Back to Cu Chi

This is going to be one of my longer "Dispatches" (<- a great book about VN war) - so bear with me and don't just look at the pictures (that includes you JEFF!) Feeling that I had already reached the apex of the shock/trauma associated with HCMC's culture, star/sickel flags/banners, food, and climate, I decided to venture back to Cu Chi. (Phonetically, that's "koo chee"). For those of you who don't know or have forgotten - Cu Chi is where I spent most of my 14-month (Sep '66 - Nov '67) assignment in Vietnam. I spent about half this time as a squad leader in the recon platoon of the 1st Bn/27th Inf (Wolfhounds), and the 2nd half as a Patrol Leader in the division's Long Range Reconnaisance Platoon (aka LRRP - affectionately refered to as "lerps") <- both part of the 25th Infantry Division aka "Tropic Lighting" because our division patch. It was and still is a banana leaf with a lightening bolt on it. Cu Chi was the division's base camp from late '65 to the end of the war. And yes - it is/was this division that was the theme of Oliver Stone's movie "Platoon" and more recently the comedy film "Tropic Thunder"... Get the connection! - lightening/thunder - I thought I would point that out because it took me a while to figure it out! Located about 72 kilometers (42 mi) from Saigon (near Cambodian boarder), Cu Chi today is a major tourist attraction/destination - not because of the 25th-division-based movies but due to the miles of tunnels that were constructed (some supposedly from Cambodia) by the Viet Cong and NVA (North Vietnamese Army) in the area, and were made famous by numerous "Tunnels of Cu Chi" themed books and documentaries. I was a tunnel rat for a very short period - it was in such a tunnel that I first got wounded and received a Purple Heart. Many half-day bus tours are run daily from just about every Saigon hotel. I decided I didn't want to return there with a bus load of tourist. Instead, I hired a motorbike and driver for a day (at US$20, much less than tour bus') to take me there and back - enabling me to stop and see what I wanted. Hoang - My Motorbike-Driver-For-Hire stationed himself near my hotel, had repeatedly offered to give me a motorbike tour of HCMC. For 4 days I rejected his offers, prefering to walk and feel/touch/smell/taste the city at a leisurely pace - even enjoying the many times I got lost. Each time I rejected his tour offers, we would engage in conversations where he demonstrated his intelligence and fairly good English skills. He came to mind as an appealing alternative to a "bus tour of Cu Chi" - so I presented the proposal, he accepted, we agreed on an all-day price (US$20!), scheduled a start time, and we were off in the AM yesterday, Sunday, Sep 7th.
I mistakingly thought that it being Sunday and the fact that 15+% of Vietnamese are Catholics combined with no school and most workers having the day off, traffic would be relatively light how WRONG I was - it was as bad as any weekday except people appeared to be more dressed up <- I suppose to go to church and weddings (of which I saw several during trip!. Evidence of My Return - after a bumpy 100 minute ride I DID "return" as another military guy once said.















I crossed many of these - really helped my foot ailments. That wassarcasm in case you didn't know...


Family hootch compounds and sampans were often seen during my tour - I always dreaded running into them bc, as often as not, it meant having to search them <-- not fun if it turns out they had something to hide ... such as booby-trap grenades.


Hoang said this was the Oriental River that eventually served as a border between Vietnam and Cambodia (at which point I crossed it many times for ops or operations in Cambodia). This appeared to be fare too close to Cu Chi to be the river I knew as the Oriental <-- but all such rivers look the same - hence the chill that I experienced running down my neck when Hoang said it was the Oriental! Our tour of the Cu Chi area didn't take very much time because I chose not to do the 2-3 hour Cu Chi Disneyland thing, So, Hoang and I stopped by a Cu Chi "roadside refreshment stop." There our 2 waitresses invited themselves to our table - btw - no tourist stop by this place because it's a few kilometers away from said Disneyland, and off the beaten track.

They were curious about me. They don't see many Americans - asked Hoang many questions about me which I freely and eagerly helped him answer. They were fascinated at the fact that I was a VN war vet that served in Cu Chi. I was fascinated at how old they were (or rather, not) I was getting a kind of deja vu of Chinese Olympic female gymnist!
They were both very intelligent (which was evident by the questions they asked), had great senses of humor and, as we got to know more about one another, they became very touchy-feely (the way Vietnamese are with close friends). And yes, Tan did kinda ask me to marry her - saying I was a funny, good natured, and generous man whom she would want/welcome as her husband... at least this is the way Hoang interpreted her words!

For almost 2 hours, we all talked, laughed, and gave high-5s and hugged one another. It was great fun and will be one of my fondest memories.