Mekong Delta

In Ho Chi Minh City, otherwise known as Saigon, I wanted to see how it had fared since the war and how Americans were perceived. I had grown up with the war on TV and it was such a part of my life and childhood that I wanted to know more about it from a different perspective. So I joined two tours in Southern Vietnam. First I went to see the Cu Chi Tunnels and the Caodai Temple and then I went to the Mekong Delta.

The Cu Chi Tunnels were built by the Viet Cong in South Vietnam during the war. The tunnels honeycombed Vietnam and many Viet Cong soldiers lived in them at least part of the time during the Vietnam war. Most of the tunnels were less than 2 feet tall. The VC never had enough food so the holes to go into them were very tiny and the soldiers crawled on their bellies to get from one room to another.

When we first arrived at the tunnels we were shown a Communist propaganda movie from about 1967. It told us about the sweet Viet Cong and their families and the American devils and their bombings. They said that morale was always high among the VC. It also told about their young heroes, and the feats that they had accomplished. We then went through a walk in the woods to see the many traps they had for killing the Americans. I won't say more than it was very gruesome.

Our guide was a Vietnamese man who had worked in communications with the Americans. The Communists sent him to a re-education camp after the war where he was tortured for three months and lost the use of three fingers on his left hand through electric shock. He was unable to work for many years because of his support for the Americans during the war and still has difficulties getting enough work even now, almost forty years later. Yet he appeared to talk with us totally freely about his life and attitude towards the Communists. Things were better now, people could own property and could speak freely.

We also went to see the Caodai Temple which is the most colorful church/temple I have ever seen. It is a religion that developed in Southern Vietnam in 1923 and takes a little bit of all of the major religions. Everyone wears white when they go to the temple. Church officials wear blue, gold, and maybe red colors as well.

A number of our guides on the Mekong Delta Tour talked about how happy all of the Vietnamese were. It almost sounded like a mantra or something that they were supposed to say. After the Communists took control in 1975 all businesses became government owned. People had no motivation to work hard at the government's businesses. Everyone made the same amount of money no matter how hard they worked. So businesses became privatized perhaps around1998 or so.

In the cities we saw many picturesque female vendors with poles on their shoulders with baskets of fruits at each end and cone shaped leaf hats. However picturesque they were to photograph they were exceedingly poor. In a controversial move the government banned these vendors saying that it was old fashioned. Almost everyone buys all kinds of food and objects from them even if they are in favor of the ban. These women would be close to starving or their children would not go to school without the money from their sales. The picture of the Vendor Restaurant on the right shows a pole vendor who has set up a typical restaurant on the sidewalk. On the right is a little stove. She and her clients sit on tiny stools and she prepares and cooks right from her baskets.

The Mekong Delta tour was beautiful. We took boats and saw floating villages, tropical plants, rice paddies, and all kinds of boats. I asked one of the guides if people were really happy like all of the other guides claimed. He said no, he didn't think so, but he wouldn't elaborate particularly beyond that people were poor.
Throughout Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand I ate more than my share of the crabs, fish, shrimp, and noodle soup. The food was wonderful. In Saigon I supported the local tailors and got wonderful new clothes to fit, a manicure, my teeth cleaned (for $20!), and a fantastic massage before flying off to Sweden. I can hardly wait to go back to Thailand and Vietnam. People were very friendly, the countryside incredible, and the food fantastic.

Unfortunately, I had no time to paint in Vietnam, but I have many photographs for inspiration. However I did have time to read and I would recommend the book, When Heaven and Earth Changed Places for an incredible inside view of the Vietnam/French/American wars from a Vietnamese girl's view.