We have been in Ho Chi Minh City for a few days now and will be leaving for Hoi An (a colonial town in the middle of the country). Today and yesterday we hit up most of the main attractions of the city including the Independence Palace, War Remnants museum, and Cu Chi tunnels.
The Independence Palace was pretty cool, but it was not nearly as interesting as the War Remnants museum. The War Remnants museum is basically a testament to all the terrible and atrocious things we did during the Vietnam War. Obviously, like all history, it needed to be taken with a grain of salt, however it was captivating to see propaganda from the other side of the war. There is some sort of saying that goes "history books are written by the victors," but it's amazing how much seemed to be left out of our textbooks in high school. One of the more shocking exhibits there was an entire room dedicated to victims of Agent Orange and Dioxin. It seemed to be more of a hall of horrors than anything. I don't mean to downplay the affects of Agent Orange, as it has ruined thousands of people's live, but many of the deformities in the exhibit were diseases and disabilities that happen commonly Agent Orange or not. They also had some captured American tanks and jet planes which were pretty awesome to see along side the communist tanks.
The Cu Chi tunnels are one of the maze of tunnels the Viet Cong used during the war (to battle against the war-mongering Lyndon Johnson, his war of American aggression, and his army of "American devil soldiers") and we had the pleasure of visiting them today. Honestly, these tunnels were not meant for American-sized people and it was a pretty tight squeeze not to mention the heat, humidity and insects that were awaiting inside. In fact, the tunnels were designed to keep us broad-shouldered Americans from sneaking into their base. Pretty much we realized we would not have lasted very long in the Vietnam War. Additionally, Danny and I got to shoot a rifle which was pretty sweet and a
Now for the most important part of the blog: what we have eaten so far! We have had Pho (noodle soup) for about 3-4 meals including breakfast this morning. Considering we have only been for about 6 meals that's a lot of soup. I'm not going to lie, Quangs is pretty good, but they do tend to drop an entire chicken liver in the soup for you here (at least I think it's chicken liver). The most interesting thing we have eaten so far is probably crocodile spring rolls, which unsurprisingly tasted like chicken. Danny had hamburger helper, but in his defense he did think he was ordering soup.
We will update more once we get into Hoi An or Hanoi (probably anywhere between 3-6 days from now). Enjoy the pictures below.
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| Danny in the Cu Chi tunnels, (finally a perk to being not so tall). |
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| Due to the exchange rate, Gabe makes it rain dongs. We are now all millionaires! |
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| Gabe finding his communist roots. |
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| In front of the Independence Palace. |
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| "You shall not pass!" |
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