Georgetown Preparatory School Vietnam Trip 1999

DAY THREE (March 24)

First full day in Saigon. Went in the morning to the presidential palace from which South Vietnam under pressident Thieu conducted the war. It was chilling to see there so manny symbols of aggression: stuffed leopards and cheetahs in his office, rugs with dragons on blood-red background, murals with red skies. You could almost hear the war rumbling even thirty years later.
Lots of shopping after that, walking around looking for good deals on watches and guitars, sipping coconut juice (some of us) from street vendors who just crack open a coconut and stick a straw in it.

Afternoon after a swim in the rooftop pool overlooking "the other Saigon", we went to the War Museum brought to you by today's communist party. On display were captured trophies: U.S. Air Force helicopter, Cessna spy plane, lots of big groung guns, photos of American G.I.'s in rural villages - all with captions of extreme prejudice. Hey, it's their museum. There was even a guillotine there left over from the previous imperialists, the French.

Now 7 AM leaving for the Delta of the Mekong River - three hours by bus, three hours by boat. A lot of sleeping will be done in transit, as we continue to recover from the day and a half it took to get here. A lot of good groupwork is going on - boundaries falling as we're out of our comfort zones, in Asia.