The next morning I was feeling a little queasy. A month and a half of steady drinking and traveling in the hot Southeast Asian sun was starting to wear on me. I awoke early and headed over to the Happy Tour agency for the Cu Chi tunnels tour. The tunnels were a vast network of underground passageways used by the Vietcong during the Vietnam War that is just south of Saigon. Sometimes these tunnels went right underneath American base camps. It took about a half hour to get to the visitor’s center where they first showed us a short film on the tunnels and the people that fought in them.
I have seen many a war documentary in my day, but this one was really interesting to see how it was done from the other side. They showed footage of Vietnamese women and men fighters and the film noted how some of them were given a medal for being American killers. Hearing this expression was really weird and it first it kind of angered me. After I thought about it for a bit I realized it is actually more honest than the medals we give out. Our congressional medal of honor is basically the same thing. It is awarded to Japanese killers, Vietnamese killers, and Iraqi killers, but we just gloss it over with an honorable title. You do not win awards in the military for helping grandmothers across the street.
The tunnels themselves were quite a trip. They actually enlarged the ones for westerners to go through. Even enlarged it was really cramped. I cannot believe so many people lived and fought in these tunnels. Halfway through one of the tunnels, a Canadian in front of me kind of freaked out and wanted to go back. There was no room to go around us, so we all had to shimmy back to a place where he could go around us. It was hot in the tunnels and I was walking almost on my hands and knees. I looked up at one point and a couple of bats were flying right in front of my face towards me. There were a couple of young Canadian girls right behind me and they screamed as the bats flew overhead. It was quite an experience. It really makes you admire the people that lived and fought in them. Walking through these enlarged tunnels, I realized right away why we were unsuccessful in Vietnam. Even though they lost many of the battles they won the war because they wanted it more and were more determined to outlast the GIs. It would have taken unbelievable sacrifice by the Americans to uproot these Vietnamese from their holes and tunnels, and with the cause crumbling back at home it was impossible.
Inside the tunnels they had many exhibits including a mock war room where they had plastic likenesses of Vietcong fighters making plans. They also had a mock mess room where they ate and a hospital room. When we emerged it was quite a relief to be back in the real world and breathe the clear outdoor air. We also saw other remnants of the war including huge B-52 bomb craters and other opening of tunnels that had started to fill back in with earth.
We returned back to the visitor center and there was a display of all the nasty booby traps that the Vietcong fighters laid out for the GIs. Things like holes in the ground which were covered up to look like ground only to give way when stepped on and at the bottom were sharp spears to puncture GI feet. I am glad that I did not have to fight in this war. There was also a shooting range where for 10$ you could shoot ten rounds from an AK-47. One American man kind of wanted to shoot, but when no one else wanted to he changed his mind. This ended our tour, which was another really well organized tour. Our tour guide was named Omar, and he was hysterical. He had actually worked for the US army during the war.
We returned to Saigon and then we were bussed over to the War Remnants Museum. This museum was basically a bunch of pictures with captions over them as well as some artifacts like guns, bombs, grenades, and a helicopter from the war. It was an interesting museum, but not the best I have ever seen. Once could get the same experience by going to the library and checking out a Time-Life book on the war.
This was to be my last day in Saigon. I bought an open ended bus ticket from Saigon to Hanoi for 16$ with stops in Nha Trang, Hoi Ann, and Hue. I bought my ticket from a flirtatious girl named Fairy. When I returned to my hotel room I called Fairy and asked if she wanted to go to dinner. She said she worked until 10pm, but I could stop by after that. We then walked around the corner and each had a bowl of Pho and talked.
While talking to her I realized how lucky I am to be experiencing this trip. She said so herself a couple of times. She works day after day from 7:30am to 10pm at night so that tourists visiting her country have an easy and enjoyable time in her country, yet she never has a chance to travel herself. I know that she would love to travel herself, but she does not have the time or the money to do it herself. It just seems so unfair. We exchanged emails and I returned her to the travel agency and walked back to my hotel. I have enjoyed Saigon, but except my great experience with Tho and the friendly Vietnamese gentleman on my first night, I feel that I have been insulated from the Vietnamese people except for tour guides and moto-bike riders. It is hard to explain, but something seemed to be missing from my experience in Vietnam so far
