Photo's: http://picasaweb.google.com/RDandLisa/VietnamAReturnAfter35YearsManyOfTheVisibleWoundsHaveHealed
Lisa's Journal (followed by RD's journal)
March 7, 2008
The alarm went off at 4:00 AM…groan (we had a 5:00 taxi to get us to the airport by 5:30, of course the only flight to Ho Chi Minh was at 7:30AM). RD was already up and had the coffee made…gotta love that Marine mentality. While we were checking in we found out they were overbooked in economy class and after a 5 minute wait they bumped us to Business Class! WooHoo! Had a little giggle when the Vietnamese gentleman in front of me couldn’t reach the overhead bin and had to get a flight attendant to help him (I know, not PC, but it was funny).
I am trying again with the hormones, they are being shipped to our hotel in Nha Trang…keep your fingers crossed and pray for RD…Vietnam with a hormonal woman…God help him.
Getting our entry visa was a bit of a hassle but once that was done customs was a breeze. Once through we were met by a representative from the tour company that we planned our trip through and he and our driver took us on a quick but overwhelming trip to our hotel. The streets are crawling with millions of motorcycles (some with up to 4 people on them!) the vast majority of cars are either taxi’s or small vans carrying larger groups of people, very few private vehicles. Many of the women are wearing short skirts, high heels, and elbow length “opera” gloves to protect their skin from the sun (having pale skin is a status symbol). I think it would be hard for most of us to look “elegant” on the back of a motorcycle but these women have got it figured out. The only flaw in the picture is the cloth masks they wear to protect their skin from sun exposure and block out some of the exhaust smell.
After a quick check in we went up to our room to drop off our luggage before going out to dinner. When we walked in the TV automatically came on when we turned on the lights…you are not going to believe what was on! A National Geographic program on Glacial Lake Missoula! I kid you not! What do you think the odds of that are? We went out to dinner at a restaurant that the tour company had arranged for us…wouldn’t have been my first choice but it really was quite good. A “salad”, glutinous rice cakes with shrimp (sounds gross but really quite tasty), dill & tomato soup with clams, squid with lemongrass (really good), beef with broccoli, rice and fresh fruit (think Dragon fruit, yellow watermelon, papaya, etc…)
On the walk back to the hotel it was fun just looking in the windows (it was almost 10PM). We decided to have one final cocktail before bed just to watch the street life. Of course I had the Jack Daniels and RD had the “pink drink”.
March 8, 2008
After a quick breakfast we set off on our tour of the city. Our tour guide, Lôc, brought me flowers as it is International Women’s Day here in Vietnam (I’ve never heard of it before and of course RD thinks there should be an International Men’s Day). Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), formerly known as Saigon, with a population of just over 7 million, is the largest and busiest city in Vietnam (and 3/4ths of them are riding motorcycles, it’s like the city is swarming with ants on wheels). They even use them to haul sheetrock, lumber, steel and trees!
Our city tour started with a trip out to the Cu Chi tunnels. This network of tunnels, which at one point stretched for over 200km, became legendary during the Vietnam War when the Viet Cong used them to get within 30km of Saigon, at one point they stretched from Saigon to the Cambodian border! Several levels deep, they included innumerable trap doors, specifically constructed living areas, storage facilities, weapons factories, field hospitals, command centers and kitchens. They mostly cooked tapioca root which is a heavy starch (very filling) and will keep for 3 days after cooking. We had some, dipped in crushed peanut to give it some flavor, not the most inspiring food I ever ate but not the worst either. The tunnels that are accessible have been widened otherwise you would not be able to move through them. I only crept about 20 meters underground in the dark and I was already beginning to feel claustrophobic. Also on display were the horrific traps the Viet Cong set using whatever they could find. It boggles my mind how evil the creativity of man can be when pushed to the edge.
Next was the War Remnants Museum, a wealth of images from previous wars. Not unexpectedly the communist propaganda machine was in overdrive about the evil USA. Not surprisingly there was not one picture of an American caught in one of those afore mentioned evil traps.
After that was the Reunification Palace which was the former residence of the President of South Vietnam until April 30, 1975 when the North Vietnamese tanks came crashing through the front gates, bringing the War to a close.
