Vietnam day 1: Saigon and the tunnels.

Oooh, baby baby! What have I let myself in for?

So here I am, after my first full day in Vietnam, using my free hour before dinner to start this post. The group I’m travelling with all seem nice, and the funny thing that were all solo travellers! Robin, our guide, said that he’s never had 17 guests with 17 rooms before. Most are Aussies, with a couple of English and a stray New Zealander.

After being driven to the airport by my limo driver – I knew I paid too much for this trip – the 3 Melbournians spotted each other at the airport. We had breakfast in the lounge together, but split up on the plane. Thank goodness, because I swear I slept for most of the 7 hour flight, even though it was during the day. I think that after the time I’ve had with my parents, my body was releasing a lot of tension…

Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon has been a part of Vietnam for 360 years. The older people call it Saigon, which I’ll probably do here because our guide calls it that, so I’m used to hearing it. Saigon means ‘Land of the cotton tree.’ It’s the biggest city here, with 10 million people.

Hanoi has been a part of Vietnam for 4,000 years. Robin was very proud of this, as he’s from Hanoi. After my trips to Central Australia and Arnhem Land, where I was looking at art and hearing stories of the 100,000+ year civilisation, it didn’t feel as impressive…

There are 9 million people in Hanoi. This sounds like a lot until you hear that there are 100 million people who live in Vietnam, and the population grows by a million a year.
20% are middle class, while 70% are poor.

Saigon is richer than the north.

In some places, Vietnam is only 57 kms wide!

Anyone born before the end of the war in 1975 is classed as an old person. Yikes!

The first day was an early start to drive to see the Vietnam Cong tunnels. I was looking forward to this, as there’s a lot about the Vietnam War that I don’t really know about.

Along the way there were a couple of things I saw that really brought home that I was back in Asia. I’ve been to Bali (twice), Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, China and North Korea, but I haven’t been back since 2018. You forget what Asia’s like.

Motorbikes everywhere.When a car costs four times the average yearly wage, people tend to gravitate towards the humble motorcycle. There are 7 million of then in Saigon alone!

Fresh meat, anyone?

Look at how she’s carrying this huge flower arrangement!

The Vietnam Cong tunnels were very interesting.

When they were going to split Vietnam into two countries, they gave it around 3 months so people could move where they wanted to live; under the communists in the north or the capitalists in the south. 1.1M people moved from the North as opposed to 300,000 the other way. The numbers may have been more even, buy Ho Chi Minh called for people to stay where they were, in the heart of the enemy. Of course, this worked really well as the war went on.

This is me about to go down into a tunnel. Quite a few people from the tour elected not to go down, but hey. I’ll probably only be here once, so I’m doing it!

In the south, particularly around Saigon, the Communists dug bunkers, then connected tunnels to them. You had to be thin to fight and live in the tunnels! The westerners were mostly too fat to go in after them, so they brought in soldiers from the Philippines and trained them to do this.

1968 US joined the fight when the communists bombed their embassy.

There were around 200 kms of tunnels. 2,000 people at a time lived underground.

Hospitals, kitchens etc. They’d live underground during the day and come up to stretch their legs at night. When you see what they were prepared to do, it’s no wonder they won.

I was second in line, behind a woman called Maree. I was scared that I’d move too fast while being doubled over in the dark and end up tripping and planting my face in her behind. Not really the way to introduce yourself to the group. Thankfully, it didn’t happen, so both our dignities remain intact.

Here is how the tunnels worked. The levels were 3, 6 and 8 metres deep, complete with bamboo spike traps and an escape route into the river.

At first, the US soldiers caught detect where the kitchens were by the smoke, so they’d drop a bomb on it. Then the Vietnam Cong soldiers started to dig tunnels for the chimneys and put filters in, so that when the smoke escaped, it was far less likely to be seen.

Imagine being a soldier, walking along, looking around at the trees for any ambushes…

Bamboo spikes for the unwary. It must have been awful. You’d never have a second to relax your guard when on patrol.

We saw many traps, but this one was the worst. If someone kicked the door down, this trap would fly down from the ceiling and get whoever was standing there. It has a hinge, so even if the top part was stopped, the bottom part would still be moving and then, “No more cucumber and tomatoes…” said Robin.

Going down into the tunnel. It had lights along the way, but it must’ve been very dark and claustrophobic for the soldiers.

People don’t like to buy homes near rubber farms because the trees are poisonous. People who work there die 3 – 5 years earlier than usual.

For lunch, we went to an organic farm and cooking school nearby.

The meal was exquisite. Well, except for the banana spring rolls for dessert. How anyone can like bananas is beyond me.

I saw these dog gate ornaments just as Robin was saying, “yes, we do eat dog.”

The Presidential Palace, built in the 60’s after the old one was bombed. See the coverings over the windows? They’re representing bamboo.

So many bonsai’s throughout the city.

See? Bamboo.

Here are the tanks that crashed through the gates of the palace and ended the war.

I saw this and had to take the photo. So pretty.

Always a gift shop.

This is from the top balcony of the Palace.

I was heading to the toilets before the bus was going when I bumped into this girl having a photoshoot.
To be honest, we spent far too much time here, and at the post office.

The post office was built in the 1800’s by the French. The only thing that changed is the picture of Ho Chi Minh that smiles benevolently down.

Outside the post office, I saw this building being engulfed by the ones around it, but standing its ground.

l only took 2 pictures at the War Museum. This one, of course, is famous.

This was nearby. Beauty made from something so terrible.

We had an hour here and it wasn’t enough time. Allow a couple of hours to move through. It was terribly moving.

And finally, I caught this pair from the bus window- Mum filing her nails while her kid is on

her phone.

Dad joke of the day:

To the thief who stole my pillow,

I will not rest until I find you.