Pretty much the first thing that we realized is that crossing the street was going to be a challenge, to say the least. There are no crosswalks in Vietnam. To cross a busy street, you simply starts walking, slowly and at a steady pace, into the flow of traffic. The general idea is that the motorbikes will dodge around the pedestrian, and you won't get hit unless you suddenly change course or speed. However, this approach requires nerves of steel! Unfortunately, the few cars that are on the road didn't seem to pay much attention to pedestrians, so there were still plenty of opportunities to get hit. We survived, but came away from the experience with a much greater appreciation for crosswalks!
We arrived in Saigon on New Year's Eve, and it seemed like the whole city was out and about to celebrate. Huge fairs and carnivals had been set up in all the city parks and many major streets had been blocked off. At most of the carnivals, there were all sorts of food and drink vendors, as well as entertainment such as singers or dancers. We enjoyed wandering around the city, sampling some cheap Vietnamese beer, and trying to figure out what was going on with the various entertainers. We were so tired from traveling that we didn't even make it to midnight, but then again New Year's has never been all that exciting anyways.
The next day, we woke up bright and early to take a bus tour to see some sights outside of the city. We had several moments of panic when I thought that I had lost the receipt for the tour, and when our bus/tour guide didn't show up until almost 45 minutes after they said they would arrive. But, we eventually made it on the bus, so all was well in the end. Also, I was an idiot and found the receipt in my wallet shortly thereafter. Our first destination for the day was the Cao Dai Temple complex, about 2 hours away. Cao Dai is a Vietnamese religion that was founded in the 1920s. Cao Dai is basically a catch-all religion - they worship everyone from traditional religious figures like Jesus, Buddha, and Brahma, to modern "saints" like Shakespeare, Joan of Arc, and Victor Hugo. The goal of the religion is to break free of the cycle of reincarnation, to die once and for all. I'm reading more about it on wikipedia right now, and apparently they also believe that there are 72 inhabited planets in the universe, with number one being the closest to Heaven, and number 72 being the closes to Hell. Earth is number 68. Here's a picture of the main temple:
Here's the inside of the temple, where we saw a daily service. This mainly consisted of a lot of chanting and some bell ringing:
In the inside of the temple, they have statues of three of the most important figures in Cao Dai: Buddha, Jesus, and Brahma:
And here are several of the modern day saints - Victor Hugo, Sun Yat-Sen, and Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm, a Vietnamese poet from the 15th century:
I think the most amazing part of all this was that this religion has over 2 million followers in Vietnam. I guess it's sort of like the Scientology of Asia. The other big question we had was where the money to build the temple came from. They didn't charge admission for visitors, and the figure for the temple construction was quite astronomical (can't remember the exact number our guide told us) - sort of a mystery as to where they got all the funding for the construction/maintenance.
Our next stop on the tour was the Cu Chi Tunnels. These tunnels were used by the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War as hiding places for guerilla attacks on South Vietnamese and American troops. Although there were VC tunnel networks all over Vietnam, the Cu Chi ones were particularly significant because they were used as a base to capture Saigon at the very end of the war. Our tunnel tour started with our tourguide showing us all the different booby traps that were built by the VC and used to injure and demoralize American soldiers. Here's an example - a "fish trap" that would catch the foot and leg of any soldier unluky enough to step on it:
Next, we saw how the VC guerillas entered the tunnels and camouflaged the entrances. Here's a soldier entering the tunnels:
The tunnels were incredibly small - the only way to travel through them was to crawl on your stomach. In spite of this, people lived in the tunnels for days at a time. We got to walk through one tunnel, which had been specially enlarged for tourists:
Yay, we made it out! Some random Chinese guy wanted to take our picture, so I made him take one with my camera too.
Then, we had a snack of tapioca root and tea, which was a typical meal that the tunnel dwellers might have eaten. Mmm, just look at how much I am enjoying it:
Finally, we watched an 1970s propaganda video about the Cu Chi region. At this point, we were beginning to realize that the perspectives on the Vietnam War were very different here than the ones that we had been taught in the US. The video portrayed the people of the Cu Chi region as hardworking, simple peasants, who were eager to do their part to contribute to the stuggle against the invading Americans. However, this probably was true to the thinking of many of the local residents - they were just minding their own business until the Americans showed up and started bombing and killing. So, I guess I can see where they were justified in their resistance.
We headed back to Saigon for the night and enjoyed some more wandering around the city before turning in. Many of the New Year's fairs were still set up, so we enjoyed some more local beer and some amazingly delicious pho (beef noodle soup), before heading to bed.
The next day, we checked out several sights in downtown Saigon. Our first stop was the War Remnants Museum, which used to be named the Museum of American War Crimes. This former name was indicative of the sentiments of the museum. It was pretty gruesome - especially the Agent Orange display. The various exhibits in the museum really drove home the atrocities committed by American troops during the war, and the lasting impact that they've had on Vietnam and it's citizens. Again, a very different perspective than we were taught at home. I know that I'd heard about some of the subjects before, such as Agent Orange and the My Lai massacre, but they definitely weren't emphasized nearly as much as they were here. One interesting exhibit showed the course of the war through photographs taken for newspapers and magazines around the world. I thought this was interesting because it showed the role that the media played in the war, especially in the shaping of the public's opinion of it.
After some lunch and a refreshing coconut, we headed to a Taoist temple.
The temple had lots and lots of various shrines, but, unfortunately, no signs or explanations. However, it was quite peaceful and had a nice garden where we relaxed in the shade for awhile:
Finally, we visited the Reunification Palace, which was the site of the South Vietnamese government. Architecturally, the palace was really strange looking and not at all what I expected it to look like:
Much of the palace has been left as it was when the South surrendered in April 1975. Most of the upper floors of the palace were various state rooms and meeting rooms. The basement was more interesting, as it housed all the military command rooms which still contained lots of old technology and maps. On the roof was an American helicopter:
After that, we hurried back to our hostel and to the airport to catch our flight to Da Nang, a city in central Vietnam. Flying domestically in Vietnam was...interesting. When we arrived at the airport, we were told that our flight departure was delayed two hours, from 6 PM until 8 PM. Later, I checked my email and had been sent an email telling me that the flight was delayed until 11 PM (which it wasn't). While we were sitting waiting to board, I noticed that our boarding passes (which were actually just receipts) listed our flight time as 3 PM, so I had a bit of a momentary panic. But, we eventually made it on the plane and to Da Nang - but I'll save that for the next post.
Imagine that you are stuck on a long train ride and must choose one of two books to read in order to pass the time: the first is a novel whose main character is an office worker who is essentially working to pay his monthly cable bill; the second is about someone who decides to travel in South America (and of course encounters various setbacks in the process), but who pushes beyond the boundaries of conventional American life. Which... book would you pick up to read? Indeed, which of the two characters would you rather be?
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