Ho Chi Mihn City: War Remnants & Reunification

I only spent a day and a half in Ho Chi Mihn City, but I did have a chance to visit both the War Remants Museum and the Reunification Palace. After touring the Killing Fields and Genocide Museum in Cambodia, I thought I might have developed some tolerance for the disturbing images by now but this was not the case. I weeped at the photos of the massacre at My Lai. Vietmanese babies form with deformaties caused by Agent Orange and other defoliants sprayed during the war. One possible effect of exposure to this chemical are limbs that look extremely shriveled. When Laura and I were having lunch, I noticed a man slowly scooting across the street on his butt. His non-functional legs had the same strange emaciated look to them. This is just a host of terrible ailments related to defoliant exposure. America used over 70 million liters of toxic chemicals defoliants inflicted extensive damage to people, communities, and land during the Vietnam War. The War Remnants certainly speaks from the Vietnamese point of view, however, many of the photographs and stories are derived from American publications such as Time and Life magazines.

Other interesting/ heartbreaking areas of the museum include:

-The Imprisonment System section, where I learned how south vietnam used tiny "tiger cages" to imprison north vietnamese soldiers. The confined space was so small, some prisoners suffered permanent injuries to their limbs.

-Posters and pictures around the world from international anti-war movements.

-Weapons used by America on display outside the museum including a B.52 bomber plane, tanks, and a seismic bomb that causes destruction within a 100m radius.

We followed War Remnants with a visit to Reunification Palace. The Reunification Palace is an eerie place frozen in time ever since the North Vietnmanese tanks bulldozed through the iron gates in 1975 and "Saigon" was renamed "Ho Chi Mihn City." The rooms are still decorated in the same decor. I especially enjoyed the telecommunications center in the basement--a network of claustrophobic tunnels displaying spartan surroundings, huge radio transistors, and rotary phones.

Fearing bag snatchers, cantankerous tuk tuk drivers, and a city littered with trash, I found Ho Chi Mihn much safer, cleaner, and easier to manage than I expected. Of course, my hotel was in Pham New Lao the backpacker district where travelers every whim is catered to. Many hotels offer free internet access, breakfast, and cable television for under $15. If you don't like a particular one, walk for two minutes and someone else will call out to you to check out their room. Stores stock seemingly every type of bootlegged media--dvds, Lonely Planet guidebooks, popular novels--it's all here. One unique store, Propaganda Posters, sells posters from the Vietnam War era. An English translation appears in the right hand corner of each one such as "If Ho Chi Mihn says it is victory, it is victory" and "4000 American planes shot down."

My brief stay in Ho Chi Mihn City wraps up my week-long tour of southern Vietnam. Despite some tummy troubles, overall I enjoyed my experiences in this region of the world. The Vietnamese people of the Mekong river delta region were kind, welcoming, and curious. I hope tourism helps Vietnam achieve a more prosperous future.