Vietnam!

Craig's List: Vietnam

 

Please pardon the delay in posting this entry. Our schedule has been rather packed.  After leaving Vietnam, we sailed two days to Hong Kong and Shanghai; after China, we sailed two days to Kobe- where we are arriving as I finish this post!

 

Our port, Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) formerly known as Saigon, was a 3.5 hour cruise up the Saigon River.  Surrounded by rice patties, palm trees, small fishing villages, and floating barges I arrived in the port with a certain level of anxiety not knowing what to expect from the country that we invaded over 40 years ago.  It was almost surreal to be traveling to a city and area so imprinted in our generation's psyche.

 

If you like motorcycles, VN is the place to be.  Clearly cycles are the dominant mode of transportation for young, old, and families alike.  Seeing a family of four riding a motorcyle with thousands of other cyclists is certainly an interesting sight.  Although streets are provided, sidewalks are also fair game for bikers.  The preferred parking place for business owners tends to be the inside of their stores which come complete with ramps to allow easy access for parking.  Thirty deaths per day are attributed to accidents in (or on) motorized vehicles.  Although energy efficient, emissions from the cycles combined with the other sources of pollution, make for somewhat toxic air quality which some citizens attempt to mitigate by the use of masks.

 

In this communist country, the government owns the land and the people pay to use it.  This provides maximum flexibility to the government for making improvements as needed.  A headline in one English-translated Vietnamese newspaper summed up one of the major challenges for Vietnam which is development of the basic infrastructure- power, water, and roads- to more completely address the needs of a growing population and real estate development.

 

We visited the War History Museum which over the years has changed from the War Crimes Museum, to the War Atrocities Museum, to the War Remnants Museum to what it is today.  Although clearly having an anti-American slant, I found it to be a fascinating and sobering place loaded with explicit photographs by professional journalists of the impact of war- not only in Vietnam but in other countries as well.  We were told how the Vietnamese people are forgiving about the past and focused on the future. However, they are still living with the consequences of Agent Orange and the loss of a generation of people.  I many times wondered how they could be forgiving of a country that destroyed so much of theirs. 

 

I visited the Mekong Delta, a couple hours outside of HCMC.  We traveled using several modes of transportation including, four different kinds of boats, a bus, donkey cart, and by foot.  The delta is actually an confluence of nine rivers and is known locally as "Nine Dragons" (nine is a lucky number and dragons are powerful=the delta of powerful prosperity).  The 18 million people who live in the delta region export 4.5 million tons of rice annually. Deeper into the delta region off-river, we made our way through canals to a coconut candy factory and a fishing village where we had lunch and enjoyed some local Vietnamese music.

 

The family took a day trip to the Cu Chi tunnels, located a couple of hours outside of HCMC.  Briefly, in the American War (as it is referred to by the natives to distinguish it from the French war, the Chinese war, etc.), the villagers of Cu Chi constructed an elaborate 200 kilometer tunnel system that had three levels extending as deep as 30 meters underground. Cu Chi was awarded the "Iron Land and Bronze Citadel" by the government recognizing Vietnamese revolutionary heroism as reflected in the construction of this tunnel system.  Crawling on hands and knees through these shoulder tight passageways was a blend of claustrophobia and wonder at the ingenuity and determination of these villagers.  

 

Shopping was plentiful in HCMC especially in the Ben Thanh market- a covered market packed with stalls selling just about everything including jewelry, clothes, food, trinkets, and animal body parts.  I enjoyed a Vietnamese massage in one of the many spas located in the downtown area.  As massages go, this one was quite vigorous and involved walking on my back, stretching, pounding, and slapping….altogether quite enjoyable and refreshing!

 

I could go on about Vietnam but suffice to say it was one of my favorite ports and is on the definite return list!