Kicking off 2008 in Vietnam

We had a great mini-vacation in Vietnam over New Years. We arrived late Dec 29th and left at the crack of dawn Jan 3rd. That gave us 4 whole days to relax and sightsee.

It was a fascinating trip for me and really made me want to reread all the history about the war. I learned about it in school and have seen lots of movies about Vietnam since, but it was a whole different experience seeing it in person and seeing it from the another point of view. Since the "American War" (as they call it) was only 30 or so years ago, the history is very fresh, but the people are incredibly friendly and although Vietnam is officially a communist country, Saigon felt very capitalist and not much different than any other country we've visited.

Saigon the city
Saigon's official name after the war became Ho Chi Minh city, but everyone still calls it Saigon. It's got a population of about 8 million people. The city is huge and spread out like Los Angeles. Everyone rides motorbikes and the traffic is insane. The best form of transportation is walking or hopping on the back of one of the motorbikes if you're brave. Or you could take one of the old fashioned cyclos. Taxi's are available, but much slower because of the clogged streets.

Crossing the street is not a sport for the faint hearted. You just start walking at an even clip and the motorbikes will weave around you. I can not picture my mother in law ever being able to cross a street there. (Pictured above is Mark on a cyclo and other picture is a view of the oncoming traffic coming right at him.)

1st Day
Our 1st day we walked around and spent some time at the War Remnants Museum. (Also called the American War Crimes Museum unofficially). Ironically, it is the most popular tourist attraction for Western tourists. Most of the tourists we met were Australian, European and British, but I'm sure there were other Americans around. The museum had tons of pictures from war journalists around the globe and told a million stories about the conflict. It was just heartbreaking.

Of course, history is written by whoever is writing the story, and in Vietnam, the N. Vietnamese communists got to tell this story so compared to the American history I've learned, their history had some obvious propoganda bias, as I'm sure the American history does too.

One thing I found particularly interesting was a section of the museum dedicated to Jane Fonda, "A kind hearted American". Funny, considering people back in the USA didn't feel the same way about her at the time.

2nd Day
The 2nd day we went to the Cu Chi Tunnels, about 1 1/2 hours drive outside of the city. Cu Chi is a village that dug these elaborate tunnels and all the villagers lived in them during the war and also fought brutal gorrilla warfare.

A local Cu Chi guide took us through the tour and it was obvious they are still very proud of their heritage and how, through all the wars, noone has been able to get past their impoverished little village of warriors.

They proudly displayed all their traps, and handmade weapons and we got to go through a section of the tunnels which had been enlarged for us fat tourists.

Lots more sad and revolting stories, but it's all part of history and I guess it's what a lifetime of war could do to people.

As an odd tourist attraction, they made a shooting range where you could choose from a selection of machine guns and pay the equivalent of 50 cents a bullet. No way were Mark and I going to do this, but someone in our group did and I couldn't believe how loud it was.

New Year's Eve
After touring the tunnels, we went back to the city for New Year's Eve celebrations. We took a nap 1st and almost missed it, but finally woke up and joined the insanity outside. The street outside our hotel was crammed with people on motorbikes so we just turned around and went back to our hotel to celebrate on the rooftop bar. (Here's a picture of the crowded street below our hotel, and the other picture is a girl on a motorbike carrying a case of Vodka Cruiser, funny.)

The 3rd day, we took a boat trip up the Mekong Delta. It was gorgeous and the kind of Vietnam I imagined. (Here's a boat transporting pomelos and banana's)

The Mekong Delta is about 2 hours south of Saigon. We spent the day visiting coconut candy making villages, and paddling up the Delta. We stopped at one place that had a Boa Constrictor which I got to know intimately. His tongue licked my elbow and I swear I can still feel it now.

One time paddling up the river, the little lady who was paddling kept saying something to Mark and acting tired, so Mark picked up a paddle and helped out. I'm still not sure if that's what she wanted or if she just wanted to make sure we gave her a tip. Either way, she got both.










Home to Bailey
When we got home, we had a package of Hickory Farms meats and cheeses waiting for us as a Christmas gift from my siblings. (Thanks guys). Bailey couldn't get enough of the smell and it was so cute, I took a few pictures. She knows when someone's trying to hide food from her.