Day 8 - 10.10.2016
Today we started off with an early morning flight to Ho Chi Minh City – or Saigon as it used to be called (and is still called that by the locals...)
After we landed we still had some time to spare before we were able to check in, and so we headed straight to the war remnants museum. This contains all aspects of the „American war“ as they call it here, including displays concerning the spread of Agent Orange throughout Vietnam and its repercussions now in some cases even into the 4th generation! Furthermore they had some gruesome war photography on display, mainly represented from the Northern Vietnam side, even though some photography displayed the American bases too. I couldnt see this image in the musuem: IMAGE but they were just as bad.
They also had a small part of the museum dedicated to how the war came about. PLease dont pin me down on the following but it goes something like this: The French reign over Vietname as its colony. There is an uprise from the Vietnamese to take back the control over Vietnam and kick the French out. They succeed and a treaty is signed. The French try to get their power back in Vietnam and are financially supported by the Americans, as they can sense, that if Vietnam is to be left to itself, the communism spreading down from China through Vietnams north will occupy the whole of Vietnam – and communisms is Americas greatest fear. There is already a divide in the middle of Vietnam, where the North is supporting the communist values, and the South are looking for a democracy.
So the Americans support the French more and more and eventually as the French loose more and more of their power, they stage an attack on an American navy vessel at Halong Bay. This gives the Americans enough ammunition to start a full on attack of the North of Vietnam. The years pass by and the Americans try to spread their power more and more over Vietnam, basing their operations from Saigon, seeing as that was the French capital and still to this day a city with a more modern view on things. The war becomes more and more expensive to the Americans, seeing as they dont really make much progress as they had undestimated the willpower of the Vietnamese. After protests especially from home, they urge for the Vietnamisation of the war – effectively leaving the arms and weapons to the South Vietnam army and sending back all their soldiers apart from the airforce. North Vietnam, the VC (Vietcong) make more and more progress and eventually manage to enter Saigon, where the famous photo comes into play when the tanks destroy the entry gates to the palace, to demonstrate the victory of Northern Vietnam and the end of the war.
Here are some impressions of the museum:
Another small section of the museum was designated for the victims of torture at the South Vietnam’s Con Son Island prison. I cannot really tell you whether both sides tortured the same way for information, or whether it was just one side mainly. Here is a little more information on the conditions and prisoners there: http://www.jacquesleslie.com/saigon.html
The next couple of pictures are quite gruesome however, and if you are a bit squeemish dont read the text on the next couple of photos!
This is a guillotine reused from French times for the beheading of prisoners.
The tiger cages. This cages were used to keep prisoners individually. The cages were low and covered in barbed wire, so moving around was hardly possible. The prisoners had to lay on the sand or sit in a crouched position. Sometimes more than one prisoners was kept in these cages in the glaring heat of the day.
The iron grill:
Prisoners would be forced to strip down naked and roll over and over on the iron grill, which had many round holes, and was used to cover runway surfaces. As the prisoners were naked, the small hooks on the grill would snatch their hair, peel of their skin and scalp them until they started bleeding.
Read for yourself.
I was glad to be out oft hat museum, even though I reckon I didnt see enough of it. We went on to see the Independence palace where the tanks had driven through the gates.
How the prisoners must have felt – just joking!
The street where the tanks came rolling down.
Next off to a more pleasant landmark – the church of Notre Dame, also developed by Gustave Eiffel. The specialty of this church is that it was constructed with all materials from outside of Vietnam – to be precise, just materials were used from France.
From the square in front of the church, we could see the CIA building where this photo was taken:
On the other side of the square was this building. The primary intention of the French and their soldiers for this building was the to become a railway station. Unfortunately the Vietnamese had something to say against that. See, churches and temples represent places of worship for the Vietnamese, which you should visit in silence and no outside noises should mess with your prayers. The railway station would have interferred with the church and its purpose, so instead of tearing the building down again, they chose to change its insides to be turned into the cities post office. The postal office is still located here, but it has turned into a tourist magnet. It is quite impressive.
An old map of Saigon and the South of Vietnam.
After our trip to the post station, we stopped for lunch at a famous restaurant. When Bill Clinton had last visited Vietnam, he went to this restaurant for lunch – they are famous for their „Pho“ soups.
So instead of going for a traditional pho soup, I chose this mixture with a lot of cucumbers and beef. It wasn’t too bad.
After lunch we were dropped off at our hotel and had enough free time to roam around and do as we pleased. Since I had gone so over board in Hoi An with all my shopping, I chose to send back some of my clothing, to minimize backpack volumen and weight, and not have to carry around a winter coat in 35°C. So I took a taxi back to the train station post office and sent back the package. You have to come with your passport, fill out a form to where the parcel is to be sent, then fill out a form including everything that is inside the parcel, watch the parcel being boxed and wrapped up and then pay and off it goes. I think sending it out of Vietnam was my cheapest option as I had done a bit of research before looking at Fedex, DHL and the normal companies sending out packages in Cambodia and Thailand too. It is supposed to take about three weeks by airmail and I received a tracking code. – Fingers crossed!
On my way back to the hotel, I stopped by a little nail salon to treat myself to a little pedicure after all the stress of getting it all sorted out... My toes still look great :)
We then met up for dinner and our first stop was a local street food stall where we had some barbecued minced pork in a baguette with some sort of barbecue sauce, some pickles and cucumber. It was quite delicious!
After our appetiser we headed over to a restaurant called NEP was hidden away and that you wouldnt have found as a tourist just walking by on the street. You walked up a stair case and there it was on the first floor.
I had a sweet and sour fish soup but the absolute highlight of the dinner were the home made tofu pieces I got to try from our tour guide. They were just heaven!! ( I also managed to get the rest of his meal when he couldnt fit anymore – devine!)
After dinner we just headed home. It was an early start to the day and we were just tired.
