Saigon Day One
As soon as we got off the overnight train, our tour leader had a full and busy day planned for us. We showered, had breakfast, and then were off
on a bus for an hour or so to Cu Chi to see the tunnels famous in the Vietnam
War. We had a different guide for this,
and she stopped us on our way out to have a look at a rubber tree plantation. While interesting we were exhausted.
The tunnel
complex itself was interesting. Firstly
we were directed to watch a video, that I assumed would tell us about the area,
what we were going to see, and the history and use of the area. Instead it was a propaganda video from the
war, showing us fearless young girls and boys fighting for their villages
against the ‘murderous Americans’. It
puts me in two minds, while they certainly have reason to speak with passion
about the horrors inflicted upon them I was repelled by the obvious bias, so
I’m not sure whether this video inspires tourists to feel more, or less,
sympathetic towards them.
I was also
unbalanced by the tone of the rest of the complex. There was an expectation that we were there
to have fun, full on laughter and shouting kind of fun, which seemed
inappropriate to me and the Australians.
There was one exhibit of mannequins dressed as soldiers, and when one of
the group pulled out his camera to take a photos the guide misinterpreted this
and got us to all stand as a group and grin in front of the soldiers. I don’t think anyone was comfortable with
this. Once the leader had moved on he
got his photo of the exhibit minus the smiles.
Another odd exhibit of mechanised mannequins. The motion gave it the air of some sort of macabre fair ground attraction. |
Christina, being told to smile at the camera. This is a tourist tunnel that has been increased in size to fit larger people. |
At this
point my stomach decided to clearly explain that it wasn’t happy with the
sanitary conditions here and so I spent the rest of the tour and the return bus
trip getting a full understanding of the term stomach cramps. Something I’d never had before. Thankfully the travel doctor had given me
some drugs for just this situation and they promptly did the trick.
That
afternoon we were taken on a cyclo tour of the city and went to a café Bill
Clinton had been to, as evidenced by the photos proudly displayed on the walls,
and then to the War Remmnants Museum.
This was a slightly more educational experience than any other museum
we’d been to, but was also very emotive and not subjective. I’m just not used to that.
Cyclo in traffic. |
We were also taken to see the Notre Dame Cathedral - apparently brought over by the French and assembled here. Accross thr road was what we thought was a railway station, but it turned out to be the post office. An impressive building, with a large portait of Ho Chi Minh surveying activity from the back wall.
The cyclo drivers took us back to our hotel, and after throwing a bit of a hissy fit about the size of our tips, left.
Cathedral. |
Post office. |
We were all pretty exhausted at this point, but we only had time for a quick shower and then we were off to dinner at a slightly posher restaurant than usual as it was the birthday of one of the girls in the tour group. The guide explained that the reason the prices were still quite reasonable despite the location, was that it was a state owned operation. We had no objections, though unfortunately my stomach and that of the birthday girl's were still a little touchy.
View from the open deck above the restaurant. |
The stairwell from the lobby. I'm a magpie, I know. |
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