Vietnam: Finding peace in Ho Chi Minh City
"If you want peace, be ready for war" is a popular adage in international relations and war studies.
If you visit Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, and see the remnants of the Vietnam War in the legendary Cu Chi tunnel and the war museum, you will really know what it is to love peace and hate war.
The importance of humanity and humane values was probably felt by the group of Indonesian journalists and travel industry employees invited by state-owned airline Garuda Indonesia to visit the city recently, as they were given the chance to "observe" the war in the city's two main tourist destinations.
It was a war that killed millions of people, among them many women and children, in a terrible tussle between Vietnamese and Americans and their allies, lasting from the 1960s to 1975, with the fall of Saigon. They were years of humiliation for the ideals of peace and civilization.
Like some countries in the world affected by the Cold War, Vietnam was divided into the communist north and nationalist south. The increasing power of North Vietnam struck fear into South Vietnam which was backed by its former colonial ruler France.
When the war erupted, the French invited the United States and its allies, such as Australia, Thailand and the Philippines, to help defend the south.
One of the famous settings of the war was Cu Chi district, some 40 kilometers north of central Ho Chi Minh City. The border district belonged to North Vietnam and became a defense site of North Vietnamese guerrillas, known as Viet Cong (VC).
The district is famous for its amazing 250-kilometer-long network of tunnels, which served as hiding places and to launch surprise attacks by the VCs. The tunnels were used for communication and coordination among the guerrillas before attacking Americans and allied troops.
The Americans tried using dogs to trace guerrillas hiding in the tunnels, but the VC littered the area with pepper to put them off their scent.
A rain of bombs, gas and chemicals were used in the attempt to destroy the VC's resistance, but all failed to curb the attacks. The district was once dubbed the worst-hit area in the history of war.
Nowadays, however, you have to look hard to find remnants of the war since forest now covers the area.
To enter the former war zone, a tourist must pay 60,000 Vietnam dong (US$2).
Tourist guide Nguyen Do Anh, who accompanied the Indonesian delegation, fluently explained the history of the war and the construction of the three-story tunnels while a black-and-white film about the war played on a television in the hall.
Accompanied by an officer, the guide showed the visitors the tunnels and traps hidden under dried bushes and leaves.
The tiny holes in the tunnels are only sufficient for the slimmest of people to enter, and while most Vietnamese are of slight build, the bulkier American troops could not follow their trail.
Underground, we could see many wider rooms used as health check and surgery rooms, a meeting room, kitchens and sleeping quarters.
The visit ended after about an hour and our group was then taken to visit the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh.
Adorning the museum's four rooms are photos, mostly in black and white, spanning the duration of the war, taken by photojournalists from various news wire services.
Sadness is the feeling people get when they view the famous Pulitzer prize-winning picture of children fleeing a napalm attack on their village, the one girl in the group naked and burned -- and crying out for help.
In the center of the museum, U.S. bomb cases, armored vehicles, tanks and a war plane were displayed. They showed the widespread use of bombs during the war on a poor, mainly agricultural land.
According to the museum's booklet, about 7.8 millions tons of all kinds of bombs were dropped during the war and 75 million liters of defoliants were sprayed in farmland in the villages of South Vietnam. Compare this to World War Two, when the U.S. dropped about two millions tons of bombs on various battlefields.
The museum, currently under renovation, was formerly the War Crimes Museum, but its name was changed to avoid offending American tourists.
Today, the museum is a popular tourist destination among Americans and European tourists, especially the French.
Peace and love could be sensed in the museum and in the city, with visitors coming from all over the world.
The message of peace and love is also the one as visitors enter the last room in the museum which displays colorful drawings of Vietnamese children. The pictures of pigeons, children shaking hands and antiwar and love/peace slogans are the parting images for the visitors.
Like tour guide Nguyen said: "We are here not teaching people to hate other people, or certain nations. We just show how bad war is, and how worthy it is to have, keep and maintain peace."
By A. Junaidi - The Jakarta Post - March 14, 2004.
Embracing capitalist symbols and lively nightlife
Fast food restaurants, French art-deco buildings, casinos, nightclubs and bars crowded almost every night, the boat restaurants on the Mekong river and beautiful Vietnamese girls make Ho Chi Minh City's nightlife romantic and entertaining.
It's safe for foreign tourists, mostly from European countries and the United States, to walk in the streets at 2 a.m. in the city known as Saigon for almost 300 years.
After North Vietnam won the Vietnam war in 1975, the city was renamed Ho Chi Minh City, in honor of the country's revolutionary leading. Under the communist-socialist government, Ho Chi Minh was maintained as a trading city with a liberal capitalist system.
According to an official from the Indonesian Embassy in the capital Hanoi, some investors who previously focused on Indonesia have now relocated to the more attractive climes of Vietnam.
"They are interested to invest here because of security, the labor situation and regulations here," the official, who declined to be identified, told The Jakarta Post recently.
Investment regulations allow investors to secure a land use permit for 50 years, which could be extended for a similar period, he said.
In Indonesia, the land use permit for a foreign investor is only for 30 years and could only be extended for 20 years.
"The security here attracts investors. There are no labor demonstrations here," he added.
Labor is also cheaper; he revealed the minimum wage in Vietnam reached an average of Rp 15,000 a day (US$2), while in Indonesia it averaged Rp 20,000 per day.
For foreign tourists, including the visiting Indonesian delegation consisting of representatives from the media and travel businesses, security is the most attractive draw of the former Saigon.
There is nothing to fear in leaving a bar at 3 a.m. and strolling through the Dhong Khoi area in Central Ho Chi Minh City.
You will not be alone as many teenage couples spend their nights sitting on their motorcycles in public parks or by the Mekong River.
The mighty Mekong and its boat restaurants are designed for tourist destination. While sampling delicious local cuisine as the boat passes along the river, the tourists are entertained with traditional music and songs.
There are currently several five-star hotels in Saigon, including New World Hotel where our group stayed, and most of them have casinos on site for tourists to try their luck at slot machines and roulettes tables.
An Indonesian businessman who reportedly operates many gambling dens in Jakarta is also said to have a casino here.
Besides star-rated hotels, several small but good standard hotels are available for an average rate of 150,000 Vietnam dong (US$10) per night.
Indonesians interested in seeing the sights of this corner of Southeast Asia or trying their hand at the gambling tables may consider the option of taking Garuda, sponsor of our trip, now flying three times a week for a roundtrip fare of $400.
By A. Junaidi - The Jakarta Post - March 14, 2004.
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