Vietnam

Each year, China has a national holiday at the start of October.  This is to celebrate the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949.  I know it's 1949 without looking it up simply because this year is being advertised as the 70th anniversary of the founding.

Anyway.  Having a week off of classes, and feeling rather bored and dull with life at home, and realizing that most people are going to be taking vacations and I'd be here predominantly alone, I decided to throw a virtual dart at a virtual map.  To do this, I used a site I found called skyscanner, which lets you input a starting location and look for flight prices to basically anywhere.

In this list, China was (of course) first, with Thailand, Singapore, and Phillipines being close after.  Several countries weren't listed, among them Vietnam - you could click through to get prices, but you had to bounce a site or two to find them.

Somehow the idea of checking out a country no one in my family had visited seemed like the right decision.  So off I went.

Vietnam has some very complex history recently.  It goes beyond the American War (as they call it, for obvious reasons); my tour guide said that since 1859 when the French occupied Vietnam (colonized, really, in an effort to rival the British empire), Vietnam has been involved in several wars.  The ones I can recall right now are French (for independence), American (on the process of unification under the communist government), Cambodian (newly unified Vietnam invading), and Chinese (in response to Vietnam's invasion of Cambodia).  They're in a period of relative peace at the moment, and it's allowing them to grow as an economy and a culture.  Rebuild their identity and such.

The visa process for an American is fairly simple.  Submit an application to visit, wait a couple days for an approval letter, print that out, and show up with that and your passport and two passport photos (which can be taken on-site for an additional fee).  Wait in line until they put your visa on your passport (full page thing, similar to my Chinese visa and residence permits).  In you go.  The ease of access is largely thanks to Bill Clinton, who in 1994 ended an embargo enacted after the war, as well as increased efforts from the US to repair relations since.  I hadn't realized that the conversations were quite this recent, actually, with Obama being involved in efforts to clean up the continuing issues cause by Agent Orange (more on that later).

Broad strokes: my trip to Saigon (also known as Ho Chi Minh City) was quite educational and interesting.  Vietnam is...short.  The food is good, though I feel I didn't try as much as I would have liked due to simply not having time.  One advantage of traveling with someone else is sharing things you try.  Vietnam is hot and humid, being in the tropics, and when I returned to Harbin's chilly <10 degree weather I was happy as a clam (meanwhile, everyone else transferring from the plane to the bus was groaning, and some were shivering).

I flew from Harbin to Xiamen early on Monday morning.  Short layover before flying to Saigon, got a short-term SIM card, and caught a taxi to my hotel.  The elevator has this quirky sign with #5 being one of those Engrish examples.  Their lobby had a neat map of the city.  Their rooftop (up a short staircase) was an open seating area with a nice view. The room itself was pleasant and more spacious than I'd anticipated (partly from my experience in Japan).  There were a few neat hints of the hotel's character, including a note about guests and a really thoughtful extra.  After settling in, I went on a quick walk, had a yummy dinner (did I mention Vietnam is small?) and found a convenience store with something interesting, something unique, and this old friend (which was made with real sugar or a modified recipe, and wasn't how I remembered it, but was still pleasant to have again).  I'd also seen this on the way back from the airport.  Two interesting things here - first, for reference, $1 US is about 23,000 Vietnamese Dong, the national currency; so the Hawaiian Whopper is about $2.  Alternately, a full combo would be about $1.50.  Also, they deliver.  This isn't unfamiliar per se, since McDonald's and KFC both have their own delivery service in China.  But it was still noteworthy to me.

I packed in for the night.  In the morning, I tried the hotel's breakfast, which was pretty good.  Then it was down to the lobby for my pickup to tour the Cu Chi (pronounced "goo chee") tunnels.  Along the way, we stopped at a place operated largely by the government, where victims of Agent Orange were employed making art pieces and souvenirs by hand.  These are unfinished examples but give you an idea of how beautiful the finished pieces are.  These were sold in the same building, but photography wasn't allowed there.

