Vietnam Days 8 and 9: History In Ho Chi Minh

I was pretty much over Vietnam when I arrived in Ho Chi Minh so I was in no hurry to get out of bed on Tuesday morning. I woke up ridiculously early but rolled over and managed to get a few more hours of much needed sleep. I slowly started getting ready around 10am and eventually wandered out into the bustling streets. I headed towards the market and after walking for 10-15 minutes I stopped to take a picture only to find that the battery in my camera was dead. It had two bars left the last time I used it so I wasn’t impressed.

I made my way back to the hostel to charge the battery and decided if I might as well take a nap if I was going to be waiting around anyway. The nap wasn’t quite as successful as I had hoped because no one had a working key for the room so every few minutes someone would knock and I would have to get up to let them in. it always seemed to happen just as I was drifting off as well.

Eventually I gave up on napping and decided my camera would have enough battery to make it through the day so I ventured out again. Unlike Ha Noi and Hoi An there is actually plenty to see here I’ve just stopped caring. I decided my only goal for the day was to check out the war museum. If I did anything beyond that, awesome, if not that would be okay too.

I got a little lost along the way but once I found the Reunification Palace I was able to figure the rest out pretty easily. The palace looked interesting but I can go to a palace pretty much anywhere and the Vietnam War Museum is a unique experience so I decided to keep on trucking to the museum and I could visit the museum afterwards if I really wanted to and it was still open. As I walked past the palace grounds I could see airplanes and tanks that were used in the war and really wanted to check them out but reminded myself that would be stop number two for the day.

The area outside the museum was full of planes, helicopters, tanks, and weapons used by the US during the war. This was probably my favourite part of the museum, partly because everything was just so freaking cool and partly because it wasn’t nearly as depressing as any of the other exhibits. To the left of the museum was an exhibit displaying the cruelty showed to Vietnamese people by the American soldiers. There were torture devices on display as well as pictures of victims. Men with a mouthful of broken teeth because the refused to talk, others with nails in their fingers so they couldn’t fire a gun, among other horrible deeds. I feel like the Americans took a lesson from Hitler before heading into Vietnam.

Feeling slightly disgusted I headed inside where I learned about agent orange, a chemical used throughout the war causing many horrible side effects. Most of the pictures in this section were of children born after the war had ended who were showing some serious side effects from their parent’s interactions with the chemical. While some of the deformities like the baby with 3 faces was quite odd I can’t help but wonder if some of the children would have been born the same way even if agent orange wasn’t part of the equation, like the dwarf, or the kid with the cleft pallet. I mean those types of things still happen today all over the world so it kind of made me question how much of this display was just propaganda.

I wandered through two more floors of the museum although I can’t remember exactly what they contained. All I know is I left wanting to learn more about the war because before visiting the museum I didn’t know much of anything at all if I’m being honest. I’ve already done some reading but am still a little fuzzy on the issues so will need to do some more, and perhaps watch some war movies.

After working my way through all of the floors of the museum I started to make my way back to the hostel. The palace was closing as I passed but I was okay with that since I got to see tanks and planes at the museum anyway. I did however stop at the market on my way back. It was one of the smallest markets I’ve seen in Asia and nothing really jumped out at me so I only had a quick wander before heading back to the hostel for a lazy evening.

Today I woke up bright and early and headed downstairs to wait for my bus. I was told to be ready to go by 8:00 so I was a little peeved when the bus didn’t show up until 8:40. I had a few different options when booking a tour for today but I decided to do a day tour visiting a temple and the tunnels used by the Viet Cong. My other options were a day tour around Ho Chi Minh or a half day trip to the tunnels with no temple visit.

We drove for almost 3 hours before stopping for lunch. Once everyone had food in their bellies we headed to the Cao temple to watch a ceremony. I had never heard of the Cao religion before today and even now am having a very hard time finding any information about it online. I could only understand about half of what our guide was telling us but from what I could make out Cao is a combination of Buddhism, Muslim, and Christian religions. Watching the ceremony I could see resemblance to both Buddhism and Muslim but had a hard time drawing any connections to Christianity, which is odd since it’s the one I know the most about.

Once we finished up at the temple we loaded back into our minibus and hit the road. A few hours later we arrived at Cu Chi Tunnels. We watched a video that was complete propaganda and made several references to people being ‘hero American killer’s’ before actually touring the area. We saw several hidden entrances and air holes leading into the tunnels as well as several traps. We had an opportunity to travel 40 meters within the tunnels, which have been increased in size by 30-40% to allow tourists to enter and I still struggled to make my way through. I was exhausted after 40 meters and the Viet Cong lived down there! They would even travel long distances using this system. Pretty crazy stuff.

Once we finished up at the tunnels we started the long drive home. We arrived back in Ho Chi Minh around 5:30 and were informed we were not being dropped off back at our hostels and that we would have to walk. I wasn’t impressed but I actually knew where we were when they told us to take a hike so I suppose it could have been worse. Plus I had new friends to walk with and crossing the road is much easier if done in a pack so that made life a little easier.

I headed up to the roof when I got back to the hostel as they were having a party complete with free food. I wasn’t interested in the party at all but free food sounded amazing, and it was. I sat on the roof top patio stuffing my face and listening to the greatest hits of 2009 for a few hours longer than planned before heading to my room.

My last day in Vietnam actually turned out to be a good one. Tomorrow morning I am catching a bus to Cambodia and I haven’t prearranged a visa so things could get interesting. Cross your fingers for me please!