Vietnam - love you one time but not longtime....

Vietnam. The one place on our list that hasn't fully enticed us but equally intrigued us enough to make the list. You only have to pick up any guide book on this place and it normally heads up more negatives than positives. Hence why then we researched it the least.

Thoughts again are compounded further regarding the state of this country as on arrival it doesn't take long for the first stranger to advise you to be careful of "everything" whilst your here ! It's pick-pocket central. Handbags are a no-no, designer hooky ones or real aren't advisable, as the all too many Honda clunk riding thieves here ain't choosy.

We arrived in the evening, not particularly late, but it's crazy mad busy. In Milo terms it looks 'totally nuts'. Mopeds are the main transportation for locals, millions of them! By now this just seems the Asian way for city life and weirdly enough you do become at ease with it.

Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) is crazy, totally crazy. Way too many people just not enough space to go round.  50+ Honda clunks line up at every red light prior to the green for go. The traffic seems to be following in every direction. In one guide book under top ten things to do when in Vietnam "cross the road" was listed! Sounds like a hit place hey, you'd think one to avoid. You know, leave

 it to others but no, the place is rammed with tourists of every type, the most we have seen so far on our trip. Like us we guess, curious to see what's really on offer.
Within another travel guide I picked up it stated that if Vietnam doesn't straighten it's security and corruption out soon there is a strong chance that visiting tourists will most definitely miss out on the real Vietnam which should by now be very much available to all.
Saigon is just crazy, like i said way too many people and just not enough space. We've seen families of 4 on one bike. Step ladders, many sacks of rice, plastic cups that nearly reach overhead cables, a double bed and the best so far, 7 crates of beer! All on the one faithful Honda clunk.

We visited the Vietnam war remnants museum. Which was something else. We always knew that it wasn't America's finest hour but on reading and viewing some of the exhibitions we wouldn't be too sure if Americans still to this day aren't, and in some eyes wont ever be, too welcome in these parts.

There was a whole floor dedicated to photography. These were taken by 14 serviceman photographers, none of which made it home.

Some of the photos were in colour which really emphasised how recent these atrocities took place.

We found the Tsunami museum in Sri Lanka moving but that was mother nature, this lot was all man made.

Some shocking Vietnam war stats:

72 million litres of toxic chemicals were sprayed by the Americans. Known as agent orange this herbicide was used for ten years, from 1961 to 1971. To defoliate the forests of Vietnam and hence make the Viet con (Vietnamese communists, or VC) visible from the air and to eradicate the enemies food source by the destruction of crops.

In total 24,000 sq km's or 6 million acres were sprayed in Vietnam. The after affects of this chemical usage are still visible today by with many handicapped Vietnamese (also photos of American war veterans with deformed children too).

Vietnam war compared with WWII:

Length of war:
WWII - 3 yrs 8 mths
Vietnam war - 17 yrs 2 mths

Tonnage of bombs & artillery shells used:
WWII - 5 million
Vietnam war - 14 million

Cost:
WWII - $341 billion
Vietnam war - $676 billion

Next we went to the Cu Chi Tunnels. The tunnels of Củ Chi are an immense network of connecting underground tunnels and form part of a much larger network of tunnels that underlie much of the country. The Củ Chi tunnels were the location of several military campaigns during the Vietnam War, and were the Viet Cong's base of operations for the Tết Offensive in 1968. The tunnels were used by Viet Cong guerrillas as hiding spots during combat, as well as serving as communication and supply routes, hospitals, food and weapon caches and living quarters for numerous guerrilla fighters.

On route to the tunnels we stopped at what you could say was your typical tourist trap where the locals take your hard earned dollars but this place seemed to have a different feel as many of the workers are suffering from disabilities as a result of chemical warfare imposed by the American. We'd not expected this stop off so we had very little funds but would you believe it the tour guide lent us £25 so we could in turn buy and support such a worthy cause.

Our tour guide was very animated when discussing the tactics and actions of the Americans within this region of Vietnam. Obviously any country will tell a one sided story but this guy certainly wasn't holding back on this opinions on the atrocities that were carried out by both sides. It was a tough call on whether he was pro communist or against.

He kept stating that let your camera remember the memories and not your minds. He stated that his first couple of tours that he carried the evenings that followed he just couldn't switch his mind away from what had taken place over many years. But he constantly told himself that the past was in past and it's now time for the country to move on. He also constantly thanked us all for visiting his country as tourism was aiding the change of opinion and moving the country into a new phase.



Ho Chi Minh former president and Vietnamese Communist who formed the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and led the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War until his death. Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh in his honour in 1950s after the Fall of Saigon.

At one point there was a chance to access sections of a tunnel. Wow they were small, (apparently the tunnel sizes have been increased so that us tourist types can fit) dark and very hot - and that's without someone trying to kill you via various methods ranging from gazing, flooding, booby trapping. The drive to win the war seemed bigger than ever given these conditions.