The last big stop in Vietnam for us! The capital city of Ho Chi Minh (or as I prefer to call it by it's old name, Saigon). Let me start by saying that even though I am totally a small town girl through and through, every couple years I absolutely have to spend a little time getting a big, dirty, raging city out of my system. There's very few big cities that have taken me heart like that. San Francisco (duh), Chicago and now I can say Saigon are some of the few big cities I could really spend some time in getting my big city fix.
Got to Saigon in the late evening and checked into our hostel, the Saigon Backpacker, which I really liked. $7 got us free breakfast every morning, a rooftop hangout area that overlooked some of the city with bean bags to chill out on and an amazingly friendly staff. The first night we were pretty wiped out from our traveling so we just ate a great, cheap dinner at 5 Oysters (phooooo) and chilled out.
The next day we paid $5 to have a tour guide take us out to the Ku Chi Tunnels (yes, you heard me potty mouthed friends) and give us a tour. Wow! These are a huge underground series of tunnels hand dug by the Vietcong and used during the war. It was an incredibly informative, saddening and humbling experience. On the way there, they took us to a place where disabled victims from the use of Agent Orange made pieces of art to sell. The art was beautiful and if I had any way of taking it home I would have. Instead I bought a "mango" smoothie that tasted like poultry so I considered that just to be pretty much just a cash donation after having to immediately throw it out. One of the rules of Asia, if you have any suspicion of what you're consuming do not, I repeat, do not eat it! During the tour we were actually able to crawl through the first two levels of about 900 feet of a section of the tunnels. Wow! Besides the obvious feelings of panic and claustrophobia (I was crawling on my hands and knees at one point with my small pack dragging on the ceiling!!), it evoked very powerful feelings knowing that people lived in, fought in and were killed in these tunnels. Such an experience. Definitely glad we decided to check out this historical site.
That night we decided to check out the rooftop bar at the Vietnam Inn. The views were incredible! There is a huge rectangular park that runs through downtown filled with people partaking in huge, free Zumba classes, people working out on the free machines, hacky sacks, badminton, everything. The bar overlooked this park and the skyline of Saigon, so cool! The weather at night was perfect, I wore sundresses all night and the cool breeze on the rooftop bar was amazing. We met three guys that were staying at the hostel up there, two from Denmark and one from Oregon, and ended up partying Saigon proper with them. Local street food sitting in the little kid stools that line the streets, jenga with the locals at the bar and a lot of gin, such a fun night!
The next day we had made plans to visit the Vietnam War Remnants Museum with Stefan and Rasmus (in case you couldn't tell by the names, those are the two from Denmark, not Oregon) so we met with them and very slowly started our day. We knew the war museum, especially since we're both from America, would be an incredibly difficult but profound experience but wow.... I will never forget this experience for the rest of my life. The war museum consisted of three levels and we started at the top and worked our way down. The top floor was one of my favorite parts because it portrayed the photography taken by the journalists who risked their lives to document the war. The vast majority of these journalists were killed in the war but the pictures they captured were absolutely haunting and so saddening but so necessary in my opinion. The top floor also consisted of detailing the general history of the war. We had read that the museum was fairly slanted against America so we went with open minds and open hearts hoping for the best. I have to say that at the end of it all I didn't feel like it was totally anti American. There wasn't really any part of the museum that tried to purposefully portray us as an evil country. The closest thing we saw to anti American sentiments was that a passage from the Declaration of Independence was displayed before the beginning of one of the floors exhibits. "We hold
these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." An incredibly simple way to say so much... There were obvious sentiments of anger and sadness but it was a war, how could there not be.
The second level was such a hard experience to take in. It focused a lot on the effects that the use Agent Orange had on everyone involved in the war. The pictures I saw and stories I read from the victims won't be discussed any further in detail in this blog. I will note however that reading petitions from both the Vietnamese and American victims of Agent Orange to the US government and more specifically Monsanto and the DOW corporation made my blood boil and my eyes tear up. Here we are in 2014 still fighting for the right to have our foods at least be labeled! And the same company that created Agent Orange, such a destructive and gruesomely effective method of killing and harming generations after generations, still owns such a percentage of our government that we as citizens aren't even allowed the right to know what is in our own food. I apologize for the political soapbox but this is a topic very close to my heart. My BA thesis was on GMO's and the effects on both America and third world nations. Seeing letters dated from the seventies (!) demanding criminal action be taken against companies that we are STILL fighting and that could manufacture such a product was just too much for me. The second floor did end with describing that even though many of the Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange have died from lack of access to healthcare, many now lead inspiring lives. Some teaching, some creating art, some writing books, all in all so incredibly touching and overwhelming. The bottom floor was by far the most "upbeat" if you could use that term in that museum. It consisted of peace posters created during and after the war by countries around the world. It also described the dissenters and draft dodgers in America as well as displayed such an interesting article on the first American soldier in the Vietnam war to refuse to keep fighting. Also displayed was a letter written in 2009 (!) to Obama from a Vietnamese Agent Orange victim asking for increased medical assistance in Vietnam for those affected. So insane to think this chemical is still not done destroying lives 40 years later. All in all this was one if the most profound experiences of my entire life. After we walked out we all had to go sit and process what we had just seen. Truly one of the single most moving experiences I have ever had.
After this we decided to go rest up for a little bit and meet up again later that night for drinks at the rooftop bar of Saigon's tallest tower. On the way back to our hostel we ran into a couple free Zumba classes happening in the park that I got to do for a little bit, so fun!!!! I love this town so much for so many reasons. The rooftop bar on the tallest building was so fun! Reminded me of drinking martinis with Jeff in the Hancock building in Chicago, so epic. After that we had a few beers with our Denmark friends and a late night meal and parted ways.
I only got two nights in Saigon but I am hooked! I cannot wait to come visit again and hopefully spend some time living and teaching here. The people were so incredibly kind and for me, the city had such a familiar and comfortable feeling to it even after only getting 48 hours there. What a send off from Vietnam! Saigon, I 'll be back sooner than later!
~ Binksy
