FRIDAY in HCMC, ‘Nam: Dodging Motorcycles, Crawling through Tunnels, and Dunking Everything in Fish Sauce

Friday morning we fell victim to our first taxi scam in Vietnam, which was bound to happen, but was upsetting nonetheless. On what was supposed to be a 10 minute/$20,000 VND ride to the War Remnants Museum, our driver took us on a loop of the city, double-backing on streets and going in circles, which with traffic, took 45 minutes and cost close to $70,000 VND. About 30 minutes into the trip we knew something wasn’t right and Kevin, aka The Human GPS, figured out we’d been taken for a ride, literally…and there was nothing we could do about it except sit patiently fuming until he eventually dropped us off at the museum. Not wanting to get into a confrontation and essentially having no other choice, we just paid the guy in full. However, I did (from a safe distance outside of the cab) throw the driver an intense glare/pouty-face while pointing to the map and telling him “I know what you did!” In the grand scheme of things it was an extra $2 USD, that he needs more than we do, but it’s still infuriating and hurtful to be duped and cheated because we’re foreigners. This is one of the more extreme examples of how difficult and isolating it is to be an outsider – in all of SE Asia, from Vietnam to Hong Kong.

The Vietnam War Remnants Museum was very intense and grisly. The photographs and exhibits were horrifying but magnetic – really capturing the essence and pain and terror and darkness of the war. It was hard to look at, but hard to take my eyes off of at the same time. There were some famous images that I instantly recognized, such as the photograph of children running and screaming in the street. Other photographs showed sickening images of dead people, severed and shredded body parts, murdered children and bombed villages. Almost more horrific than the images were the captions explaining the scenes – soldiers who killed children on the side of the road for no reason, a photographer who requested soldiers to hold fire so he could snap pictures of a terrified family before they were executed…It was just death and gore everywhere, but I guess that’s what happens in war.

The most disturbing exhibit featured hundreds of images of (and displays of preserved fetuses with) severe physical deformities and disfigurations caused by Agent Orange (Napalm) – which has continued to cause horrendous and crippling birth defects and abnormalities in certain areas of Vietnam since it entered the food and water supply. I’ll spare you any more details than that.

Throughout the museum, anti-American sentiment was palpable and the experience of being in Vietnam and seeing the war from the opposing point of view was deeply thought-provoking and in a way, challenging.

In the afternoon we went on a private guided tour of the Cu Chi Tunnels, located in the Vietnam countryside about 1 ½ hours outside HCMC. During the war, the residents of Cu Chi engaged in amazing guerilla warfare against the American troops. They built an incredibly complex underground city and tunnel system, using nothing but handmade spades and straw baskets. It took more than 10 years to build the underground labyrinth, and there was no definitive architectural plan or structural design – yet they built an intricate world to near perfection, in which they lived and fought for the duration of the war. The tunnels stretch from Cu Chi all the way to the Cambodian border and there are over 250km of viable tunnels still existing today.

The underground tunnels had three levels. The top level was made up of large rooms: dining rooms, kitchens, weapon-making rooms, bathrooms, apartments, etc that were connected by tunnels. The second level was a series of tunnels and wells, while the third level was for emergency escapes as well as trapping enemies. The people of Cu Chi would live underground for months at a time – made possible by the strength of the earth (clay soil did not cave in or flood) and air chutes and vents that were incorporated into the design.

The people of Cu Chi were incredibly resourceful, intelligent and scrappy (as if this weren’t already evident by the fact that they built an underground city that still exists in pristine condition today) They made new weapons out of the pieces of old American weapons. When American soldiers used dogs to sniff out the air vents of the tunnel system, the Cu Chi people lined the tunnels with dead American soldiers’ clothing and tobacco leaves so that the dogs would ignore these familiar scents and not discover the Cu Chi. The Cu Chi people created dozens of booby-traps to seriously wound and kill the American soldiers. During the war, they managed to stave off American troops with their wits and the resources of the earth around them. The Cu Chi people and their tunnels are legendary in Vietnam.

