Ho Chi Minh City, 22-23 September 2013 - Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Vietnam's Motorbike Madness
After a delightfully efficient and almost empty flight to Ho Chi Minh City, courtesy of Lufthansa of all airlines, we then took a taxi to Green Suites Hotel in the centre of Ho Chi Minh. The roads of this city are unlike any I've ever seen before, with countless numbers of motorbikes to be seen. Apparently there are 3 million motorbikes in this city of almost 7 million people. Whilst in England you are likely to see on average 1 to 3 cyclists standing at the front of the traffic at the traffic lights, here in Ho Chi Minh you are likely to see around 50 motorbikes standing in front of the cars at traffic lights. I expect the reason for this is threefold: motorbikes are considerably cheaper than cars, they can weave in and out of traffic and Vietnamese people generally don't do big, weekly food shops as we tend in Europe, which generally requires owning a car. The prevalence of motorbikes makes for very chaotic, cacophonous roads.
A Night in Ho Chi Minh
Thack found an excellent restaurant called Nha Hang Ngon in her Lonely Planet guide book, a very smart restaurant set around a lovely water feature. We ordered 6 different local dishes. They included see-through dumplings with shrimp and pork inside, tiny oysters with herbs and pepper, and vegetable salad rolls, which unlike spring rolls were not fried. We also had noodles with chicken, shrimps, carrots, onions and cabbage, shredded pork and pho (pronounced like the word 'fur' in English), the most quintessential of Vietnamese dishes. Our pho dish had chicken, noodles and green vegetables in a soup with plenty of herbs and chilli. I washed this down with the local beer, Saigon, in a glass full of ice. I very much enjoyed the beer and Saigon became my beer of choice throughout my time in Vietnam. Having it with ice made it particularly refreshing in the constant heat and humidity of the region.
We then went to Bui Vien, one of the main bar streets in Ho Chi Minh and sat outside at a bar playing dance music. We sampled a couple more beers, 333, a Vietnamese beer, and Tiger Crystall, a Chinese beer, both at the recommendation of the front of house man. We chatted to him for a while and in doing so asked him about the population of Vietnam. The country has experienced a population boom since the 'American War', as the Vietnamese call it, ended in 1975, almost doubling from about 50 million then to an estimated 88 million in 2011. He said that he thinks it's now around 94 million. Whilst an increase of 6 million in 2 years is unlikely, the country is no doubt still growing at a very fast pace. It's not surprising when you consider that the vast majority of people you see on the street appear under the age of 50. The front of house man told us that his sister is just 21 years old and already has 3 children, at which point he shook his head, rolled his eyes and just said, 'crazy, crazy'. On the walk back to our hotel we had some street food, including mystery meat on a skewer.
Cu Chi Tunnels
With my great interest in the Vietnam War I was particularly excited the following morning, as we were set to visit both the Cu Chi Tunnels and the renowned War Remnants Museum that day. The Cu Chi Tunnels are an intricate network of over 200 km dug by the Vietcong during the Vietnam War. Just outside the then South Vietnamese capital and American springboard, Saigon, it was a bitter battleground for many years during the war. It was essentially a living, underground village with up to three different levels in many places. The tunnels are extremely narrow and deliberately so: the typical Vietcong soldier was of much slighter build than the typical American soldier. American GIs were particularly reluctant to venture inside the claustrophobic tunnels, not knowing what on earth to expect once inside. The Americans did however attempt to get a grip on the Cu Chi network, sending men known as 'Tunnel Rats' who were of slighter build down into the tunnels, however they sustained appallingly heavy losses.
We had an excellent Vietnamese tour guide called Micky, a 25 year old English student. In conversation with him I asked him if he had ever been abroad and he said he hadn't unfortunately. Then he said that "Whoever travels much, knows much", which I completely agree with, as through travelling your knowledge on life and the world is so greatly widened.
On the way to Cu Chi we stopped off at a shop that sold all sorts of crafts that were embellished with mother-of-pearl and eggshells. A lot of impressive ornaments, vases, paintings and bits and bobs for the home were sold here. We also saw its workshop, where 40 or so very skilled workers were sawing, painting and fashioning all sorts of handcrafted objects. Although I didn't see it myself, upon entering the workshop there is a sign saying that all the workers here are disabled and indeed that was quite apparent when walking through here. I believe the sign also said that they were victims of the American use of chemical weapons and bombs in the country. I speak about this later is great depth when I talk about my experience of the War Remnants Museum.
Upon arriving at the tunnels we had to watch a very biased introductory video, which even referred to the Americans as 'crazed devils' on one or two occasions. Though an interesting video, I took its blatant slant with a pinch of salt. The man in front of me, presumably American, was shaking his head and tutting at regular intervals, which was quite understandable.
As we walked around the site we saw an American M41 tank that had been destroyed by a delay mine in 1970 and you could see the chewed up interior of the vehicle. We saw models which demonstrated how the Vietcong used unexploded American bombs. They first cut holes in them, poured water into them to cool them and then reused the explosives to create mines and bombs to use against the Americans. We also saw a huge, several metres wide and deep bomb crater caused by a B52 bomb. If part of the tunnel network had been there at the time it would no doubt have been blasted to smithereens. Indeed, many U.S. commanders saw bombing Vietnam "back to the Stone Age" as the only way to win, as Curtis Lemay, the U.S. Airforce Chief of Staff said in 1965.
Micky showed us a small hole dug into the ground which was a typical Vietcong hiding place. It was impossible to notice as it was covered in undergrowth, but the Vietcong knew where such hiding places were, due to their position in relation to certain landmarks in the jungle, such as trees. Micky asked for a volunteer to go inside and I eagerly put myself forward. Whilst the skinny, Vietnamese Micky slipped into it moments before with relative ease, I had to twist my upper body a little in order for my shoulders to fit through. I then had to hold the ground cover with my hands directly above my head and then lower myself slowly down in order to fit in the hole. I sat in this hiding place for about half a minute before reemerging.
