Chaotic Ho Chi Minh City!

Just a quick note here as we'll let the photos do most the talking, everyone...

Motorbikes, motorbikes, motorbikes. Commercial transport....minivan substitutes....they're used for everything. I sat on a street corner yesterday afternoon for an hour and simply entertained myself with the colorful display of uses that people find for their 2-wheeled companions. The first 5 photos below should some things up! Traffic has no order, and crossing the streets means putting your life at risk with each step. It kind of reminds me of crossing Main Street in Britt...taking that treacherous stroll from the Coop Gas Station to Farmers Trust Bank. Or something like that.....

Also yesterday, I paid a visit to the War Remnants Museum. It was a very colorful display (I only took photos of the not-so-colorful items on display) of the war: photos of Vietnamese effected by the agent orange and dioxide, images of destroyed soldier bodies, remains of weapons torn to shreds by bomb attacks, etc. It was not the most uplifting place to visit, but nonetheless, it was a historical exhibit worth seeing, despite it being a very one-sided view of the war from the Vietnamese angle.

Today, I took a trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels outside the city. Unbelievable stuff here! To see how the Vietnamese soldiers battled during the war, navigating their way through this underground network and hiding in tiny, tiny sniper holes, it's no wonder they had a clear competitive advantage. The pictures, again, should explain things in themselves. The underground tunnel we crawled through was 120 meters long. Talk about a case of claustrophobia?! The nervousness wore off halfway through...however, without the help of a headlamp (which I conveniently left at my hotel, thinking the things would be lit for tourists), it made it impossible to complete the journey all the way through. The tunnels have small juts and jags to foil any Americans who tried to navigate through...and I wasn't about to be a victim, pulling out at the 60-meter exit. I'm pretty sure this type of tourist attraction would attract plenty of law suits in the US, but what an interesting trip it was....

Interesting was how the introductory video we watched portrayed the war, again with a very sharp Vietnamese angle on things. The narrator used such phrases as "The Americans flew in like a band of devils...", "...they ruthlessly dropped bombs on innocent children and pregnant women", and the like. Let's just say I made sure not to pull out my stars and stripes anytime during the tour!

But finally, the real treat of the day, getting to fire an AK-47 at the shooting range. I'm attempting to upload the video that I had shot during the process--however it seems the video is a bit too large to get on this site. Let me just say, I cannot imagine what fighting in a war must have been like with dozens and dozens of these things going off around you. Even with the ear protection, the sound of this thing resonated through my ear drums. Oh, and they have a little bit of kick as well. I'm sure I'll see the bruise on my shoulder develop in the next few days.

And that's that...days one and two in the Vietnamese capital. I'll spend a few more days in the country, followed by a quick jaunt through Cambodia before meeting up with big sis in the Thai islands around 9/30/08.

Enjoy the images....

#1-5: Motorbike extravaganza!

#6: US Tank on display at the War Remnants Museum

#7: Foreign propanganda on display at the museum

#8: I didn't dare force my shoulders into the sniper hole for fear I'd never get out...

#9: AK-47 bullets, ready for launch

#10: Crawling through the tunnels. Don't let the flash photography fool you, it was dark....