VIETNAM TRAVEL IMPRESSIONS
September 2001

Shopping in Saigon | A Buddhist Temple in Saigon | Ha Long Bay

My first impressions of Vietnam were in Saigon: noisy and chaotic, a pure and ominpresent marketplace of cheap goods and delicious food. In fact, there is more capitalist activity in this Communist country than I've ever seen anywhere. It's ok, since the government instuted their policy of Doi Moi, a Vietnamese version of perestroika that allows for free markets. It's also what keeps people alive.People in the South were warm and friendly, Son kept pointing out the Southern Hospitality. In the North they were generally more reserved. Of course it helped that Son's family was in the South and Central Coastal regions; they were extremely hospitable, and no doubt that influenced my overall impression.

Saigon is also home to a number of interesting sites -- Buddhist temples, the War Remnants museum (with real remnants of the war, as well as lots of gruesome photos and even deformed fetuses in jars, victims of Agent Orange). Also a "replica" of Notre Dame built by the Catholics, and the presidential palace, captured in the fall of Saigon, the end of the war.

Saigon has been renamed Ho Chi Minh City, and the palace is now a museum displaying the excesses of precommunitst regimes. For contrast, a replica of a village community house on stilts with lots of traditional musical instruments has been built off to the side. The two communist tanks that "liberated" the palace in the fall of Saigon sit off on one side.

Did I mention that traffic was COMPLETELY INSANE? If they do one thing, it would be to encourage and enforce traffic safety.

Then we traveled overnight via train to Nha Trang, which is a beach town. I really enjoyed relaxing in Nha Trang (a beach resort town with a MASSIVE white buddha overlooking the city, commemorating the buddhists who burnt themselves up in protest of Diem's repressive regime in 1963). It's more relaxing after crazy Saigon. It's also where Son's family is from so we were kept busy with activities with his gazillions of cousins, aunts, uncles...Son is a big deal here, after all he is the oldest son in his family, and also a "rich American" relative. The money he and his family send back goes a LONG way here...

Also, everyone is hoping to fix him up with a nice Vietnamese girl. When Son goes back after I leave they will do all the introductions. Son is quite ambivalent about this whole process, but I think he could at least meet them and become pen pals if nothing else, and who knows, maybe something could develop. Update from Son: "I met 3 ladies ... One of them a cat freak, this one has a dozen of cats, and these cats constantly licked my legs, sniffed my shoes, and making faces at me while I was at her house and somehow this lady never bother to put these cats away." I guess that was not a match. [Note: In 2004, Son married a beautiful young woman that he met in Vietnam on this trip. They are living in the U.S. and he seems very happy.]

Things relaxed for us when we got to Nha Trang, where Son is from. We spent a full week there, meeting his family, relaxing on the beach, and seeing the sights.

Hoi An is known for it's art galleries and tailor shops, as well as the strong architectural influences remaining from periods of Chinese, Japanese, and French control.

Hoi An is one gallery after another, and I dragged Son into every one of them. The artist below is Vinh Nguyen.

By chance I got to enjoy the mid-autumn festivities in Hoi An and Hue. For six wild nights troops of children with drums and elaborate costumes, celebrate the Moon Festival -- picture something between Halloween and Mardi Gras where kids run around in troops beating drums rythmically, with a couple kids decked out and dancing in an elaborate dragon costume, and another kid dressed with a fat belly and a paper mache mask. They compete to reach money dangling high in trees as well as going around asking for money from merchants and people in general. It's chaotic, noisy, and very festive. Adults celebrate by exchanging mooncakes, much like christmas fruit cakes, but with a cooked egg yolk in the center of each cake. Mooncakes are about as tasty as your standard mass produced fruit cake.

Here are some kids in Hue with their drums...

I ate quite well in Vietnam, pretty much my favorite kind of diet. I insisted on as many coconuts I could get -- I am a coconut addict... I used to eat these daily during my semester in Jamaica junior year, so I was looking forward to it. But once Son's family realized I like fresh coconuts, I got more coconuts than I knew what to do with -- a cousin even climed a tree to get me some, then used the machete to open it up.

There was also plenty of sugar cane drink, papaya shakes, dragon fruit, a "furry" skinned fruit I know as rambutan but it has another name here, persimmons, and more...heaven. Not to mention the fresh seafood...and I do mean fresh -- one day we had a boat trip with Son's cousins who caught the fish and then grilled it on the boat after we snorkeled (looking at the same beautiful fish). I had to switch to drinking thick coffee to get my caffeine dose because the tea here, though ubiquitous, doesn't cut it. Did I mention the delicious Pho?

Shopping in Saigon | A Buddhist Temple in Saigon | Ha Long Bay

Taking the bus along the countryside from Nha Trang to Hoi An, there was a lot to see out the window. Including this woman drying inscence on tables on the side of the road.

We trekked around the Cham ruins at My Son, which are remnants of the Champa people who ruled central Vietnam for 14 centuries, before the Viet people took over. They a are Indian influenced people, and the ruins were replete with carvings and statues of Hindu gods and goddesses, ling and yonnis. The ruins took a hit during the Vietnam-American war, when the Viet Cong hid out there, and the U.S. bombed them and fired on them. Landmines are still around, so one is advised to stay on the trails.

We took a bus to Hue, capital of Vietnam for two hundred years of the Nguyen dynasty, until they abdicated in 1945, and saw the Citadel with it's forbidden purple palace. We also a boat ride down the perfume river to see tombs and pagodas for the various emperors. In Hue and along the Perfume River are the ornately decorated temples, palaces and mausoleums of the Nguyen Dynasty.