A Day of History
I returned to the grey museum today,the Ho Chi Minh City Museum, housed in a lovely colonial era building with wonderful floor tiles. It was being used for two photo shoots. One was a bridal party with a stunningly willowy bride and her portly elderly European partner..I did hope it was for a magazine but I think not, though the other definitely was, a lovely couple, her in a red traditional ai bao, and him in a grey suit posing on a variety of retro vehicles including a vesper and and old car..you could tell it was for a fashion shoot by the way the photographer was rolling all over the ground getting his angles.
After wandering through the history of the people I continued on to the Museum of Vietnamese History, museums get the best houses and I tend to think more about the walls and the flooring, the windows and the tiles than the artifacts. There were some pretty impressive ceramics in this museum, and the award to the most astounding display went to the hefty ceramic lingam with a beautiful Buddha carved into its most tender curve..Of course I took a photo!
It caused me to reflect on those rare occasions where the profane becomes divine..
After lunching at a Lonely Planet recommended place, that I do nor recommend, I should have stuck to street stalls, I feel undernourished by faux western food...I went to Cu Chi Tunnels courtesy of Claire's driver Mr Ho.
It is a fair way out of the town centre and the drive out yielded little excitement so I fell asleep, which is not usual for me, and woke up in the car park of the Cu Chi Tunnels.
The first thing you get shown is a propaganda film from 1969. It shows Cu Chi and the 'cute young farmer girls' and their comrades picking tropical fruit and riding bicycles, and then it explains that the merchants of death, the evil Americans decided to destroy Cu Chi entirely with carpet bombing and napalm. The people of Cu Chi, just lovely farmers, were forced to make tunnels and then defend themselves, which they did with great cunning and success. Many of them winning accolades for "American Killings" through their use of mines and rockets..
After seeing some tunnels and being show how the traps were set I was guided to a shooting range where I was given the choice of an M16 or an AK 47..This is a tour that shows the 'evil' of America, I didn't think the M16 was the politically correct choice so took the AK47, 10 bullets and earplugs.
It wasn't like the target shooting I've done once before, the recoil was immense, the noise was bone shuddering and the effect of shooting live ammunition was nerve wracking. After the first two shots I wanted to stop but then I took a better look at what I was doing and decided to 'zen' it and made a greater effort in getting the poise and calm require to fire a weapon. The operator said the M16 would have been better for me as it was lighter but I think that was just a sell to try and get me to buy more bullets..I didn't bite.
So that's day three of tripping out alone in Vietnam, the girls haven't contacted me , I have no facebook and I have been photographing stone penises and firing live ammunition, a change is as good as a rest...
Tonight Claire is taking me to an exclusive French eatery which apparently was written up in Time Magazine last week, how will it compare to street cuisine..I'll let you know..
After wandering through the history of the people I continued on to the Museum of Vietnamese History, museums get the best houses and I tend to think more about the walls and the flooring, the windows and the tiles than the artifacts. There were some pretty impressive ceramics in this museum, and the award to the most astounding display went to the hefty ceramic lingam with a beautiful Buddha carved into its most tender curve..Of course I took a photo!
It caused me to reflect on those rare occasions where the profane becomes divine..
After lunching at a Lonely Planet recommended place, that I do nor recommend, I should have stuck to street stalls, I feel undernourished by faux western food...I went to Cu Chi Tunnels courtesy of Claire's driver Mr Ho.
It is a fair way out of the town centre and the drive out yielded little excitement so I fell asleep, which is not usual for me, and woke up in the car park of the Cu Chi Tunnels.
The first thing you get shown is a propaganda film from 1969. It shows Cu Chi and the 'cute young farmer girls' and their comrades picking tropical fruit and riding bicycles, and then it explains that the merchants of death, the evil Americans decided to destroy Cu Chi entirely with carpet bombing and napalm. The people of Cu Chi, just lovely farmers, were forced to make tunnels and then defend themselves, which they did with great cunning and success. Many of them winning accolades for "American Killings" through their use of mines and rockets..
After seeing some tunnels and being show how the traps were set I was guided to a shooting range where I was given the choice of an M16 or an AK 47..This is a tour that shows the 'evil' of America, I didn't think the M16 was the politically correct choice so took the AK47, 10 bullets and earplugs.
It wasn't like the target shooting I've done once before, the recoil was immense, the noise was bone shuddering and the effect of shooting live ammunition was nerve wracking. After the first two shots I wanted to stop but then I took a better look at what I was doing and decided to 'zen' it and made a greater effort in getting the poise and calm require to fire a weapon. The operator said the M16 would have been better for me as it was lighter but I think that was just a sell to try and get me to buy more bullets..I didn't bite.
So that's day three of tripping out alone in Vietnam, the girls haven't contacted me , I have no facebook and I have been photographing stone penises and firing live ammunition, a change is as good as a rest...
Tonight Claire is taking me to an exclusive French eatery which apparently was written up in Time Magazine last week, how will it compare to street cuisine..I'll let you know..
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