Sad Bear in Saigon

There is a sad side to Saigon as well - the conflict between North and South from the late 60s to the early 70s. I am just a little bear so I don't understand all of this human fighting. As a little bear I am friends with other bears and even not-a-bears like mice and hamsters and pigs. War and fighting don't make sense to me. But Mama said I should see some of what went on... so... I went.

We went to the Cu Chi Tunnels one day - they are about 50 km from Saigon. During the conflict, communist guerrilla peasants lived and fought in this area. They dug out a 250 km long set of tunnels in the Cu Chi area. The tunnels were 3 m deep, 8 m and 10 m deep. We got to go in them for a small section (120 m) and while I thought they were quite tall... Mama said they were not!

There were also examples of various booby-traps that the guerrillas set out for unsuspecting soldiers and their sniffer-dogs. It is sad that so many people and even animals died.

The tunnels had tiny little hatches where the guerrillas could pop out and surprise enemy patrols. This guy isn't stuck... but he did have some trouble getting out again!

This was our tour guide - he was EXCELLENT!! He was a South Vietnamese person who was attached to the US Navy and had spent time in California. He told us a different perspective on the war than the "official" communist line.

We also went to the War Remnants Musuem. There were a bunch of US planes and tanks in the front courtyard.

The planes were beary large and beary interesting.

I don't think I would make a great pilot... these planes are way too big for little bears!

The inside of the museum was beary sad... so many people who were killed or wounded. And people are still being wounded and killed by buried landmines, sort of like in Europe, where farmers still plough up bombs from World War I. I left the museum beary confused as to why the conflict actually started and what the point of it had been... and who actually won. Our tour guide from the tunnels probably put it best. "In War, there is no Winner".