Saigon the last - Vietnam the last

Quick breakfast (strangest french toast I ever had :-) this morning in time to meet Dalat for the final day of rush tourism. Flash decided to pass on most of today's itinerary, citing not enough sleep from keeping himself awake coughing most of the night. I am happy to report that, although tired, he seems to be much better later today.

So it was time for me to take a second round of Ben Tranh market. Without my trusty chaperone, I was free to spend lots more money. Of course, it's difficult to spend a LOT of money (and still be able to lift my pack to get it home), but I did my best. ;-) Various clothing and shoes to show for my efforts. And a fan... it's still blazing hot

From here is was back to the hotel for a quick shower and a spot of lunch. And then I was off for a cyclo tour to the Jade Emperor Pagoda. That was all very pretty, as was the second pagoda/temple Dalat took me to (multi storied chinese roof style job). Obviously I didn't pick the festival day my sister must have on her tour, the incense smoke was bearable. Or perhaps it's my exposure to lots of smokey casinos! I didn't see any Buddhas with neon halos, but there were a few statues with flashing LED lights for halos. And what's with all the swastikas? I know it's an older symbol, with a more positive meaning... but really, if they're going to rename the War Crimes museum to appease international sentiments, you'd think they might tone down their use of the four branched symbols too. ;-) I AM joking... please note that I did tell Dalat to take me to the war crimes museum later in the day... he didn't bat an eyelid, and I got to the right place.

But now it was time to meet Flash at the Reunification Palace. He arrived with a Honda Om, cheeky bugger. The palace was all very blah blah. One or two interesting points noted: chiefly that it was not really a political HQ as much as a military one for the war with the North. I never did find the dungeons. This energetic and tiresome (pun?) event was enough for Flash who promptly retired back to the hotel. Shame really because the next stop was the War REMNANTS Musuem, which was probably the better of the 'attractions' to see. I know enough of the history that I only lerned one new bit from the displays (the Tet Offensive, which 'turned' the war, was aimed at the USA troops and was intended to ruin morale and get America to withdraw from the war... it succeeded, or at least that's what the caption told me ;-) I wasn't really surprised by any of the pictures I saw, but I was interested to see how the communist government would present their conquest. One tends to associcate propaganda with stretched truth or outright lies. I guss in this case the real truth was awful enugh not to need to stretch it. Of course they never tell you how the Viet Cong treated their prisoners and such... But it at least emphasised that whatever they may have done, it can't have been any worse than the Viet Minh, USA and their allies dished out. In fact, the displays struck me as rather tempered and fairly presented. They showed pictures of the stuff at the beginning of US involvement, when there was little opposition to it (Nixon meeting troups, parades, pictures of officers, tanks etc.) It thn showed pictures of lots of GIs and had cases with some of the weaponry, etc. I was given a photo opportunity as I never expected one. One of the fellow museum goers was a vietnamese man with one leg missing... The photo of him looking at photos of USA airmen and such... is apt. Then on to the outdoor display of USA tanks, aircraft and bomb shells. They presented this well I thought; telling what the capability was of each item, how many people were needed to operate it, how many of them America brought to Vietnam, etc. The bomb shell told what area the impact affected, etc. But at no time did they ever say "this is how many people were killed by this type of item". It's for you to infer, depending upon your view of the right and wrong of the events. Then on to the display of civilian casualties and ecological impact, along with the pickled babies the Mad Hatter mentioned previously. Of course, the photos of next generation birth defects, napalm burns, operating tables with shrapnel victims being deburred, they were all ghastly, but expected. The pictures that offended me most were ones of American driven tanks dragging bodies of Viet Cong behind them, some GI holding a couple of severed heads by the hair and laughing in the photo (I have visions of Abu Ghraib... some people are animals, the military brings the worst out in some of them, and apparently we haven't yet learned from our mistakes of the past! 'scuse me for verbalising a little corner of my anti-military sentiment). But the one photo that really got me was among this part of the display. There's a picture of a couple of women and several fightened looking children, it's probably famous given the story! I guess it caught my eye because it was a colour still, where most are black and white. Anyway, it was one of the ones I stopped and read the caption. Roughly paraphrased it is a quote from the photographer saying "some GIs were about to shoot these people but I yelled "hold it" and took this picture before turning away. The M16s fired and I saw bodies falling but didn't look back"..... They were women and kids. Even if the women were Viet Cong spies and accomplices, the kids?!!! I'm still getting upset about it, several hours later. Anyway, back to the tour, the next display seemed to be current day HCMC, tourists in cyclos, happy people on motorbikes. I was being hustled out of the museum because it was closing time, but I got the impression that this was The People's Democreatic Republic of Vietnam saying "there, we didn't make it so bad by winning now did we. Look at all the happy successful people now... even if we are commies". The final display was a bunch of posters and such showing a combination of support for north vietnam, from various quarters (notably Cuba), intenational objection to America's involvement in the Vietnam civil war (notably Germany) and America's turning against their own involvement. Anyway, I was being pushed out the door... but I saw all I needed to to get the idea both of the reality (tempered by some knowledge of the other side of the story) and of the offical presentation within Vietnam (which was more moderate than I expected it to be). Worth the visit, even for me - about the most anti-miltary person in the universe. I won't even watch Saving Private Ryan, on principle, becuase I don't support any movie that glorifes war. Any any movie America ever made makes the America GI out to be God's Chosen Man! Grrrrr (oops, that corner is showing again).

