Highlights of Vietnam and Cambodia

Day Eight – 24 January 2015

Weather: Still sunny and warm but getting hotter

I’m up for another nice meal on the patio. Our flight is for 10 am so the wake up is at 6 for an 8 am departure. On the way, we pass a contraption in the water that Thom calls lazy fishing. It works with the tides.

They come in, the fish can swim inside but when the tide goes out, the water goes below the wall and the fish are trapped. All the fisherman have to do is row out and collect dinner.

I call it ingenious fishing.

The flight to Saigon is only an hour and Thom takes us to a restaurant called KOTO. It stands for Know One, Teach One and is the brainchild of an Australian man who is helping disadvantaged youth by giving them training and a job in the restaurant where they can learn the hospitality industry and when they’re done, they can work in any hotel or restaurant in the city. The meal was good and I dropped some dong in the donation box on the way out.

Thom tells us that the locals still refer to the city as Saigon for the most part because the name Ho Chi Minh City was imposed on them by the north. I didn’t hear anyone here use that name. The name comes from the forest and a particular tree that was there – Sai for forest and Gon for the tree.

The Khmer came here in the 7^th Century and stayed here until forced out by the French. (Khmer were the people of the area and are not to be confused with the Khmer Rouge). He said few here speak French despite their long history here because they didn’t want to educate the locals. Army service in Vietnam is compulsory and has to be completed between the age of 18 and 28. It used to be 1 1/2 years but now is 2 years. Women are not required to go but can volunteer. Once completed, they are given priority for education.

There is no social welfare in the country as, like Japan, it has that sense of community. They care for each other. You get that feeling just from the traffic where they don’t even use the finger.

And Thom implored us not to teach that to anyone.

He said if someone didn’t have children, they ‘adopted’ nieces and nephews. Unemployment was 6% in 2008 but is now hanging around 8%.

He tells us not to trust the rickshaw drivers here as they promise a happy price but you don’t get a happy ending. There are more cars in Saigon but just as many scooters. The traffic moves a little slower, but we still never got stuck in traffic. It always moved.

Thom said the iconic building where the helicopter landed is no longer there and is now the US consulate. Our first stop is to Reunification Palace or Presidential Palace.

It’s a reconstruction from the original French design which was prettier.

The new one has that 1960s look to it with the exterior meant to represent bamboo. There are three levels underground which served as a bunker and bomb shelter. There’s also an escape tunnel to the river where a boat was waiting.

The old one was bombed in 1962 when the army tried to overthrow President Diem. He was a Catholic with an anti-Buddhist and his policies didn’t sit well with the US. He jailed monks and did what he could to replace Buddhism in Vietnam. This is what prompted the self-immolation in Saigon in 63. The monks had called the media to say there would be an event at that location and most didn’t take it seriously. A couple did and they showed up to see that not much was going on. Then the car drove up, the monks stepped out, poured gasoline on one who sat in the street and he lit himself on fire. The photo went viral and the US was ready to stop supporting the south unless Diem stopped persecuting the Buddhists. Diem was assassinated shortly after.

The building was bombed again in 1975 by a pilot who had infiltrated the air force in the south was ordered by the north to turn around from a bombing mission and hit the palace. This is what prompted the US to start evacuating Saigon. This story was not published until after the war and the pilot is considered a hero.

This is the location of the iconic photo of the tanks breaking down the gates in 1975 when the south fell. When they showed up, the president at the time (for all of 43 hours apparently) said all was for them but the response was that he could not give what was not his.

The building is now a museum and has some working offices. Having been bombed twice, the building is not considered to have good Feng Shui. There is a rug on the second floor with dragons on it. The balcony next to it looks out on a long road which is like an arrow directed into the building and the dragons are meant to intercept the arrow and protect the building.

Guess it wasn’t therein 62 or 75.

Thom shows us to various meeting rooms and the private apartment in the back before we descend to the bunker which is very 60s. There is a board showing the number of foreign troops in Vietnam in 1968.

Other rooms have radios, typewriters etc that are straight out of 1962.

The lower levels are considered to be B-52 proof.

When we’re done, Thom takes us to a spot not on the itinerary. It’s the War Remnants Museum and absolutely should be on the itinerary.

He says he’ll give us an overview but that we are free to visit the museum on our own because it can be an emotional visit for some.

The exterior has a number of US aircraft on display and the museum has three levels. Thom tells us to start at the top and gives us an hour to look around. The third floor is where one should spend most of their time. It has a lot of photos with descriptions. It’s a truth that isn’t often seen and unlike the Hanoi Hilton, this one felt less “propaganda-ized.” And it is emotional.

I took a look at as many photos as I could and worked my way down. There is also a room dedicated to the effects of defoliation on the country which is still an ongoing problem.

Next to the museum is a prison used by the French with a guillotine and the ‘tiger cages’ in which prisoners were kept in the open.

From here, we passed by the post office, Notre Dame (built by the French in 1868) and the Opera House. We went to our hotel which is the Riverside Rennaisance. Another nice hotel. I’m on the Club Floor – the 20^th – and I have a huge room.

Like all the hotels in Vietnam, it had free wifi, TV, safe, robe, slippers and big beds. They all had a decent selection of bathroom amenities.