Saigon, Vietnam: Day 47

 Good Morning Vietnam! 

This was the title for today’s tour and it was apt in any number of ways. We watched the movie with the
same title in its entirety for the first time several days ago in preparation. Our tour left early, at 7:15
necessitating a 5:00 alarm for meds for a 6:00 breakfast to arrive in the lounge to pick up our bus
number at 7.
We left about 7:30 and drove around downtown a bit seeing some of the sites we stopped at yesterday.
This guide proved to be the polar opposite of yesterday’s guide. He was very pro-government and
government policies. Homeless and beggars put in asylums. Capital punishment for drug dealers. No
fireworks allowed. No prostitution allowed. No guns allowed for citizens, just for police and army. No
gambling allowed (except they have lottery tickets). Yes, another repressive communist government
exerting control over its citizens.
We arrive at our first stop which was the War Remnants Museum. The North knows the Vietnam War as
the “War against the U.S.” Having won the war, this museum has a definite slant against the US. The
people in South Vietnam do not see the war in the same way. They did not win the war. It was difficult
to revisit the atrocities, the defoliation using chemicals and the aftermath, the dead journalists trying to
document the war. The concept being promoted these days in certain quarters that these brave souls
are not to be trusted or believed because certain powerful people can’t stand the scrutiny defies reality.
Thirty minutes in this place was enough. Very graphic photos of very gruesome times. The photos we
will share are much less graphic. Also, the feeling of being the American in the museum was quite
obvious to Jen. Glad to have tissues on hand. Again.

War Museum

Statue titled "Mother"

Remaining gas masks

Children's area of the museum showed how to make doves for peace.

Remade weapons

Back on the bus we started our two-hour drive to the tunnels. On the way was a bathroom stop that
included another lacquer store with disabled workers doing the tedious inlay. The thing we have
noticed is how many of these “tourist” stops do not look unusual from the street. We would probably
never notice them if we were traveling on our own. The thing that distinguishes them is the number of
toilets available. More toilets = more tourists. The two-hour drive was all through city and townscape
until right at the end where some green started to show up.

Arriving at the tunnels we exited the parking lot into the jungle to see what it was like for the war

fighters of the 1960s. It becomes immediately obvious to the visitor the numerous difficulties facing the
Americans. The enemy dressed the same as local farmers. There were numerous booby traps partly to
maim the unlucky, but also to slow and hold the foe so they could be shot more easily. The entrances to the tunnel were of a type and size that made the smallest ones almost impossible to find. The jungle around all of this was thick and difficult if not impossible to penetrate. A very informative tour leaving one once again trying to understand why anyone sees war as a solution to anything.

Decoys with covered roof made soldiers unsuspecting of tunnels

Pop-up danger

A lethal trap

Labeled: "Bomb Crater"

most Vietcong soldiers used sandals made from tire rubber.

we crawled in the opening and down, down then across for about 25 m.  Terribly claustrophobic and tough for elderly bodies as Jen had to crab walk and Jerry had to crawl.

Our guide did a great job of getting our group to the important displays while motoring (fast walking)
past other groups. This was important because with the drive back we were going to be close to the all
aboard time. We parked at the far end of the bridge to our pier and we walked across the bridge to find
Victor, our general manager, pacing at the bottom of the gang plank. Two other buses drove right up to
the boat and Victor shared with us his incredulity that our bus had stopped where it had with the time
running the way it was. It was a good light-hearted moment in another tough day.

After the "Good Morning Vietnam" tour, it was a welcome sunset. Good Night, Vietnam.