Saigon

On August 13th we finally arrived in Saigon. I had no idea of what to expect as the only real images I had in my head about Saigon were from the musical "Miss Saigon", so you can imagine my surprise to find that there were no helicoptors landing on shanties or people dancing around Ho Chi Mihn statues (although there were plenty of statues of "Uncle Ho"...as the people like to refer to him)....Saigon is a really cool place...not as chaotic as Hanoi (maybe because it is a bit more spread out.) but with the same tree-lined streets (albeit wider streets) and many of the same bits of charm as Hanoi (like the french-colonial buildings)...

My mom, decided that we needed to end our trip with a bang, so she booked us at The Majestic, which is one of the best hotels in Saigon (It's 80 years old this year!!) located right on the Saigon river. For some reason, the hotel decided to bump us from a plain old double room to a Suite (strangely we got upgraded at almost every hotel we stayed at...my mom thinks its cuz we are Americans and they want more Americans to come to their country, so by upgrading us, we will tell all of our friends...)Anyhow, the room was spectacular as was the hotel. But, we never spend much time in our hotel rooms because traveling with my mother is ... go go go!!!

So right after checking in, we immediatly booked a tour to the Chu Chi Tunnels...And our hotel being ever so obliging...hooked us up with a tour guide who was a former member of the VC, who had originally fought in the Central Highlands, but during the last year of the American/Vietnam war, was transferred to these tunnels....so he really knew his stuff. I imagine this experience would be comparable to get a tour with a guy who stormed Normandy or some such thing.

This man was able to explain in great detail how the various booby traps were made and used against the Americans, markers he would leave so his fellow VC would not accidentally set off the traps, as well as what it was like to live underground for a year (they couldn't come out during the day because the light hurt their eyes). The whole thing was chilling as well as educational. Then we went thru the caves...or I went thru the caves (my mom had a bout of claustrophobia and chickened out at the last moment...I kind of wished I had while walking thru as they were really small...and my daypack kept getting stuck.) I don't know how these people did it..even now, my mom and I will occasionally look at each other and say..."those people had to be crazy, that is the only way to explain how anyone could have lived like a mole for so long." I am just really happy that neither of us had to stay down there for very long...

And when we came out, we found ourselves in the midst of a typhoon...torrential downpours, winds, mud, flooding...the whole she-bang...but our guide laughed it off and said it was part of life in the jungle, as my mom and I dove into the car and headed back to our hotel.