The City With Three Names

Ho Chi Minh City, Motorcycle City or Siagon this is my final major city of Vietnam, arriving in the low digits of morning I was feeling slightly disorientated from the sleeper bus, stepping onto an urban green of gardens and algae covered lakes there were lots of early risers doing very peculiar exercises, if you want to try it basically swing your arms infront of you then behind and briskly walking in circles... They seem to do this all over Asia, must be something in the water. While in Saigon we visited The Palace, Markets and The Sheraton Hotel Skybar; sat down, took a few pictures of the view, got handed a menu, looked at the drink prices annnnd quickly vacated. I don't think I am ever going to get used to crossing the road round here, when a bike is fast approaching your vicinity do you; A. stop dead like a rabbit in headlights, B. backtrack to make room, or C. just keep walking as if its not there. I think the latter applies to the vast majority of locals, so when in Rome I guess.

We went to the War Remnants Museum that had ex-US military tanks and aircraft outside it. Inside was three stories worth of horrific images, some showed entire families seared beyond all recognition by napalm, Vietnamese soldiers being dragged half dead by US tanks. Although it has to be said this Museum is completely bias against America and says nothing of Vietnamese darker side during the war, you cannot argue with the photos. I can however appreciate the shift in mindset of an American soldier who has seen his friends die next to him, I think if you were in the thick of a battle you would do things you never thought yourself capable.

But what hit me hardest was the realisation that a group of high ranking Americans, away from the grit and reality of war had used Vietnam as a proving ground, essentially a means to test experimental American weaponry on an entire population. The worst of these experiments was Agent Orange, these were also the most disturbing images. The Americans had a good idea of what the chemical would do and yet they spayed it by the plane-load, ensuring not only a slow painful death to anyone who was exposed but also that a new generation would be born mutilated and deformed. The Vietnamese people so heavily reliant on agriculture had to pick up the pieces and make do with their poisoned land long after the war had ended and the troops had gone home. It also goes without saying that America seemed to do what it liked in Asia during this period, also bombed neighbouring Laos and Cambodia. OK so rant over, and these are more than likely things you already know but it does change your perspective when your here, exposed daily to the people on the street with the tell tell misshaped limbs. Seeing the living consequences and not just reading about it from history books.