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With our passports back in our possession we grabbed a 6 dollar bus from Phnom Penh to Saigon (correction Ho Chi Minh City). This was actually a very nice bus ride; there were some really beautiful farms as we approached the border. As we drove we were constantly passed by other busses of the same size stuffed with passengers (locals) both inside and out. Yes, as many passengers as inside were riding on the roof (ok a little exaggeration but as many as ten passengers were riding in the sky). Sometimes they were sitting on a motorbike on top of the bus! Aside from this sighting I just have to say when traveling these countries it helps to be a man because when it comes to the call of nature I have experienced it all. And yet, I still come across new surprises. During this trip I paid to go into someone's house (wooden hut) to use their WC which consisted of a cracked concrete slab and a giant water pot used to wash with and to wash the waste down the crack! All in visible view of the owner who charged me.
By mid day we are dropped at the border. We walk through Cambodia's border check out and then across the border to check into Vietnam. All quite surreal to physically walk across the border with your belongings strapped to your back while the local on his motorbike with chainsaw crosses with you. When we finally exit we only hope there is a bus on the other side to finish our tour. This time through no extra charges and our passports are not thrown at us all we have to pay is some bogus health inspection charge which cost one dollar for the two of us. Vietnam actually had an x-ray machine for our bags; so that was a first. Once finally approved we walk out and are greeted by Happy Tour! No problem we made it to Saigon by early evening.
I'm not exactly sure what we thought Vietnam would be but it’s definitely not that. Of all the Southeast Asia countries we've been to aside from Malaysia Vietnam on the surface seems the richest. As we pulled into Saigon we were pleasantly surprised...we really like this city. We thought it was bad trying to cross the road in Phnom Penh it’s a million times worse here but at least they seem to have traffic lights. You just have to hold your breath and stare down the drivers as you inch your way through on-coming traffic. We only spent a night and a day in Saigon which was enough time to find a place to get our camera fixed (hooray) and to check out some "history"! Everyone in Saigon was so nice not that we didn't think they would be but we just weren’t sure if we wanted to go around advocating that we were Americans. But as it turned out half the Vietnamese people we would run into here were American too or there family was there etc., etc. It's amazing how nationality never seems to be an issue when you’re at home, you never even think about it but when you’re traveling it’s a dirty secret. Although through our travels we've learned none of the countries we are traveling in are put off by us being from the US in fact they get really excited. It's only the hoards of traveling westerners that can't stomach us. So when we joked about claiming to be Canadian back home when times got rough we have decided never to do that because in the end nobody really cares and we can handle some Bush bashing. Yet we did overhear a conversation at one point when some Scandinavians called some Canadians out as being the "most self promoting country" referring to their need to always travel with a Canadian flag plastered to their bag or some other type of insignia. The Canadians response..."It's so that mistake us for Americans"...All we could think is well there’s one reason to be proud to say your Canadian, I'm not American. I apologize in advance to my Canadian friends but this has got to be the stupidest reason for exhibiting national pride I've ever heard. Anyways as we've traveled all the great American facts we've learned from people have been passed on by disgruntle Canadians...such as Americans think Canadian is a language...they don't study geography...and my favorite is the West is still the wild wild west everyone is strapped with guns! Where do they get this s***, no wonder the world doesn't get us!
