Vietnam Continued {Ho Chi Minh City}

As promised, here's the second half of our trip. Sorry it's taken me awhile to get it posted - we've been busy around here!

Thursday

- Another early morning breakfast at the hotel, and then off on another tour bus to visit the Cu Chi tunnels. We learned all about the intense underground tunnel system (dug by hand) that the Viet Cong built during the war. Check out Chris' facebook for the video of him going down into this hole!

smiling in the pitch black, waiting for the flash to light up our faces.

They built three levels of these tunnels. The first level was 2-3 meters under ground, while the third level was up to 10 meters under ground! Talk about claustrophobia! Chris and I did manage to crawl through 100 meters of tunnels though (authentic tunnels, just widened a bit for tourists). I did fine as long as I didn't think about being stuck, or the fact that I was 9 feet under! We had sore quads the next day from squatting so low!

- We got back to Ho Chi Minh at 2:30 and were dropped straight off at the War Remnants Museum and were there until it closed at 5:00. This was probably the hardest part of the trip because it was full of pictures from the war, and some serious propaganda. It was obviously pro-Vietnam, but was really good for Chris, as a history teacher (someday, hopefully), to gain exposure from a different angle, and we both came away so much more knowledgeable.

Huey

- We were SO exhausted by 5:00, and hadn't eaten since breakfast at 7:30. We decided that it would be our first early night and that we'd be in bed by 8:00 after eating dinner. BUT, Chris had met a Canadian guy at his IB conference (last month) who has been living in Ho Chi Minh for seven years and offered to show us around the city. He emailed us that day while we were gone, saying that night was the only time that would work for him. So, off we went again! (after finding a Burger King :) you can only eat so much pho!) This was another highlight of our trip. He took us around to all the spots that Vietnam doesn't highlight for tourists, because some of the things/places are things they'd rather forget. I rode on the back of the guys' bike, and we hired a Vietnamese guy for 2 hours to drive Chris around. Since it was at night, we couldn't get any good pictures, but we knew where the spots were so we could go back the next day. It was so fun zooming around the city at night on motorbikes. And this city is truly the motorbike capitol of the world, with road rules just slightly better than Jakarta (my driver went into traffic upstream to find a specific place, and Chris's guy had to hop curbs to follow us).

Friday

- The first day we got to sleep in on this trip. We were happily surprised to see another family from our school when we made it down to the continental breakfast! They had been staying in a different part of Vietnam, and stayed just one night at this place because they flew out a few hours later. We enjoyed chatting about our travels over breakfast, and said our "see ya laters" as we left. About 30 minutes later, as Chris and I were packing up to check out of the hotel and head out for our last day in Ho Chi Minh, Trent knocked on our door, and offered to lend us the equivalent of $100 in Vietnamese Dong (VND) since it was their last day there. The Lord was really looking out for us. Due to our initial struggles with converting money, we had the equivalent of $25 left and knew we could only eat pho for meals, and do nothing else that day that cost money, or we wouldn't have enough to make it back to the airport by taxi. Trent came in CLUTCH and allowed us to live it up that last day without fearing that we wouldn't make it home. Thank you Felstrom family!

- Chris and I spent the morning revisiting the sites we were shown the night before so we could see them in daylight. First, we wanted to get this shot:

It's where the last American helicopter took off in 1975 from a CIA apartment building in Siagon, NOT the US Embassy that was originally reported in the news/magazines (though the photographer tried repeatedly to correct it).

-Then we got drinks (aka $8 milkshakes. we had to!) at the legendary Siagon Siagon Bar in the Caravelle Hotel. It's located in the city's center and was the highest viewpoint during the war, where journalists would stay, write, and observe airstrikes across the river.

Hotel Continental Siagon - Where Graham Greene was staying while he worked on his controversial novel, The Quiet American 

- We went to the Reunification Palace. It's where the tanks bust through the gates, and Viet Cong rushed up the steps and planted their flag on top of the presidential palace, symbolizing the fall of Siagon and the unification of Vietnam.

Now

Then 

- And probably the most memorable part of our time in Ho Chi Minh, was going to this little noodle shop (shown to us by Chris' IB conference friend).

The manager (who died in 2006) warmly served American soldiers "pho binh" (which translates to "peace soup" ironic!?) during the war, while housing the secret members of the Viet Cong in a meeting room just upstairs. This is where the Tet Offensive, and many other attacks carried out against the US and South Vietnamese personnel, were planned and executed from. This sweet little man in our picture is the owner now, and served us our pho binh (the best we had in Vietnam!). Understanding that we were probably there for more than just soup, he brought us an old laminated news article, that told the history of the place -- exactly what we were interested in.

After we finished our soup, he asked us if we wanted to go upstairs. . . to the very room where it all took place. We were more than eager to go! We walked back through the kitchen, and up several flights of stairs. Through minimal English, and a very thick accent, he told us about the owner of the shop, the members of the Viet Cong who met there, and instructed us to sit in the chairs around the table to he could get a picture (he had us hold the tea cups). You could tell he was proud of what happened there, and eager to share the history with us, but in a very gentle way. Though he didn't tell us, and we couldn't really ask him, he must have been involved, given his age and the fact that he's the current owner.

Stairway leading up.

He made sure we got the full experience. . . tea cups and all.

Photo hanging in the room of a documented meeting. The only thing that's changed since then is the tile flooring. 

From this little soup shop, we headed back to our hotel to pick up our bags and get to the airport. What a trip this was! I wouldn't file it under the vacation category (except for our day on the boat) because we were always on the go, but we had an incredible time and learned so much. I feel embarrassed, how little I actually knew about the Vietnam war before going. Thankful to God for the chance to see places of the world like this. Trying not to take any of it for granted!