Ho Chi Minh City

Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon was a lot of fun. We met this very nice girl from Switzerland named Stephanie on the bus and we all spent the rest of the day together afterwards--dinner, fixing her hotel fiasco, and then met the 2 Israeli guys from the day before for drinks later on.

The highlight of the city tour was the War Remnants Museum. Not because it was a fabulous museum, but because it was so unsettling and upsetting and informative. Granted, many of the exhibits would have a different slant if the museum was located elsewhere, but it was incredibly moving.

Every generation partakes in events that shock and mortify the subsequent generations, and can be reevaluated and criticized in retrospect, and yet the terrible cycle continues. My generation can condemn what our country did in Vietnam, your generation can remember how difficult that time was, and yet here we are again. Iraq, Afghanistan... we shake our heads and mutter "never again" about the Holocaust, and Cambodia, and Rwanda, and yet there's Darfur. It's frustrating and humbling, and you just don't know what to do, and you realize that your paralysis--in the aggregate--is why these things keep happening.

The pictures were horrible. People who were showered with napalm, children born affected, deformed, by agent orange, a family about to be executed (by forces working with the Americans) with the caption that the photographer had asked the soldiers to wait to kill them until he had taken a photo. It's all too horrible to imagine, even as you're seeing the photos of carnage, and it seems unreal.

It made me think of my September 11th experience. I wasn't in the US when it happened, and seeing the photos and the footage for the first time, 2 weeks later, on Senegalese television in French, made it seem like a bad action movie. I couldn't grasp it, and while the memories of that time and the images still affect me, I think it is in a different way than everyone who woke up that morning to the footage on television, or even worse the people in New York and Washington that saw it all unfold before their eyes and had to flee.

There were 2 exhibits that shook and unsettled and upset me more than the rest, even though they were less graphic, I think because they somehow were more accessible to my conceptual understanding of the world and what I've experienced. 1) There was a whole exhibit dedicated to the 130-odd journalists who were killed in action, which included several photos that were the last photos taken with their cameras. Most of them weren't photos of anything, so you knew that as they died their fingers still released the shutter. 2) There was a wall with the details of the massacre that former Sen. Bob Kerrey was involved with. That had me reeling for a long time. I remember vaguely when the details of that came out, and when he "confessed" his involvement back in 2000--maybe during the election? But I never knew the specifics. Seeing the photos and reading about what happened (granted, it might have been slanted, but still...) I just don't know how to process that. Here is a respected statesman, who was elected by the American people, who did things that I like to believe no normal person could do, things that don't even begin to make sense.

And I know that's hopelessly naive. I can't even pretend to understand war. But attaching a face I at least know of, to a situation I can't begin to comprehend... it shook me. And as much as it's tempting to condemn I feel such incredible sorrow for everyone involved in the whole war--that they had to experience and live that, and live with the legacy.

Anyway, the rest of our stay in Ho Chi Minh City was nice. What astounds me more and more, the more I think about it, is how friendly everyone is, and how resilient the country and the people are. Stephanie--who has dual US/Swiss citizenship asked us that first morning how it was traveling on a US passport, and to be honest we hadn't even thought of it. We have not encountered ANY anti-American hostility yet (knock wood).

Of course, that might be because people think I'm Vietnamese (!?!?!?!?!) I'm not joking--one woman in Cambodia thought I was Cambodian, and since we've been in Vietnam 2 or 3 people have asked if I was Vietnamese. One woman was telling us how she went to high school with a man who was half-American and half-Vietnamese, and looked at me and said "like you." It must be the dark hair and eyes...

We left Ho Chi Minh City the night of Sept. 10 by overnight (15 hours) train to Danang (north of Hoi An). The train ride was fine, but we're flying to Hanoi! Once was enough.

Our hotel in Hoi An is beautiful--it has a pool and a garden and very nice room and bathroom and it only costs $18/night for the room. Hoi An is a world heritage historic city and I'd love to say that we've seen all the sights, but honestly most of our time has been spent in various stages of undress at tailor shops.

We've each gotten a ton of clothes made--2 three piece suits each, a bunch of button down shirts, a dress each, some other tops, etc. the tailoring is pretty high quality, and the prices are great. You know you've provided good business though when the tailor shop pays for your taxi there and back, and then feeds you!!! The ladies at our main shop ordered us a traditional Hoi An dinner the other night, which was delicious.

We decided we needed to actually see more of Hoi An so we spent yesterday afternoon and part of today walking around the town, which is very picturesque and lovely with small alleys and colorful buildings, a river, and beautiful lanterns.

This morning we took a trip out to My Son, which is an hour away and has ruins dating back to the 7th century. Very beautiful, but after you've spent 2 days at the Angkor temples in Cambodia nothing else really compares.

Anyway, we have to get to one last fitting, and then to packing...