Ho Chi Minh, Cu Chi

Ho Chi Minh City and Cu Chi Tunnels

As in Cambodia, our time in Vietnam was short. We packed in as much as we could in between long bus rides. If you’re on Facebook, you’ve seen a few of these photos already.

Ho Chi Minh at Night.  The lights in Ho Chi Minh City at night are different from the lights in Bangkok and other Thai cities. They have a sort of neon quality that I found very beautiful. Here are a few pictures from our first night. As you see, the name Saigon/Sai Gon is still in use, despite the official name change to Ho Chi Minh. We had to take off our shoes before entering the hostel; there are racks where you can leave them.

The breakfast menu at this hostel included baguettes and cheese -- which may not sound very special to you, but Thais don't usually eat either one, so it was a treat to us. We had found baguettes in Cambodia too, a remnant of the French influence in both countries.

Here are two views of our street seen from a second-floor restaurant where we had dinner. The brilliant lights of the taller buildings are striking. Watching the building directly across from us was like looking into a shadow box theater, waiting for the actors (dinner guests) to enter.

 First Day in Ho Chi Minh.   Here are a few daylight shots of the same street as above, just to give you an idea of the kind of neighborhood we were in.

Our first stop was the travel agent. Here is Garfield beckoning customers in – you’ll see him at travel agents in Thailand too.

By noon, we had booked a tour of the Cu Chi Tunnels, reserved tickets for the AO Dance Performance at the Opera House, made plans for museum visits, and reserved tickets for two trips away from Ho Chi Minh.

For lunch I had this salad (# 17).

I googled knotweed to find out what I’d eaten. Apparently it’s an annual herb native to Southeast Asia (polygonum odoratum). The misspelling on the menu (flagrant) would be a great name for  a more ostentatious member of the knotweed family. Anyway, the salad was fragrant and delicious.

Cu Chi Tunnels.  As far as I understand, the Viet Minh used the Cu Chi Tunnel system when fighting against the French in the 1940s. The tunnels were greatly expanded and used by the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War. A portion of the tunnel system is now maintained as a tourist site, about an hour and a half drive from Ho Chi Minh City. Our guide spoke very good English and gave us detailed information about the role of the tunnels during the war.

Before entering the tunnel site, we toured the adjacent lacquer ware workshop. We were told that the workshop employs people who were disabled by Agent Orange, the effects of which continue to this day in the form of birth defects, cancer, and other illnesses.  Here are a couple of pictures of lacquer ware displayed in the workshop. The items are also for sale in the workshop.

 

The sales assistant assured me that the rice bowls I bought are dishwasher safe and won’t break if dropped. Vietnamese lacquer ware is said to be very durable because of the high-quality resin from Vietnamese lacquer trees. The lacquer ware is of course also produced in factories and is widely available in markets.

During our tour of the tunnel site, our guide kept up a steady narration about the tunnel construction, Viet Cong tactics that thwarted American efforts to find and destroy the tunnels, and information about key events in the war, such as the Tet Offensive of 1968.  He would pause his narrative to invite us to take photos of ourselves climbing into tunnel entrances or onto a tank or standing next to booby traps. Here are a few photos to give you an idea.

An entrance that drops straight down

Deciding not to go in headfirst

Angela trying to see down into the tunnel

Angela coming back out

The tunnel entrances have been enlarged; otherwise they would be too small for many tourists to enter – just as they were too small for most American soldiers to get into during the war.

Below you see a photo of a small hole at the base of a tree that allowed fresher air to get into the tunnel. You can imagine how many ventilation holes there would have to be for a tunnel complex 75 miles long. The other photo shows my traveling companions posing on a tank.

(front to back) Tricia, Katherine, Angela

Here are a few examples of the kinds of booby traps that were built where American soldiers would be likely to fall into them. Very nasty contraptions.

Folding Chair Trap

Clipping Armpit Trap

See-Saw Trap

 There are several more types of traps that all use similar mechanisms. The names are self-explanatory – basically, when someone struggled to get out of one of these traps, the mechanism would turn and drive the spikes in deeper. When one soldier tried to help another one, the second person would get caught too.

Toward the end of the tour, we arrived at the gift shop and shooting range. Tourists can fire weapons of the type that were used during the war. I believe there is an extra charge for this.

After that, we were invited to go through a short section of the tunnel (I think about 120 meters). Here too, the tunnel has been enlarged. We didn’t have to crawl (as the Viet Cong or anyone else who used the tunnels did) but could walk in a stooping position, bent over at the waist. When we emerged, we watched a video about the war and the tour was over. It was humbling to learn what American soldiers who fought here were up against. At the same time, it felt strange, on the one hand to be confronted by so many gruesome details and on the other hand being invited to smile for pictures on a tank or fire a weapon. Enough said.