Arie Goes to Viet Nam: Day Two
This is day two of my trip to Viet Nam. You may want to start at day one.
Viet Nam and Cambodia were both colonies of France, but the legacy is much more obvious in Viet Nam. The British brought education, roads, and the civil service to their colonies; the French brought cooking. Baguettes everywhere, delicious pastries, the whole deal. I had a wonderful banana crepe for breakfast (the French/English menu called it a crepe/pancake).
Today was our Cu Chi tour. Cu Chi has a fascinating history--it became a center of fighting during the war between Vietnamese nationalists and French colonialists in the 1940s. Facing the French army, which had far superior firepower, the Communists in Cu Chi dug chambers underground to escape bombardments. It remained a Communist stronghold after the French pulled out. The town is about twenty miles north of what was the capital of South Viet Nam, Saigon, and so the South Viet Nam government targeted the region. It began the "strategic hamlet" program, where Vietnamese townspeople were forced into concentration camp-style towns where they could be guarded. The first strategic hamlet was built next to Cu Chi, and thousands of people were forcibly relocated into it. The policy was a dismal failure, and by 1965, Communist forces were openly holding victory parades in Cu Chi. Then America got involved.
The U.S. expended a massive amount of energy trying to "pacify" the region around Cu Chi (called the "Iron Triangle"). We dropped thousands of tons of explosives, napalm, Agent Orange, the whole works. The people of Cu Chi responded by expanding those underground chambers into an amazingly intricate tunnel system. Spanning over 150 miles, the tunnels contain dormitories, kitchens, ammo dumps, and everything else people need to survive. The tunnels were built at three levels, with the lowest being about sixty feet below ground. The tunnels reached from North Viet Nam into Saigon; 16,000 soldiers served in them during the war (only 6000 survived). People lived in the tunnels during the day and came out at night to farm the fields; the tunnels themselves were deep enough to be essentially bomb-proof. Guerillas were able to surface in the midst of U.S. military bases, kill Americans, and disappear into the ground.
The Americans eventually figured out that there were tunnels, but had major difficulties neutralizing them. They tried sending soldiers down into the tunnels, but casualty rates were unacceptably high--the Vietnamese controlled the territory and surrounded the area with booby traps. The U.S. tried dogs, but the guerillas started washing with American soap to confuse them--and so many dogs were killed by traps that their handlers wouldn't send them in anymore, says Frommers' guidebook. Finally, in the late 1960s, the U.S. carpet-bombed Cu Chi and destroyed most of the tunnels.
Cu Chi has preserved some of the original tunnels, and is a major site for tourists and Vietnamese schoolchildren. Unlike some of the other tunnel tourist attractions, the tunnels at Cu Chi are not reconstructions, but actual remains from the period. We were very excited to see it, and we had high hopes for the tour.
We got on the tour bus at 8:15, as requested. Of course, it didn't leave until 9--us, some Australians, a couple of Brits, and four very loud Chinese women. We were stuck in traffic for a while, but finally we arrived--at a lacquer factory.
We protested. A lacquer factory is different from tunnels. It is shinier, and also it is not underground. Our tour guide explained that we might like to see how lacquer was made, and also they had an excellent gift shop. It was about here that I remembered why I hate tours. Anyway, we walked through at about 90 mph, refused to look at anything in the gift shop, and sat on the bus to express our displeasure. Everyone else did too, except the Chinese women, who cooed over the lacquer and bought souveniers.
This seems like a good place to mention my new pet peeve. On the bus down to HCMC, the guy in the seat in front of me decided that he wanted to listen to music, and he wasn't going to let his lack of headphones stop him--he just had his cell phone play something. Never mind that other people all around him were trying to sleep--it took a lot of heckling and glaring to get him to stop. I assumed that he was just some random idiot with no sense of human decency. But then on this tour, one of the Chinese women suddenly opened her phone and made it play music. The rest of the bus was amazed, and again, it took a lot of glaring by the rest of us to make it stop. Apparently this is a new thing. Anyway.
The guide promised us that after the lacquer factory, straight to the tunnels. Sure enough, the bus went right to them, we bought our tickets, and were escorted... to a large room where we had to watch a video about the history of the tunnels. I wasn't really eager to watch any video, just see the tunnels, but it was pretty funny--they told the stories of various villagers who lived in Cu Chi. Typical story: This girl was twelve years old when she began her battle against the American imperialists. She killed seventeen Americans, and was awarded the Medal of Valor and the title "Respected Killer of American Imperialists".
