Hi All,
Coming from a pseudo communist place- West Bengal, I always had dreams of visiting a real revolutionary country. So, the explorer headed off to Vietnam last month. Ravaged by two and half decades of bloody war, Vietnam is now moving ahead for bright future. It is quite visible from interaction with people and the kind of development happening all around.
I reached Ho-Chi-Minh, the financial capital of Vietnam on a Friday night. My old friend Sarang, was there to pick me up from the airport. I was surprised, when we went to the parking place to get his bike. There was a sea of bikes moving across all directions. Ho-Chi-Minh is the place of bikes. Later I came to know that the place has 4million bikes. Mind boggling, isn't it? The density is 1:2 that means for every two people there one bike, making it highest in the world.. :0
Sarang stays in District 7, where most of the expats live. There are lot of Korean and Japanese expats in the city. Next day early morning, we started off for Sing Cafe. It located in a back packers area and conducts tour. Our plan is to visit the Mekong delta. Mekong is one of the world’s major rivers. It is the world's 12th-longest river and the 7th-longest in Asia. Its estimated length is 4,350 km and it drains an area of 795,000 sq km discharging 475 cubic km of water annually. From the Tibetan Plateau this river runs through China's Yunnan province, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.
We on-boarded a bus and off we went to Mekong. After reaching mekong, we were transferred into a ferry for the tour. The full day tour basically covers the various islands in the delta and shows the natural beauty of the place. We got glimpse of the way of living of the people there. One of the good things was the making of Rice paper. During the whole tour we were on various modes of transports like bullock cart, small boats, ferry... It was good. In some places we saw Snake Wine.. I was just taken back by seeing full snakes and scorpions inside bottle. eeewwww..The whole delta region is the habitat for various species of flora and fauna. It is beautiful. We reached home tired in the evening. In the night we went to the Central Business District to experience the night life.
Next day's target-the famous Cuchi tunnel. It is an underground network of tunnels made by the Vietnamese during the war. It stretches up to 250 sq kms, where 16000 people stayed for 10 years fighting the US forces. It is an amazing piece of architectural marvel. The tunnel also had 3 levels to survive the American heavy bombing. The whole design is tailor made for guerrilla warfare, with traps laid everywhere. (please see the pics). There were meeting rooms, medical facilities build inside them. We went in one the tunnels and crossed 200 meters inside. I was amazed to think how these people survived in these small dark tunnels for so long. After our tour of the tunnel, we were shown a documentary on it shot way back in late 60s. An old man showed the modus operandi during the war times. It was quite educating.
Next we visited the 'War Museum'. I was excited to see the writings in Bengali by commies (comedians) of my state. What I saw inside the war museum was very horrific. I saw what hate and greed can do to humanity. How we humans transform in to devils. I must say Nature's worst creation is human which not only destroys itself but also mother earth. War museum is a must visit for people who wants to see how low humanity can get... The visit might break you down and it might also raise lot of questions inside you, like it did to me.
I left Vietnam late that night, with a promise to visit it once again. Next time it will be Hanoi and the mystic Halong Bay.. Till then goodbye Vietnam.....
