In our opinion, Vietnam is the most interesting country we have visited since South Africa for a number of reasons. There is a complicated history here that can not be easily dissected. Living under French colonialism for so many decades left the people with an incessant yearning and desire for a united, independent Vietnamese nation. This newfound movement, combined with the proximity and assistance from neighboring Communist countries China and Russia, sprouted and grew steam under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh. During World War II, the Japanese essentially forced out the French, only to have them return postbellum. This period created an opportunity for the Vietnamese to finally fight for their freedom, first against the weakened French, then the Americans whose financially support gradually developed into military assistance to the anti-communists in South Vietnam when the French abandoned their post. A bitter war raged on for two decades, with each side committing unspeakable crimes against one another. Cities were burned or razed, civilians raped and murdered, and future generations affected as a result of Agent Orange and other chemical weapons.
The foreign policy of the United States dramatically changed from one President to the next. Public sentiment grew vehemently anti-war, and the veterans, most of whom were drafted into the military, returned home to find a country who rejected them.
America's role in the war when Nixon folded his hand and signed the Paris Peace Accords and agreed to a ceasefire with the North Vietnamese. Afterwards, the North continued their quest South, culminating in the fall of Saigon, ending the conflict altogether.
Most of the basic information of the Vietnam we knew before we arrived, but we were interested in digging deeper. Also, we found an informative documentary on Netflix to help supplement our learnings.
**Before we tell about our experiences in Saigon, we will clarify the difference between the names Saigon and Ho Chi Minh. The previous name was Sai Gon, which was westernized to become Saigon. After the North defeated the South, the name was changed to reflect the leader of the new unified Communist country, Ho Chi Minh. Today, the locals tend to refer to the city center as Saigon and the outskirts Ho Chi Minh. To limit confusion between Ho Chi Minh the city and Ho Chi Minh the person, we will refer to the city as Saigon**
Our Vietnamese adventure began before we even stepped foot in the country. We had booked a flight on the official airline carrier of Cambodia Angkor Air, but when we got to the plane, we were rerouted to a suspicious looking propellor plane with balding tires. The options were either another overnight bus or fly this beat up plane. We chose the latter.
The scene at the Saigon airport was quite a remarkable scene. Ben had properly prepared the necessary visa documents beforehand, so we assumed our entrance would be smooth, as had our previous experiences with India, Sri Lanka, and Cambodia. The drama was unlike anything we had witnessed in any other airport. We had our visa letter of approval printed and ready to present to the passport control, but for some reason, we had to wait a full hour with hundreds of other people just to pay the visa prior to receiving it. People from all over the world sat in a state of confusion, while security guards and immigration officers sauntered around carrying various passports with no apparent reason. Several times they took individuals into back rooms, never to be seen again, at least not by us. Surely they were find, but the whole situation was bizarre. Finally the teller called out our names, mispronounced of course, we paid our cash, and were permitted into Vietnam!
30 minutes later we arrived at our AirBnB on the 17th floor of a skyscraper. For $20 we had a really nice view, pool, and a gym. The way it works with us is that Ben plans the travels and finds the flights/transportation, while Nadine books the accommodation. We usually decide together on activities and entertainment. So far the system has worked for us.
In the morning it seemed necessary to start our Vietnam trip by paying a visit to the War Remnants Museum. Dozens of war relics were preserved for visitors to admire, including warplanes, helicopters, tanks, ammunition, casings, weapons. To give more insight into war conditions were detention cells for both anti-communist Vietnamese and POWs. Each of the five floors inside the museum had a different subject or theme. One floor exhibited anti-war sentiment back home in the US, showing story after story of protests on college campuses and politicians such as John Kerry and John McCain lobbying against the war. Another section covered the dozens of other countries who publicly supported the Vietcong: China, Cuba, Laos, Cambodia, the Soviet Union, North Korea, all dear friends of the United States to this day!
