Ho Chi Minh City to Hoi An
We were up early doing a final packing and soon headed to breakfast. After breakfast we returned to our room and caught up on the blog and journals. Our bags were out and ready for pick up at 0700 and before 0800 we were in the lobby ready to board the bus.
After a short drive we arrived at the War Remnants Museum. The War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City first opened to the public in 1975. Once known as the ‘Museum of American War Crimes’, it's a reminder of the long and brutal Vietnam War. There's a helicopter with rocket launchers, a tank, a fighter plane, a single-seater attack aircraft. You can also see a conventional bomb that weighs at 6,800kg.
Some of the main exhibits include the following: displays showing the protests and popular support for peace around the world, features on French and American war crimes, a documentary on the aftereffects of Agent Orange (there was no mention of the effects Agent Orange had on the US Troops), photos from the collection of Japanese photographer Ishikawa Bunyo, and tiger cages like those used by the French and South Vietnamese to torture political prisoners.
I was taken in by the section on the photo journalist and their work during the Vietnam War.
Wither one was a supporter or a protester of the US involvement, this is a museum well worth ones time, a somber reminder of a time in our history. It was a common consensus among our group more time could have been spent there.
We were back on the bus for about a two hour ride to the Cu Chi Tunnels.
In order to combat better-supplied American and South Vietnamese forces during the Vietnam War, Communist guerrilla troops known as Viet Cong (VC) dug tens of thousands of miles of tunnels, including an extensive network running underneath the Cu Chi district northwest of Saigon. Soldiers used these underground routes to house troops, transport communications and supplies, lay booby traps and mount surprise attacks, after which they could disappear underground to safety. To combat these guerrilla tactics, U.S. and South Vietnamese forces trained soldiers known as “tunnel rats” to navigate the tunnels in order to detect booby traps and enemy troop presence. Now part of a Vietnam War memorial park in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), the Cu Chi tunnels have become a popular tourist attraction.
Communist forces began digging a network of tunnels under the jungle terrain of South Vietnam in the late 1940s, during their war of independence from French colonial authority. Tunnels were often dug by hand, only a short distance at a time. As the United States increasingly escalated its military presence in Vietnam in support of a non-Communist regime in South Vietnam beginning in the early 1960s, North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops gradually expanded the tunnels. At its peak during the Vietnam War, the network of tunnels in the Cu Chi district linked VC support bases over a distance of some 250 kilometers, from the outskirts of Saigon all the way to the Cambodian border. We were told this was the terminus of the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
This is a well done area providing great interpretation of the tunnels.
We were back on the bus headed to our lunch stop. Lunch was at a riverside restaurant where we dined in a pavilion next to a waterway. The meal was excellent, Spring rolls, Fish, Pork, rice, calamari, soft shell crab, pineapple for dessert. This was an excellent meal in a most wonderful setting.
We were quickly back on the bus headed to the the airport for a flight to Da Nang. Security is hit and miss on what is required, seems to depend on the screener. We have been told our bus rides are a bit longer as it is getting close to the New Year which brings more people out and about.
Landing in Da Nang, we gather and get on a bus for about an hour drive to our lodging, The Sunrise Premium Resort and Spa. We get our room key and make a quick stop at the room to drop our carryon before heading for dinner. Will add some pictures of the room tomorrow as it is rather nice and daylight will highlight the room.
We are offered a choice of three location for dining this evening. We chose the local Asian Option and it did not disappoint. We enjoyed a large sharing platter of appetizers, Vietnamese Pancake, spring rolls, wonton, with a nice chili sauce for dipping. I had a spicy shrimp in a spicy chili sauce and Lynn had shrimp in coconut milk. For dessert we had a mango rice pudding and ginger dumplings. All was excellent.
Back to the room to settle in for the night. All this bus riding is making me tired.
No comments:
Post a Comment