The video over, and it now being almost 11, we assumed it was time to go see the tunnels. Our guide led us into the forest, past some very promising signs that said TUNNELS and had big arrows pointing down the path. And we got to... well, crap, basically. All along the path, the tourism authority had constructed all sorts of ridiculous garbage. Exhibits on the sort of clothing that guerillas wore, dummies dressed as soldiers and holding weapons, even a set of robots which, when our guide pushed a button, robotically demonstrated how guerillas made weapons. Finally the guide led us to a shooting range coupled to a gift shop and told us that we could shoot AK-47s. The British guys ran off to try it while the Chinese women bought ice cream.
It had been four hours. We had seen lacquer, a movie, robots, tourism exhibits, but no tunnels, and now we were expected to sit there for another half an hour while some guys shot machine guns--and they are very, very loud. We left the tour. We walked down the path until we found the entrance to the tunnels.
The tunnels are not for the claustrophobic. When dug, they were about three feet high and two feet across, and had only the light you brought with you. The tourism authority built steps down into them, put a few tiny red lights in, and blocked off the side tunnels so that there's a straight path about 120 feet long. We climbed down and through the tunnel. I guess if you lived down there, you got used to it, but climbing through the tunnel in the dark was a very high-adrenaline experience for me. It was very, very dark--most of the stretches were pitch black, but there was a light whenever the tunnel hit steps down or up so that you didn't fall down the hole. Except for a brief stop for photos (none of them came out, sorry), I more or less rushed through it. At three feet high, you don't have to crawl but you can't walk, so you do sort of a hunched-over shuffle. At some point I must have banged my knee pretty hard on a step, I had a giant bruise, but at the time I didn't even notice.
Our tour guide and group caught up with us at the tunnel exit. They served us some weird sweet potato-type things for some reason, led us through yet another gift shop, and took us back to Ho Chi Minh City. Total elapsed time: six hours. Time spent in tunnel: 15 minutes. The smart way to do it is definitely to hire a taxi up to Cu Chi, watch the video (it's pretty awesome if you're not as impatient as I am), rush through the exhibits, walk through the tunnels, and then get back in the cab and go home.
Frommer's guidebook author says he had one of the best steaks he's ever had in a restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City, Amigo, and we figured that if you write for Frommers, you've probably had a lot of steaks. It was about half a mile, so we decided to walk. On the way we passed a surprisingly modern mall, and were surprised to find first world prices--I can't believe anyone would pay $300 for shoes in America, the richest country in the world, and I don't even know how to think about people doing that here. We also passed a Starbucks-like coffee shop. Progress. This part of the city wasn't touristy at all, which was nice. The steaks weren't the best I've ever had, but they were pretty good.
That's it for day two. Day three involves Chinatown.
Viet Nam and Cambodia were both colonies of France, but the legacy is much more obvious in Viet Nam. The British brought education, roads, and the civil service to their colonies; the French brought cooking. Baguettes everywhere, delicious pastries, the whole deal. I had a wonderful banana crepe for breakfast (the French/English menu called it a crepe/pancake).
Today was our Cu Chi tour. Cu Chi has a fascinating history--it became a center of fighting during the war between Vietnamese nationalists and French colonialists in the 1940s. Facing the French army, which had far superior firepower, the Communists in Cu Chi dug chambers underground to escape bombardments. It remained a Communist stronghold after the French pulled out. The town is about twenty miles north of what was the capital of South Viet Nam, Saigon, and so the South Viet Nam government targeted the region. It began the "strategic hamlet" program, where Vietnamese townspeople were forced into concentration camp-style towns where they could be guarded. The first strategic hamlet was built next to Cu Chi, and thousands of people were forcibly relocated into it. The policy was a dismal failure, and by 1965, Communist forces were openly holding victory parades in Cu Chi. Then America got involved.
The U.S. expended a massive amount of energy trying to "pacify" the region around Cu Chi (called the "Iron Triangle"). We dropped thousands of tons of explosives, napalm, Agent Orange, the whole works. The people of Cu Chi responded by expanding those underground chambers into an amazingly intricate tunnel system. Spanning over 150 miles, the tunnels contain dormitories, kitchens, ammo dumps, and everything else people need to survive. The tunnels were built at three levels, with the lowest being about sixty feet below ground. The tunnels reached from North Viet Nam into Saigon; 16,000 soldiers served in them during the war (only 6000 survived). People lived in the tunnels during the day and came out at night to farm the fields; the tunnels themselves were deep enough to be essentially bomb-proof. Guerillas were able to surface in the midst of U.S. military bases, kill Americans, and disappear into the ground.
The Americans eventually figured out that there were tunnels, but had major difficulties neutralizing them. They tried sending soldiers down into the tunnels, but casualty rates were unacceptably high--the Vietnamese controlled the territory and surrounded the area with booby traps. The U.S. tried dogs, but the guerillas started washing with American soap to confuse them--and so many dogs were killed by traps that their handlers wouldn't send them in anymore, says Frommers' guidebook. Finally, in the late 1960s, the U.S. carpet-bombed Cu Chi and destroyed most of the tunnels.
