Around the world in 80 seconds- with melina...: Saigon smiles...and tears..

I spent a very brief time in Saigon…just a couple of nights and a full day as I made my way enroute from the westernmost island of Phu Quoc to the eastern shores of Mui Ne. However, in such a short time, I experienced so much…it was a day full of much contrast.

My morning began with an hour walk through the city on my way to the 'War Remnant's museum. I left my hotel already in a bit of a somber mood, knowing full well that I was going to see pictures and read stories from the Vietnam War that would most likely move me to many tears.

But what a wonderful surprise I stumbled upon enroute…As I was walking through the center park of the city, I began to hear children singing and playing in the distance. Little did I know what I was about to walk into- a MASSIVE celebration of “national woman’s day” with hundreds of little girls all dressed up in costume singing, dancing, playing, and just being little girls.

Families were also there picnicking, playing with children, and dozens of what looked like boy scout and girls scout troops were also scattered throughout the park, playing music and an assortment of games. I could not stop smiling the entire time I was there,watching all these most beautiful children just beaming with energy throughout this wondefully green and lush park. I was mesmerized…and could not believe I was the only non-Vietnamese in the whole darn park ! (how could I be so darn lucky ?!)…

what a spectacular moment it was to just be the observer and be completely smitten by all the playfulness and joy these children were showing….we as adults should all be so wonderfully reminded on a daily basis to play with such abandonment of worries…

The shock of me walking into the War Museeum an hour later came, of course, as even more of a shock for me after having just been in the midst of so many smiling Vietnamese children and families ….and to walk immediatley into the museum and literally be blasted with some of the most devastating shots of Vietnamese children affected by Agent Orange (and other war atrocities) literally just moved me to uncontrollable tears within the first minute of my being there.

Of course, it didn’t stop there..the museum presented a most gripping and thorough account of so many moments during the Vietnam war, including actual stories and pictures from many of the soldiers and journalists who died there in battle. Without saying much more, it was a day that forever changed my life and firmly cemented my belief that anyone who is either fighting or living in the midst of a war experiences a true living hell on earth.

to see this infamous picture in its original state stopped me in my tracks...

This is a 1974 picture of Hawaii war protesters..shot taken in Honollulu...amazing feeling to be seeing a picture of "home" all the way here..

one of many "peace posters" displayed in the museum..this one was from Australia...

images of Ho Chi Minh (the leader of the Communicst Viet Cong) were still seen everywhere in Saigon, making me of course wonder if there was still a great deal of Communist supporters in the city..

And as I sat in a bar on a Saigon street corner later that night, I could not help but think what it must have been like just a little over 35 years ago to be here and seeing all the American GI’s roaming the very same streets , perhaps sitting in this very same street corner, and seeing a very different look in the faces of the Vietnamese people around them. It seemed almost surreal to me as I sat and watch this peaceful street scene, knowing full well that so much of this city and country was under constant fire for so many years (I have read that a bomb dropped in Vietnam every 8 minutes throughout the war )

But the Vietnames seem to live in peace now or so it seems. I am not quite sure who really won the war as it still seems very unclear not only to me but to many I spoke to around me as well. But one thing seems to be for sure… The Vietnamese people have moved on and seem to be now carrying on with great determination and focus in their daily lives…