Category: Asia

Asian Adventure: Steamy Saigon

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Today we left our hotel early and flew from Hue to Saigon.  The official name of the city is Ho Chi Minh City, the name since unification in 1975, but the airport code is SGN.  We’ve discovered that in the north almost everyone calls it HCM City; the older generation is more apt to call it Saigon while for the younger people, 20’s, 30’s 40’s, it’s definitely HCM.  And sometimes people say Saigon because it’s shorter and easier than all the syllables of HCM.  So really, I should say we are now in Ho Chi Minh City, a city with 24 numbered districts.  The district numbers are frequently cited as in District X is where the government is headquartered and District Y is mostly residential with more cars than scooters.  Over the years, communities were added to HCM City and given district numbers and some districts were re-combined or divided.

Our tour guide met us and our itinerary said we’d go to our hotel via the Cu Chi Tunnel.  “Via” turned out to mean an hour and a half’s ride to the tunnel and after lunch and touring the complex, an hour and a half to the hotel.  Our guide here, Huy, is very knowledgeable about the Vietnam War and gave us a comprehensive history lesson with precise dates on the way to the tunnel.

IMG_5613 IMG_5615We had lunch at a lovely restaurant by the river with a pleasant breeze and watched the water hyacinths floating with the current. We felt like we were moving too!

 

 

 

This complex outside Saigon was where Vietnamese guerrilla fighters resisting the Americans lived, worked and holed up.  They had bunkers for cooking, meetings, sewing uniforms, and making weapons.  Underground is an extremely elaborate network of tunnels at three different depths–3 meters, 5-6 meters, and 9 meters with branches and arms, all designed to make it difficult for the enemy to find and attack them.  We watched a video about life in the village before the war when the inhabitants cultivated fruit trees and tapped rubber trees, had a demonstration of how someone could easily get in and out of the tunnel without being detected, and were shown numerous examples of various traps designed to maim or kill unsuspecting soldiers.

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And for those who were brave enough, it was possible to go down into one of the narrow dark tunnels and advance in it for some distance before surfacing.  My spouse briefly went underground; I stayed topside.  Today, this is a very peaceful spot, but the exhibits and the bunkers and tunnel remind one of how horrible and devastating war is no matter who is the enemy.  In this case, we Americans were.

 
Our first glimpses of Saigon reveal it to be the most modern Vietnamese city we’ve yet seen.  It stretches along a curve in the Saigon River and looks prosperous with skyscrapers, more businesses with English names, high end stores, even more motor scooters than Hanoi, and a bustling, urban sophistication.  Here nearly all of the adults on scooters are wearing helmets (not so in the north), although I saw an occasional child riding with a parent and the adult had a helmet on, but not so the kid.  Despite the humidity, those on scooters had long sleeves and some women were even wearing sweatshirts or jackets in addition to the very common face mask (for sun protection we were told).

But, these larger Vietnamese cities remain a study in contrasts; while there are beautiful shops and shiny new buildings, some life is still lived on the street, on the sidewalk.  This was certainly true in Hanoi which had less evidence of the prosperity.  Even here, I saw the low to the ground red or blue plastic chairs and tiny tables outside a storefront where residents could enjoy pho or noodles or coffee. While you could say that this is just their version of cafe society, and to some extent it is, it is more”down and dirty” that we would expect at home.

Asian Adventure: Hue Sights

JWF Leave a comment

Today was very hot and humid and the sun was out–almost for the first time since we arrived in Vietnam!  This morning we boarded one of the smaller colorful dragon boats that ply the Perfume River here in Hue.  It was just us and our guide plus the pilot of the boat and a woman vendor who also assisted with docking the boat.  She had an array of goods for sale—bookmarks and small prints, wooden carved items and clothing and handbags, all ostensibly hand made.  Each boat seems to have a vendor on board and they can be very persistent in trying to get you to buy something. The river was a greenish brown and very calm and the riverbanks lush and green.

The boat pokes along very slowly and it was about a half hour to an historic pagoda complex set up on a hill overlooking the river. Surrounding the pagoda are a series of buildings all related to the Buddhist monks who live here.  Our guide told us that about 60 monks make this monastery their home.  Wandering about was pleasant as it was still only mid-morning and there was a slight breeze.

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We then boarded another dragon boat and cruised along the river for another hour to reach the tomb of Emperor Tu Duc, who reigned for 35 years, the longest of any of the Nguyen family, from 1848–1883.  Upon docking, we scrambled up the grassy bank and then walked a few hundred yards past souvenir and concession stands to the entrance to his palatial and expansive grounds.

 

 

 

It is a place of great serenity, beautifully landscaped and very quiet.  And there were no tour groups in evidence during our visit.  The complex has a series of pavilions and halls lined up one after another and leading up to the actual tomb itself. I loved all the red decor especially the many many red doors!

Compared to the lavish red and gold temple-like buildings, the mausoleum building is gray stone with a round stone wall encircling it and rather forbidding looking.  This building is no longer open to the public and one source states that the emperor was not really buried here, but in a secret location.  He had a hundred wives and concubines and they lived both during his lifetime and after his death in some of the other buildings here.  Despite the heat, definitely worth the visit!