So moving on. We spent the next day taking a tour out to the Chu Chi tunnels. Our day started out with Happy Tours once again for a mere 3.5 dollar half day trip to see the tunnels and ended up being the Not So Happy Tour. On our way to the tunnels which is about an hour and a half from the city we stop for a "bathroom break" at the Handicap Handicrafts. Which is fine at this point were used to the pit stops in villages or stores or what not to try and get you to buy something. However this one was slightly new...exploiting handicapped people so that the government can make more of a profit off the goods because you can guarantee their not seeing a penny more even though the prices are astronomical compared to what they are anywhere else. But back to the story. As we're getting back on the bus a German couple (I'm sorry but I have to point that out) in our group take the tour guides brochure and underline the description of our tour that says we go straight from Saigon to the Chu Chi tunnels and then place it back on his seat. After our ten minute stop we all get back on the bus and the driver notices the gift the Germans left him and turns around to comment to the bus about why we stopped here and that if there were any problems to be sure to speak to the office about them when we returned. Well this turned into a full blown battle between the Germans and our tour guide escalating to the point where the guide had the driver pull over so he could leave them on the side of the road. At this point more people chimed in saying that they couldn't just leave them there that they had to take them on the tour. At this point the guide is telling the Germans "to be silent and to get out" and their reply "don't tell me to be silent...freedom of speech man." You have to wonder where exactly these people thought they were but apparently they were oblivious to the fact that they were in communist VIETNAM. Brandon finally chimed in and requested everyone to just drop it and asked if we could move on that this fighting was taking longer than the ten minute stop and what’s done is done. At this the driver resumed the trip and the day just spiraled down from there. We learned that once you upset a Vietnamese tour guide they don't let it go and this led to the fasted tour of the tunnels I think anyone has ever been on. And of course this upset everyone else in the group because our guide was no longer "happy" or even much of a guide so of course the Germans felt vindicated.
Back to the tunnels. Well we arrived at the tunnels which is quite the tourist attraction...perhaps like the equivalent to Vietnam's Disneyland. The way they glorify these tunnels and the purpose they served is quite sickening especially when you compare it to how the portray the "American War" in the War Remnants Museum which we visited next. Here they parade you around showing the incredible tunnels that even now after being widened are suffocating and you can't imagine people living in here for nearly twenty years. They even show you the booby traps they used on the soldiers but nobody seems to take it too seriously as if the fact that these tunnels were constructed for one purpose only and that was to kill while hiding. If this wasn't enough for you half way through the tour we stopped at a cafe/souvenir shop where you could grab a coke or a Chu Chi tunnel or even better Yellow star of communism shirt while listening to the various sounds of automatic weapons being fired at the connected firing range. Don't worry if you felt left out or the need to fire off some ammunition for a mere dollar a bullet you too could fire an AK47 or a machine gun! At this point I was dying of heat and completely sickened by how a place of death could promote death and that hoards of happy tourist could enjoy themselves and was ready to get back to Saigon. Back in Saigon we were dropped off at the War Remnants Museum where we learned all about the "American War" and saw all the terrible things we did and terrible weapons we used. The best thing about this museum is that everything in it was a clip from Time magazine or a copy of a New York Times magazine...every horrible thing we did to them was reported by us and of course they didn't have any material from any other sources and of course no follow up by there reporters. What would they have done if this was a popular war back home and all the horrible things they were doing would have been making our front page news? Not to say that these things didn't happen, I know they did and that deeply upsets us but we've read all these stories we've seen these headlines...we learn this in history believe it or not our government is teaching us how we behaved while at war there. It's at this point that we realized how in control there government is and how much who's in charge can control the way history is recorded. None of the stories or articles reflected badly on the Vietnamese they even went as far as to say that we invaded them that they couldn't understand why we were disturbing there peaceful happy country. And of course the South Vietnamese army didn't exist...no Vietnamese were supporting us. Yet the kicker to all this is that in the same breath that someone explains how we (Americans) invaded there country for no reason they also state they can't believe we packed up and walked away that they had to continue fighting for two more years with no avail! I wonder who they were fighting because according the info in the Museum they were at war with us. All the information in the museum that was not provided by Time magazine or the Chicago Sun Times was a bunch of cut and paste pieces that didn't add up. Under one picture it explains that it is showing the first arrival of American troops in 1965 and then in the caption next to that is describing the guillotine you’re looking at that the French brought over in the early fifties but it wasn't until the Americans arrived in the 50s that it was used in full force! We lasted about an hour looking at this bull s*** and then left to go enjoy Saigon. Oh and we can't forget the numerous articles that show the support that all the nations were giving to the poor Vietnamese (people that America just wouldn't leave alone) by staging protests. In case you’re wondering these countries our Russia, Cuba, Eastern Germany, etc., etc. At the end of the day I don't agree with war and horrible things happen because of it yet this particular one hits close to home and it’s hard to see our fathers being misrepresented to the world. We wondered how many westerners walked out of the museum despising us even more because what else would they possibly have learned about this war that didn't involve their country. We can only hope that they could see through the holes.
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