The Wars fought in Vietnam

Over the last few days i have seen interesting perspectives on a lot of things. Some chosen, some forced, other expected. Its been a busy few days with many different stories and angles. All are separate stories but i'll try to fit them together somehow.

So my friend and I have finally split-up. It was not an emotional moment. No tears shed (c'mon, we're men). Well, it was kinda. I did see this guy everyday for the past 6 weeks. We've gone through a lot, seen a lot, partied a lot, talked a lot. He is the first person that i have ever lived with and i'm glad to stay that i could handle living in tight quarters with, who was at first, a total stranger. But now, life must continue on and we have gone our separate ways to do the things we need/want to do. I'm not sure if i will be able to meet him in Thailand before he's gone, but only time will tell.

Partying in Hanoi. An old but good photo.
The following are just some random photos. This is on the way to Dalat, the mountain city.The view from our hotel. On the weekends they shut down this round-about and turn it into a walking market

Some fields on the way to Dalat

This is a cell phone tower i believe. Does it seem familar to any of you frenchies?

Our last adventure together was to the Cu Chi Tunnels. A famed tunnel system in which the Americans had a very difficult time penetrating. There were approx 200 km of underground tunnels where civilians and soldiers lived and fought against the American forces. The tunnels themselves were not open access to the public, but a 90 m set of replica tunnels was setup as well as a bit of history of the tunnels, traps and tactics, and short propaganda film (the standard type - smiling soldiers and civilians, trash talking Americans, etc). I was told the tunnels would be so cool to see, but i was a little disappointed. It was neat to see the types of conditions the people were living in but b/c it was all fake, it was more of just a tourist trap.

A typical tunnel entrance

Looking into the entrance

The entrance for the tourist tunnels. They are still quite cramped but much safer than the originals.

Ho ho ho, a tunneling i go...(that was quite lame, but then again, it was a very lame tunnel...)

However, the things that did impress me (and completely made the trip worth while) were the gruesome traps which the south Vietnamese set, their unwavering will in the fight with the technology backed Americans, and the ingenuity they displayed. Poor peasants armed with AK-47s, scrap metal, primitive digging tools and sharpened bamboo sticks, were fighting with Americans armed with M-16s, and backed by tanks and warplanes carrying napalm. It is the soldiers and civilians that went out after bombing runs into the fields to collect unexploded ordinance (live but unexploded bombs), carry them back by hand into the tunnels, cut them open and reuse the explosives inside to create new weapons. How does someone in their right mind walk up to a 50 kg bomb, put ropes around it and carry it off on their back? This is the same thing that turned their house into a crater. I'm sure it is something that only a person that has experienced war can fully understand.

My friend trying to get a little taste of war. Here he's shooting at a cow.
I'm just kidding. He's using an AK-47 and i feel really bad for him because i know his ear muffs are just as useless as mine but at least i'm 5 feet away.

But most of all, its the traps that i loved/cringed at the most when i saw them in operation. Their simplicity, effectiveness, lethality, and demoralizing power of these devices really drove home the ugliness of warfare. I can see why now so many Vietnam vets are messed up in the head after fighting in such a difficult place. I have no pictures of the traps set but let me say that the carnage inflicted by my favorite one, it not something you would want to see in action. Powered by gravity, stepping into this trap causes two barrels loaded with spikes to spin inwards. Now the true magic of this and the other traps, is the sheer grotesqueness of the death/injury. Its brilliance is not just in the effect it has on the victim, but on the surrounding group as well (both fellow soldiers on sight and everyone else that sees them on their way to the hospital). Picture seeing a comrade fall into one of these traps. The primitiveness, simplicity and raw brutality is simply stunning.

I just had to take a pic of this painting.

The day ended with a visit to the war museum. Also, a very moving and powerful exhibit. They had the usual stuff, old tanks, planes, and guns. But the most interesting parts of the museum were the photos they had on display. I wanted to take some pictures of the displays and comments but suffice to say i considered it inappropriate and decided the power of the pictures cannot be accurately conveyed in a photograph of a photograph anyways. I'll just say the pictures, although slightly blurry, were graphic, grotesque, saddening, and most importantly, completely real. They included soldiers preparing to execute prisoners, dead civilians, soldiers posing over carcases, blown up body parts, napalm victims, and worst of all, children who have suffered the effects of Agent Orange.