A major part of the success the Viet Cong had against the Americans (and the South Vietnamese for that matter) was the geurilla tactics they were able to employ.  Part of this was constructing a tunnel system in the hard clay ground between and around Saigon and Cu Chi to the north.  These tunnel systems allowed the Viet Cong unrivaled stealth and mobility without being detected.  The tourism area around it is beautiful.
Really.

The tunnels are...very small.  Uncomfortably small, by design.  The guide told us that tunnels like that one are actually expanded for tourists, and showed us this one that's more accurate to how some of them are sized (particularly the choke points used to catch 'tunnel rats,' those small American soldiers trained to get into the tunnels; think about that next time you complain about your job).  The tunnels had entrances every 20 meters or so, and we had the opportunity to get in, lower ourselves down, and close the lid on top of us for a few seconds.  This kid tried it too, as did this unfortunate fellow who couldn't quite fit and had to settle for above-ground.  After I climbed out, I turned to the group and said, "Let's play Spot the American," which got a good laugh.

The Viet Cong also employed some really nasty traps.  For example, this spike pit with a cover that would spin when stepped on, both injuring soldiers and often trapping them as well.  Several others existed, and I'll link them here without trying to build them into sentences, as it's hard to find unique things to say.
https://i.imgur.com/9fbOpMZ.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/1pGrme1.jpg
A picture of traps being made.

Aside from shelters in the jungle itself, the Viet Cong used these tunnel systems for weapons and explosives manufacturing.  This cross-section actually shows more of the different kinds of rooms built in these tunnels, effectively forming entire encampments underground (though of course, that's a demonstration, not a literal example - the vertical stress would be too much and the tunnels would cave in).  But you can see, left to right: VIP tunnels (triangular and reinforced), meeting rooms, underground wells (given the rivers were often poisoned), cooking and eating areas (you can see small chambers of smoke going to chimneys that were built away from the room to avoid danger if the smoke was sighted).  Also medical rooms, munitions depots, and even sniper roosts.  Some exits led to the river (far bottom right) for escape, with doors to block the tunnels if the water started flooding in, and traps to prevent tunnel rats.  Different tunnels were built at different depths.  Not pictured is an example even deeper - apparently that picture didn't get saved.
The tunnels were ventilated by bamboo poles built into piles of mud and plants made to resemble ant hills or termite mounds.  The tour guide explained that as the war progressed, these became strategic chess games all their own: as Americans began to pick up on these ventilation holes, they'd destroy them, so the Viet Cong would build decoys.  Then the Americans got dogs to sniff out which ones were real and which weren't, so the Viet Cong would put black pepper and chili in the pipes to repel the dogs.  Then the dogs got used to those and would sniff past them, so the Viet Cong took soap and uniform parts from fallen soldiers and would put those into the holes, so the dogs recognized it as something friendly and ignored it.

Random bonus pictures: an American tank that was destroyed by a mine.  A pretty flower (that looks like a pine cone) that grows in the jungle.   And someone who would have had no trouble navigating the tunnels.

Every so often, the jungle would boom with the echo of gunfire; as part of the tour, there was a firing range with era weaponry.  You could buy ammo and try out weapons like an AK47 or an M-80 machine gun.  I think it was.
I have no idea if I hit anything.  The gun was so low that I couldn't adjust my glasses to see down the sights effectively.  But it was a kick.
On the way back from the Cu Chi tunnels, I saw several of these cemeteries.  Nothing to say about them, just thought they were interesting.

After a shower, I went on a quick walk to find dinner, stumbling across an ironically-named store and a familiar name along the way.

That night, I went to a water puppet show. Water puppetry dates back to the 11th century, when farmers in flooded rice paddies would entertain each other with wooden puppets on bamboo poles.  They often reflect mythology and a blend of simple life and royalty, and had some common characters and themes.  What struck me about this is how universal many things are - entertainment through slapstick, bright colors, and silly situations; pursuit of goals and desires; a complex relationship with those in higher social stations/wealth brackets than ourselves, and so on.  The whole thing was performed with the puppeteers hidden behind the pagoda and screen, with a small orchestra of six musicians and actors providing both the music and the voices/narration for the skits.  I'll list these as numbered pictures to save space, cuz there's a lot of them, and I don't have much context for who the characters are or what it all means.  They're mostly in random order as well, since I don't recall the sequence of skits.
1 2 3  4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
And videos:
1 2

One of the groups who saw the show arrived in style.

