24 hour bus ride!? here we come!

we opted for the cheapest way to saigon, or as the people in northern vietnam like to call it ‘ho chi minh city’. this bus ride was only the beginning of a series of long, painful rides that was to come. thankfully though, this was the longest ride we had to take. now, i don’t know ifi’d tell someone to go this route but i’m happy we did for one reason only. we passed through this small beach town about 6 hours south of nha trang and 6 hours north east of saigon (Mui Ne). it was one of the most beautiful beach towns i’ve seen so far and would recommend anyone stop there.

we got to saigon around 7 p.m. and found ourselves in a race to find a guesthouse that was relatively inexpensive and not fully booked. it was pretty intense because we were having to run into a guesthouse, check it out, and then run to the next one to compare and by the time we ran into the next one, there was a good chance the last one was booked full and we lost out! there were a lot of guesthouses but ten times as many people it seemed! the streets insaigon were swarming with restaurants and bars of all kinds. it had a more western feel to it, i think largely due to the wider, straight streets.hanoi’s streets were very small and curved all over the place. we took no time securing our spot on a cu chi tunnel tour for the very next day, anxious to get started and move on tocambodia.

now, i didn’t know anything about the cu chi people or the tunnels they dug and lived in for 20+ years until i arrived in saigon. these tunnels are just another testament to the strong will of the vietnamese people. i couldn’t bare to go in them because they were too small; i can’t IMAGINE living your everyday life in one! our tour guide was a rad, young vietnamese guy who was probably our favorite tour guide of this whole trip. he was so informative and pleasant and optimistic. he told us how the people in the south still have a democratic mindset while the people in the north are very communist. he pointed out that thevietnam war was 30+ years ago but for them the remnants of the war were still very visible because they’re a poor country and don’t have the money or resources to rebuild as quickly as others. he pointed out tanks and bombs insaigon that were left there after the war. he said they were ‘parked’ there and never moved. interesting.

the cu chi tunnels are a series of tunnels northeast of saigon that the cu chi people dug and lived in for years and years. there were levels of tunnels and different rooms such as the kitchen, the bathroom, the bedroom, much like we have above ground. there were different exits and entry ways and a tunnel that lead to the mekong river. they had strategic ways of losing enemies in the tunnels, lots of booby traps within them, and in-case the enemy (americans) tried to smoke, bomb, or flood them out they had made doors and flood-ways and all kinds of tricks in order to escape. the persistence of these people is indescribable!!! there’s a portion of the real tunnels that thevietnamese people carved out a bit to make bigger for western people to fit through, because otherwise they wouldn’t. i couldn’t go in there becausei’m insanely claustrophobic but drew managed to work his way all the way through after most gave up, and came out dirty and sweaty. just sitting here thinking back to those tunnels i start to feel likei’m suffocating.

after the cu chi tunnels we headed to the war remnants museum which had a fascinating yet sad photography display from the vietnam war. all of the photos were taken by photographers, who died during the war, from all over the world. i found a lot of them to be french photographers but it certainly wasn’t limited to just them. they had bios of all the photographers and captions under all of their pictures of what was going on and in some cases which were their last photos ever taken. it was really emotional and so heartbreaking. another portion of the war museum was a whole section devoted to landmines and land mine victims. it didn’t begin and end withvietnam, it included victims of land mines even today from laos to cambodia to all over parts of africa. i learned a lot more about land mines when i went to laos because they’re still so plentiful there. land mines are certainly something i never knew too much about before this trip as well. i guess what i didn’t know is just how many were dropped and how many people to this day suffer from them. the numbers are so much larger than i could have ever imagined. thesaigon war remnants museum had less american propaganda than the one in hanoi (no surprise there). it had big american tanks, bombs, and aircraft just like the one in hanoi did too. the dead photographer section made this one tops for me. if i only went and paid to see that i would’ve left feeling like i got my money’s worth for sure.  Another cool thing about the museum is that a huge part of the photo installation was on loan from KY, USA.  Very cool indeed, and a testament to hatch-burying.

the rest of saigon was errands we had to run such as mailing home the large amount of clothing we had made in hoi an. that city is more beautiful at night than i would’ve imagined after seeing it in daylight, however i never got the feeling like i was somewhere insanely different.cambodia though, that place surprised the heck out of us… In the best of ways!

 check out our photos of Vietnam!

and GO M’s, Go Phills!!!!!!