I must admit that i'm very surprised and a little embarrassed to say, but that day was the first time i've ever heard of Agent Orange. From what I gathered from the exhibit, it was a herbicide with which the American forces sprayed to remove the jungle terrain so that the Vietnamese had nowhere to hide. However, the effect of the toxin also wreaked havoc to the soldiers on the ground. The toxin would accumulate in the body and then be passed on to the children. I'm not sure the exact mechanism of the toxin, and whether it affects the adult or the developing fetus, but in the end, it is the children that suffer. The horrible mutant children born during and after the spraying of Agent Orange is appalling. Its indescribable what some of the mutations were but science fiction/horror movies have little to compare with. Living, breathing, but mentally undeveloped, these children litter the country after the war and provided the Vietnamese a living memory of the war they just finished.

The museum, although terrible biased, also had a view of the war from the south vs the north. This part of the story i did not understand as well considering i had such little background in the matter. But i think a good point that they show is that regardless of who's fighting, its the civilians that always lose.

Why won't anyone think of the children? (i'm kidding)

It was after the museum that i went back and booked my 3 day Mekong Delta tour. My friend was exiting to Phnom Penh tomorrow and I figured, i'll see the Delta, then its time for me to leave as well. The next morning we went our separate ways.

In the morning i went off on my multiday packaged tour. Alone again for the first time in 6 weeks, i found it quite hard to talk to other people on my tour bus. Fortunately, it only took me a couple hours to warm up and i was right back in my groove, talking with strangers again. And i'm glad i did since its with them i did my homestay in the Mekong Delta (originally i was going to stay in a hotel which would have been so stupid). The tour itself was nothing spectacular. Very packaged like and quite annoying. Its always time to go to the next place and never enough time to sit down and absorb. But it was expected and very ordinary for Vietnam tours. I'm so glad that i did vietnam on my own and not touring everywhere. it was a definite headache, and the rain was a bitch, but in the end, so much better. But then again, there is something to be said about not having to think and being brought everywhere. But when you're sitting in a bus filled with people and sitting on a broken chair, you really want to have your freedom back.

On the Mekong River in the Mekong Delta

Floating through some canals dug on the mekong.

The delta is an interesting place as it is so close to sea level. Everything here is flat and probably during the rainy season, gets pretty wet and flooded out. During typhoons, i'm sure so many things get destroyed because there is no geographical protection. Its really just flat. Like a marsh or swampland. The rice fields here are everywhere but not as large as i had expected for the number 2 exporter of rice in the world. But i guess its because everything is done by hand since there is little in the way of farming machinery.

A monkey bridge. These are the standard bridges used by villagers to get around. And of course i went across. This one, and a much higher one. Proper fun as usual.

On our tour we went to see a few different things (nothing really of interest to me). But the one thing they all had in common was that they were made by hand. I'm sure there is some machinery here but still many things are done by hand and it makes Vietnam seem like such a primitive country. But still, you take a look around and soon realize that this country is poised to have a major industrial revolution. This country will be so different in the next 50 year. At least, if the government does things properly.

View of the delta from the only mountain in the area.

There were some interesting things happening on the bus throughout the tour. All from the people on the bus (something i'm not used to since i've been on my own tours for so long!). I met a very nice young couple from Cali (strange, cool Americans!). They recommended me to goto Borneo and do some diving and trekking. I was like Borneo? Where is Borneo? Then after looking at a map i was like holy shit! I'm going to goto Borneo (Malaysia and Indonesia)! What a wicked place to put on my traveling CV. Along with Nepal, Galapagos, N Korea, Burma, South America, etc.... damn, I still have so many places to see!