We then saw models of the different nasty traps the Vietcong built into the ground to pick off American GIs and crush American morale, such as the Chong Tru Quay (Rolling Trap) and the Chong Cap Nach (Clipping Armpit Trap). Many were designed so that the victim had a slow and painful death or so that the victim couldn't free themselves from the spikes they had just impaled themselves on.
We then had the chance to crawl through a section of the tunnel network to see what it must have been like for the Vietcong down there. Apparently the stretch we crawled through had been enlarged to allow for larger Western tourists to fit through more comfortably. I'm not sure 'comfortably' is the right word though! Myself and Vajiralongkorn in particular dislike enclosed, small spaces, so we weren't the most comfortable shuffling through them. Due to my and Thack's shorter stature we were able to walk through most of it in a crouched position, but the gargantuan Vajiralongkorn was unable to do this for much of it and felt very claustrophobic so he left the tunnel at an early opportunity.
War Remnants Museum
This is probably one of the most interesting and enthralling museums I have ever visited, set over three floors. Several trophied U.S. Army artillery pieces, tanks, aeroplanes and choppers complete with machine gun attachments stand right in front of the museum, enabling you to inspect them up close. Considering that North Vietnam was a poor, small, undeveloped country, yet still managed to defeat the mighty USA, the strongest country in the world, which is remarkable in itself, you can understand why the Vietnamese are so proud of this fact and take this opportunity to show off a little. The first exhibition showed all the different torture methods allegedly used by the South Vietnamese on their Vietcong prisoners on a particular island. I say 'allegedly' as there was an obvious Communist bias present in the captions. Tiger cages made of rusty barbed wire were used to punish prisoners. They were the volume of roughly one and a half to two standard sized coffins and often held five prisoners inside. Those inside were unable to lie down or stretch out their legs in these cages and probably crouched awkwardly at best. These cages were also often deliberately left out in the sun. There were also models of confinement cells and descriptions and pictures of the various gruesome torture methods allegedly inflicted on the victims. For example, hammering a nail through the skull, prising off finger and toe nails, shining lights in the victims' eyes at very close range in order to make them go blind and strapping them down in a seat with a hole in it and then their genitalia was burnt from underneath. As I looked at all the descriptions of torture methods it was the first time in my life that I had felt genuinely queasy in a museum and I decided to leave this exhibition before the end as I really thought I might be sick.
Throughout the museum, particularly in the 'Victims of Agent Orange' exhibition and the war photography exhibition, there were several placards with quotes or statistics about the war. I was very shocked as I read them - Vietnam truly paid a heavy price in order to win. During the war, 3 million Vietnamese were killed, of which 2 million were civilians, whilst a further 2 million were injured. As the population of Vietnam in 1975 was about 50 million, around 10% of people were killed or wounded during the war. In the 27 years after the war to 2002, over 100,000 Vietnamese were killed or wounded by bombs or explosives left behind in the country. As much as 600,000 tonnes of bombs were left behind on and beneath Vietnamese soil.
The most disturbing statistics without doubt concerned America's extensive use of toxic chemicals in Vietnam, which devastated entire landscapes and brought misery and death to millions. Millions of Vietnamese have been afflicted with severe long term health problems. Scientists at Columbia University estimated that between 1961 and 1971 the U.S. sprayed approximately 100 million litres of toxic chemicals on central and southern Vietnam. US Defence Department data, which is probably at best a conservative estimate, states that in these same 10 years 44 million litres of Agent Orange, containing 170 kg of dioxin, were dropped on Vietnam. When you bear in mind that even today scientists still agree that dioxin is "the most harmful and toxic chemical ever discovered by mankind to date" and the fact that just 85g of dioxin can kill a city of population 8 million, you then realise just how devastating this was. Another placard, presumably a Vietnamese estimate or assertion, claims that as much as 80 million litres of Agent Orange, containing 366 kg of dioxin, was sprayed over Vietnam.
The Columbia University study estimated that between 2 and 5 million people were affected by chemicals in Vietnam during the war, whilst according to the Vietnamese-written placard the use of chemicals caused 400,000 deaths by the end of the war. Millions more have suffered from devastating long term health problems such as cancer, genetic defects, reproductive problems and birth defects. Interestingly, this affected people and their offspring on both sides of the war. In 1979, 25,000 veterans from the U.S., Australia and New Zealand filed lawsuits against the managers of seven major U.S. manufacturers of Agent Orange for having supplied toxic chemicals to the U.S. armed forces, receiving $200 million in compensation. In my view this seems a paltry amount per person on average, considering the misery it probably caused them. There were also harrowing images of children and people who were disabled or deformed due to the effects of the chemicals dropped on Vietnam. Both Vietnamese children and the children of Americans and Australians who came into contact with or handled the chemicals suffered birth defects. For instance, even some of the Americans who dropped the bombs from planes were affected. The use of chemicals like Agent Orange in Vietnam is still a major humanitarian problem there.
The war photography exhibition included scenes of the Vietnamese countryside that had been devastated by chemicals and bombs. One in particular that caught my eye was a picture of a completely devastated, wasteland forest with a small boy who was no doubt too young to fully comprehend the situation he and his country was in.
Other Ho Chi Minh City observations
Most people in the city, except the city officials apparently, still call the city by its former name, Saigon. To me the name evokes the past, especially the time during the 'American War' when it was the main American stronghold for their war efforts in vain in Vietnam.