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went to the vietnam war museum. This was quite a trip. Although this museum was filled with pro north vietnam communist propaganda, its hard to deny that it was an atrocious war. Maybe America had good intentions with fighting communism, but shit, we did not go about it the right way. The museum takes the stance that the US wasn't even attempting to help south vietnam resist the communists and that we were just killing everyone in sight pretty much. Whether that is true or not doesn't matter too much at this point. what does matter is that some terrible shit went down. There were photographs of US soldiers smiling and laughing over their recently decapitated foe; something that doesn't happen with great ease. There were also many photographs of the effects of Agent Orange. Holy orange doody batman, for something that seems like it was supposed to be "just" destroying trees, it completely mutilated several generations of Vietnamese to such an extent that even now, walking around the streets I've seen people who are deformed from it. There were also extensive descriptions of the ways the vietnamese used to torture their prisoners...i'll leave it at, "gross." supposedly 3 million Vietnamese died in those years of war. I know they weren't all killed by the US, but its still a crapload of people. never realized the extent of death that happened there. SO...not very uplifting, but still pretty interesting.
We also checked out the reunification palace. It was this palace that the north Vietnamese crashed through the gates with their tanks, stormed the palace to end the war (well, in a nutshell i think that's what happened). It was pretty beautiful. spent some time walking around here.
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| Trying to fit into the Cu Chi hole |
Today, we checked out Cu Chi (that's right, pronounced just like coochie). It was here that the vietnamese mounted their defense by digging a series of tiny tight Cu Chi tunnels. Being the huge American I am, I couldn't even fit into the entrance of the Cu Chi tunnel. For a photo op, they let us try to climb in...well they let maybe five or six people climb in. I was the only one in the group that didn't quite fit; my shoulders/upper back were just too wide. I probably could have squeezed into the tight entrance, but would have left some skin behind. It really is amazing that supposedly 20,000 vietnamese LIVED in these tunnels that I couldn't even get through the doorway. We then saw some of the traps they set for the US soldiers, which were pretty gruesome if you consider how simple they were using mainly bamboo spikes. A very weird part for me was they had a tank on display for photo opps. Matt and I hopped on and we took some pictures along with the rest of the tourists (i'll load them to facebook when i get back). after getting down the other side I noticed writing on the side that said, "American M41 tank destroyed by a Delay mine in 1970." Made me a bit sad to think that this is literally where several US soldiers were killed and is now a tourist attraction. I know the US did terrible things in Vietnam, but it still isn't nice to think that on a personal level, these soldiers were probably drafted against their will and now their deathbed is a tourist attraction. pretty messed up.
We were going to go to a vietnamese medical museum this afternoon, but were running a little short on time (most museums here close between 4-5). So we did what i enjoy so much, grab an iced coffee and people watched. well, almost got hit by several motorbikes riding on the sidewalk. not sure what's on the books for tonight, but tomorrow morning at 630am we are boarding a bus to Cambodia where our first stop is Phnom Pehn. I would think that's early but for some reason I haven't woken up later than 6am in the past week or so. Even without work i'm still a stupid early riser.
and just bought my second pair of "100% real and authentic" Ray Ban sunglasses for a grand total of a combined $5. woohoo.
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