Ho Chi Minh .. Saigon, tunnels, the American war and Mr. Bean.

We arrived in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh to people who live outside of the city) after our long, bumpy crowded bus trip from Nha Trang. It was 5:30 in the morning when we arrived and we started off on foot, turning away all the moto drivers towards where we thought the hostel was. Turns out google maps isn’t the most trust worthy of sources when trying to locate a small house in a back alley , and it’s not the first time we’ve been led astray. After a short time of getting our bearings we were down the little alley off of the main strip and ringing the bell to wake up the house to let us into the hostel. This hostel is a building owned and operated by a family, and the common room is shared between the guests and the family.

The first day we spent walking around the city and avoiding a nap. We didn’t want to go to nap and risk ‘napping’ for hours on end and then not be able to sleep in the night. Saigon has a large backpackers section, just like all the other cities in Asia that we have been to so far. The restaurants and shops seem to be a little more local that in many of the cities. They are all very similar and not many of them seemed to stand out or have a flair that would draw you in. Every meal we ended up walking around for a good half hour, or more, sometimes much more trying to decide on somewhere to eat. The first day was the worst, as we were checking out the city, and walking on our way to the war remnants museum. We walked for over an hour and a half even trying to find a restaurant. We did find a Yogen Fruz, which was a rare treat that Chad couldn’t pass up!

A tank destroyed by the Cu Chi during the "American War"

In the war remnants museum, there are a number of salvaged military aircraft, tanks, planes and bombs stored in front of the building. Inside there are many articles, pictures and figures regarding the decades of war in Vietnam from the mid 1940’s through to the end of conflict at the beginning of the 1980’s. It is very interesting to see the Vietnamese side of the war, and to see up close the devastation. It is truly heart wrenching to see the disfigured people, some mangled by conventional weapons of war (bullets, bombs, landmines) and the many others who are disfigured from the chemical weapons used (agent orange, napalm etc.). Also the huge environmental impacts become obvious when you see the aerial pictures of the countryside. On the way back from the museum we took a quick stroll through the main indoor market in the city center. We’re not sure if it may have been a combination of being hungry, with upset stomachs from the light lunch we had and the fatigue, or what else it may have been, but this market beyond any others was hard to stomach. The smells and sights of the market were too much for us and we had to hurry through to the other side, to fresh air and free space. That night we laid low and were to bed relatively early for our trip to the Cu Chi tunnels the next morning.

We were greeted by our tour guide in the morning for our half day trip to the Cu Chi tunnels by ‘Mr. Bean’ our Vietnamese veteran tour guide. Throughout the day, he had told us that he was born in the Philippines, lived in America and moved to Vietnam after the end of conflict with the Americans. He had served under John Kerry among other famous American veterans, then he served 4 years in a Vietnamese prison after the war due to his involvement with the Americans. He wrote a book that was published in the 90’s about his experiences. Seemed like a tall story, but considering the insight and other stories that he told during the trip, they all seemed to mesh well together. However, we still haven’t been able to track him down yet through his book. He said it was called ‘Three moons in Vietnam’ or something similar, but the book we looked up under that name is written by a British woman. Go figure. Same same…but different.

Just like the sign says.. handicrafts and jobs to support those who have it tough

On the way out to the Cu Chi tunnels we stopped at the ‘Handicapped Handicraft’ factory. There are a few of these factories around Vietnam, where people who are disabled, usually by the war, have a chance to work and earn a decent wage. The factory that we visited made enamel glazed paintings, wall hangings, “accordion doors / folding oriental room dividers... (what are these actually called?!?!)” decorative dinnerware, tables, chairs huge vases etc. They are all hand made and incredibly intricate and beautiful. We ended up buying a few small wall pictures for our new house (where ever that will be once we are settled).

Then we were off to the Cu Chi tunnels, which is an area just outside of Saigon deep in American occupied territory that never succumbed during the war. They said that over 12,000 Vietnamese people died, compared to 188 Americans (just in this region, not the whole war). The people were so resilient due to the soil formations in the area. The soil is over 90% clay. This enabled them to build very strong tunnels very rapidly. American attempts to flood or burn the people out of the tunnels only served to eventually make the tunnels stronger. The tunnels are also extremely tight in some sections that only the smallest westerner would have been able to squeeze through. We were given a chance to crawl 130 meters through the tunnels at the end of the visit, and it was an incredible insight into the life of the people who lived underground for years. During the war, the Cu Chi people lived underground during the daylight hours. At night they came to the surface, tended to their farms, removed soil from the tunnels (which they threw into bomb crafters or the river to hide the evidence) and then they went back underground before the sun would rise. As the Americans were unwilling to advance or undertake combat during the night time, the Cu Chi were relatively safe to move about at night. We also saw many booby-traps and how they were designed to incapacitate an enemy. The tenacity of the people demonstrates the degree to which anyone is capable of going to protect their homeland. To the Cu Chi people, the Americans were nothing more than foreign invaders, attempting to take away their freedom.