It was truly awesome to be at Cu Chi, not only because you have to appreciate such an amazing underdog story, but because we had the unbelievable opportunity to go into the tunnel system. Many of the rooms on the first underground level had been dug up after the war and we got to descend into these various rooms by ladders and stone steps. The rooms were surprisingly large (some bigger than my apartment in LA) and we could see the tunnel entrances and exits. Above ground, we got to see the various booby-traps made by the Cu Chi people – some of which were still in their original places. We also walked through bomb craters and got a chance to go into camouflaged hiding holes.

Halfway through our tour the skies opened up in a torrent of rain and thunder. All of a sudden, we found ourselves caught in a tropical storm, still sweating from the heat and dirty from the tunnels, hiking through the thick brush and forest of Cu Chi, and in the distance hearing the gun shots from the nearby shooting range…an uncanny feeling of what it must have been like in the war crept up on us.

After touring the top-most layer, we were given the chance to go through a section of tunnel that had been widened for tourists. As the four of us looked into the darkness of an impossibly small hole (widened for tourists – really?!), Kevin and I got up the courage to go inside, while Dominic and Melinda opted to wait at the other end. Inside the tunnel, we couldn’t help but feel terrified – it was dark, the air was stale, and we were closed in by dirt walls all around us. Our breathing started to quicken and our hearts raced as the walls closed in even more and our crouch turned into near crawling. Just when I was about to have a panicked breakdown and tell Kevin I couldn’t do it anymore, we saw the daylight and heard Dom and Melinda. The guide told us we were in the tunnels for 40 meters…it felt like a year. We emerged filthy, breathless, and thrilled that we had done something so incredible.

The Entrance to the Tunnel

Kevin and I, Emerging Victorious

Next, it was off to the shooting range, where we could pick from a dozen different rifles and machine guns. Guns scare the hell out of me, and I’ve never been interested in coming close to one, I’m sure I once swore I would never touch one, nonetheless fire one…but coming off the high of my tunnel feat, and caught in the moment, we all lined up with an AK-47.

I forced everyone to shoot before me, which did nothing to calm my nerves – the sound was deafening and the overload of adrenaline coursing through my body was making me shaky. Finally it was my turn, and after making the guide reassure me 15 times that it wouldn’t hurt when I shoot it, and after checking my ear-protectors twice, and taking several photos Sarah Palin-style, I got into position and squeezed the trigger.

And I freaked out. There was screaming and near-crying and total spazzing-out…which for those of you who know me well, I’m sure can picture the scene in close to perfect detail. And to the delight of many of you, you don’t have to imagine it -- after we were a safe distance from the guns and I finally calmed down, Kevin showed me that he recorded the entire thing. I’m glad I’m so predictable to be a spectacle…or I’m glad that he was brilliant enough to capture this moment, which as soon as I can get it from him, I’ll post here on the blog, for your entertainment.

We went to dinner when we got back into HCMC, at Quan An Ngon – one of the most popular restaurants in all of Vietnam and definitely the best in HCMC. We indulged in a feast of perfect, fresh, fragrant Vietnamese flavors: cilantro, mint, basil, lemongrass, garlic, bean sprouts and onions and chilies on top of grilled beef and chicken and pork and squid, steamed clams and shrimp, vegetables, rice noodles and summer rolls, all drenched in sweet, tangy, pungent and sour fish sauce. Each dish was more vibrant and delicious and inspiring than the next, and all were about $2 USD. The entire tab ran us under $10 per person, including 4 appetizers, 8 main courses, 4 desserts, and rounds of beers. The ambiance matched the food perfectly – the restaurant is an open air, romantic bungalow with big palm fans, large wooden tables, aglow with candles and twinkling lights and the fire from the grills and the buzz and energy of the people sharing and taking delight in food that can only be described as having the power to enhance life and emotion.

Reflecting on the day, and on the greater expanse of our lives – here we were, the four of us, sitting in Vietnam, eating and laughing and living as if we did this everyday and as if today were the most special day in the world. How could any of us have dreamed we would have been here?

We spent the rest of the evening relaxing by the hotel pool, chatting with the bartender about geckos, looking up at the Vietnam sky, and being grateful for who we are, where we are, and our time together in this significant place.