On my first day in Saigon i explored the city, the re-unification palace, war remnants museum, various parks and pagodas. The War Remnants museum was a superb if graphic and depressing. Outside were some planes, vehicles, tanks and equipment used in the war. Inside there were loads of displays of photos from the war with written explanations as well. I spent 2 hours looking at photos after photo of Americans G.I.'s committing war crimes, of casualties and corpses, of victims of bombs, napalm and agent orange, of the horrendous conditions of the war and generally of death, destruction and suffering. It also reinforced to me how pointless the war was. To top it off next door was a mock of of the Vietnamese prison and interrogation facility that existed on the Phu Quoc island. That had vivid explanations of the torture techniques used on the Vietcong there, as well as more photo's of victems (of living and the dead). I continued the war theme with a trip to the Cu Chi tunnels, this was one of the main things i wanted to see while i was out there. The complex of tunnels spread over 250 km and are now a big tourist attraction. I learned about there history and structure which was interesting. We were shown the air holes and secret enterances to the tunnels whioch we would have missed if we weren't shown them as they were very well camoflagued. We were then allowed into a loop of the tunnels which was about 100 meters long and only involved the top tier of the tunnels. We were told they had stopped sending people to the lower levels as the lack of air and the tough going meant that a few peopl ehad died of heart attacks down there. They are also filled with poisonus snakes that the Americans put there to kill the vietcong in the tunnels. The strech of tunnel we were allowed in had been 'made more confortable' for tourists (for example there were regular emergency exits) but was still very small and hard going, far more so then the Vin Moc. I either had to squat walk which was painful or crawl - which was painful - and i was happy to get out. A large proportion of the tunnel is still in tact but there are still loads of booby traps so obviously you wouldn't have wanted to go down there!!!. The trip finished off at the firing range where people could shoot AK's, M 16,s and a range of other rifles and machine guns.
The next day i left HCMC for a 3 day trip of the Mekong Delta. It was as i expected, strictly regimented with not a lot of time to linger but we got to see coconut candy workshops, noodle makers, rice makers, crocdile farms, and had a few boat rided up the tributaries so I saw a lot more than i would have if I had tried to do the delta on my own. Instead of going back to HCMC at the end i got the boat to Phom Penh. It was a long journey battling up the Mekong but it was a nice change from the bus.
I've spent 3 days in Phom Penh. On the first day i went to Tuol Sleng prison (S-21) which was once a secondary school (much like Forest!!) before the Kymer Rouge turned it into a interrogation center/ prison where thousands were either torutured to death or sent away to be executed. When it was finally liberated there were only 7 survivors out of the orignal 20,000 inmates. AS you can imagine it was not a cheery place but was not as bad as i thought. there were displays, photo's and other information that showed what went on there and more generally about the Kymer rouge. I spent the next day walking round the city visiting the main attractions, wat's, the palace etc. Today I rented a bike and cycled out to the killing fields which oddly enough wasn't a water park. IT was where the inmated of S-21 and other areas were taken to be executed. They were blind folded, made to kneel down then a guard would hit them on the back of the neck with a hoe or another blunt instrument, then their throats were slit and they were thown into mass graves. They exhumed just under 9,000 bodies and the area now just looks like it's covered in bomb craters. Tomorrow i'm off to Siem Reap to do Ankor wat - no prisons!!!
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