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Asian Adventure: Road from Hoi An to Hue

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Yesterday we traveled by car from Hoi An to Hue via the Marble Mountains and the Cham Museum.  From Hoi An, we drove through Danang and along the coast passing many ocean resorts with new ones under construction.  Tourism is big business for both Danang and Hoi An.  As any of my generation will recall, Danang was the site of a U.S. military base and also the scene of intense American and North Vietnamese bombing during the Vietnam War.  Much of Hue was destroyed although the hotel we are staying in escaped damage. It was built by the French in 1930 and is stately and elegant.  About 10 years ago, two additional wings were added.  Today the U.S. base in Danang is a Vietnamese army facility.

Our road trip today involved more stops with the local people selling their goods and we encountered bunches of tour buses.  But you have to admire individuals who are motivated to try to make a buck.  That said, we decided that buying a large marble statue and arranging to ship it home was not the best idea.  The marble carving shop’s array included everything from tiny animal figurines to larger than life size smiling Buddhas (generally in yellow gold marble), tigers, zebras, swans and the like.  Colors were peach, melon, gray and pure white.

In Danang itself, we admired the yellow dragon bridge and made a brief stop at the Cham Museum to view the sandstone sculptures of gods and goddesses made many centuries ago. The Cham people ruled this area of central Vietnam from the 7th century into the 19th century until they were taken over by the Vietnamese.

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IMG_8889We then went on to the Marble Mountains which are also in Danang and a popular tourist site. We explored the Huyen Khong cave which consists of a series of altars, grottos, and sculptures depicting heaven and hell and the judges who decide where you will spend the afterlife.  Animal heads like this cat line the walkway leading to the entrance.

The cave opened up on several levels with stone steps of varying depths and only spotty lighting here and there on the altars and shrines.  It was very dim!

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After snaking our way over and around the mountain, we had lunch at a large casual restaurant on the ocean and enjoyed the view.  After dodging an earlier attempt to induce us to buy, we surrendered and purchased two packs of postcards.  Good salesman that the young man was he tried to persuade us to buy the other variety packs as well.

The remainder of the drive was less scenic, some scruffy rice paddies here and there, and we happily arrived at our hotel in Hue around 2 pm. We spent the rest of the day unwinding and sampling dinner in the hotel restaurant. Today we will explore Hue, an important royal city located on the Perfume River.  It is where the Nguyen family ruled under French protection from 1802 to 1945.

 

Asian Adventure: Halong Bay & Hoi An

JWF Leave a comment

It has been a busy several days and so I’m just now getting caught up on our recent adventures.  This part of our trip is vacation, that’s if you can call it that when you’re retired!  We left Hanoi for the almost 4 hour trip by car to the marina at Halong Bay where we boarded the junk, the Violet, one of several boats owned by the Heritage Line.  Halong Bay is a UNESCO World Heritage site and known for its limestone caves and islands. We were on the Violet for one night or a total of not quite 24 hours.  It was anchored quite a ways out so the 10 of us (another couple joined later on) boarded a tender to go out to the boat.  I was impressed with the Heritage Line’s emphasis on safety as we were all instructed to put on and buckle our life jackets for this short ride.

The Violet is the newest in their small fleet and was built in 2009 in a traditional Vietnamese style, but with modern amenities such as air conditioning and a bathroom with a shower and a tub.  We had a delicious lunch on board followed by an excursion to a cave.  Before dinner, the chef gave a fun demonstration of how to make flowers out of various fruits and vegetables—carrot, cucumber, garlic, tomato and chili pepper.  She also created a lovely swan from an apple.  We were so taken with the carrot flowers that we bought a conical metal shaper in the market this morning–now all we need is the very fat carrots like she had!  Dinner was equally luscious and beautifully presented.

The boat anchored overnight which made for a calm sleep.  In the morning, after tea and croissants at 6:30 am, some of us went up  on the top deck for a bit of tai chi.  It’s not as easy as it looks!  Our tai chi master, a very versatile staff member, told us that Chinese tai chi focuses on the dance aspects of it while Vietnamese tai chi is all about the breath and relaxing.  After loosening up exercises, he had us follow his movements at the same time that we were to always focus on our hands.

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We then took the tender to a small nearby island and beach which has become popular with tourists both for swimming and for climbing the 427 stone steps to the summit for a view of the bay.  We didn’t swim, but we did huff and puff (a bit) our way to the top!  Like Hanoi, the weather here remained cloudy and cool with occasional drizzle so the view was not as spectacular as it would have been in the sun.

 

Journeying back to Hanoi by car, we then had a short one hour flight to Danang followed by about 40 minutes by car to Hoi An where we are for two nights.  Compared to Hanoi, Danang looks much more  prosperous and cleaner.  Hoi An is a lovely town, marked by colorful lanterns, what we would call Japanese lanterns, and is a key tourist destination.  The lanterns were introduced here by the Japanese and we saw them strung up across the old town streets. They are made on a bamboo frame which is then covered by brightly colored silk.  We watched women in one shop painting glue on the bamboo ribs and then carefully applying the fabric.

Hoi An has also long been a center for silk weaving and there are numerous tailors and clothing shops for silk wear and other goods, all ready and eager to sell to visitors.  In a small exhibit on various styles of looms and weaving, we chatted with a woman selling silk scarves (I did succumb.).  Her selection included three grades of real silk and she said that much of what was sold on the street wasn’t pure silk and that you could tell by the smell when you burned it which was which.  She proceeded to light some real silk which she said smelled like human hair.  And it did. She then lit some fake silk which smelled like plastic and then another blend of silk and cotton which smelled like paper. All very interesting.  We also saw coconut bowls, porcelain spoons and cups and hand embroidered table cloths and napkins, all made in this area and nearly all the handiwork of the women.

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