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Cu Chi Tunnels & Saigon War Museum
We are quite behind with the blog now so apologies, been having too good a time in HK (news to follow)
Our 3rd day in the city and our 2nd Trip in Vietnam was to the Cao Dai Temples, a place of pilgrimage for a lot of South Vietnamese people. We arrived for their noon time prayer and packed in with a whole load of tourists, we watched hundreds of followers sit on the floor dressed in colourful robes and chant their prayer. Different coloured robes represented different levels. The white coloured robes are vegetarian for 10 days a month, the colourful robes Vegan. For 30 minutes we watched silently.
The 2nd part of the trip was to the infanous Cu Chi Tunnels which was also a place of eating, accommodation, meeting as well as a unique battle formation, which was used by bthe guerillas during the Vietnam War.
before we scurried along the dark tunnels (which have been widened for westerners) we went shooting. James shot an M16 rifle and like John Rambo the VC fell like flies, I opted for "the AK47 when you absolutely, positively have to kill every last MOFO in the room, accept no substitute". I didnt expect to like the experience but we both felt charged afterwards, ready for a tour of duty and that tour was of the tunnels. Widened and electric light now down there its hard to imagine them any smaller. Men hurt their knees squatting so low to get through, whereas I had to only stoop slightly. being down there is a bit claustrophobic especially when the person in front of you stops and has a coughing fit which now means the people behind have to stop and you cant move.
The tour ended with an old black and white video of the destruction the war caused. it was focused on 2 individuals who were awarded medals after the war had ended. One a peasant man who devised a way of tracking where the Amercian Soldiers would strike next, he was awarded a medal for killing 16 soldiers. the other a young woman who from the age of 8, armed with an AK47, helped fight against the Amercians. She was awarded a medal for killing 35 soldiers and possibly destroying 4 tanks. Quite a way to end the tour.
Saigon War Museum
We thought we might only spend an hour here, 3 hours later we finally left, it was that good! The courtyard is full of captured U.S tanks, planes, choppers, guns and james was in his element. When you first enter the museum you met with photo's and images that shock you, they show the full horror of what it is like when a poor 3rd world country fights a super power. For example, there is a photograph of an American soldier holding a piece of a Vietnamese soldier, its just his head and soldiers with one arm attached, his legs are lying on the ground. there is no body. Next is a photograph of an American tank with 2 headless corpses being dragged along the road behind it. Its the images of the smiling and joking American soldiers with skulls and corpses around them that are the most shocking (remind anyone of whats happening in the middle east at the moment?) The museum was not completely biased though as it does report U.S soldiers trying to help the Vietnamese people or refusing to fight against them. One thing to bear in mind is that "History is written by the victors" and the Vietnamese won.
So it's Goodbye Vietnam and hello to Hong Kong........
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