Created 16th May 2000, last updated 16th May 2000.
Having just travelled overland through Cambodia the change in the wealth of the country was notable - the quality of the roads improved and it was a mere two hours to reach Ho Chi Minh city, more commonly known as Saigon. The law states that everyone must be registered with the police when staying in Vietnam, so every hotel owner should (and did) ask for your passport when you check in.
On a day trip away from Ho Chi Minh amid the rain and wind we took a glimpse at the region known as the Mekong Delta. This is a large area to the southwest of the capital where the Mekong river splits into hundreds of little rivers before finally reaching the sea. Responsible for a large proportion of the gross national product of rice, the area is covered in rice paddies and water and makes for some beautiful scenery. Houses are often built on stilts to avoid the regular flooding and everything is built with water in mind. On the drive down we stopped at the Vinh Trang Pagoda, a sanctuary for orphans and needy children. A unremarkable temple with a gaudy depiction of Buddha inside which used a neon halo surrounded by flashing coloured lights. We took a boat trip down one of the tributaries to Dragon Island where we saw a sweet factory making coconut candy, swiftly followed by a relaxing cup of honey tea which even I enjoyed.
A common excursion is to Tay Ninh and the CaoDai Holy See. CaoDaism is a religion unique to Vietnam and is a mix of Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Christianity and Islam with some aspects of Hinduism thrown in for good luck! This complex is essentially a self sufficient mini town including houses, a school, shops and even a hospital. At its peak there was a CaoDai army and 200,000 followers across Vietnam, but when the current Communist goverment took control in 1975 they restricted the religion fearing its possibly counter-productive influence.
Every six hours a ceremony is held at the main CaoDai temple, a individual and artistic building containing some wonderfully ornate pillars. The worshippers file in with women one side and men the other, headed by the higher priests identifiable by the colour of their robes.
Enroute to our next scheduled destination we made an unscheduled stop at an animal sanctuary, although the animals there didn't look as if they were being treated too well. The first creature was an amazingly cute small bear who seeemed desperate for some company judging by how strongly he grabbed my arm with hooked claws! There were also crocodiles, monkeys and snakes.
Last stop was the Cu Chi tunnels, the location of much bloody fighting during the Vietnam war. The tunnels that can be seen today are about 40km north west of HCM city, although during the war they extended over 250km and stretched all the way to Saigon. The construction of the tunnels was started in the late 1940's by the Viet Minh (a precursor rebel group to the Viet Cong) who at the time were fighting French occupation. The tunnels were between six and twenty five metres deep and incredibly included living areas, storage facilities, weapon factories, command centres and even kitchens. The tunnels entrances were deliberately made very small not just to hide them but to deny access to the Americans who often couldn't fit into the 25cm by 35cm entrances. Inside the tunnels typically measured 1.2m high by 80cm - the VC sometimes lived in these tunnels for weeks on end without leaving them.
When the Americans joined the war in 1965 one of their first actions was to build a base at Cu Chi, a major mistake as the existing tunnel system extended underneath the base. Over the next ten years the Americans were unable to dislodge the VC until near the end of the war when the area was nearly destroyed completely by carpet bombing.
If you want to find out more about the war visit the American War Crimes museum, previously known as the War Remnants Museum. Within HCM itself, the entrance fee is a mere $2 which purchases a leaflet containing this memorable quote;
"Yet we were wrong, terribly wrong. We owe it to future generations to explain why.", IN RETROSPECT: The Tragedy and Lessons Of Vietnam, 1995, Robery S. McNamara (Secretary of Defense under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson)
Also in this leaflet are the following figures; 6.5 million soldiers fought in the war, 22000 US plants and factories supplied the war with their products, 7850000 tons of bombs were dropped on Vietnam (three times as many bombs as America dropped during WWII) , 75000000 litres of defoliants were sprayed over croplands, farmlands, forestlands and villages in the Southern part of Vietnam, and 352 billion dollars were spent on the war effort. The museum does have an understandable Vietnamese bias, but no more than we are subjected to here via films such as full Metal Jacket and Good Morning Vietnam. The latest Lonely Planet argues that the museum omits any mention of the protests made in America against the war - this seems to have changed and a room is now dedicated to showing protests around the world, including the famous event when students at Kent university were killed whilst demonstrating.
Don't plan on making too many phone calls, the cost here is one of the highest in the world. Calling England was approximately £3 per minute. It's against the law to take an incoming call on a public phone, but our hotel owner didn't mind so it's worth asking.
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