Introductions and Indoctrinations

This was our first official tour day.  We received a welcome letter from our guide the day prior, but had yet to actually meet him.  We both slept, waking at different times of the night, but given how early we went to bed, we both had at least eight hours of sleep, if not consecutive.  At breakfast in the hotel we saw that almost everyone there had a Gate1 lanyard on, except for us.  There were more people than would normally be on one tour, which also intrigued us.  We soon learned that Gate1 runs this particular tour six days a week, so there were in fact multiple tours staying at this hotel, each at a different point of their itinerary. 

This first morning was actually an optional tour.  In most of our other Gate1 trips, we would have an orientiation meeting on the night of the arrival day, where we'd introduce ourselves and learn about the upcoming trip.  Our welcome dinner was actually not scheduled until this evening, with an optional tour in the morning to the Cu Chi tunnels.  For the afternoon, we were to have a full-group city tour, followed by the formal welcome meeting and dinner.  So, when we boarded our large tour bus this morning, it was only about half way filled, and we had yet to meet anyone.  We had a quick introduction to our guide -- Tony Nguyen -- in the lobby earlier that morning, but that was it.  On the bus, we realized that a lot of folks knew each other.  Only then did we learn that we were in fact joining a tour already in progress.  We had booked the 12-day "Classic Vietnam."  There is a separate 15-day "Cambodia and Vietnam" tour, which began in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap.  We learned that 26 people booked the longer tour, and they had in fact flown in from Cambodia the night before.  In HCMC, 10 of us were joining the group, to make our complete complement of 36 people.  That meant this would be the largest Gate1 group we'd ever had, with 36 being the max.  Most of the people on the optional tour were from the original contingent, so we slowly integrated ourselves into the mix.  Among the group was a group of six couples, five of which knew each other from South Bend, Indiana, and who had traveled the world together.  The sixth was a couple from Alaska -- of all places -- who had met the Indiana contingent on a different tour and was joining them.  There were a couple of other "couples of couples" traveling together, along with a couple of trios, so there was built-in familiarity across the board.  The size of our tour, and the fact that they ran this particular tour six times weekly, along with several other Vietnam tours, spoke to the popularity of the destination.

We were driving to the Cu Chi tunnels, which is an underground complex at the end of the infamous Ho Chi Minh Trail.  These underground bunkers and tunnels were the Viet Cong's central operating base during the Tet Offensive in 1968.  Oh...total nonsequitur, but we arrived in Vietnam at the end of Lunar New Year, or "Tet," so we saw symbols of the festivities everywhere we went.  This Tet ushered in the Year of the Snake, so almost all the signs and statues features large snakes prominently.  As I said, I digressed.  

Happy Tet (New Year)!  Year of the Snake

We were the first bus to arrive at the very modern looking visitor complex for Cu Chi.  Our guide assured us that crowds would soon descend, as it is an extremely popular sight, for both foreigners and more-so Vietnamese.  We'd been told, too, to wear bug repellent, which actually came to be a daily refrain, whenever we were near water.  That said, we never really saw mosquitoes during the trip and I can't recall receiving any bites.  We were required to have a local guide bring us through the complex of buildings and underground structures during the visit, but our Gate1 guide, Tony, did all the translating.  As I said, this was an optional tour, and I'm sure it is because of the sensitivities of the war.  I have no evidence, but I am certain that the local guide was spewing an extreme Vietnamese version of history, and that Tony was tempering as best he could when he translated.  Nonetheless, the stories of how the tunnels were built and used, particularly to ambush and attack American soldiers was all presented very clinically.  We even walked through a large thatch-cover building which had about 20 different forms of boobie trap displayed, and our local guide eerily used large sticks to activate each trap, and to show us how it would injure the U.S. soldier.  Up until now, I had stupidly not conceived that there might be U.S. veterans among our group.  As we progressed, I got to talking with one of the men from Indiana, and it was obvious that he was upset.  He talked about how the boobie traps were specifically designed to injure but not kill, as invariably the U.S. military would send in troops to rescue the injured soldier, giving the Viet Cong opportunity to ambush and kill larger numbers of Americans.  It came out that he was in fact a Vietnam combat veteran and that this was his first visit back since his deployment.  During the course of the trip we learned that his wife encouraged him to visit for decades, but he always refused, and it was only when their group of traveling friends booked this trip, that she was able to convince him to visit.  He was not happy, and at various points during the trip he was visibly upset.  To his credit, he kept it to himself, and never confronted our tour guide.  Tony, for his part, did a very deft job in addressing the history of the "American War," and I'm sure they have all been given training in how to handle the delicate situations.  This reflected, too, in that most of the war-related sights were offered as part of optional tours, or not at all, such as the infamous Hanoi Hilton prison, which K and I visited on our own at the end of the tour.  Stay tuned.

The Cu Chi Tunnel Complex

One of the Boobie Traps

A Hidden Entrance/Exit to the Tunnels

An Assortment of Boobie Traps All Under One Roof

As we progressed through the tour and jungle, we kept hearing gunfire in the distance, but it was getting closer.  At first I thought it was piped-in sound effects, but at the half-way point, we hit a firing range, where visitors could pay $100 to fire vintage Vietnamese machine guns from the war period.  I found this, frankly, obsence, and the price indicated that the audience was most certainly foreign tourists, as no Vietnamese could afford such prices.  While no one from our group took part, I was dismayed to a small but steady line of customers.

