So after exploring the Mekong Delta for a couple of days, we ended up in Ho Chi Minh City. It was originally called Saigon, but after the Vietnam War the name was changed to the founder of the Viet Cong. We checked into our hostel and met some weird guys. One was a Vietamese guy who kept talking about Muslim bombs which was weird. The other was a rather stank Dutch guy that was complaining that the beer prices had gone from 5000 - 8000 dong (Yes that's the name of the currency) because of Lunar New Year aka Tet aka Chinese New Year. 21000 dong = 1 US $ so it's so cheap that complaining about it is ridiculous. Later on we talked with an Italian girl who told us a story about being stuck in the aisle of a bus for a 20 hour trip. Most people would be upset, but she thought it was all quite fun and was laughing about it. I've tried to remember this when I get a little annoyed with things. You definitely meet all different kinds of people while traveling.
The next day we just kind of chilled out and walked around to try and secure a bus ticket out. This proved to be rather difficult as most buses were full. Vietamese don't really celebrate any other holiday or their birthday during the rest of the year, so Tet is a huge celebration. Apparently Ho Chi Minh was like a ghost town compared to the rest of the year because most people were out in the countryside celebrating with their families. It still looked pretty busy to me. After a bit we found an overnight bus in two days to take us to Nha Trang.
That night was like New Year's Eve for us, so we headed down to the river to watch the fireworks that were set to go off at midnight. The streets were lit up with all kinds of different lights and there were flowers everywhere. It was quite pretty.
Getting close to the river posed a bit of a problem as the crowds were absolutely huge. Think New Year's Eve in Manhattan on a bit of a smaller scale. We kept following people who were pushing their way through and made it to a decent spot that we could at least breathe in. The fireworks were great, but only lasted around 20 minutes or so.
Lots of the people there didn't even look at the fireworks except through the video screens on their phones. It was quite ridiculous. I thought it would take us hours to get out of there, but within another 20 minutes most people were gone. It was quite amazing how that many people can get out of one place that fast on scooters.
The next afternoon we decided to check out a couple of the tourist stops. First we went to the War Remnants Museum which was all about the Vietnam War. We definitely learned a lot of what happened over here. Quite disturbing actually. It was the first time that I had really read things that talked about the U.S. being an enemy. It was South Vietnam and the Americans vs North Vietnam (the Viet Cong who were Communists.) The amount of bombs dropped was just crazy. Many of these bombs never detonated, so they are still live and posing a huge risk.
There was a whole section on Agent Orange which was eye opening and quite horrific at the same time. The US and the South used it to kill all the vegetation, so they could see the Viet Cong coming. But it had other very severe consequences. It killed many people from both sides and disfigured many others. It is genotoxic meaning it causes deformations of babies within the womb that can be passed on from generation to generation. We saw the effects of it on people on the street and even in some small children, so it is still occurring some 40 years later. Terrible stuff.
What Agent Orange does to plants.
There was all kinds of guns, tanks, airplanes, bombs, pictures, and stories. It was another one of those eye opening experiences that made me feel very privileged to grow up where I did.
Next, we went to the Reunification Palace. It used to be the home base of the South/Americans. The Viet Cong stormed the gates in April of 1975 which essentially ended the war. It was quite a large place surrounded by a fence with many floors and bunkers. We learned a bit more about the war and decided that was enough of that for the day.
That evening we heard a commotion outside our hostel and went over to the window to where a bunch of backpackers were peering out. They told us that there had just been a knife fight between two Vietamese guys out on the street! One guys had throw a knife, but it hit the other guy handle first in the head. Could have been very bad. It caused a huge back up in traffic. We were just happy to be inside!
The next morning we jumped on the bus to Nha Trang for our next adventure.
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