November_19_2001page1

Hello and Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

We have been in Saigon since November 13. We took a
bus from Phnom Phen, Cambodia(it only broke down
once), and although check-in at the Vietnam border was
more rigorous in that we had to go through five
checkpoints it has been wonderful. We love Saigon, and
are having a wonderful experience. After we got our
bearings the first day, we decided to hire cyclo
drivers and have them show us the city. It was a
great way to go. The first thing we did was tell them
how much we liked Ho Chi Mihn City, trying to be
politically correct and we were immediately told that
they call it Saigon, not Ho Chi Mihn. We found out
that many of the cyclo drivers used to be
professionals before the war, and were for the south
government and the Americans. They now prefer to call
the city by its old name and not Ho Chi Mihn. They
know the city inside out, and took us to the central
market where Jennifer bargained and got a new shirt,
then we had lunch at a restuarant where President
Clinton's picture was all over the wall, so we assumed
that he had eaten there also. Before lunch, we
communicated we were married, they were very excited
about this and wanted to take us to a special pagoda.
After lunch they peddled us to a the pagoda where we
did not see any other tourists. Brad's driver came in
with us and showed us all around, when we came to the
room where the statues were holding children, it
finally clicked where we were...the pagoda for
fertility. Our cyclo drivers have assured us that
now that we have been there, in two years we will have
one boy and one girl!

After that we had a coke then they took us to the main
attraction in Saigon, the War Remnants Museum. It was
very emotional for us to go there. The photographs in
each of the 4 buildings are absolutely stunning! The
captions that go with the photos were a little bit
hard for us to swallow, as they were written from a
North Vietnmese perspective. It does not put the
American soliders in very good light, but it is there
perspective of the war, and we understand that. The
most difficult photos were of the deformed children
from the use of Agent Orange. They also depicted
American soldiers in trenches, taking prisoners, and
bombing villages. There was also sections dedicated
to the photojournalists that took the pictures and
died during the war. some of the photos were of the
last role of film and the last frame that the they
shot before they died. It was very powerful. There
was a hole room dedicated to the protests during the
war. All of the pictures were very moving, we stayed
there for the whole afternoon and after we were
emotionally drained and went back to our room and
slept.

The next day we decided to go to the Cu Chi Tunnels,
which was an amazing experience to due the fact that
our guide was a fighter for the South during the war
and an English interperter for the U.S. army. He was
so pleased to see Brad and I here, and shared some of
his personal experiences with us. He said, "On April
30, 1975 at 11:00 a.m., I was on a battleship." He
was hoping that an American plane would come and take
him and his family to America. He said some of his
friends were lucky, and got to go, but not him. He
was sent to re-education and then to live as a farmer
in a small village. He said that if he "kept his
mouth shut" then in three years he was able to
petition the government to maybe move where he wanted,
but he never thought he would be able to move back to
the city. He was not allowed to speak english for 23
years, otherwise he would be seen as a western
sympathiser. He said that the ten years after the war
were really bad, but in 1985 the free trade agreement
was signed, and in 1995 he was able to come back to
Saigon and work. He is a guide with a tourist
company, and now has to speak english everyday. He is
an amazing man with an amazing spirit!
The tunnels themselves were fascinating. Our guide
explained that they were used by the guerilla forces
who were from the villages in the south and funded by
the North. It was very difficut for the Americans to
know who to trust and who not to trust. We were here
trying to liberate the south, but then there were
these pockets of villages that were supporting the
guerillas.

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