Sigh Gone

Saigon aka Ho Chi Minh City from the Sheraton

Saigon aka Ho Chi Minh City has all the frenetic activity and anarchy of Hanoi without the charm.  In fact it seems more chaotic than Hanoi and the drivers are more death defying.  We are getting used to the way you navigate Asian cities and so we are more confident crossing the road.  There is still the bowels-turn-to-water feeling as you step off the curb and we are getting better at suppressing the blood-curdling scream thingy that sometimes happens involuntarily but I would say that “more confident” is a better description than “confident”.

I think the problem we are having with Ho Chi Minh City is not the chaos or the traffic but the western influence.  Since we have been travelling through most of Thailand, Laos and Vietnam there has been little western influence and things are done in their own way but in Ho Chi Minh things changed.  Granted there are the usual plethora of tiny shops and markets but now there are big names up on big buildings like Prada, Adidas, KFC and Gucci.  Strangely I think we are having culture shock…

Telen in traditional Vietnamese "pyjama"

We went out in the evening for dinner and on our way back we were somewhat nonplussed at how the city had changed.  Everyone comes out in the evening and in a city of eight million that is a LOT of people.  It was almost impossible to walk down the street due to the density of the crowds.  And the Christmas decorations!   Every store has Christmas decorations, lights and… snowflakes?  All the young ladies are dressed in their finest and doing their best poses in front of the Christmas trees and lights to get their friends to take photos.  It still feels odd to be seeing Christmas decorations and paraphernalia in 30 degree heat in a primarily Buddhist country. 

I don’t think Buddha would be pleased.

What is wrong with this picture? (other than the unhappy elf)

We went to see the Cu Chi tunnels and we were lucky enough to get a guide that was a Vietnam War veteran.  He had worked as a translator for the South and later became an officer in the South Vietnamese army.  This gave him a unique perspective on the Cu Chi tunnels and on the war in general.  His sentiment was that everyone in the war was a victim including the North Vietnamese Army, the Viet Cong, the South Vietnamese Army and the American soldiers.  He said that no one wanted to be fighting but that they were forced into it.  Which lead me to this.  If every soldier refused to fight would there be no wars?

The Cu Chi tunnels were amazing.  An “unbiased” film about how the gentle hard-working peasants were forced to defend themselves from the crazy devil American soldiers quickly indoctrinated us.  They had stories of how the clever simple farm girls devised ingenious ways to kill bloodthirsty American soldiers and how some of them were awarded the American-killer medals for bravery.  The propaganda was a little over the top and our guide asked us how we enjoyed the impartial film all the while with a sly smile on his face.  In reality, if you strip away the propaganda-loaded language, you can see how the Viet Cong were trying to protect themselves and their homes.  There are still craters around the tunnels where bombs from the B-52’s blew holes in the landscape and killed countless innocent people.  On the other hand the Americans had no idea who was Viet Cong and who was on their side.  All Vietnamese look alike and they did not wear name tags.  Both sides were equally barbaric.  It makes me despair for the future of humanity.  Are we truly civilized or are we just viscous animals held in barely in check?

Speaking of the tunnels…

There are about 200 km of tunnels and three levels: 3 meters, 6 meters and 8 meters deep.  These tunnels were where the Viet Cong would hide from the American and South Vietnamese forces.  They could only stay down there for about six to seven hours before they ran out of air.  The tunnels were so small that it is hard to believe that people could even fit in them much less conduct warfare from inside.  I tried to fit into one but it was like trying to force a marshmallow into a wine bottle – you might eventually succeed but the marshmallow would never be the same or be removed.  There was a large crowd watching and, although I could not understand what they were saying, I think a great deal of fun was had at my expense.

How likely is it that I am going to fit?

They also showed us some of the booby traps the Viet Cong had devised to fight the Americans.  They were diabolical and gruesomely effective.  The Americans, on the other hand, were satisfied with dropping bombs on villages.  We are extraordinarily clever at coming up with ways to cause tremendous suffering.

The whole experience was sobering.  So many deaths, so much suffering and such unbelievable cruelty all in the name of a political ideology.  Surely humans can do better. 

It breaks my heart.

We toodled around the Mekong Delta to see how the fourteen million people who live there get by.  It was quite interesting to see how they farm rice, vegetables, and fruit and how they get fish and mollusks from the river.  We visited the floating market and had lunch at a local farm.  It was a much more relaxing and considerably less emotionally taxing than the previous day at the Cu Chi tunnels.

How not to paddle the traditional Vietnamese Mekong boat

Soon we leave Vietnam for Cambodia.  Vietnam takes you through a gamut of emotions – delight, frustration, awe, astonishment, sadness and anger.  The people are delightful, the traffic is frustrating, the scenery is awe-inspiring, the ingenuity is astonishing, but the aftermath of the war is sobering and the fact that so many people were killed makes me angry. 

One amazing country!