So i met them but they left after one day. At the same time i also met 3 British people, 2 guys and 1 girl, all a tonne of laughs. We had so much fun together that we're all going to try to meet up for the full moon party and new years eve. Its going to be wicked! More on that later. The real fun on the bus happened when the tour guide started arguing with some of the customers. Now i'm not going to be racist/prejudice here but its starting to become kind of a trend. It seems that no one likes Germans (and British for that matter). Now i'm not saying all of them are wankers, but the ones on the bus definitely were. They had booked the tour with a different agency that had promised them that their boat ride would be 3 hrs. Now their agency had lied to them and they were actually going to be on the boat for 7 hrs. I completely understood their argument, and i also understood the tour guides argument. Both were acceptable and if there were cooler heads, everyone would have went home annoyed and disgruntled, but not yelling at each other.

Instead, they started to argue more and more and more. Then finally some women said fucking Vietnamese, to which he replied fuck Germany! Of course nothing good could come of this. And the final statement from the German woman was, in my opinion, completely and utterly out of line and she's lucky she didn't get punched in the face. I'm pretty sure i would have punched her, regardless of the fact that shes a woman. I would have knocked her the fuck out. She said, and i quote, "when they dropped the bomb they missed a lot of you." Now, i'm not Vietnamese, and i'm already very offended by that statement. I'm sure if another person had said that to a German tour guide in Germany, they would have been tossed off the bus. Its like c'mon woman, the tour cost 26 dollars. For 3 days, 2 nights accommodations, 2 meals and all transport. What were you expecting? Geez.

Anyways, so after coming back into Saigon, i ended up rooming with the British girl for the next 4 days. For you ultra conservatives, i don't care if you think its inappropriate for an unwed man and woman to share the same room (but separate beds of course), i'm not paying 10 USD per night when i can pay 5 USD! Anyways, we hooked up with another British girl who was traveling with a friend of 12 years that had now separated from him (not dating, just friends). When we first met she was in shambles, but i'm quite sure she will be alright now. The two UK girls are traveling together and will be meeting me (hopefully) in Koh Samui for the full moon and then NYE. Anyways, the main point of this was i ended up spending the next few days with 4 British people (3 from London, 1 from Wales, same same but different? nope, and don't ever tell anyone from UK that they are English when they're not, its like calling Canadians and Americans the same thing! Learned that the hard way). These guys were the absolute, most hilarious, raunchiest people i have ever met. I'm even starting to pick up on their slang, although it is very slow going. They can have an entire conversation in 'English' but its not English. Very fun group, will definitely have to hook up with them when i goto the UK.

Am I the only one that didn't know that the UK still uses the imperial system? I really thought the US was the last country still using the Imperial system. I guess it makes sense that they still use it. No problem then, i know miles, feet, pounds, ounce, yards too. But then they started talking about stones? Now what the hell are stones? 1 stone = 14 pounds. How many kgs is that? damn, thats too much math for one drunk conversation...

Anyways, final story. Our last night in Saigon, my Welsh friend got robbed walking home. We had been at the bar enjoying our last night together as a group. I had enough drinks and was starting to fall asleep on the table so i decided to head off early. She followed me home on the same route 2 hrs later and that was where 2 guys on a moto knocked her over and stole her purse. Of course some other people saw it, but they did nothing. She ran to the hotel and one of the customers came up and knocked on our door to get me. At first i was like what? who's there? 5 min after being roused from my drunken stupor, i finally realized the gravity of the situation. She was crying in the lobby, with a big bruise on her arm and a gash in her knee. I tried my best to comfort her but things were pretty serious. She had lost all her ID, passport, money, cards, camera, fone, and other misc girly stuff. We immediately reported it to the police which of course did nothing (no surprise there). I've been in Vietnam 5.5 weeks and twice i've had to goto the police. How can i still like this country? I have no idea but i still do.

We spent the night canceling her credit cards and in the morning, amazingly found her passport in her luggage. Apparently she forgot that she had put it there, but it was a very lucky mistake. Either way she will be going back to Saigon after some much needed RnR to get her police report, and then its off to Laos for them. Hopefully she can put this incident behind her and look forward to the rest of her trip (she's going round the world).

Now as promised, my new hair do courtesy of my stylist in Nha Trang. Same same but different yeah? And no, i'm not naked. Shirtless yes, but i decided to save myself the embarrassment of my badass t-shirt tan and cropped the pic.