March 7, 2010 – Ha Noi, Vietnam
We found Vietnam amazing. It has always held a certain fascination for me (Tim). Mostly war related and inspired by movies like The Deer Hunter and Apocalypse Now. Ted Woods and I used to do a fabulous re-creation of the “Russian Roulette” scene from The Deer Hunter at HTFAY Booze-n-Blues parties but that’s another story for another day. So just the thought of landing in Hanoi and driving into the city was pretty cool. The city is awash with motorcycles…one bike for every two people which is something like 40 million `bikes country-wide.
The Vietnam War, for the average Vietnamese, is ancient history and they’ve moved on with life in a big way. They actually refer to it as the “American War” here and the conflict is just one of many in Vietnam’s warring past. The U.S. never actually declared war against Vietnam so to the Vietnamese it was just good old “American aggression “ at work! The communist-ruled country is booming with a capitalistic fervour and is huge into tourism. They are a warm and friendly bunch and certainly don’t appear to hold any resentment or malice toward America or its visitors…not like the French do…lol.
We visited the “Hanoi Hilton” where a number of American POW’S were held between 1966 and 1973. A pretty bleak and depressing place (not like those happy and fun POW camps we saw on Hogan’s Heroes!) and the museum had a certain discernible slant/bias against the Americans…I’m sure the truth, like always, is somewhere in the middle. Just to take the edge off of that experience we headed to a water puppet show..now this is where a B-52 air strike was needed! Just kidding, Water Puppetry is an ancient and unique art form and part of the Vietnamese culture which originally provided entertainment out in the rice paddies.
Our tour to Ha Long Bay was definitely a highlight! We spent the night in a wooden junk anchored out in the bay. (With the other 200 boats scattered about…over 400 different companies run these tours). Ha Long is Vietnamese for Descending Dragon and the whole bay is a series of giant monolithic rock mounds rising spectacularly from the ocean (over 3000 islands).
We took the overnight train to Da Nang and then cabbed it to Hoi An. Mostly noted for its architecture and clothes-making shops, but for us, Hoi An was where we met “Flower”. Flower worked in a travel centre and sorted us for the rest of our trip south. And, she just adored Ann, as did so many Vietnamese…they said she had a “lucky face”. We would be discussing travel details and Flower would innocently take Ann’s hand or push her hair behind her ears and the two of them would walk arm in arm down the street. Flower, was just a sweetheart and invited us to dinner with her family…daughter Una and husband, Hie. So off we went by bicycle to the ferry that took us across the Thu Bon River to Flower’s home. The ferry ride itself was a treat…bikes stacked on one end, rows of scooters, pots full of fish, produce, chickens, along with the walk-ons…and for 30 cents each, we made our way across the river….and back in the pitch dark!
In traditional Vietnamese culture, Flower lives with her husband’s family, on a small farm where they grow watermelons and raise a few chickens and cattle. Everything is done by hand or water buffalo and when the melons are near ripe, the parents sleep in a ramshackle hut by the patch to make sure no one steals the goods…kind of like Charlie Brown’s “Great Pumpkin”! Hie cooked us dinner…this sharing of duties was something we noticed often throughout Vietnam, especially farming where the women and men work side by side in the rice paddies, as they did on the battlefields, too. Beautiful Una ate up Ann’s attention and marvelled at my freakish height. Flower was the only one who spoke some English so it made for an interesting evening but spending time with her and her family was something we will remember and cherish for ever…thank you Flower!!
We have had some interesting train journeys on our trip and the overnight train to Na Trang was no exception. We were the lone westerners in the train car so we just kicked back and watched the action…kids running up and down aisle and it’s cool because Vietnamese kids are looked after by everyone so they all take a shot a parenting, beers were flowing and every now and then the food cart would roll out serving hard boiled eggs and “UFO – unidentified food objects” wrapped in banana leafs. The eggs are an interesting story on their own…the chicken embryo is slighted developed so you actually see the beginnings of a small chick when you crack open the egg. We were told that once you get by the crunchiness they were actually pretty good. Once everyone had their fill of food, it was time to stretch out and and it was just a sea of arms and legs stuck into the faces of those around you…something everyone appeared quite comfortable with, in order to get cozy for 9 hours.
Our ongoing search for a quality beer (can we get a government grant??) was found on the white-sand beach of Na Trang at the Louisiana Brewery. Now it was not up to Don & Bon’s exquisite suds but for about 80 cents we quaffed some great beer while lounging in a cabana watching the blue waters of the South China Sea…it was a “beauty” as Don Cherry would say. How is Don by the way…is he still insane? The next day we crossed on “the longest cable car over open ocean in the world” to visit Vinpearl. Vinpearl is Vietnam’s answer to Canada’s Wonderland without the exorbitant prices, long lines and view of the 400 highway…and the place was deserted! They also have an amazing aquarium…the largest in South East Asia.
We wanted to see some of the mountainous rural countryside so we took a rocket bus to Dalat. When riding a bus in Asia (probably anywhere) the rule is not to sit front and starboard…doing so puts you first in line for any broadsides and head-ons! Nothing quite that dramatic happened but we did have a few terror-filled moments. This area is big into greenhouse agriculture and the market was teeming with fresh vegetables, flowers, local wines and fresh squeezed sugar cane. We arranged a little guided tour with a young girl, Vee the next day. Vee took us through coffee plantations, a giant flower hot house and a silk worm factory. You can buy fine silk cloth hot off the “factory” floor and it was not unusual to see mannequins decked out in beautiful wedding dresses…along side groceries, tractor parts and tires at the roadside shops.
A popular phrase here (we got sick of seeing it on t-shirts) is “same, same…but different”.and this applied to Ho Chi Minh City or Saigon (both names are used). Even in a united Vietnam, subtle differences seemed to exist between the north and south. The southern city seemed bigger and brasher than did Hanoi…same, same but different. Bikes, bikes and more bikes and they wear the coolest “designer” helmets here. The funniest thing we saw on a scooter …and they carry everything on their scooters….was a couple separated by their huge (3 ft. By 5 ft.) framed wedding picture. And, pj’s, well they looked like pj’s to us (you know Mom, the ones you gave Dad every Christmas), all the older folks seemed to be wearing pyjamas as their everyday dress…goodbye jogging pants!!!.
We said the Vietnam War is well in the past for most Vietnamese but that doesn’t mean the horrors aren’t documented in museums or the history exploited on the former battlefields. The War Remnants Museum gave a chilling account of the devastation caused (and still being caused) by the U.S.’s use of agent orange and we visited the Cu Chi Tunnels, part of the Ho Chi Minh trail, where the Viet Cong administered their own brand of homegrown torture. Pretty wild stuff that both sides endured….and we did do our bit to contribute to the exploitation by firing off a few live rounds from an AK-47…Ann loved that!!
St. Paddy’s day was not to be missed so we hoisted a couple pints of Guinness at “Bernie’s Pub (Irish dude who had just died five months previous and his Vietnamese wife was now running the bar. ”Bernie”, however, he was not propped up in corner Ala “Weekend at Bernie’s”!
We finished up Vietnam on a 3-day Mekong Delta tour which included a home stay with a local family. Pretty interesting evening spent in a thatch bungalow, sleeping to the sound of the crickets along the bank of the Mekong. Huge floating markets, floating villages and picturesque scenes of life along the delta occupied our next 7-hour boat ride before crossing the border into Cambodia.
