Ho Chi Minh City D2 — Cu Chi Tunnel
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- Doha — Ho Chi Minh city Qatar Airways QR974 Flight Report / Vietnam arrival
- Ho Chi Minh City D1 — downtown Saigon
Recommended song for this article: Giai phong Mien Nam (Liberate the South), national anthem of the Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam, basically the Viet Cong
To be honest, all my stays in IHG hotels in the past were free nights gifted by my Chase IHG credit card. But a trip planned by Wiew wouldn’t go without comfortable hotels and complimentary breakfasts. I had little experience eating breakfast buffets at hotels during my own travels, so I was completely blown away by the variety of foods InterContinental’s breakfast had to offer — everything ranging from typical pastries and fruits to pho, laksa noodles, dimsum, fried rice, and even a whole coconut, just to name a few. What an eye-opening experience. Perhaps I should try to travel Wiew-style a bit more in the future?
Around 8am, the van for our half-day tour to Cu Chi Tunnel, Viet Cong’s headquarter, was waiting outside our hotel. Cu Chi Tunnel is a complicated 120km network of underground tunnels located roughly 50km from Saigon, built by Viet Cong during the war as a base to launch attacks to the South Vietnamese capital.
Currently only two parts of the tunnels are open to tourists: the Ben Dinh Tunnel (closer to Saigon and visited more often) and the Ben Duoc Tunnel (farther away, almost on the border with Tay Ninh Province). When I booked this trip through a local travel agency online, I made sure to book the Ben duoc tour to avoid the crowds, and to visit a memorial temple by the site. This later proved to be a wise decision. (The tours could be easily booked via Tripadvisor or Viator, but I booked directly from the agency and payed cash directly to the guide.)
In the van were our tour guide Hong, an Indian lady, an Italian dude and a local Vietnamese couple. After Hong learned we came from Taiwan, we chatted briefly about East Asian politics — what an icebreaker topic.
“As a Vietnamese, do you hate the Americans or the Chinese more?”
“Definitely the Chinese. We fought against them for thousands of years, and even to this day, they are trying to claim our Hoang Sa and Truong Sa.”
Hong, seemingly of southern origin, spoke very fluent English. In addition to introducing the history of the Vietnam War, he also implicitly complained about the current Vietnamese government for its lack of efficiency and freedom of speech. Nearly half a century after reunification, north-south divide still exists in Vietnam to this day. Perhaps some people from the South still remember the time their city was called Saigon.
The 2hr drive gave us a chance to see how the suburb of Ho Chi Minh City looked like. We also briefly stopped at an egg shell pottery factory where agent orange victims made and sell their artwork.
Like other war-related sites we visited on the first day, old tanks, helicopters and planes could be seen at the entrance of Cu Chi Tunnel.
Cu Chi Tunnel was more than a military base for guerilla fighters to launch attacks. Hong explained to us how Viet Cong fighters lived in absolute darkness for years, cooking, eating and sleeping within the tunnels, even securing water source from the river inside the tunnel.
Everyone tried going through the tiny hole to get the cliche photo on the Cu Chi tour. These tunnels were purposely designed to only fit a Vietnamese, not an overweight American (For visitors who couldn’t quite fit the hole, like Wiew, there was also a bigger one aside.)
We went down the tunnels from 3 different entrances. It’s indeed tough to move our bodies within the tunnel even for a short guy like myself, but even more so for American soldiers and Wiew, who got several bruises on the way. And keep in mind that the tunnels had been lit up and cemented for tourism purpose — staying inside the tunnels in absolute darkness for years had to be a completely different game. On our way underground, there were several rooms displaying scenes from the war period — dining rooms, kitchens, map rooms and makeshift hospitals, one showing the red-and-blue flag of the Revolutionary South Vietnamese government, the Viet Cong.
After having some tapioca (cassasva) for dessert, which tasted unexpectedly sweet and delicious, Hong showed us different types of traps used in the area, many of which were punji sticks meant to badly injure a solder, instead of killing him, in order to drain more resources from the enemy. Hong even tried to step on the trap momentarily to show how it was activated, which made our palms wet with sweat already. I could imagine it would be a really, really unpleasant day to fall inside.
We next walked to Ben Duoc Memorial Temple, a huge temple built by the communist party in 1993. I personally felt quite curious about this place, and checked with the travel agent in advance to make sure its inclusion in our tour.
“This really should not be a temple to worship Ho Chi Minh himself, but to all the fallen soldiers during the war,” whispered Hong.
In front of us was the absurd scene of the supreme leader of a communist party, supposedly firm atheists, worshiped by people with incense sticks. In fact, Ho Chi Minh himself vehemently prohibited places to be name after himself when he was alive (guess which place is named after him now?), let alone being elevated to some deity status. However, worship is to serve the alive instead of the dead. Ho couldn’t stop the construction of his magnificent mausoleum in Hanoi, his crystal sarcophagus, and this temple dedicated to himself.
Names of the fallen soldiers from the war were written all over on the wall, most of whom were born in the south. The war lasted for the entire 3 decades and brought incurable wounds to many families. Those who fought for the north had their names written here for people to remember, while those who fought for the other side were reduced to statistical numbers.
The back of the temple had a series of interesting paintings about Vietnam’s modern history, including notable events like life under the Nguyen Dynasty, Thich Quang Duc’s self-immolation in 1963, and the “liberation” of Saigon when the communist tanks ran over the gate of the Presidential Palace.
Finally, as an optional part of the tour, we went to a shooting range where visitors could try shooting various weapons. I personally found it questionable (and maybe unethical) to include shooting as part of the tour to Cu Chi. Granted, it was a money spinner for local people in a still-impoverish country (bullets here were not cheap), but having visitors shoot for fun in a place of tremendous suffering quite recently didn’t feel fitting in an educational experience. It’s at best shallow, and at worst disrespectful.