The next day I had a more in-depth tour of Saigon itself.  This started at the Saigon Opera House, in an area of the city that still has indications of the French occupation/colonialism that began ~1859. A couple was getting their wedding pictures taken outside that morning.
Then we went up to the Saigon Post Office (which is a tourist attraction with plenty of souvenir shops as well, for some reason, but again shows the French influence), a brief look at Notre Dame Cathedral, Independence/Reunification Palace (having two names for...well, obvious reasons), the War Remnants Museum, Pho 2000 (where Bill Clinton famously had lunch when he came to visit when ending the embargo), Ben Thanh Market (a large building with independent stalls and merchants who will almost badger you to buy things), and a Chinese temple in the Chinatown district of Saigon.  Like the water puppetry part, I'll just number the images below each one, because it's a lot and not much requires or justifies context.  Unfortunately, the Reunification Palace tour was long enough with enough rooms and information that I don't remember the order of things very well.  Imgur didn't keep my picture order when uploading (this post probably took 3 hours to write and organize), so a lot of the detail and sequencing is gone.  Sorry!

Reunification Palace:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Reunification Palace is actually rebuilt, as the original palace was destroyed. The seat of government is now in Hanoi, in the north of Vietnam, so this is just a historical site.

War Remnants Museum
**WARNING**
So, this is obviously going to be the Vietnam War from the perspective of the Vietnamese, namely the Communist Party that is currently in power.  As such, not only will there be some slant, but a lot of the narrative will be strongly anti-American.  However, more important, this is reflection on and aftermath of a war, so there's some pretty graphic imagery in here, as well as descriptions of torture and suffering.  I'll try to sort them accordingly and label properly, but still.  Proceed at your own risk.

Arms and ordinance:
1 2 3 4

The world in solidarity with Vietnam:
China  Europe

An exhibit on torture
1 2 3 4 5 6

There was an exhibit about the protests in the US. I was actually kinda pleased to see this here, even if it's fairly common knowledge that the Vietnam War was a major turning point in public opinion and government confidence.  Seeing an entire room dedicated to exploring internal strife around this event within the US, showing that not all Americans wanted to be there...it was kind of reassuring, in a way.  Still, it was not without it's own slightly unsettling narrative.

Agent Orange (History Channel link)
This exhibit spanned a full three rooms, as there was a lot to explore - from initial use, to lasting effects, to current clean up efforts.  A lot of it is pretty awful to look at, but I think it's important to be aware just how messed up it was and how long-lasting the effects are.  There's a reason chemical weapons are no longer an acceptable part of warfare in the civilized world (is that seriously a phrase?)
1 2 3 4 5 6

They had several quotes from American policymakers and such, justifying or defending the war, and a photojournalist's broader perspective. Suffice to say, after a while, I was just kinda too tired to take any more pictures.  And knew, also, that there was little point.  Y'all don't need or want to see even this much, I imagine, much less more.

Chinese Temple
As with most religious structures, almost everything here was very intentional and had some meaning or significance.  I'm sure you won't blame me for not remembering a lot of it, as this was the last stop on a very information-dense tour.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

==========================================

Thank you for reading.  I know this was...really entirely too long, and had more pictures, frankly, than I'd want to go through in a week if I hadn't taken them myself.  Even if you didn't look at all of them, I hope you found it interesting.
In gratitude for getting down here, I thought I'd convey something amusing I learned about Vietnamese.  The word "Phuc" (I believe it's pronounced Fook) actually means blessed or blessing.  So it's very common on business names.  Which, given it's English phonetic pronunciation and the word implied by it, leads to some amusing combinations.

Zaijian,
-L