One of the floors recounted hundreds of stories of Agent Orange and the effects it had on the Vietnamese civilian population. Pictures lined the walls of men, women, and children who died or became disfigured from the chemical weapons. To drive the point home, inside of the gift shop were three physically deformed second-generation victims who played instruments for the audience. It was really a sad sight.
The old adage says "history is written by the victors," but the amount of propaganda blatantly displayed was a bit over the top. We didn't except them to be completely objective, but they appeared to simple erase much of the history. There was little to no mention of anti-Communists in South Vietnam who opposed to the Vietcong. Never did the museum document the cold blooded murder and torture of the VC to their compatriots. The museum presented the country as if there was one peaceful, united Vietnam that the nasty Americans woke up one day and decided to invade. They skipped over the prelude to the war and went straight into pro-Communist, anti-American propaganda. The official name for the conflict in Vietnam is the War of American Aggression. It was a theme that continued into the Chu Chi Tunnels.
Also, we saw a random tourist dressed as a wizard!
At one of the many tourist booths, we arranged to visit the Chu Chi Tunnels the following day. 7:30am on the dot we arrived at the tourism agency office, only to find the door was closed and locked. No big surprise here, I suppose. 15 minutes later someone arrived and informed us the tour would leave at 8, not 7:30, and we still needed to wait for the other 26 passengers to arrive from their hotel pickups. We were also told that someone would pick us up from our hotel, but after we paid, they changed their mind and told us to walk. We have come to understand how things work in this part of the world. Nothing is as presented. In India we were easily frustrated at this sort of unprofessional behavior, but at this point we laugh it off. Arguing and becoming confrontational won't better the situation, so what's the point?
Sure enough, at 8am we were escorted to the bus that would shuttle us 2.5 hours to the Chu Chi Tunnels. A young 20 something year old Vietnamese woman came on the bus and introduced herself as Te Te (pronounced Tay Tay). The other passengers had still not arrived, and we must wait longer. Rather than apologizing for their tardiness, Te Te told us that Vietnamese habitually live in the not-on-time-but-not-late sweet spot.
The 2.5 hour drive ended up taking nearly four hours because the tour company forced us to take a "bathroom" break, which "coincidentally" just so happened to have two gift shops and a restaurant, as well as two other busses from the same company. Our next stop was at a gun range, where the guests could shoot rifles that were definitely not stolen from the Americans from the war, at a mere three dollars a bullet. The whole thing was a tourist trap, but we were prepared for it. "Just take us to the tunnels already!"
Once we finally arrived, Te Te instructed us to take yet another bathroom break for some reason, this time to explore the various machinery and weaponry posted outside the tunnel area. The whole tour could have been done in 5 hours, including driving time, but to charge more, they drag the entire day out an extra 3-4 hours.
Te Te summoned the group under a lean-to which housed rifles and ammunition, also allegedly "not taken" from the Americans. Standing proudly in front of a shrine of Ho Chi Minh, under the Communist flag of Vietnam, Te Te informatively told us the red on the flag symbolizes the revolution stemming the Vietnamese revolution, while the yellow represented the color of their Asian skin. We kid you not. A quick internet search confirmed this. After more quick, not-so-subtle political grandstanding, Te Te took us to the explore the tunnels.
It was here we learned about the tens of thousands of guerrillas who took the earth to defeat the strong military. Setting up booby traps and other deceptive methods of capturing their enemy, the Vietnamese dug created an elaborate tunnel system to survive to avoid and evade their own capture and death.
There were also sections where we were allowed to go inside the tunnels and explore for ourselves!
Our first impressions of the food in Vietnam are pretty positive. It appears on every corner are multiple restaurants offering all sorts of variations of Pho. Much of the menu is difficult to understand and we are still hesitant about eating meat. We are pretty conservative eaters. Here are some photos of various meals:
Aside from the war relics and the tunnels, Saigon did not have much else to offer us. It's a city with big buildings and rats. We have been told from multiple sources that the North of Vietnam is quite a bit more interesting. Our next stop will be a small tourist beach town called Mui Ne by way of another 5 hour bus.
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