Tahoe Johnson’s Journey to Southeast Asia

Ho Chi Minh City (aka Saigon)

Most southerners still refer to HCMC as Saigon – its historical name.  We were back to backpacker style hotels here. No one slept very well for the 3 nights here due to all the traffic noise, honking cars and motorbikes.  Hanoi may be the seat of politics, but Saigon is the driving force of Vietnam’s economy, which is the 3rd fastest growing economy in the world. 

Thoughts on leaving Vietnam, compiled by the kids: western toilets (important), toilet paper (very important), very clean, modern, and cheaper hotels with AC (most important), motorbikes everywhere, crowded, touts everywhere hawking their wares – “motobike, you buy, taxi?, where you go”?, service from restaurants and hotels was great (much better than Malaysia and southern Thailand); sleeper buses with beds; economy based on US dollar; back to driving on right side of road, infrastructure (like roads) still very poor; French influence in tailoring, delicious french pastries and coffee; common person with more English speaking abilities than Thailand; everything is smaller – the size of the people, houses, cars, etc; every day uniforms more dressy; greater sense of community – sitting outside on stools eating with family, friends, people – unlike western countries where the home is more the communal place.

When we entered Vietnam, we hadn’t really read anything about it, and really did not know much about where we were heading. After travellig from the north to the south, while waiting at the airport to catch our flight from Vietnam back to Bangkok, we asked the kids how they rated the countries we had seen so far. They rate Vietnam as Number 1.  We felt like the month we were there just flew by. Now that we’re back in Thailand, it almost feels like it was a dream. We thoroughly enjoyed the people, the countryside, the cities (except Josh, who hates cities, although he was our fearless leader when crossing the motorbike clogged streets!).

PICTURES:

Reunification Palace: The seat of power for the South before and during the Vietnam War.  Modern architecture from the 1960s by a French architect. Although the capitol is now in Hanoi, this building is still used for conferences and ceremonial government meetings. 

Street where tanks from the northern army came rumbling in and crashed through the gates to overthrow the South – April 10, 1975

 

This is the first tank that crashed through the fence as described above. It’s commemorated in a famous photo depicting the fall of Saigon.

In the basement, were the war control rooms of the South.  This was the communications room with all the original equipment.

People’s Committee Building with statue of Ho Chi Minh

The Rex Hotel – the hotel where a lot of the war correspondants stayed

Believe it or not – the Notre Dame in Saigon

Left over French Influence- bakery and patries

Street Traffic – cannot get a picture that does justice to all the motorbikes and the lack of lanes. At one left hand turn “area,” I counted 15 motorbikes and a car trying to all turn at once through the oncoming traffic.   The real challenge is crossing a street. The jist of it is: close your eyes, walk slowly, and don’t stop. Somehow,  the traffic moves around you.

War Museum – this picture is the number of US units and where they were located in the South.  There was a wall with the statistics of WWII, other wars, and the “American” war – ie  casualties, deaths, ordnance dropped, etc.  A very telling picture of what happened there  for the 18 years we were involved in Vietnam. (We were in the country directly after Vietnam gained independence from the French in 1954.)  There were 6 halls set up, each with a different emphasis.  This exhibit was not a Hollywood-style romanticism of war. One exhibit was just photos of different war correspondents from around the world that died during the war.  Other exhibits showed the result of all the chemical warfare that was done to the country (forests leveled from agent orange/napalm (against Geneva Convention – and why did we go into Iraq?) and its results on the people.  The photos of the deformity on the kids was sickening.  Another exhibit showed the detention centers/prisons look and life – with photos of torture.  (We didn’t take the kids through here) Ther was also an outdoor exhibit of US weapons, etc.  The take home from all of it – War IS  HELL.  Nobody won – nobody was a saint (north or south or US or Russian) Each side lost – all in the name of what? – Politics?  The soldiers were only doing what was asked of them, but we must be wary of those in political power and their decisions to send our troops into battle. There was a very telling plaque from the US constitution – all men are created equal …… and deserve freedom and independence.  The south may not have wanted to be communist, but did the US have to go to help them? 

A guillotine – left over from the French prison system –

left over US military equipment

This is just ONE bomb – 12 feet high?!

Tags: Travel

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