Viet Nam-2011

Diane Smith

19 Nov: Xin Chao, We are now in a lovely hotel in Ha Noi (it's two words, not one) enjoying the sights and some good food. One couple left our group in Bangkok for medical reasons, so now there are 13 of us. Our two weeks here should be very interesting.

The language here is impossible. The word ma with various little marks over the a is pronounced six different ways and means six different things, from mother to ghost to tomb to horse. It's a tonal language that must be learned very young. Religion is common, mostly Buddhist, or Catholic. Only a small minority of the people belong to the communist party, but the good jobs that pay well go to party members and their families. A person can get in a lot of trouble saying the wrong things in a public place; so, our guide reserved some topics for "on the bus."

The people have been very friendly and usually allow their picture to be taken. Our guide is a nice young man named Tam. He's from Saigon, married, with an eight-month-old son. He's gotten us off to a good start on this part of the trip..He said that he is going to arrange for JT to talk to and an Army vet who was in the war. Should be an interesting conversation.

20 Nov: Today we visited Ho Chi Minh's Mauseleum and home. The Mauseleum is an impressive building, it isn't open all the time, but we were fortunate to be there when it was. "Uncle Ho" is displayed in a glass enclosure around which a single-file, no-stopping line passes on three sides. Like Lenin and Mao, he is revered as a hero and father figure. His home was a picturesque section of what used to be a French estate. Also on our list of places visited was the famous Hoa Lo prison, aka the 'Hanoi Hilton'. It has been mostly torn down, but they have a few buildings set up as a museum, the majority of which is devoted to depicting how badly the French treated the Vietnamese. There is one small section depicting just how well the Americans were treated during their time there. Yeah, Right.

Tomorrow we go on a junk to cruise around Ha Long Bay, spending the night on the junk. That will be a new experience. Time to go eat now. They are feeding us a lot. Bet I gain weight.

24 Nov: Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Since they don't have turkey in Viet Nam we didn't have a traditional meal today. Duck was the closest they could come.

The junk trip on Ha Long Bay was great. The bay is a finalist for the new Seven Wonders of the Natural World. They will find out in Dec if they made the list. It's a large body of water with over 1000 islands scattered around. Many are huge lumps of strange shaped rock with mist adding to the picture. We went through a wonderful cave system, sort of a small Carlsbad Cavern place, and visited a floating fishing village. Our cabin was small but adequate, the food good, and the scenery amazing.

On the way back to Ha Noi we stopped to try a VN specialty, Thit Cho. For those of you who don't understand Vietnamese that means dog. I tried a couple of small bites, barbequed. It tasted ok, but was tough and took a lot of chewing. We also tried the local bread (similar to frenchbread) and stopped at a cemetery. On one of our walks through various areas we stopped to try the local beer and some fried crickets in an oil and garlic sauce. I did pass on eating bugs, but JT tried some. He said it didn't really have much flavor, just crunch.

Yesterday we flew to Hue City, former capital for much of VN's history. Lots of beautiful Buddhist temples. We went to an orphanage that Grand Circle Foundation sponsors. The children were wonderful, ages 27 days to 23 years, about 170 there now. On the occasion of our visit, the Foundation presented the children with several dozen new bicycles, much to their delight. Today's activities included the Citadel, where the kings lived, and an ancient pagoda. Both were beautiful.

Tomorrow we leave for Hoi An with a photo stop at China Beach. Certain phrases have become part of our trip "lingo" such as "happy room" (toilet) "sticky rice" (stay close together, usually crossing the streets) "Kodak moment" ( you can define that one:) Crossing the street and traffic flow in general has become a major factor on the trip. There aren't many traffic lights, no protected arrows for turns. Drivers of every size vehicle just weave and blend going where they need to go with almost no accidents. It's an amazing example of what a bit of skill, cooperation and courtesy can do. To cross the street we just stay in a small group and walk slowly out into traffic. Absolutely no running. Vehicles just flow around us like we're rocks in a stream. It's the most amazing thing I've ever seen and a bit terrifying at first.

27 Nov: JT and I spent 11 days in Italy and 21 days in Southeast Asia with nothing but beautiful weather the whole time. Yesterday our luck finally ran out. Soon after we left Hue headed for Da Nang and Hoi An we picked up showers of various intensity. We stopped at China Beach as planned but taking pictures in the rain doesn't work too well.

Da Nang has turned into a resort town. Before long it will rival Cancun for the title of "Little America." Hoi An is a very old town with clear Japanese and Chinese influence. There seemed to be more "round-eyed" tourists there than Vietnamese. Today was pretty much a washout. We started out to see ruins of the Champa, but the road was flooded; so, we had to turn back. Instead we went to a museum in Da Nang that contains artifacts and pictures of the ruins. Impressive work. One thing sort of unque to this area are the round basket boats which require a particular rowing technique.

The afternoon optional tour was cancelled. It was supposed to include a cyclo ride to a rural area and then a cruise on the river. Not possible. A major disappointment was the loss of the visit with Tam's friend who was a soldier during the war. That would have been interesting. But it has given us a chance to kick back and relax for a few hours. Many in our group went out on their own to explore, but we aren't much impressed by tourist towns.

Tomorrow very early we leave for Nha Trang to continue discovering more about this country. Smitty is especially looking forward to seeing Saigon and how it's changed since he was there.

30 Nov: I wanted to open with the ethnic minority greeting, but I don't know how to spell it--Lim Sahm or something like that. The last few days have been pretty busy for our group. We went to Nha Trang for two of the days. Loved it. We first headed for a ride around the harbor to a fishing village. These are little towns floating out in the bay with floating decking outlining pools with various fish in them. Some of them were huge.

