Stay true to the dreams of thy youth

The last few days have not been the most uplifting days on our trip around the world. We arrived in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) in southern Vietnam a few days ago and were immediately impressed with the city- fast-paced, modern, exciting, and filled with things to do. We found a cheap room in a lady's house, down the road from the main backpacker stretch and settled in. The days have yet to get below 90 degrees, hot, hot, hot!!!

Two of Topher's friends from home arrived in Saigon the day after we arrived, just in time to celebrate Carson's 22nd birthday. The older one has a great name (Andrew, of course), and Matt, the younger one is 21 years old. It has been fun having some new faces and people to talk to and get to know as we drink cheap fruit shakes and iced coffee at all hours.

On to the heavy stuff. The first day we toured the Reunification Palace, the palace used by the President of South Vietnam before the south was taken over by the Communists in 1975. This place was actually pretty cool, lots of helicoptors, tanks, planes, and meeting rooms. Only minorly depressing.

Yesterday was rough. We went to the War Remnants Museum, formerly called the Museum of American War Crimes located in downtown Saigon. Where as American history textbooks give the extreme American bias of the war, this museum definitely gave the extreme Communist view of the war, with graphic pictures to match. Nonetheless, despite knowledge of bias, it was pretty humbling and sickening to see some of the atrocities committed by the American forces.

Pictures of soldiers holding severed heads or mutilated bodies, burnt babies and mothers scarred by napalm and nail bombs, pictures from the My Lai Massacre, as well as a collage of pictures from the top American war correspondents, equally tragic. An exhibit on the effects of Agent Orange is poignantly highlighted with dead babies in bottles cojoined by the head, or with disfigured body parts. Despite your feelings about the Vietnam War, it is difficult to see the good that came out of the situation for any side.

I'm reading former U.S. Secretary of Defense Richard McNamera's book "In Retrospect" in which he goes back and examines the actions taken by the different administrations and how they engaged in the Vietnam War. He was one of the men primarily responsible for the War, and he now admits that the United States made a tragic mistake in entering Vietnam. Very interesting perspective, I would recommend the book to anyone.

Today, we went to the Chu Chi tunnels about 60 km outside of Saigon. This is a vast network of over 200 km of tunnels throughout the countryside. The Viet Cong built kitchens, meeting rooms, hospitals, ammunition depots, and many other rooms up to 30 feet underground. Pretty impressive, although all the tunnels were enlarged so that the tourists could fit in them :) In a day or two we'll have videos posted on the link to the right of us coming out of the small fox holes.

It has definitely been a learning experience being here in Vietnam. The war of our parents has become much more tangible being here, reading up on the history, and seeing the war from another perspective. Generally people are very friendly to Americans, and many times a week I will meet an older man who wants to re-live stories of his time working with the Americans during the war. All of the history here is so intricately woven together, French occupation, US involvement, Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia against the (initially) US-supported Khmer Rouge, leading to China invading Vietnam...

Tomorrow we take a bus to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia... and then on to more depressing sites with the Killing Fields of Pol Pot.

Prayer Request: Our good friend Elyse from Westmont just had her younger brother, Chase, die. He was in a coma from a skateboarding accident and passed away two days ago. We met Chase a few times and he was an incredible Christian kid at University of Southern California. Keep their family in your thoughts and prayers.