Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam
I should entitle this post "WAR,WAR and US foreign policy!!!!!!!!!!!".
I'm actually currently in Nah Trag, south central Vietnam. A bustling resort town where I am getting PADI certification for diving. I needed a break after all the war museums, killing fields and tactical tunnels of Cambodia and Saigon. I'm feeling kind of overwhelmed at the moment as the Vietnam tourist spots are all hussle. It's a constant stream of "miss, miss...I take you around all the sites...two dollars" and "what are you doing tomorrow? I can book a tour for you". Vietnam is a lot better off than Cambodia, which I have come to call the "lost country". It seems forgotten in the history books and in the international community. Vietnam however, is economically plump in relation. Clean roads, educated populace and a culture that seems to me on the par with China in terms of mixing Capitalism with communism (I'm not saying that is necessarily a good thing). There seems to be less visible suffering here though than Cambodia.
The Killing Fields in Penhom Penh Cambodia were not what I was expecting. I was expecting a monument (which there was), information about the regime and the people who died, and some shallow graves. Well, two out of three isn't bad. There was information, a giant monument of thousands of human skulls encased in a glass pagoda. But the graves, weren't completely shallow. The Killing Fields were basically in a suburb about 50 km outside of Penhom Pehn ,in an agricultural area. There people were executed, buried alive, etc by the Khmer Rouge. As you walk around the shallow graves, it becomes immediately apparent that the trail you are walking on has clothes exhuming from the dirt, with bits of human bone. People are still buried there, who knows how many? 8,900 were formally exumed from that site alone, many of whom were tortured and killed at S21 prison in Penhom Pehn. It was very creepy, weird and voyeristic. I understand why the Cambodians have it as a tourist attraction, and it is important for people to see, but walking on the bones and old clothes of people who were viciously murdered gave me the shivers and I had to leave. The skulls are exhibited and not buried because it is believed by the cambodians that their souls are waiting for justice, for those responsible to come to trial. They have veen waiting over two decades, and the world gets on with more wars and genocides. Perhaps the skulls will eventually have a proper burial when the last perpetrator dies of old age or the world realises what war really is.
After that we (Hege and Didee and I) went to S21/Genocide museum, an old school ground that the Khmer Rouge used in interrogations. In it are torture intstruments, photos of victims, and personal accounts of just some of the thousands of people who live today that either participated in the torture or were the victims. I don't want to have to see another place like that for as long as I live, the tragic thing is, they are all over the world and the US continues to proliferate such scenarios as the Pol Pot regime. There will probably be one in Iraq in 30 years for Americans like me to spend $2 to go and see....great. That said, I wish every American could see this place, and the Killing Fields. Perhaps it would instill a sense of urgency about our government.
Next, I arrived in Saigon, where I went to the Cu Chi tunnels, just outside of the city. Basically it is the underground system that allowed the Viet Cong to win the war. A Quite amazing maze of tunnels that went four stories underground, where 30,000 people LIVED for 10 years. As the US forces were bombing, spraying agent orange and poisoning the landscape above during the day, the VC worked outside at night, dug tunnels by hand and replaced the dirt in bomb craters to hide evidence, grew roots from local trees and had locals boat in supplies from Russia and North Vietnam to feed and maintain the village and VC troops underground. Babies were born in the tunnels, actions were planned, they cooked, people were operated on in this vast underground city. "Rat Patrols" were sent in to the tunnels by the Americans (troops mostly of Hawaiian descent used for their small frame) because the tunnels were so small, the average American solider would get stuck. Only 50% of the "Rat Patrols" came out alive. When you hear of Veterans from the war speak of how they couldn't ever see the enemy, it's because of the tunnnels, an ambush would occur, and the VC would jump into a camoflauged trap door, disappearing into the landscape. Breathing holes were camiflauged to look like snake holes and termite mounds, the only source of Oxygen that had some of the tunnels, so deep in the earth, that they are off limits today due to their dangerous nature. Walking through them is a truly chlosterphobic experience, They are about 4 feet tall and 3 feet wide. I walked in one for 60 meters and almost passed out from the heat and clausterphobia. It's a testament to what people will endure to stay alive. When the war was over 20,000 people saw the light of day for the first time (10,000 of them died in the tunnels of disease and bombings) and 90,000 local people perished in the 140 km radius. There are tunnels like the ones in Cu Chi all over Vietnam.
After that I went to the War Remnants Museum. It was an incredible document of the war. There were so many things in it I did not know...even about the Anti War movement in the US. I didn't realise that 3 young men, US students, burnt themselves in protest of the war. Two died of their injuries, much like the monks in Vietnam who set themselves on fire. There is a very inspiring room of anti war protest photos from all over the world. The same cities where Anti war photos are taken today against the war in Iraq.
The war photography was quite moving, images that you just don't get anymore...images that end the desire to wage war...and make you ashamed to call yourself an American. I won't go into the grisly details of what was shown, but nothing was spared. The entire exhibit could have had the words "Iraq" replaced with "Vietnam". It made me so sad and angry. Many of the photographers whose photos were exhibited died doing their work. There is a photograph of a camera with a bullet hole through the middle of it (a far cry from the cameras of many of the pampered embedded "journalists" we have today).
So with that, I decieded to go scuba diving in Nah Trang and I'll be here for 3 days. I'm looking forward to being in one place for a bit and doing something not related to genocide and US foreign policy. Just spent 3 hours watching an American video on the PADI course. Wish me luck. I heard those Vitenamese sharks off the coast are pretty big.
Oh, and Buy Euros!!!!
I'm actually currently in Nah Trag, south central Vietnam. A bustling resort town where I am getting PADI certification for diving. I needed a break after all the war museums, killing fields and tactical tunnels of Cambodia and Saigon. I'm feeling kind of overwhelmed at the moment as the Vietnam tourist spots are all hussle. It's a constant stream of "miss, miss...I take you around all the sites...two dollars" and "what are you doing tomorrow? I can book a tour for you". Vietnam is a lot better off than Cambodia, which I have come to call the "lost country". It seems forgotten in the history books and in the international community. Vietnam however, is economically plump in relation. Clean roads, educated populace and a culture that seems to me on the par with China in terms of mixing Capitalism with communism (I'm not saying that is necessarily a good thing). There seems to be less visible suffering here though than Cambodia.
The Killing Fields in Penhom Penh Cambodia were not what I was expecting. I was expecting a monument (which there was), information about the regime and the people who died, and some shallow graves. Well, two out of three isn't bad. There was information, a giant monument of thousands of human skulls encased in a glass pagoda. But the graves, weren't completely shallow. The Killing Fields were basically in a suburb about 50 km outside of Penhom Pehn ,in an agricultural area. There people were executed, buried alive, etc by the Khmer Rouge. As you walk around the shallow graves, it becomes immediately apparent that the trail you are walking on has clothes exhuming from the dirt, with bits of human bone. People are still buried there, who knows how many? 8,900 were formally exumed from that site alone, many of whom were tortured and killed at S21 prison in Penhom Pehn. It was very creepy, weird and voyeristic. I understand why the Cambodians have it as a tourist attraction, and it is important for people to see, but walking on the bones and old clothes of people who were viciously murdered gave me the shivers and I had to leave. The skulls are exhibited and not buried because it is believed by the cambodians that their souls are waiting for justice, for those responsible to come to trial. They have veen waiting over two decades, and the world gets on with more wars and genocides. Perhaps the skulls will eventually have a proper burial when the last perpetrator dies of old age or the world realises what war really is.
After that we (Hege and Didee and I) went to S21/Genocide museum, an old school ground that the Khmer Rouge used in interrogations. In it are torture intstruments, photos of victims, and personal accounts of just some of the thousands of people who live today that either participated in the torture or were the victims. I don't want to have to see another place like that for as long as I live, the tragic thing is, they are all over the world and the US continues to proliferate such scenarios as the Pol Pot regime. There will probably be one in Iraq in 30 years for Americans like me to spend $2 to go and see....great. That said, I wish every American could see this place, and the Killing Fields. Perhaps it would instill a sense of urgency about our government.
Next, I arrived in Saigon, where I went to the Cu Chi tunnels, just outside of the city. Basically it is the underground system that allowed the Viet Cong to win the war. A Quite amazing maze of tunnels that went four stories underground, where 30,000 people LIVED for 10 years. As the US forces were bombing, spraying agent orange and poisoning the landscape above during the day, the VC worked outside at night, dug tunnels by hand and replaced the dirt in bomb craters to hide evidence, grew roots from local trees and had locals boat in supplies from Russia and North Vietnam to feed and maintain the village and VC troops underground. Babies were born in the tunnels, actions were planned, they cooked, people were operated on in this vast underground city. "Rat Patrols" were sent in to the tunnels by the Americans (troops mostly of Hawaiian descent used for their small frame) because the tunnels were so small, the average American solider would get stuck. Only 50% of the "Rat Patrols" came out alive. When you hear of Veterans from the war speak of how they couldn't ever see the enemy, it's because of the tunnnels, an ambush would occur, and the VC would jump into a camoflauged trap door, disappearing into the landscape. Breathing holes were camiflauged to look like snake holes and termite mounds, the only source of Oxygen that had some of the tunnels, so deep in the earth, that they are off limits today due to their dangerous nature. Walking through them is a truly chlosterphobic experience, They are about 4 feet tall and 3 feet wide. I walked in one for 60 meters and almost passed out from the heat and clausterphobia. It's a testament to what people will endure to stay alive. When the war was over 20,000 people saw the light of day for the first time (10,000 of them died in the tunnels of disease and bombings) and 90,000 local people perished in the 140 km radius. There are tunnels like the ones in Cu Chi all over Vietnam.
After that I went to the War Remnants Museum. It was an incredible document of the war. There were so many things in it I did not know...even about the Anti War movement in the US. I didn't realise that 3 young men, US students, burnt themselves in protest of the war. Two died of their injuries, much like the monks in Vietnam who set themselves on fire. There is a very inspiring room of anti war protest photos from all over the world. The same cities where Anti war photos are taken today against the war in Iraq.
The war photography was quite moving, images that you just don't get anymore...images that end the desire to wage war...and make you ashamed to call yourself an American. I won't go into the grisly details of what was shown, but nothing was spared. The entire exhibit could have had the words "Iraq" replaced with "Vietnam". It made me so sad and angry. Many of the photographers whose photos were exhibited died doing their work. There is a photograph of a camera with a bullet hole through the middle of it (a far cry from the cameras of many of the pampered embedded "journalists" we have today).
So with that, I decieded to go scuba diving in Nah Trang and I'll be here for 3 days. I'm looking forward to being in one place for a bit and doing something not related to genocide and US foreign policy. Just spent 3 hours watching an American video on the PADI course. Wish me luck. I heard those Vitenamese sharks off the coast are pretty big.
Oh, and Buy Euros!!!!
posted by Mr. Sophie at 4:01 AM
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