a few days to Southeast Asia, namely Vietnam and Cambodia (in that order). I land in Ho Chi Minh City Friday at 12:30am, and we’re staying in the city for two nights, then traveling by bus or boat to Phnom Penh, were we’ll be for one night. After staying in Phnom Penh, we’re heading for Angor Wat, the centerpiece of our trip and staying in Siem Reap for three nights.

After that, it’s a bit undecided. We’ll likely head back to Vietnam and I want to go to Hue and/or Hoi An, but it’ll depend on transportation since it’s some 15 hours by bus from Ho Chi Minh City. Trip wraps up back in Ho Chi Minh City, with me flying out at 1AM next Sunday, getting back to Shanghai at some awfully early hour.

Given any available internet access, I’ll blog while on the route.