It's 5 p.m.Thursday in Sai Gon. Tomorrow we leave the hotel at 8:30 a.m.. 27 hours later, we'll be home. Because of the 14-hour time difference, it will still be Friday. Long day.
We will have spent three nights in Viet Nam's largest city. Take away the millions of motor bikes, the tropical climate and the relaxed atmosphere, and Sai Gon could almost be any big international city.
Almost. Guessing Sai Gon would still feel pretty exotic if we hadn't already been in Viet Nam for over two weeks.
Although we saw the mandatory sites in our first few hours here- the cathedral, the post office, the opera house, the Continental Hotel, the War Remnants Museum, we spent two full days on trips out of Sai Gon.
Yesterday we dipped into the Mekong Delta and learned a bit about the life of the people there. Visits to family workshops taught us how to make a different kind of rice paper, how to make Vietnamese fish sauce, and how to make something very like Rice Krispie Treats, including popping the rice in very hot sand. We spent some time on a branch of the Mekong River, which starts in Tibet, and purchased fruit from the floating markets. On the way down we stopped at a type of cafe that offers a hammock to go with your weet iced coffee. These are called Ca Phe Vong.
Today we visited the Cu Chi area, where we visited the tunnels at Ben Duoc and later had lunch with two former Viet Cong and the oldest man (91) in the village. The Viet Cong had an extensive multi-hundred kilometer network of tunnels. The tunnels we visited were used to stage and execute the 1968 Tet offensive, and at that time, sheltered 10,000 troops. The map in one of the photos is from an underground meeting room, and is the actual map used to plan the action. Most everybody went through a short section of the highest level of tunnel, and a few of us duck-walked through a tunnel at the lowest level.
The main message the vets wanted to get across was that the war was over and they bore no animosity to the American people, including soldiers who fought in Cu Chi. This message has been pretty consistent from north to south, and is reinforced by the way we are greeted wherever we go. People smile, wave, ask to have their photos taken with us. It feels genuine.
This has been a pretty amazing trip, and we still have a lot to digest. For us, the best experiences are always people-to-people, and that's where OAT (Overseas Adventure Travel) shines. We enjoyed a surprising number of home visits, with people from different classes, and with different histories. Plus there were always completely unplanned, unscripted interactions with folks we met along the way. This level of interaction is something we could not have easily created for ourselves.
If you plan to visit, allow time. Although Viet Nam looks small on the map, travel moves at the speed of a 100cc motor bike in traffic. Thanks for travelling with us.
Love, Toni
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