Phu My

Phu My is 60 kilometers outside of Saigon, or Ho Chi Minh City, as it’s known today. We couldn’t dock in Saigon because the channel was too narrow and shallow so we had to dock at Phu My. We had chosen to take a trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels today so we didn’t get to see Saigon at all. The tunnels were about 2½ hours away from the port so we saw a bit of the South Vietnam villages and countryside. What a different place South Vietnam is from North Vietnam. We were traveling through the Mekong Delta, which was a familiar name to me from the late 60’s and early 70’s. Luckily the roads were in good shape so the ride was pretty smooth. But what was lining the road was anything but pretty.
Garbage was strewn everywhere, as if trash can technology had not yet reached South Vietnam. Everything seemed dirty; there were no sidewalks, just dirt between the road and the buildings. Storefronts had no doors; they had canopies or awnings propped up with bamboo. Many of the buildings were thatched huts and often there was a ditch between the road and dirt “sidewalk” with wood planks to walk across to reach the shop. Many of the houses had sagging roofs held up by poles, but I’m almost certain they were inhabited as I could see hammocks and chairs and an occasional TV inside.
As we drove along we saw blocks and blocks of squalor and then suddenly a pristine temple or pagoda or a new 5-story apartment building would appear and then back again to squalor. Vacant lots, overgrown lots, piles of bricks, piles of coal, warehouses, herds of water buffalo, manufacturing plants, restaurants, repair shops, bridal shops, and people, always masses of people, all shared the village streets. Once again motor scooters were the main means of transportation and horns honked continuously, warning the scooters to move aside for the buses and trucks. Between the villages were rice paddies with people in coolie hats slaving away. It was exactly the Vietnam I have envisioned for 40 years.
When we got to the Cu Chi Tunnels, we watched a video that had been made back in the 60’s and here is the story we got: When the bad Americans came to kill the innocent Vietnamese people, the Vietnamese had to dig tunnels so as not to be seen because those awful Americans wanted to kill them. They could only come out at night to get information and they were very hungry because all they had to eat was tapioca. Here is a young Vietnamese girl who had to fight back against those murderous Americans; see her with her AK47, she alone killed 160 terrible Americans.
That went on for about 15 minutes and most of us in the group came away with a pretty bad taste in our mouth about that film. Even before we went in our guide had said he thought many of us would walk out about 5 minutes into it, but I don’t think anyone did.
We were taken on a guided tour through the jungle where they had dug these tunnels. We got to walk through a tunnel which was about 4 feet high and 3 feet wide. It was excruciating. We saw bomb craters and the bunkers where they cooked and held meetings. The most gruesome thing we saw was a display of traps that they set for the Americans. Most of the traps consisted of spikes made from shell casings. The spikes were put into the ground in a hole and then the hole was covered with leaves. When a GI stepped on it he fell into the hole and onto the spikes. Pain shot through my body just looking at them. There were some ingenious configurations of spikes designed to injure every part of the body. It was horrifying.
There was a National Security Practice Range adjacent to this park/museum where guests could buy ammunition and shoot AK47s. The addition of the gunshots to the war displays gave the whole tour an eerie atmosphere.
After the tour we went to a Vietnamese restaurant for lunch, just what I did NOT want to do. After seeing how dirty everything seemed I was very reluctant to put anything in my mouth. The restaurant where we stopped couldn’t be seen from the main road and when I saw it I have to say that it looked very nice. There was a little bridge over a stream leading to the outdoor restaurant and they had the tables beautifully set. The menu was already decided for us and they served the food family style. I did eat a little bit of the vegetables and a piece of fried tofu and what I had was good, and the beer was delicious.
Our guide asked us if we wanted to make an unscheduled stop before our long ride back to Phu My and we said we did, so he took us to the Handicapped Handicraft market!! It was a huge warehouse where 60-75 “handicapped” people were sitting at tables making some of the most beautiful things I saw in Vietnam. They were working with wood and making bowls and trays and pictures and wine holders and boxes and jewelry of inlaid eggshells, mother of pearl and marble. They didn’t look handicapped at all; they looked like artists. I don’t know if we were supposed to feel sorry for them, but I didn’t; I almost envied them being able to sit and create such beautiful things all day.
That was our day in the Mekong Delta. My pedometer said we had walked only 2.4 miles from 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM but when we got back to the ship we were exhausted. Then we got the bad news that we had to set our clocks forward an hour last night so we had a very mellow evening.
Today we’re sailing to Singapore for 2 days. We have only one tour planned and it’s a Night Safari so we have two full days to explore on our own and I’m very excited.