In Saigon I visited the Reunification Palace, the former seat of the South Vietnam government, and the War Remnants Museum, an extended exposition of American savagery towards the Vietnamese during the War as told from the perspective of the Hanoi government. Both were only mildly interesting but obligatory while I was here. It's interesting to see the war described from their point of view and yet with Vietnam now a market economy and open to the world, the museum and the whole discussion of the war seem a bit dated and even irrelevant.
I also took a day trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels built by the Viet Cong and the Cao Dai Temple, the seat of a relatively newt Vietnamese religion that combines elements of Confucianism, Taoism, and Islam. It is a very strange religion indeed, even claiming Victor Hugo as one its saints. Bizarre.
At the temple, we wandered around a bit and then stayed to watch their ceremonial chanting at noon:
The Cu Chi Tunnels were a large network of tunnels built during the French occupation and expanded during the American war (as they call it here). The tunnels extended several kilometers and housed thousands of Viet Cong guerilla soldiers and their families. It allowed them to pop out of the ground, quickly attack, and disappear. We got to go into one of those tunnels, and they were really small and dark! Some of the girls freaked out and turned around and ran out the way they came in as soon as it started getting dark. I was amused.
During the tunnel tour, I met an American girl from Chicago, a 20-something accountant with KPMG on assignment in Saigon for a few months. Again, the reminders of change in this country are everywhere.
This picture of the tunnels is lit only because of the flash from my camera - when we were walking through it was pretty much pitch-black. They're also extremely small and narrow - I had to hunch over and crouch through the whole way and I'm really short (then again so are the Vietnamese, but taller folks might have a lot more trouble moving through around here).
Saigon is the economic engine of the country - there is construction everywhere and it is hard not to appreciate the dizzying pace of change. It is fascinating to contemplate what this city will look like in ten or twenty years.
Still, I'm ready to move on and see a quieter, more splendid side of Vietnam as I go on to explore some of the historical towns and the natural beauty of the North.
My breakfast today was a chicken (or pork? not sure) noodle soup, pretty typical here:
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