We've been having a great time on this trip, but we also wanted to address what we've seen of wars that ravaged both Vietnam and Cambodia not so long ago.
In Saigon, we went to the War Remnants Museum, which houses American military vehicles, weapons, and most importantly photographs from during and after the war of the devastation in Vietnam. We didn't take pictures of the photographs because they were too disturbing, but they went a long way to illuminate the brutal realities of war.
The next day, I visited the Cu Chi tunnels, outside of Saigon. To avoid American forces during the war, the Viet Cong and the peasants would hide in an enormous underground system of tunnels that had been dug by hand. Some lived in the tunnels for years, facing malaria, and lack of air and water, not to mention food.
Here, a Vietnamese man re-enacts entering a tunnel. The entry was as wide as a tall man's foot.
The circumference of the tunnels were also extremely small, though some have been widened for Western tourists' "big bodies" (as my tour guide delicately put it).
I got the sense that the Vietnamese still take enormous pride in their resilience, even as they sustained huge losses of life, and that the Cu Chi tunnels are a symbolic of resistance.
As for me, I feel extremely fortunate to have never experienced armed war near my home. Coming to a country where the effects of war are still visible on the land and people has reinforced my opinion that war must be avoided at all costs.
MN
Wonderful post. Can't wait to hear more about it.
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