We stopped and took pictures of the Notre Dame Cathedral (built between 1877 and 1883, the stone used to create it was exported in its entirety from France). The Post Office across the street (which really looks more like a train station) was completed in 1891. Both are very French in architectural style.
Final stop was the Ben Thanh Market, stall after stall of food, clothing, jewelry…one of those places where you keep your hand on your wallet at all times to keep from getting pick-pocketed.
We had our guide give us the name of a restaurant for dinner that was way off the beaten path for tourists. We wanted some “real” Vietnamese food at a decent price. It was excellent.
Both RD and I had massages today ($7/hour)…RD is off getting his second of the day. We are told they are even cheaper in Hanoi.
March 9, 2008
After breakfast we checked out of our hotel and jumped in the van for a two hour ride to Cai Bè for a cruise aboard “Bassac” toward Càn Tho on the Mekong River in the Mekong River Delta. It was very interesting to see the difference between city living and rural living. Many of the houses and fields have tombs for their parents or grandparents, some were quite ornate. When we finally arrived in Cai Bè we had to take a small boat down a tributary to get to “Bassac”. We stopped along the way and watched people making rice paper, coconut candy, and “popped” rice (Vietnamese version of popcorn). We got to test several of the treats and I even sampled a rice wine with a Cobra and assorted critters in the bottle! Supposed to be medicinal…something about rheumatism and male potency…I think I’ll hold my comments on that one.
Once we arrived in Vinh Lōng we boarded and took off down the river. It was hard to look at everything at once. RD must have taken a hundred pictures today. One of the first things we saw was a floating market. The boats are anchored out in the river and they hang whatever they are selling from a tall stick so you know which boat has what you are looking for. They apparently have a harvest, fill up their boats, come down river and stay on the boat until everything is sold then go home and do it all over again next harvest. We had a fabulous lunch up on deck (shrimp in coconut juice, fried calamari, fish in lemongrass sauce, beef and onions, sautéed pumpkin buds, rice and fresh fruit), laid in the sun for a while (I took a quick nap) and then we stopped in a small village. We saw a huge clay pot where they cook a whole pig, rice fields, little shacks with adorable children playing in the dirt, fruit tree’s galore, a spider bigger than my hand and just generally got the feel of what life is like way out in the country (these people survive on about $1 a day with the average per capita income in Vietnam at about $2100 a year). They use every part of every plant that they harvest, nothing goes to waste, even the shells and seeds of the fruit is dried and used as fuel. Recycling is actually a money making endeavor over here! After our tour we stopped at a small “restaurant” and had fruit (pomello, jack fruit, tiny bananas and langon – a bit like a lychee nut) and tea. They brought out a duck egg (one just ready to hatch) and boiled it…several brave souls tried it…I was not one of them.
Back on board “Bassac” we had a wonderful dinner (pumpkin soup, springrolls, caramelized pork in clay pot, fish with lemon sauce, green beans with garlic, rice, and banana crepes with chocolate), and after dinner drinks, then anchored in front of Phuoc Hau Pagoda for our overnight stay. Had a wonderfully interesting and enjoyable day!
March 10, 2008
The engine started up at 6:00AM…so much for sleeping in! We were supposed to be anchored in front of a Pagoda but we got there after dark and no one was up and out of their cabin when they pulled up anchor but we had seen several Pagodas along the way so I didn’t feel like it was a huge loss. We got onto the smaller boat again after breakfast, to go to shore, and walked through a rice processing factory, a “Doctors” office (think chopped up herbs to cook down into tinctures and acupuncture), and a Buddhist Temple. Then we meandered through the floating market in Can Tho, mostly food but it is all wholesale (for markets and restaurants). There were a few small boats out there that were different, one was only selling cups of coffee and tea (Vietnamese Starbuck’s), one had a little bit of everything (a mini-mart) and another had cooked noodles (the corner diner).
