Saigon (Ho Chi Min)
- Comments: No Comments Yet
We’re still in Saigon, and have been taking some time to relax and recuperate from the two of us feeling under the weather. In between rests we’ve taken a cyclo tour of the city – it was pretty funny to see a bunch of Westerners being pedaled around the city through stop lights, into oncoming traffic, in between buses and cars, and around Vietnamese carrying enormous baskets of fruit, clothing, vegetables, shoes, etc… to market. Of course the lack of traffic rules is alarming to us, but we haven’t seen one accident, and you get use to the constant cacophony of moto, car, bus and truck horns that we would associate with a wedding procession down the street.
We cyclo’d past the Reunification Palace, the American Embassy (sight of the desertion of Saigon in 1975), the Opera, the Embassador Hotel (of war correspondent fame), Ho Chi Min Palace, and several other sights that were yelled at us by our cyclo drivers as we passed.
We finished our tour at the War Remnants Museum – a sobering look at what the Vietnamese justifiably refer to as the “Americam War”. It was very interesting to see the language and images the Vietnamese use to describe the war – it’s alarmingly similar to the way the U.S. is currently describing and referring to Iraq. The images of the effects of agent orange and napalm on the population at the time and the ongoing effects were disturbing. Images of horrifying burns and crippling birth defects were the norm. You can still see the effects today – we were at the post office last night buying stamps, and the man who handed them to me had an extra thumb on his hand. There were also several examples of American military weaponry, and reproductions of the “tiger cells” prisoners were held in. It was all a little much, but I didn’t break down until I reached the pavilion of children’s art depicting their war experiences…enough is enough.
Vietnam has an amazing history, a beautiful landscape and wonderful people, but it’s hard to get past the last 30 years to their more ancient history. As a tourist, it’s difficult to see anything but the last war. Having said that, it’s worth the trip…
We’re off to supper with our friends,
Take care,
Noel & George
There are presently no comments for this post.
You must be logged in to post a comment.