Anyway, everyone else in our group was excited to try, and Wiew also looked forward to the opportunity to shoot an AK47. “Shall I shoot as well?” I asked myself repeatedly. I supposed such site was a way to help local economy, and the sound of gunfire create immersive experience for visitors to feel the fear and agony in the battlefield. At the end, I shared 10 AK47 shots with Wiew. This was the first time I fired a rifle. The piercing sounds and bullet cartridges left around my feet both gave me chills.
I had the bread and water the travel agency provided and quickly fell asleep.
We asked the guide to drop us at Gia Long Palace, now housing the Museum of Ho Chi Minh City. This palace was where Ngo Dinh Diem spent his final year of presidency. Today Ngo’s presence is no way to be found, and the place is full of people taking wedding photos.
Here I saw the first and only South Vietnamese flag in this trip. Bank notes from South Vietnam were also on display.
There was also a section of the museum exhibiting artifacts of the Chinese Vietnamese, many of whom lived in Cholon (lit: rever bank), located in today’s District 5 of Ho Chi Minh City. In 1963, after Gia Long Palace was surrounded by the coup army, Ngo Dinh Diem and his brother fled the palace from an underground tunnel to Cholon, where they were eventually arrested and executed. Chinese Vietnamese, many of whom were businessmen who supported Ngo’s government, was persecuted by the communist regime after 1975 as bourgeois perpetrators (I personally know someone whose parents fled Vietnam during this period.) Wiew and I planned to visit Cholon the next day to appreciate such history.
From Gia Long palace, it was only a short walk to the famous Central Post Office of Ho Chi Minh City. Wiew bought some postcards here, while I didn’t find any satisfied.
After a brief rest in our hotel, we hopped on a Uber to the famous pink cathedral. Wiew researched on Instagram in advance, so we went to the cafe right across the street for the best view on its balcony. The Cathedral was painted pink around a century after its completion, and became a majestic must-see for influencers today. A number of Korean travelers were here taking photo as well.
It was too late to visit the interior of the cathedral, so we walked around in the nearby Tan Dinh Market. This marketplace felt a lot less touristy than Ben Thanh Market, the one we visited on the previous day. It sold souvenirs and foods, but also goods catering to local people as well. Many vendors were barefoot in the market, and didn’t bother to sell their products desperately to tourists, like in Ben Thanh.
From here we walked for a while to the famous Pho Hoa Pasteur restaurant, which Wiew found to be the top pho place in Ho Chi Minh City. As we were outside the central downtown area, streets here really made Ho Chi Minh city’s garbage disposal problem obvious — it’s a city with more than 10 million people, but still lacks an official recycling system. While the buildings and people all looked nice, it’s hard to overlook piles of trash as we walked, especially after seeing literally discarded syringe needles on the street the previous night.
The pho restaurant seemed to be well known among tourists, as it provided air-conditioning, wi-fi and English menus. The pho came with tons of vegetables for customers to dip in the soup. I also ordered fried dough sticks — not the best combination of food I’ve had (I like fried dough sticks dipped in soymilk much better).
The road here seemed to be named “Pasteur” because of the institute of infectious disease across the street.
We planned to spend the rest of the night in Pham Ngu Lao Street. This walking street was possibly the most famous tourist attraction in Ho chi Minh City, which I had heard of more than a decade ago. It seemed to be the focal point of Saigon’s backpacking culture — bars, hostels, cheap food, chill vibe and friendly tourists — all typical imaginations one would have for Southeast Asia.
Wiew first went to buy banh mi for our supper from the best-reviewed Banh Mi place in Ho Chi Minh City. Unfortunately, such delicacy contained not only French foie gras sauce (which I would accept), but also mayonnaise, which of course, ruined everything. So Wiew got to have two banh mis for supper later.
The street was full of English signs, neon lights, pop songs, and local people dressing in traditional-looking costumes to match Westerners’ imagination of Southeast Asia. We walked back and forth around the walking street in the area, which looked not too different from my imagination, but for some reason not a place we fit in very well. To summarize my 3 trips to Southeast Asia so far, I haven’t really grasped why everyone in travel forums is so hyped about this region, to the point that places on the “banana trail”: Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Bali, Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, and Luang Prabang became the meccas of backpackers. Maybe I just don’t relate because I drink very little and have absolutely no interest in parties. Or maybe I couldn’t put stress aside during my travels to enjoy these places like when I freshly graduated.
So we didn’t stay there for long, but went to a dessert place on the next block to have this coconut ice cream. It creatively used empty coconut as the bowl, and provided coconut juice with another cup. Such places reflect more on local people’s everyday lives, and better fit my travel style.
With a sharp sense of direction, Wiew walked us back to the hotel without even looking at the map once. He apparently lacks the talent to get lost, which I thankfully have. We saw the Japanese-funded Ho Chi Minh City metro station again, showing the flags of Vietnam and Japan side by side — this station would be an important interchange between several lines after its completion in 2024.
We visited Takashimaya, another department store on our way. Seeing this “caution” sign with yellow and red color scheme made me wonder is it really a coincidence????
The Japanese-style supermarket in Takashimaya bears much resemblance with the ones in Taipei. As someone who spent much time in department stores in my childhood, when I saw families shopping together in the supermarket, I couldn’t help but wonder how the lives of children from middle-class families in Ho Chi Ming City were like, the generation growing up under capitalism in a nominally socialist country. Do they experience childhood similar to mine?
Perhaps jet leg and exhaustion kicked in again, I had many thoughts at night about the reason why I traveled and continue to do so. Now that we’ve finished most of the typical sites in Ho Chi Minh City, the next day, we would visit Cholon to discover a side of Saigon few tourists witness.
