The dy started out very early with a 430am departure to the airport. This was the first time we were flying out of Singapore and we flew with Tiger air, consistantly ratedthe number one cheap airline in the SE Asia. We arrived at the budget terminal, one of the many terminals in Changi airport. After eating a hearty meal of McDonald's pancakes, we crossed security. There was no sitting and waiting at your gate, there was a lobby like area where there were cuty free shops and a line area to wait for your plane. There was also no ramp, we just walked onto the runway on to the plane. You could tell it was a budget airline, no snacks or water, the flight attendants were very confused and scatter brained, they caused more confusion than clarity I felt. We arrived in Ho Chi Minh after an uneventful 2 hour flight. We met up with the rest of our 7 person group and hoped on the domestic transfer to Hue. The Vientamese airline weflew was wonderful, the seats actaully reclined, the attendants were beautiful and wore dresses, here was classica Vietnamese music playing and they handed out face wipes.
Our hotel is amazing. After spending the day out, our 8$/night room is not that cheap here, concidering lunch and drnks cost around and under $1. Its a 6 story old building, re-done with crown molding and vintage art. The stairway is made of marble. Alot of the design and decoratoion I found throughout the day resembled China, very much so. We went out for lunch, had an interesting meal of cooked pork on skerwes that were acutally lemongrass.We went out exporing the city. Like China, there is a Forbidden City here, called the Purple city. These are imperial citites that only royalty was allowed in, and they are as big as an acutal city. The wall guarding the city still stands on the opposite side on the Perfume River, where we went walking.
The first place we ran into was one of the most interesting places we went that day. I've read that dispite the fact of the huge battle that took place in Hue, the only reminents of the battle are old tanks that were left by the Americans. About 8 armored vehicles and a handful of artillery cannons were lined up with signs in the yard of two museums inside the wall of the impreial city. I immedaitly ran over to see them, even though nobody followed, which I found a little odd.There is not many other places in the world where you can see acutal battle sites and equipment from such a short period of time ago that is safe to travel to. Every single sign said that these objects were "captured by the Libertarian front an Tan My Port, Thuan An" on either 25 or 26 March, 1975.After the US had already gone. That was a little frustrating, the lying signs. You could walk up right next tothe armored vechiles nad look all around. It was beath taking. You could see the scars from battle on the tanks that were not caught on fire, as some were. You could see inside of them, may with the american signs for the placement of equipment stillreadable. All were stripped of everything except the outer shell. I also found 2 syringes inside of one, a sqatters corner I suppose. It was so amazing and ghaslty to be standing next to these pieces of history, where in my life time soldiers died. The vehicles that were burned, all of them only on the inside, were the worst to look at. The metal of the vehcile shell was crumbling, but the outside stayed in tact, obvious that adevice was thrown into the tank to create such a scene of distruction. Many tanks still had their serial numbers, "Amry", and the US star on them, so I took many photos.
Afterwards, we stopped by a "museum" that the tanks were situated in front of; It was a small room fullwith dirty cases full of dong son kettle drums and pieces of pottery from 2000-25000 years ago. It was obviously not well kept or kept up at all. The other had wandered to a neighboring buiding. This turned out to be a museum about the "American Invasion". It was incredible. It was 4 small rooms full of war memorabilia and photos. The first room had a sand table of the Battle of Hue. It also held may artifacts taken from American soldiers; uniforms, some weapons, money. The most amazing was the one with the ID's in it. There was a display of US ranks and medals, along side with ID's. The ID cards were Australian, Puppets (Vietnamese that were on our side) and old US military ID's. You could fully see the cut and pasted photos of the young soliders, all privates and sergeants with their DOB and singnatures. Its amazing they have these. The other two rooms were full of more pro-Vietnam/communist propoganda; the newspaper about when the leader of Vietnam died in the 60s, pro-communist papers and photos of political figures shaking hands, flags from the DMZ, etc. There were a couple photos of dead "injured" as they claimed Americans during the Battle of Hue. Many others had captions such as "defeated", "running away", etc American soldiers. The final room was dedicated to the concentration camps the Americans used on the Vietnamese. There was a little cave-like room with a mural painted of a chained up Vietnamese soldier surrounded by American soldiers smoing cigarettes. There were chains hanging from the walls and a display of American tourture devices, chains and hammers used for building. One of the Canadian boys, not seeing I was in the room because I think they all know I'm inthe military, said Wow, what the Americans did was messed up. He repeated it, but saw meerwards, we stopped by a "museum" that the tanks were situated in front of; It was a small room fullwith dirty cases full of dong son kettle drums and pieces of pottery from 2000-25000 years ago. It was obviously not well kept or kept up at all. The other had wandered to a neighboring buiding. This turned out to be a museum about the "American Invasion". It was incredible. It was 4 small rooms full of war memorabilia and photos. The first room had a sand table of the Battle of Hue. It also held may artifacts taken from American soldiers; uniforms, some weapons, money. The most amazing was the one with the ID's in it. There was a display of US ranks and medals, along side with ID's. The ID cards were Australian, Puppets (Vietnamese that were on our side) and old US military ID's. You could fully see the cut and pasted photos of the young soliders, all privates and sergeants with their DOB and singnatures. Its amazing they have these. The other two rooms were full of more pro-Vietnam/communist propoganda; the newspaper about when the leader of Vietnam died in the 60s, pro-communist papers and photos of political figures shaking hands, flags from the DMZ, etc. There were a couple photos of dead "injured" as they claimed Americans during the Battle of Hue. Many others had captions such as "defeated", "running away", etc American soldiers. The final room was dedicated to the concentration camps the Americans used on the Vietnamese. There was a little cave-like room with a mural painted of a chained up Vietnamese soldier surrounded by American soldiers smoing cigarettes. There were chains hanging from the walls and a display of American tourture devices, chains and hammers used for building. One of the Canadian boys, not seeing I was in the room because I think they all know I'm inthe military, said Wow, what the Americans did was messed up. He repeated it, but saw me andsaid just kidding. There were photo albums of the tunnels the Vietnamese hid in, as well as photos taken of the prisoners we releasted and from our camps we sent them to. No mention of the other side of the story, of course.
We walked around some more, wandered onto the main square of the city. This had a multi-story fort with a HUGE Vientamese flag on top. In the pavement in front of it, Vietnamese soldier recruits were practicing drill to a loud speaker playing what I assume would be their national anthem. We went back to the hotel and out receptionist, Nga, struck up a conversation. After talking abouteveryone's occupation, she laughed at me when I told her I was an engineer. She said here, that was a man's job. A women usually becomes a doctor or nurse, then stays home to raise the family when she gives birth. She was very curious about the US, like is this true there, tuition costs compared toVietnam, etc. She then recommended we go get massages at a ocal place down the road, an hour for $8.Who can say no to that? We were brought into small rooms with beds and a pillow. Apparently, there were more men than women who worked at this parlor, so us girls and one of the guys got male massagers. It was nice, very polite, even though they talked the whole time to each other and acted like we were torturing them into doing this haha.
Just went out to a Italian, Indian, and Vietnamese resteraunt next to our hotel. Only one person ordered vietnamese food, as our experiance with lunch was disappointing and not filling. Of course, they were out of that dish haha. The local beer was okay, had two bottles to try them. One was water, the other was alright.
Got an early morning tomorrow, off to see 1 hours of war sites with a Vietnamese veteran!
PS: The computer is in Vientamese, can't run spell check because its not in English so sorry if all the words are mispelled!And they block facebook here.... They are communists. There are communist flags, everywhere
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