#104 Don’t Miss Saigon
It is now called Ho Chi Minh City
This is part three from my recent tour of Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand.
From Danang, we took a morning flight to Ho Chi Minh City, formerly and mostly known as Saigon. Travelers can drive the distance from city to City in Vietnam, but the road infrastructure is poor in the countryside, and one could waste hours in slow traffic. Some take the train system but that, too, is antiquated.
Our first stop in the Saigon area is westward through the dense city traffic to see the area of the Cu Chi Tunnels. This is a notorious area of extensive underground tunnels where the Vietcong hid to conduct guerrilleros attacks, first on the French and then later against the Americans.
From the Government website:
“Cu Chi Tunnels is a top must-see place when traveling to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. ..The underground tunnels network stretches from south Vietnamese capital to Cambodian border in Vietnam War in 1960s. The villagers around Cu Chi district supported a substantial Viet Cong (VC) presence.
Faced with better-equipped/supplied American and South Vietnamese forces, the VC guerrilla troops dug tens of thousands of tunnels, including an extensive network running underneath the Cu Chi district. At the peak during the Vietnam War, the tunnels network in the Cu Chi district linked VC support bases over a distance of some 250 kilometers, from the outskirts of Saigon all the way to the Cambodian border. Cu Chi also played an important role in Ho Chi Minh Trail for supply transported to the south.
The massive tunnels network is for guerrilla soldiers to house troops, transport communications, and supplies, receive medical treatments, take shelters from aerial bombardment, and mount surprise attacks, after which they could disappear underneath the ground safely. The Cu Chi Tunnels grew to house entire underground villages, in effect, with living quarters, kitchens, ordnance factories, hospitals and bomb shelters.
The Vietnamese government preserved the Cu Chi tunnels and included them in a network of war memorial parks around the country. Currently there’re two separate sites opened to public… Ben Dinh Tunnels are more popular for international travelers because the crawling tunnels are enlarged to fit even plus-size bodies and it is nearer to Ho Chi Minh City center compared to Ben Duoc Tunnels. Every year, Cu Chi Tunnels attract nearly 2 millions of visitors all over the world.”
Clearly, in this country, the victors get to write the propaganda of history. It was so kind of the Vietnamese to enlarge the tunnels for the plus-sized American bodies they hoped to attract to the tourist site. Some of our fellow travelers who were thin and not suffering from claustrophobia went underground to check out the narrow tunnels.
The VC also set up booby traps with trap doors and sharp spears waiting for any poor souls who fell through. This was a grisly end. Around the entry area is an impressive array of American military hardware left behind from the war.
I emerged from the damp, mosquito infested area with new respect and sympathy for our poor soldiers who faced the impossible and dangerous task of fighting in this hellish place. We eagerly boarded our air-conditioned bus for our ride back into the town center to check into to our ultra comfy hotel.
The next morning started with a tour of Ho Chi Minh City at one of its most famous spots, the Ben Tanh market. Open for centuries it serves the locals for produce, fish, and meat products. Tourists can find souvenirs and those designer item knock offs that people crave.
Central Post Office Thái An @johnn21
We visited other downtown sites, driving by The Notre Dame Cathedral which was covered in a sheath of scaffolding. The lavish colonial era Saigon Central post office across the street from Notre Dame is a relic of the charming custom of sending handwritten cards and letters. The ornately carved phone booths still display the Time from cities around the world. The guides point out the nearby rooftop from which the last Americans left Saigon at the end of the war.
A short bus ride brought us to The Independence Palace, also called Reunification Hall. It was built in 1962 and was the home and workplace of the president of the Republic of Vietnam. It was the site of the Fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975 that ended the Vietnam War, when a North Vietnamese Army tank crashed through its gates.
Visitors now stream in to see the ceremonial meeting rooms and private quarters where the president and his family once lived. The basement contains austere bunkers of war-rooms and old communication machines. The president could scurry down a hidden stairway from his office to the bunker quarters when the bombs were falling.
Reunification Hall photo by CreateTravel.tv @greenmarketing
During the afternoon, we visited another grim site in Ho chi Minh City, The War Remnants Museum.
Over the years, the museum has been called “The Exhibition House for US and Puppet Crimes” and was It was located in the former United States Information Agency building. It then was renamed the "Museum of Chinese and American War Crimes", then the name was changed in 1990 to Exhibition House for Crimes of War and Aggression.
In 1995, following the normalization of diplomatic relations with the United States, it became the War Remnants Museum. Part of a prison, including a guillotine, an infamous “tiger cage” where prisoners were kept, remain as remnants of the First Indochina War. Military hardware left behind by American forces fill the courtyard in front of the museum.
The most moving exhibits cover the effects of Agent Orange and other chemical defoliant sprays, the use of napalm and phosphorus bombs, and war atrocities such as the My Lai massacre. The photographic display includes work by Vietnam War photojournalist Bunyo Ishikawa that he donated to the museum in 1998.
The museum is well worth a visit and with good directions, one can find another interesting site nearby. We visited one of several lacquerware workshops and retail stores located in the city. The artisans demonstrated the labor-intensive and highly skilled craftsmanship of the pieces. Seeing the pain-staking techniques involved in production made it a little easier for me to buy a few pieces as souvenirs.
Our tour guide had set up a surprise outing for the group that I just could not pass on despite my extreme fear of riding motorcycles. The group was booked on a group Vespa tour with Vespa Adventures. The company offers you “the ride of your life” and they are not wrong.
Saigon Chefs photo by Joan Naidorf
From their marketing copy on the Night tour:
“Hop on our vintage Vespas and explore Saigon like a local! We’ll take you to fabulous eating, drinking and music venues where you’ll get a true taste of Saigon nightlife.
The evening kicks off with drinks at a rooftop bar. Join your Vespa Adventures guide and fellow travelers for a toast while enjoying views over the Saigon skyline! Then the Vespas take you through the city, weaving through the buzzing thoroughfares of Saigon as well as narrow back alleys…
The tour includes stops at a mix of venues, giving you the opportunity to experience a truly local night out. We take you to two popular restaurants where you’ll sample several beloved Saigon dishes, all washed down with a cold drink. You’ll also kick back at a Vietnamese-style cafe, enjoying live music while sipping a beer or cocktail. And the night wraps up at a lively music bar where you can groove to the tunes alongside the hip young Vietnamese crowd!”
I strapped on my helmet and clung for dear life around the waist of my Vespa driver. The experience of taking a left hand turn through the throng of oncoming motor bikes and scooters was heart stopping. I’ll admit, I just closed my eyes during that surreal mixing experience. The neighborhood restaurants were not quite up to the usual level of sanitation that we were used to. We survived the ride of our lives and neither of us became ill. I recommend the experience.
We cut out a little early to get ready for the early morning departure for a morning flight to Cambodia and the eagerly anticipated visit to Angor Wat. The view from the jungles of Cambodia is coming next.
