Ho Chi Minh City and the Cu Chi tunnels.

The streets of Ho Chi Minh City at 5 o’clock in the afternoon were like nothing I have ever seen or could have believed.  The sheer number of motorcycles moving and intertwining in a mass of controlled chaos was just not possible, but there it was, all around me. 

Travelling from the north of Vietnam and hearing the history of the Vietnam war first from the Northerners who revere Ho Chi Minh it was difficult to call this place Saigon as all of the locals do. Officially known as Ho Chi Minh City since the fall of Saigon in 1975, the city and its people are a reminder of the war that all Vietnamese my age and even younger can remember all too well.

I have been telling the girls parts of the book I’m reading now “The Girl in the Picture” by Denise Chong. The story of nine year old Kim Phuc, severely burned by napalm and photographed running naked away from an air strike on her village (mistakenly by her own people). The photo was published worldwide in 1972 and sparked the public outrage over America’s involvement in the war.  They have seen pictures of the horrific burns from napalm and always point out to me the people they see with similar burns.
We only saw the visible scars.

Photo taken by Nick Ut    AP    June 8 1972
www.kimfoundation.com

With only a few days in HCMC, a must see was the Cu Chi Tunnels.
These tunnels, 50 kilometres from the city are a memory of the incredible  tunnel network dug by the Vietcong in the 1960s and added to over the years of the Vietnam war. The girls lowered themselves into trap doors in the forest floor, we saw gruesome killing traps made of metal and bamboo spears and then the girls and I  crouched and shuffled our way through a section of the dark and claustrophobic tunnels to experience the conditions the Vietcong lived in for months at a time. They truly had an indomitable will to survive.

 

These tunnels have been enlarged for wider Westerners,
even still, my trim little girls found it hard going,
crouching down and moving forward in the dark.
The small section we did was tough and scary enough.

The hotel we stayed in was decent and in a good location;
www.viendonghotel.benthanhtourist.com.vn/?lang=EN

ShockingLee