WanderLust: Time Travel: My Vietnamese Adventure

I've got to stop doing depressing and crazy things while on holiday. Vacations are a time to relax and take it easy after all. While in Vietnam over the December 2010 / January 2011 holidays, we squished ourselves through the Cu Chi Tunnels and went to a war museum in Ho Chi city. After visiting Checkpoint Charlie and the Jewish Museum in Berlin a few years ago, and going to the Jewish Museum in Cape Town a while later, I thought I had seen my fair share of human pain and misery. I definitely wouldn't be able to handle going to Auschwitz or Dachau. Just like the Jewish Museums, the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City was dispiriting, distressing and bleak.

Old tanks and Cessna fighter bombers keep vigil in the area just outside of the museum. Inside, horror awaits. Graphic photos display the after effects of Agent Orange, chemical defoilant sprays and dropping napalm or phosphorous bombs on people. There is also disturbing imagery of the My Lai massacre. War is horrific, and it is usually the innocent - women, children and the elderly - who suffer because of it. Why do we keep doing these things to ourselves? Why do we keep hurting each other? I wonder when we will learn... Or if we ever will...

The photo below, depicting a man being dragged by a US tank, gripped at my heart. It seems wrong to frame something as disturbing and horrific as this. I thought about the photographer, too. What must it have felt like to be that person, watching a Vietnamese man being tortured in such a crude way? This is exactly the reason why I could never be a photojournalist.

These next two photos were just as disturbing. Thankfully they weren't framed.

Sure, grenade launchers and shot guns look cool, and to some extent they've been glorified in action films. But imagine someone pointing one at you, or a bullet tearing through your flesh. Or even worse, watching someone you love being killed, incapable of stopping it.

I thought this sculpture, made from bomb fragments, was quite interesting. I like the meaning it conveys: that something good or beautiful can be born out of suffering and misery.

Jessica and Clinton were waiting for me outside. You can see by the expressions on their faces that we all looked and felt bleak.

Our next stop for our city tour was the Reunification Palace, which was the home and workplace of former President Ngô Đình Diệm, who ruled South Vietnam during the Vietnamese War. We didn't think it was anything special, and I would suggest that tourists give it a miss, but as it was one of the landmarks of the city, off we went. The first photo perfectly sums up how we felt: bored, but feigning interest.

Later, we went to the Saigon Notre-Dame Basilica.

We also visited stunning temples and, to end off the city tour, we experienced the rush and madness of China Town.

A few days earlier, on 27 December, we went to the Cu Chi Tunnels, near the Vietnamese and Cambodian border. Before reaching the war memorial park, we stopped at an interesting Caodaist temple. Cao Dai, which means 'Kingdom of Heaven', is a relatively new and monotheistic religion that was established in southern Vietnam in 1926. Interestingly, Caodaiists worship the Mother Buddha as well as God the Father. The Divine Eye, which reminded us of the Eye of Providence, actually depicts God. Today, about 2,2 million people in Vietnam practice this religion.

Here, Jess is holding up a dollar bill to show the similarity between the two eyes.

After a vegetarian tofu lunch, we arrived at the tunnels.

Eek! Watch your step. There are traps everywhere.

In he goes...

Vietnamese people are tiny and so, the tunnels that the Vietcong dug were similarly small. I get claustrophobic every time I look at these photos.

Jessica went all the way through the tunnels, even when it got super tight and extra small. She did this because she is a crazy person. Clinton and I were too hot, humid and creeped out to go that extra mile underground.

After crawling around in the tiny claustrophobic tunnels, it was time to pick our weapon of choice. I opted for the classic Automatic Kalashnikov, aka the AK47, and shot ten rounds. Clinton and Jessica chose M16s. It was much louder than I expected, but not as difficult as I thought it would be. Still, shell-shock must be terrible.

I love how unimpressed the guard looks.

Days later, in Nah Trang, the only crazy thing we did was the epic bike ride. In an effort to balance things out, we went on an island tour while we were staying at the coast. The islands were gorgeous.

Who doesn't love ponies?

Clinton attempts a smile after he went snorkeling at one of the island reefs. Unfortunately for him, the visibility was terrible.

We ate lunch on the boat, docking near a pretty island. The seats that we had previously been sitting on folded out to form our table. Pretty nifty!

Our tour guide doubled up as the drummer, and who knew that the captain of our boat was such a good singer and guitarist? They sang some golden oldies for us.