#siagon

Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam

Even though the official title is Ho Chi Minh City everyone that lives there call it Saigon. There is a huge cultural difference between what I saw in Hanoi and Saigon. In Hanoi everything is about communism and Ho Chi Minh. In Siagon there is still a lot of resentment about what they call the civil war. The wealth is centralized within the controlling party and most people live on a income of $300 US/month. You have to pay to go to school and you see children on the streets selling lottery tickets to live. All the boys are required to go in the military for two years. Vietnam is really worried about China and the islands it has in the South China Sea so 60% of the drafted men go in the Navy. One of the guides told me that the Vietnam relatives in the States send 20 billion dollars into Vietnam each year.

The thing that impressed me the most was all the motorcycles. There are 7 million 150 cc motorcycles in the country. There are special lanes for the cycles but there are still many accidents with 25 people killed each day. New they cost $1650 US dollars but many go to Cambodia to buy used motorbikes. There are cars but the sales tax is 250% of the sales price so only people associated with the government have one.

There are 20 million people in Saigon and 100 million in Vietnam. There are 20 different dialects of Vietnamese spoken in the country. The main industry is farming with 2 million metric tons of rice exported every year and the country is the second largest exporter of very good coffee after Brazil.

We visited the Mekong Delta area where we saw a large fishing industry. The boats have large very bright lights attached to the boats to attract squid. If you look close at the boat photos below you will see them. The boats go out for 20 days. The delta is 3 km across.

I visited the Can Cu Vietcong tunnel area located West of Saigon. There are 200 km of tunnels spread over 80 square miles. It was the main planning aret for the Vietcong in southern Vietnam. It was used by 4000 people as a bomb shelter when the US B52 bombers attacked the area. I went into one of the tunnels and it was not a pleasant place. The lady in the video is making rice paper.

I didn’t have to go to Vietnam during the war but had many cousins and friends who did so it was interesting to visit Vietnam to see how things have evolved. There is still a very strong American influence in the country and the country is still evolving. The government has a very tight controlling grip on the country thru the military and police but the people certainly practice free capitalism. They have to be very careful about saying anything negative about the government or they will be severely punished. Real freedom comes at a cost.

In the Cu Chi Tunnels of Vietnam

She was late and burst into the hostel like a hurricane hitting the beach. Her eyes darted about wildly. She was searching for the young backpacker who signed up for her tour. There were no young backpackers in the hostel’s community room so she focused her eyes on me. 

“Did you sign up for the Cu Chi Tunnel Tour?” she asked. 

I did. I wanted to see the tunnels that allowed the Viet Cong to…