Cu Chi has preserved some of the original tunnels, and is a major site for tourists and Vietnamese schoolchildren. Unlike some of the other tunnel tourist attractions, the tunnels at Cu Chi are not reconstructions, but actual remains from the period. We were very excited to see it, and we had high hopes for the tour.
We got on the tour bus at 8:15, as requested. Of course, it didn't leave until 9--us, some Australians, a couple of Brits, and four very loud Chinese women. We were stuck in traffic for a while, but finally we arrived--at a lacquer factory.
We protested. A lacquer factory is different from tunnels. It is shinier, and also it is not underground. Our tour guide explained that we might like to see how lacquer was made, and also they had an excellent gift shop. It was about here that I remembered why I hate tours. Anyway, we walked through at about 90 mph, refused to look at anything in the gift shop, and sat on the bus to express our displeasure. Everyone else did too, except the Chinese women, who cooed over the lacquer and bought souveniers.
This seems like a good place to mention my new pet peeve. On the bus down to HCMC, the guy in the seat in front of me decided that he wanted to listen to music, and he wasn't going to let his lack of headphones stop him--he just had his cell phone play something. Never mind that other people all around him were trying to sleep--it took a lot of heckling and glaring to get him to stop. I assumed that he was just some random idiot with no sense of human decency. But then on this tour, one of the Chinese women suddenly opened her phone and made it play music. The rest of the bus was amazed, and again, it took a lot of glaring by the rest of us to make it stop. Apparently this is a new thing. Anyway.
The guide promised us that after the lacquer factory, straight to the tunnels. Sure enough, the bus went right to them, we bought our tickets, and were escorted... to a large room where we had to watch a video about the history of the tunnels. I wasn't really eager to watch any video, just see the tunnels, but it was pretty funny--they told the stories of various villagers who lived in Cu Chi. Typical story: This girl was twelve years old when she began her battle against the American imperialists. She killed seventeen Americans, and was awarded the Medal of Valor and the title "Respected Killer of American Imperialists".
The video over, and it now being almost 11, we assumed it was time to go see the tunnels. Our guide led us into the forest, past some very promising signs that said TUNNELS and had big arrows pointing down the path. And we got to... well, crap, basically. All along the path, the tourism authority had constructed all sorts of ridiculous garbage. Exhibits on the sort of clothing that guerillas wore, dummies dressed as soldiers and holding weapons, even a set of robots which, when our guide pushed a button, robotically demonstrated how guerillas made weapons. Finally the guide led us to a shooting range coupled to a gift shop and told us that we could shoot AK-47s. The British guys ran off to try it while the Chinese women bought ice cream.
It had been four hours. We had seen lacquer, a movie, robots, tourism exhibits, but no tunnels, and now we were expected to sit there for another half an hour while some guys shot machine guns--and they are very, very loud. We left the tour. We walked down the path until we found the entrance to the tunnels.
The tunnels are not for the claustrophobic. When dug, they were about three feet high and two feet across, and had only the light you brought with you. The tourism authority built steps down into them, put a few tiny red lights in, and blocked off the side tunnels so that there's a straight path about 120 feet long. We climbed down and through the tunnel. I guess if you lived down there, you got used to it, but climbing through the tunnel in the dark was a very high-adrenaline experience for me. It was very, very dark--most of the stretches were pitch black, but there was a light whenever the tunnel hit steps down or up so that you didn't fall down the hole. Except for a brief stop for photos (none of them came out, sorry), I more or less rushed through it. At three feet high, you don't have to crawl but you can't walk, so you do sort of a hunched-over shuffle. At some point I must have banged my knee pretty hard on a step, I had a giant bruise, but at the time I didn't even notice.
Our tour guide and group caught up with us at the tunnel exit. They served us some weird sweet potato-type things for some reason, led us through yet another gift shop, and took us back to Ho Chi Minh City. Total elapsed time: six hours. Time spent in tunnel: 15 minutes. The smart way to do it is definitely to hire a taxi up to Cu Chi, watch the video (it's pretty awesome if you're not as impatient as I am), rush through the exhibits, walk through the tunnels, and then get back in the cab and go home.
Frommer's guidebook author says he had one of the best steaks he's ever had in a restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City, Amigo, and we figured that if you write for Frommers, you've probably had a lot of steaks. It was about half a mile, so we decided to walk. On the way we passed a surprisingly modern mall, and were surprised to find first world prices--I can't believe anyone would pay $300 for shoes in America, the richest country in the world, and I don't even know how to think about people doing that here. We also passed a Starbucks-like coffee shop. Progress. This part of the city wasn't touristy at all, which was nice. The steaks weren't the best I've ever had, but they were pretty good.
That's it for day two. Day three involves Chinatown.
posted by arie at 9:06 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home