Near the end of the Cu Chi visit, we had the opportunity to go down into one of the tunnels, and to go about 100 meters, and emerge in the forest.  I elected to go, and was told the tunnel had been widened to accommodate Americans.  That said, the tunnel was so narrow, claustrophobic, and hot, I could not imagine how the Viet Cong literally ran through them, or worst yet, how they survived for weeks on end underground during sustained American bombing.  I would have turned around and gone back if I'd been able, but it was impossible.

Entrance to the Tunnel

The large gift shop we visited upon exiting seemed in extremely poor taste, but at least it was predominantly stocked with non-war related souvenirs.  As we boarded the bus to leave, we saw that Tony was not exaggerating in saying that more buses would arrive.  The parking lot was completely full, with several coaches double parked.  We were glad to have had the place almost entirely to ourselves.  

During this first morning, we got a sense of what kind of guide Tony would be.  He was 39, but looked all of 18; lived in a three-generation home with his mother, wife, and young daughter near Hanoi.  His English was good, but as we saw throughout our trip, the Vietnamese accent is heavy.  He learned English in university, and he was the first person from his village to attend college.  Many words he pronounced had a distinct Australian slang to them, which was indicative that we came across scores of Australian visitors during our visit.  He laid the groundwork with much basic information about Vietnam and its history, and built upon it during week.  He was very good.  It was this morning that I was amazed to learn that Vietnam has a population of 100 million people.  That shocked me.  I knew it was the size of California, but I never expected that many people.  Ironically, there are 92 million scooters in the country, which I could believe, after seeing the never-ending stream of scooters whenever and wherever we went.  He also gave us a primer on Vietnamese cuisine, and on his recommendation we went to "Mamo Pho" restaurant once back at the hotel, for a lunchtime meal of the namesake dish.  On this first morning, Tony presented us with a bound book of our trip, which included all of the daily schedules and tips/recommendations for each city we would visit.  This included recommended restaurants, and he encouraged us to stick to these, as he could attest to their hygiene.  We learned that several members of the tour which began in Cambodia had already come down with stomach troubles, so we were eager to not suffer the same fate.  Well, I can happily report that Mamo Pho was excellent, and we both really enjoyed our first -- but not last -- taste of Pho during the trip.  It was finally confirmed to me that Pho is pronounced "FA."

Most Women Riding Scooters Would Cover Themselves Completely, To Avoid Sun Exposure

At around 2:00pm our entire tour group convened in the lobby for a three-hour tour of HCMC.  This was when we first laid eyes on our entire group.  About 80 percent of the group were older than us, but everyone was well traveled.  We did fill up the bus, and as usual for Gate1, we had assigned seats, which rotated each day.

Navigating the streets in a car was challenging enough, but a full-size tour bus was almost too much.  As I'd almost become accustomed to, though, the scooters simply made their way around the bus, as our driver snaked his way forward.  We did a general overview drive, to get our bearings, and then went to the colonial heart of the city for a walking tour, which actually meant that we were traveling faster than on the bus.  We saw the standard sights, including their Notre Dame Cathedral and a slew of colonial era French-designed buildings which gave this part of town a somewhat European feel.  In multiple cities we would visit on this trip, we saw buildings and bridges designed by Gustave Eiffel (of Tower fame), as well as his father, Francois.  We saw the famous rooftop from which the final helicopter evacuations by U.S. Marines took place in 1975, when North Vietnamese troops overran Saigon.  I had always thought this was the roof of the former U.S. Embassy, but it was not.  It was simply the tallest building in the city at the time, and it is today a bar and tourist spot.  Also in poor taste, in my opinion.

Lots of Propoganda Posters Around -- No Idea What They're Promoting, Though

Eiffel-designed Central Post Office

Notre Dame Cathedral, Under Renovation

Inside the Central Post Office

Roof-top From Where Final Evacuees Were Flown by Helicopter As Saigon Was Overrun

Opera House

The walking tour ended at Ho Chi Minh Square, which features a large statue of the communist leader.  Ironically, both sides of the park are lined by shopping arcades with the likes of Gucci, Hermes, and Cartier.  It was quite the juxtaposition.

Ho Chi Minh Square

Expensive Western Retailers Line the Square

Back at the hotel, we had some time to freshen up ahead of our orientation meeting and welcome dinner.  K rested and I visited the hotel's gym, hoping to keep up some semblance of fitness routine during the trip.  I did so with mixed results, partly because of time and partly due to the lacking facilities.

We finally got to formally meet everyone during the orientation, and unlike our last trip to Italy, this group comprised seasoned travelers, which I think makes for a better group.  Dinner was a short walk away, and a rather funky restaurant.  It featured a variety of Vietnamese dishes served family style at tables of four or six.  We sat with a couple -- part of the South Bend contingent, but who moved to Scotsdale, Arizona last year -- with whom we cliqued and ate many meals together during the trip.  They were very interesting folks and we enjoyed their company immensely.

Lobby of Our Hotel

Even though we had slept during our flights and had a full day to acclimate, we were nonetheless more than ready for bed when we slowly walked back to the hotel around 9:00pm.