Then we went to a little island beach with cushioned lounge chairs under a really big tree and kicked back for a while. Some of us went swimming. JT was fighting off a cold; so, he just snoozed and took Zicam. After a very nice lunch there we gathered up and had another boat ride back to the bus.

We visited a large Buddhist temple and an archeological museum. Then off to the hotel. Smitty would have preferred going directly to the hotel so he could crash, but . . . .

The next day JT stayed at the hotel all day recovering from his cold, snoozing or watching tv while I joined the others. The outing included another temple that offered traditional music and dancing in the courtyard. Then we headed for one of the villages to see how the rural people lived. The people were wonderful, very welcoming and friendly. JT was feeling better by the time I returned, but we didn't try to do anything more that evening.

29 Nov: Our drive to Da Lat offered beautiful scenery, waterfalls, mountains, valleys, and pretty villages. The roads are pretty sad, but stops were all interesting. Some of the "happy rooms" were not very elegant, but our food stops were great.

A bit more about food. Every meal has included rice or rice noodles, a beef and veggy dish, a seafood dish, soup and/or a salad, a pork dish, a veggy dish and a dessert. Most of it was wonderful. Even if I didn't care for an occasional dish, there was still LOTS to eat. And there was always an alternative dish for JT instead of the shrimp or squid dish. We have both eaten way too much. I'm not going to weigh until I've been home at least a month.

27 Nov: Da Lat is a lovely place. It's very high in the mountains, so it isn't as hot here; temps in high 70s. If we lived in Viet Nam this would be the place. There are no traffic lights here and no air conditioning. Neither seem to be a problem. We went to a minority village to see dancing, etc. last night. Today we rode out to one of the coffee-growing villages. We visited a school and the Mayor's house and even helped "harvest" the beans (for about five minutes) It involved placing a large tarp under the bushes, then pulling your hands down the branch, letting the beans drop onto the tarp. The beans are taken to the homes where they are spread on concrete pads to dry for several days. The raw beans are then sold to middlemen who take them to roasting companies. If you saw the movie "Bucket List" Jack Nickolson's character talked about coffee made from beans that had been swallowed by weasels and processed through their digestive tracts. They actually do that here.

Our day's outing included visits to a silk factory, a flower greenhouse, a cricket farm, a hotel called the Crazy House, and a Zen monastery. That hotel takes the prize as the strangest one I've even seen. The designer must have had some really weird dreams.

The stop at the Zen monastery was a real delight. The garden, buildings, views, etc. were so beautiful I really could have stayed there much longer. There were flowers that I'd never seen before.

The day ended with a wonderful dinner with a family in their home. Lovely people, great food. The house was very simple by our standards. We have more "stuff" in one room than these folks have in their whole house. But it was attractive and comfortable, with lots of family close by.

Tomorrow we head for Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) Should be interesting. More to come.

2 Dec: Saigon has changed a lot since Smitty was here in 1963-1964. It's 10 times as big, just for starters. And I've never seen as many scooters in my life. Passenger cars were unusual. Parking in town for cars is very rare, scooters are parked all over the sidewalk.

There were three weddings at our hotel last night. All of the brides arrived by taxi. They were in lovely, fancy, white, Western-style dresses; the grooms, in white tuxes. Later the brides changed into very elaborate long gowns.

All of Southeast Asia is preparing for Christmas: Lights, trees, Santas, all the trimmings. Hotels and restaurants are playing Western Christmas music.

Over half of the citizens of Viet Nam are under 25. I understand that 75% of today's Cambodians are under 25. War for many years has taken its toll in this part of the world.

The traffic is a thing to behold. Very few cars other than taxis, a fair number of delivery trucks, some buses, and a host of motorbikes and scooters. We spent an hour riding around town in a pedicab (a single passenger two-wheel vehicle pushed by a man pedaling for all he's worth. It got pretty exciting, especially when we made a left turn with a large bus and about 2 million scooters headed right for us. But we lived to tell the tale.

Anyone coming to VN must go to the Cu Chi tunnels. It was a very disturbing and educational afternoon. I now have a much better understanding of what our guys faced fighting here and what the Viet Cong endured fighting us. Many of the tunnels were only 2 feet square. Most Americans wouldn't even be able to get through. Our "tunnel rats" faced an almost impossible task. There were over 120 miles of tunnels and rooms on three levels. Some were 30 feet below the surface. Some tunnels were greatly enlarged to allow tourists access. The old booby traps were vicious.

By the way, VN uses the same alphabet that we do. Thailand and Cambodia use really strange looking characters. The merchants also are quite willing to take dollars to pay for things. I understand they do in Cambodia too.

3 Dec: We went for the day to My Tho in the Mekong Delta area. Viet Nam and Cambodia have argued over ownership of this territory for many years. It's all very flat and covered with rice fields, and veggies growing. We had a ride in a large boat that held all of us, then transferred to a group of sampans that only held three or four of us to reach a floating restaurant for a very nice meal. The "presentation' of the fish course was unique. After that with one "happy room" stop we rode back to Saigon.

Our final event was the farewell dinner. Four of our group are not going on to Cambodia for various reasons. One woman, a retired Ob/gyn nurse is heading out on her own, traveling around SEA until early April. She has a lot more courage than I do.

So very soon we head for the airport to fly to Phnom Penh. So it's Good Bye, Viet Nam. It's been a good 16-day visit.