So then it was cyclo back to the hotel... oops no, there was another accidental stop at a market for more purchasing... Well you see, the thing is, the first ao dai that caugt my attention was my favourite design of all the ones I saw over several days. And I realised by watching the crowds in the street that the ones I have already bought are not proper traditional ao dai. The design is slightly different, and not one of the Vietnamese women wearing them was wearing what I'd bought. But they were wearing ones like that first one I saw... so I just had to go back and get it (had to be altered on the spot to fit me... too big would you believe?). And THEN back to the hotel. A quick negotiation with Dalat regarding payment (he refused to state a price... which was awkward for me because I had nothing from which to tip upwards). In the end I counted up the hours he and his friends had worked for us and gave then $1 an hour for it, plus an extra 50,000D coz I'd rather be generous than mistaken. I think it was Ok. And I wrote some very complimentary things on the first page of his new guest book. Anyone reading this blog, that goes to Saigon... it is your sworn duty to find Dalat and support his excellent service, by using it! He hangs around on the other side of the street from the alley at around number 26 Buu Vien Street. It's right across the road from the new Four Seasons restaurant (but based on our experience there, that place may not last long). If you get to the post office, you're on the wrong side of the street and you've gone too far. :-)

Since departing from Dalat, I've gone as far as my third shower, paid the bill at the hotel, booked the cab at 4AM for myself, and 9:30AM for Flash. And then had dinner at the Original Bodhi Tree Vegetarian restaurant. This was better than the previous night, and it's all very worthy employing ex-street kids and all that, but anywhere that has pages of the menu dedicated to "backpacker menu" which includes spaghetti and meatballs..... shrug! It was Ok food, even if they didn't have any more of the dragon fruit shake left (that's a fruit I never did get to try). I guess I was spoilled by the floating seafood restaurant in Cat Ba, and Highway 4 in Hanoi, and being fed lunch with hand-and-foot service in the Mekong Delta. Sigh, I'm never going to recover from that!

Anyway, It's time for me to go to sleep. It's 10PM, and I have to wake up at 3:30AM to catch my flight home. Mmmmm home, with low humidity, and comfy bed. But no where near as much FUN! Just one more day and I'd have had a chance to get to the Chinese Markets (and An Dong). But really, what more do I need?!

Big Hugs
GBFSB