Vietnam

Where do I begin? I really didn't want to post on this vacation because there is way too much to show and say, but my readers (Mom and Dad) requested I do so. I'm going to go in chronological order, not order of importance.

We landed in Saigon on Saturday at around 1:00. Walking out of the airplane, we were hit with a wall of heat and humidity. I glanced at my reflection and watched the hairs on my head stand up and my pores open to grease my entire face. It was a lovely sight, but I actually thoroughly enjoyed the heat. Driving through the city, the only thing I noticed were the motorbikes...literally everywhere. Old, young, men, women, even babies. The women would hold their babies on the bikes, sometimes masking them in a net as an attempt to keep the dust, and whatever else flies through the air, out of their face--as if THAT is the main concern in having an infant on a motorbike. Apparently 80% of motor accidents in Vietnam are due to these little Vespas. Honestly, I am surprised it is not 99% considering cars are few and far between.



This is not a good picture to illustrate the madness. There were swarms of motorbikes at times. I was not ready with my camera at those times, unfortunately. Also on the weekends, that is what Vietnamese people do for fun: ride on their bikes. Hot date? take her for a spin around the block on your sweet Vespa that everyone else in the city owns as well.

Our hostel was down the street from a famous Vietnamese market, Ben Thanh, so we walked through there for a bit.







Some interesting selections. Tequila with a worm: eat your heart out!

Sunday we walked around and first went to the Reunification Palace. Not the most attractive palace, it was clearly built in the 70's. Note the tacky decor; not usually what I picture when I think of a palace, but hey, to each his own.




We walked around the rooms inside. There was some interesting flair, like the elephant feet.




Onto the War Memorial Museum. Outside was typical war stuff, ya know, like big guns and tanks and what not.




But inside was a different story. This particular museum focused on war of aggression, so the emphasis was on who else but the United States and its atrocities toward the country. I was, however, surprised to see that the museum had completely left out France as its violent colonizer for years. Anyway, the first display as we walked in was this



In the words of Thomas Jefferson, the American declaration of inalienable rights contrasted with various pictures of war crimes, injured soldiers, dead women, babies, and elders. Of course everyone is aware of how great a contradiction this is, but seeing the images while having the claims of freedom still ringing in my ears gave me chills up my spine. Most of the imagery in the museum were--not surprisingly--those that I had never seen before. It was awful, really. One of the aspects that was spotlighted in the museum was the lasting effects the war has had on their country. The use of chemicals like napalm, and worse, agent orange, has created an entire society of disabled Vietnamese. Those exposed to agent orange were almost incapable of reproducing a normal child. A French politician at the time called the American use of such chemicals "an attempt to curb the evolution of an entire people."

Upstairs showed the destruction of land, homes, development, etc. Then, the rebuilding of the Vietnamese cities was proudly on display. Not far from these images, were pictures of people partaking in various tourist activities. Underneath, the caption read American tourists at Nha Trang, 1990, American tourists riding bikes, 2003, and so on. No comments underneath were present, but I got the message: "Look at what you Americans did. We rebuilt this beautiful country despite you, and now you have the audacity to use our country as a tourist attraction!" OK, maybe that is a bit of an exaggeration, but I shrewdly decided to refrain from speaking at a volume higher than ear-to-ear whisper anyway. I mean, I could be any nationality...

I have only put a dent in my first 2 days...more to come.