Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam: Hey, you stole my dong!

Despite being scammed by a dong-hungry taxi driver within 5 minutes of arrival and getting openly robbed by a little girl with an assist from an old vietnamese man (don't worry, only 10,000 dong=$0.60), we were still stoked to be in saigon and had our eyes set on the famous Dam Sen waterpark. We got decked out in our swim suits and sunscreen, negotiated two moto drivers to take us 20 minutes out to the park, and paid the park admission fee...only to find the Dam Sen waterpark entrance barred off. It was like the scene straight out of National Lampoon's Family Vacation to Wally World - "sorry folks, we're closed". If that big moose was there, I would have punched his nose right in, but unfortunately we were only surrounded by the vietnamese park maintenance workers, none of which could explain why the park was closed. Boo! But hey, despite a little bad luck and a couple let downs, HCMC ended up being a great stop on our trip (particularly because of the War Remnants Museum and the Cu Chi tunnels). Check out da pix...

Central HCMC, the backpacker district (Pham Ngu Lao):

In HCMC, pedestrians have no right of way. There are so many motorbikes, that if they run out of room on the street, they can wheel there way onto the sidewalks. I'm amazed I still have all my toes. When you go to cross the street, you literally have to band together in small groups and just slowly creep/shuffle your way across, letting the motos zoom around you like a swarm of locusts. And they literally come from every direction, all at the same time.

Okay, here are some pics from the War Remnants Museum. It was extremely interesting and informative, but definitely didn't spark any American pride.

An American tank:

American bomber:

The effects of agent orange in Vietnam today. Originally used by Americans to kill off local Vietnamese vegetation and uncover the Viet Cong, Agent Orange ultimately caused horrendous physical damage not only to the Vietnamese, but to American and other foreign soldiers as well. Studies show that it not only causes serious illness by weakening the indivuals' health (including cancer), it also effects the reproductive organs, leading to birth defects among their children.

Below is an example of the consequences of Agent Orange experienced by the current generation (this is actually one of the more mild cases):

This final picture shows an exact replica of the "tiger cages" used by the Saigon regime (a virtual American puppet government) to contain political prisoners considered "stubborn". There were some 120 cages, each measuring approximately 2.7m x 1.5m x 3m. During the hot season, about 5-14 prisoners were kept in one cell. In the winter time, there were only 1 or 2 kept in each cell at a time, but their feet were shackled to a long iron bar. Eating, drinking, sleeping, and toileting all took place here.

We also visited the Cu Chi tunnels, located about 90 minutes outside of central Saigon. These were a 200 km long network of cramped tunnels used by the Viet Cong to hide from bombs and launch surprise attacks on American soldiers. Most of the tunnels are too tiny for foreigners to squeeze through (erik's shoulders couldn't even pass through the opening) - thank god they thought to widen a section for us chubbers to crawl through. Because of unforseen circumstances, we unfortunately didn't bring a camera and so don't have any pictures...so here are a few pics we pulled off the internet:

A guide popping out of the secret entrance to one of the tunnels:

An example of one of the brutal bamboo spike traps used to skewer American soldiers - the top is disguised with leaves, if a soldier comes along and steps on it, it will swing downward and greet him with a row of friendly bamboo spikes. Yikes.

Thanks for reading guys! Sorry the last couple entries have been a little heavy, but we are partying on the Vietnam coast now, so we should have some good stories and pics of good times in Mui Ne and Nah Trang coming up.

HOLLER. PEACE.

M+ E