Good Morning Vietnam!

Good Morning Vietnam! Okay, so that is a very cliched thing to say upon arrival to Vietnam but we could not resist. There are two types of t-shirts not to buy here in South-East Asia: the one that reads Good Morning Vietnam and the other that reads Same, Same but Different. Every second backpacker is wearing one or the other so, in an effort not to conform, we have purchased neither.

Our bus trip from Phnom Penh to Saigon was blessedly uneventful and since we had gotten our Vietnam visas ahead of time, the border crossing was a breeze. Coincidentally, the woman directly in front of us in the border queue was from Ottawa and a linguist, no less. As we chatted, she eventually revealed that she and her husband are missonaries here. Very interesting lady! She speaks fluent Vietnamese having resided here for over 10 years and has helped with Wycliffe Bible translators. Her husband is a physician who specializes in leprosy (yes, it still exists here). She had lots of practical tips to share with us to ease our stay in Vietnam over this next month.

Our first stop in Vietnam is Ho Chi Minh City (which everybody here still refers to as Saigon). A city of nine million people and five million motorcycles. Crossing the street here brought back memories of Cairo. No lanes, no lights, no stop or yield signs of any kind. Just a nutso free-for-all; not surprisingly, a major cause of death is traumatic head injury due to traffic accidents. The guidebooks all instruct you to simply step into the fray and take slow, deliberate steps across the road. You're supposed to control your urge to make a mad dash and trust that the motorcyclists will manouver around you. Obviously this is easier said than done, especially when kids are involved. Nevertheless, we are all still here intact so we must be doing something right.

In the three short days we have spent in Saigon, we managed to take in most of the highlights: visits to the War Remnants Museum, the Reunification Palace, Cholon Market (Chinatown), the Thien Hau Pagoda, and the huge Ben Thanh Market. One day we went for a stroll and saw some familiar (from movies, that is) landmarks: the Rex Hotel from the movie Good Morning Vietnam and the Continental Hotel from The Quiet American. We also took a walk through the Central Post Office, a stunning example of French Colonial architecture.

The War Remnants Museum houses actual equipment left behind by the Americans when they finally cut their (substantial) losses in the Vietnam war and fled abruptly on April 30, 1975. Outside you see helicopters, warplanes, bombers, armoured vehicles, military shells, etc. Inside are mostly photographic exhibits. This is a very disturbing place to visit. Mitchell and Jackson looked at the first few exhibits with us and then both opted out, going to sit on a bench in the lobby. You cannot really blame them. The photos showing the innocent civilian victims (many of whom were children) affected by napalm and Agent Orange are graphic and truly horrifying. One woman that we met there from Vermont commented, "if every Head of State had to walk through here before breakfast, there might never be another war again." All in all, close to 60,000 American soldiers died and between 3 and 4 million Vietnamese from both sides.

The horror continues, as there are still areas of unexploded landmines throughout Vietnam (and Cambodia as well) and the birth defects and deformities caused by the chemical warfare are visible everywhere. Especially on the street as that is where many of these people now live as beggars.

After the heaviness of the Killing Fields in Cambodia and this particular museum in Saigon, we decided to forgo the Cu Chi Tunnels (another war-related site) and took the boys to a waterpark on our last day instead. The Dam Sen Park is a wacky place with almost zero attention to safety but we all had a blast. Huge waterslides, a massive wave pool, almost as many kids tearing around inside the gates as motorcycles zooming around outside, and nary a lifeguard in sight. Yep, that's Vietnam.

Next. . . all aboard the Reunification Express train north to Danang and Hoi An.

Incense burning at Pagoda:

Outside War Remnants Museum:

Remember this famous photo? (Viet Cong storming the gates of Reunification Palace in 1975):

Reunification Palace today (largely unchanged):

Meeting room inside Reunification Palace:

Tangle of overhead wires on typical Saigon street:

Food vendors on every street:

The Continental Hotel (from The Quiet American):

The Rex Hotel (famous in the movie Good Morning Vietnam):

Central Post Office:

Inside the Post Office:

Cholon Market in Saigon's Chinatown:

Flat Stanley checking out the markets:

Watching "handicapped handicrafts" in action - making Chinese lacquer artwork with crushed eggshells:

Everywhere we go, Jackson makes a canine friend and Saigon is no exception (Lucky from Hotel 127):

Having some fun at Dam Sen Waterpark. . .

and 10-pin bowling: