I like history. I'm one of those people that doesn't enjoy the "memorizing dates" type of history as much as the sociological aspects of it.
For exapmle, I enjoyed my trips to the Alamo. To walk through the low entry ways and see the walls was a neat experience.
I enjoyed the Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine , Florida. The scale of walking on the walls and touching the cannons on the battlements was awesome. We drank from the "supposed " fountain of youth. It tasted like liquid sulfer and I'm sure that the guy that owns the coke machine right around the corner makes a killing in quarters.
Seawolf park in Galveston was equally cool. I learned that a 6'3" Rob is not ideally made for a submarine.
Likewise, the OK corral was exceptionally hot in August, the dinosaur footprints at Glen Rose are in really clear water and Rough Riders had to have been short guys to drink in the bar of the Menger Hotel.
History has always been something I enjoy as more of a tactile experience because it was "an experience", not just something you read about in a book.
However, there are limits, or at least there should be, to attempting to experience history.
For example, take this story from "The Cape Codder."
It was one of the weirdest tourism experiences we’ve ever had. As though Fellini and Disney had teamed up to do ’Nam.
At the beginning of the tunnel complex here, there’s a wall draped with clothing - vests, cone-shaped peasant hats, capes in camouflage colors. Oh yes, and rifles. Real rifles, but thankfully without the ammo.
You can rent these things. And wear them while crawling through the tunnels. So much the better to feel like a guerrilla.
The Cu Chi tunnels of Vietnam are one of those horrible remnants of a horrible war that most folks probably would rather forget. So, of course, they’ve become a tourist attraction.
I'm sorry, but as an American, I would find it to be incredibly distasteful to go to Vietnam and play "dress up Viet Cong." I can understand how someone from Austrailia or India or Germany could do this and care less, but as the son of a Vietnam vet: No.
In fact, Hell NO.
The “fake” tunnels at Ben Duoc aren’t fake at all. They’re merely renovated, widened for tourists (read fat Westerners) and come complete with lights and displays under ground.
First comes the obligatory propaganda film narrated by old VC commanders - “The merciless American bombs have ruthlessly decided to kill this beautiful and peaceful area.” Cut to grainy, black-and-white images of villagers picking fruit and picnicking among the flowers. Then cut to bombs and smoking ruin.
If the whole thing weren’t so incredibly heavy handed and clumsily done, it would make any American with a memory of the war excruciatingly uncomfortable.
After the film, we went for a hike through the woods while our guide pointed out bomb craters (labeled by shell type) and smoke vents, thoughtfully steered us around booby traps and let us play a brief game of “try and find the trap door,” which, of course, we couldn’t.
Finally, we came to the tunnels. We dropped through a trap door to the first level, 10 feet below the surface, and squeezed through narrow passageways to see bunkers, a hospital, a kitchen and the actual command room from which the 1968 Tet offensive was planned.
Well "yippy, skippy" the Tet command room! I'm sure that the "educated liberals" amoung us can't wait to sign up for this adventure tour so that they can have so digital pictures taken in there to show how "global" they are. In fact, I bet Sean Penn reading this and seaching for First Class tickets even as we speak. I'm suprised that they haven't Paid Jane Fonda to go shill her book there.
After one last crawl, we came up at a snack stand (Pepsi and coconut water) and were herded to a large, covered pit where we got to taste the taro root and green tea that tunnel residents ate.
And then things got even more weird.
We stopped at the souvenir stand, stocked on one end with cobra wine and Chinese medicine, on the other with display cases full of souvenir bullets, military hats, shell casings made into lighters and helicopters with moving parts made of Pepsi cans.
God help us, yes, we bought a Pepsi chopper, which twirls on a string.
Passing the sign that gave directions for finding the Cu Chi tunnels tennis courts (there is also a zoo), we wound up, as all tourists here do, at the firing range. Here, for a buck a bang, you get to fire AK-47s and M16s.
Having sampled both, we can tell you that the AK47 has a more gentle kick and is softer, though even with ear protection, it still left our ears ringing.
War is hell, and, sometimes, the aftermath is just beyond bizarre.
Somehow,
I.
Fail
To
Want
To
Visit
The Cu Chi tunnels |
" Alright everybody, let get pissed!"
