Whether you call it Saigon or Ho Chi Minh City or Fred you have to admit that the Southern Capital of Vietnam has a lot going for it. Though it lacks the vibrancy and friendly bustle of Hanoi it certainly doesn'tscrimp onthings to do. Well actually, thats a bit of a fib. We didntfind much to do there but what we did see and do was striking if not profound. Our first stopwas the War Remnants Museum. It used to called victoryover China and the US museum but its name was changed to be more tourist friendly. Beside a number of captured US military machines on display it devotes a great deal of space to war photography from the American War and examples and exhibits relating to the effects of weapons and chemicals used in that war as well as reconstructing the famous tiger cages used by the SV govt against dissidents. Despite the fact that non of the attrocities or breaches of the Geneva convention committed by NVA forces are mentioned the exhibits are effecting. Particularly the section dedicatedto the children of peoplewho livedin areas sprayed with agent orange. Some of the deformities and handicaps suffered by these children are very distressing to see. It can make one feel such pity for those on the wrong end of those deadly gas canisters and it can make you feel very angry whenyou realise that theUS government has paid out substantial compensation to pilots of the bombers that dropped the gas whose children have suffered birth defects. To date the USA has givenno aid and no compensation to Agent Oranges victims in Vietnam.

We visited the ReUnification Palace. This is where the VC where photographedbreakingdown the main gate with tanks. It was surprisingly sombre. It stilllooked like it should be used as a governmental office rather than a historical building. There was a few exhibits of some of the ingenious ways the VC smuggled weapons and fighters into Saigon for the Tet and then the finaloffensive against the South Vietnamese.

My favourite place however was the Cu Chi Tunnels. These tunnels form part of a network ofunderground tunnelsand fortificationsthat stretch from the Cambodian borderto Saigon to Nha Trang, The DMZ and North into the Hanoi region. They allowed the VC to harrass, impede, surround,attack, raid and slow the US and SVA. Manned by only a handful of people at conflict points they were highly succesful in stopping the Americans fighting the sort of pitch-battle war that they had trained for and as a result had a huge impact on the eventual resultof the war. We saw examples of some of the gruesome traps used to impede enemy advances as well as seeing mock ups of the underground arms factories and hospitals the tunnels hid. We saw how small ond difficult to detect the tunnel entrances where (I wouldn't fit down one) and scraped our knees crawling through one of the tunnels that had unbelievably been widened for us fatty tourists. The fact that there was a downpour whilst wewere onthis tour servedto highlight the discomfort and tenacity ofthe VC whohad to work inthe tunnelsaswell as the difficulty and fear the US personnel must havefelt having to deal with such a uniquely entrenched enemy.

Most fun though, I got to play with some real guns. I fired a Colt 45 and Laura and I both fired an AK47. Even though recoil is kept to a minimum by the barrels being bolted to something solid it is still very difficult to not be taken by surprise by the way both weapons jump around when you fire them. I don't think I hit any of the friendly looking deer painted onironsheeting that served as targets and I threw more than 40 rounds at the little b*****s! It is exhilarating though. You can feel the violenced tearing down the barrel as you squeeze the trigger and the noise and the kick really make you feel the power of the simple mechanical device you are holding. Its not a feeling I would like to get used to and I think I can understand why it could make onfeel super powerful. The sight of these weapons is imposing, the noise is deafening and ones first instinct to seeing and hearing one would be to run away from the one wielding it.

Chris