...back to the the Sea (Saigon and the Mekong Delta)

Saigon - officially Ho Chi Minh City - is a bustling metropolis, the most modern in Vietnam, and its financial capital. Sometimes it's called the "motorbike city". Apparently there are nine million inhabitants and seven million motorbikes. The city has some fabulous museums where one can learn all about the Vietnam/American War, though from the communist perspective, inevitably. Learning about the War was one reason I had so looked forward to Saigon. And it didn't disappoint. The other reason for my interest in Saigon is a bit of family history. My maternal grandfather spent several of his teenage years in this city, as his family fled from the advancingJapanese in southern China during WW2. I am not sure where he lived, but yesterday I took the bus down to Chinatown to have a walk around. I heard Cantonese spoken by the old ladies on the bus. Chinese signs, old temples, herbal shops, a few little markets were some things I saw. I also had pearl milk tea. :) But it was a Vietnamese version, with other jellies and things along with the pearls - one in particular was a little red thing where as your teeth bit into it, a sour little burst of liquid came out as a surprise.

But, back to the museums. I started at the Reunification (or Independence) Palace, where in 1975 the Viet Cong rammed through the iron gates and soldiers ran up to the top to plant their flag, joining north and south Vietnam. Most of the palace is flash rooms with heavy carpets and curtains for entertaining foreign dignitaries, meeting rooms, conference rooms, living quarters for the President...The most interesting place was the basement, which was headquarters of the war for South Vietnam, with map rooms, radio rooms, and one oddly touching one with ten ancient typewriters lining the walls.

After the Palace, I walked over to the War Remnants Museum. It is being renovated, and even before I walked into the courtyard, I saw the piles of bricks and construction debris amongst the powerful tools of the Americans during the war: Army, Navy, and Air Force helicopters, planes, tanks, artillery machinery...all sitting around a big courtyard outside the museum building. Oddly fitting in a way. These once powerful vehicles wrecked destruction, but sitting harmlessly under the shade, they looked almost quaint. In the Museum, I learned about the history and escalation of the wars. How the Vietnamese fought the French for independence, then American intervention and civil war between North and South. The numbers. Number of soldiers killed by country, tons of bombs dropped. Some names were familiar (Tolkin, ships attacked, deceit)and I could trace them back to World History class in the tenth grade. But I am in Vietnam, not in a classroom, and everything feels real, closer to the present for me than they ever have. I know I am in a communist country, and nothing is without communist propaganda. This one-sided-ness is blatantly obvious in very single museum I have been to in Vietnam. I wanted to ask, so these are the people killed and the destruction wrecked by the Americans and the South Vietnamese "puppet" regime, and by no means do I mean to lessen the guilt of their crimes (Kissinger regrets the War in his book about Vietnam...), but show me "your" numbers. How many did the Viet Cong kill? How did they treat their prisoners? Show me the traps that took ankles, how many civilian casualties were killed by the communists? I want it all. Give me the whole picture. But despite its shortcomings, the museum vividly succeeds in documenting the attrocities of war in general. THIS is what happens to innocents. Look at it. Do you see? Everyone should, especially our decision-makers. I for one would be happy to support sending the US Congress to Saigon for the War Remnants Museum with tax-dollars. it would be money well spent...but they'll have to stay in budget hotels just like the rest of us.

The most touching exhibit at the museum was a collection of photos taken by photojournalists from 11 countries who all died documenting the war. One series by a Life photographer follows a tall, handsome young soldier, leader of a helicopter crew, as he strides confidently towards the aircraft before the battle, it shows the bombing, the gunfire, him manning the artillery, him cradling a dead pilot in the air, and the last photo, at the end of the battle and the day, he is sprawled out in a storage room, head down, weeping...You don't easily forget something like this. You also don't forget a photo of a US soldier holding a human head and entrails. I didn't want to look, but I saw it accidently while walking out of the museum. Now it is a part of what I have seen, what I have learned, about war.

But don't worry, I am not crying in my hotel room every day. Just last night, Ashleigh and I went out for shellfish cooked in a delicious tamarind-garlic sauce, then to this posh Cuban/Spanish place for live music, to celebrate her last night in Saigon. She's heading to Cambodia, which I, unfortunately, won't get to on this trip.

Today I went on a tour of the Mekong Delta, crusing the river in motorized and paddle boats and tasting coconut candy. The Mekong River is huge, and before it enters the sea, it splits into nine branches (each is probably the size of the Colorado, at least). It starts in Tibet and comes down through Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam, a journey of 4500 km, before reaching the sea. The delta is has very rich soil deposited by the Mekong, so agriculture here is very fruitful. Also, if you're eating farmed catfish at home, chances are, they were farmed in the Mekong River. There are floating structures, houses, in the river, with nets underneath to rear catfish that are then exported. But there are too many farms on the river. The catfish are confined, and they are feed pellets, not their natural foods. Pollution is a problem.

We got some rain today. Tour guide said this is crazy, because monsoon season doesn't start until May, and it's only the end of March. Unseasonal things are happening everywhere I go. I'm supposed to go hiking tomorrow, my last day in Saigon. Hmm.