Chad trying to fit into one of the Cu Chi tunnels outside of Saigon

The last stop before leaving the Cu Chi tunnels was a shooting range. For ~$15 Cdn you could fire off 0 bullets from an AK-47. They had many other types of guns as well. The noise was so deafening and the earmuffs that they provided were nothing more than stereo headphones and did nothing to dampen the sound. Due to the extremely loud noise of several assault rifles firing all the time, Ewa decided to just video Chad firing off a few shots. We didn’t get to keep the target, but it looked like Chad had pretty good aim!

That night we performed our Saigon dance around the city trying to find a spot to eat. After dinner we went out for a few drinks to some local places before stopping at the ‘crazy buffalo’ for a couple of drinks and to take in some quality people watching. It was strange though, as in the local restaurants/pubs we could get a 3 oz glass of vodka & soda for ~$0.8, but when we went to the large club, it cost $5 and had practically no booze in it. It was a high price to pay to people watch and we were soon on our way back to the hotel.
Our last day in Saigon was spent doing a little shopping, trying to find some clothes that would be more suitable for the warmer weather climates. We found a few nice things, and a few things for us to send home with our wall paintings. We were even brave enough to try to visit the city market again. This time, we stayed away from the food section and only visited the clothing/watch/jewellery area. This is the first experience we’ve had at being physically accosted. As we walked down the hallways, the people would literally reach out, grab your hand, your forearm, elbow or just about anything and try to drag you into their shop. At first it was slightly annoying, but it quickly grew to over-the-top aggravating. At the end Chad was even slapping the hands of anyone who would grab him, and pushing them away. While we were on our way to the post office, it would dribble a few drops of rain and stop. A few more drops and then nothing. This would have been a good warning to anyone who had been through a tropical shower before, but we were oblivious. A few more minutes and we were caught in a full-on downpour. It was a flash-flood style rain that didn’t seem to let up, so we hopped into a taxi and drove the rest of the way to the post-office as we didn’t have any umbrellas or rain gear with us. After we left the post office, maybe 50 minutes after the rain started, it was all over and the streets were already starting to dry up.

That night was the beginning of the 3rd annual indoor Asian games. Saigon was the host city and some of the guests at the hotel were visiting the city to take in the games. It would have been nice to see them, but we had already made up our mind to head out to the water festival in Phnom Penh. We were able to see some of the festivities though, because some of the stages and vendor stalls were right across the street from our hotel. The next morning, we were off on the bus for Cambodia!

written by

ECRadventure on October 30, 2009 from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

from the travel blog: ECRadventure's Travel Blog

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just stumbled upon your blog and thought I would comment.

I just did the tour with mr bin himself today and he old us that mrs coffey had written the book, however he was featured in it, as part of her experience in Saigon. There's also a picture of him in the book seemingly, too.

He said that when he first found out he wasn't overly happy about it, but that having learned that the profits were destined to an orfanage in Vietnam he did not mind.

Hope you don't mind me posting this here and congrats on the blog.

written by Laughs and smiles on November 1, 2010

I've also just returned from the half day tour with 'Mr Bean' and he said the exact same thing about the book i.e. a british woman had written it and he was at first unhappy etc etc. I think the confusion may lay in the fact he introduced this Story as 'if you want to read 'my book' it's called Three Moons of Vietnam'.
He was a very interesting if understandably troubled soul :(

written by Helen Tuohy on March 20, 2012

Did a tour with him last week , he did say my book but that he did it in conjuction with an English lady. Hardly matters really , he puts on an entertaining trip with his side of the Story , for a man who spent 5 years in a re-education camp he came through pretty good ,still has a terrific sense of humour and provides an informative account of events from his side , if your going to Cu Chi you could do a lot worse than having him for your guide , there's lots of tours out there so you'd have to mention him by name when booking to get on his bus.

written by kariba@rogers.com on April 26, 2012

Did this trip also just weeks ago, is the novel for real and is he because he touched me with his Story but was it just a good actor acting out a tale from way back and good at it.

written by Kjp on November 3, 2014

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