Once we finished there we got off and had to walk a few hundred meters to get to the van to take us back to HCMC. As we were walking along I asked Lôc what the little packets wrapped in banana leaves were, turns out they were pickled pork called “Nem” that will last up to 5 days without refrigeration. Ten snack size pieces for 12,000 VDONG (about 80¢). $1 = ~15,900 VDONG, not the easiest calculation to do in your head. Really quite tasty! Lôc says they are great with beer. We had lunch in Nam Bo (spring rolls, grilled shrimp, Mekong pancake – really good, Elephant Ear fish made into spring rolls, fried rice, and a tapioca pudding like dessert with coconut, boiled peanuts, bean sprouts and tapioca root). There is a high sodium content in all the food over here…we have only been here for 3 ½ days and I have cankles (calf+ankles=cankles).
As we drove back to HCMC I asked a lot of questions. The land they live on is owned by the government. If the government wants to build something where your land is they will give you someplace else to live…you do not have the right to refuse or fight it, or a choice in where they move you. Voting is mandatory, they will come to your house and get you if you have not voted but they do not campaign so no one knows who they are voting for or what they stand for. In 1975, right after the war ended, they tried to pay the farmers with “coupons”. If you had 3 people in your family you got a coupon worth rice for 3, meat for 3, vegetables and fruit for 3, shoes and clothes for 3, if you had 5 in your family you got a coupon for 5, etc. The people quickly figured out that it didn’t matter if you were lazy or a hard worker, you still got the same amount…as you can imagine that didn’t last long. Even the communist are not that dumb. They have three main religions (even though strict communism doesn’t allow religion). Catholic, Buddhist (Northerner’s are vegetarians, Southerner’s are not), and Confucianism. Cars are scarce and I found out why…Lexus, Audi, BMW, and Mercedes are the primary imports and sell for between $300,000 and $400,000! At first we were shocked (as was Lôc when we told him the cost in the states) but if you look at the pictures of traffic and replaced every motorcycle with a car it would be complete gridlock…they would have to be stacked on top of each other! The government is making some big money from the people who are willing to pay that amount but it really is a good mechanism of controlling what could be an overwhelming traffic problem.
Once back in the city we went through a factory where they do lacquering, there are 11 steps to the process and it takes 3 months (allowing for drying time in between steps) to complete a piece!
After checking back into the hotel RD went in search of a haircut, shave and head/neck massage…I was in the room with my feet in the air trying to get rid of these cankles!
Dinner was at a restaurant down the street…pommello, squid and shrimp salad, pork spring rolls, duck with ginger, and pork ribs with lemongrass…the food here is amazing. RD had a massage for dessert. I think my ankles are going to explode.
March 11, 2008
Woke up this morning with both ankles still swollen...I am definitely not happy. I am hoping my body will get used to the high salt content…I don’t want to have to spend the rest of the trip with my feet above my head!
After breakfast our driver picked us up and took us to the airport. As we walked into the airport there were two women screaming at each other with an airport security guard trying to keep them apart as well as trying to get the more vocal one to leave. The more vocal one finally took off one of her high heeled mules and held it up like she was going to hit the other woman with it. The other woman only had on flip-flops buts she quickly took off one of hers so she would have a weapon as well. We were quickly ushered inside and we no longer had a translator so we have no idea what they were fighting about…would have loved to have seen the outcome of that one! Unfortunately we were a bit late so it ended up we were not able to sit together but it was only a 70 minute flight to Nha Trang (like flying from Missoula to Salt Lake City…even the same size plane) so it was not a big deal. Security is definitely more lax here. They have the same signs posted that say you have to have all liquids in a quart size bag and have them visible but they don’t even bother to look.
Our tour guide in Nha Trang does not speak nearly as good English as Lôc did…as a matter of fact on the whole they are much harder to understand here than in HCMC, but they put on these big smiles and nod their heads apparently hoping that will make it all crystal clear. The other big difference is that in HCMC there were a lot of French speaking tourists, here so far, my ear is picking up a lot of Russian.
Nha Trang looks a bit like California, rocky coast line, evergreens mixed in with palms and other tropical plants. Our hotel (Sofitel VinPearl) sits out on its own island. There is a gondola going over the water to an amusement park on the island called VinPearl Land but they bring the guests of the hotel across in covered speed boats.
After checking in we had lunch and a few drinks by the pool and just generally chilled out. I’m a bit worried. On our way back to the room I checked at the front desk to see if a package had arrived for us. No such luck. I was really hoping my hormones would be here when we got here, now there is only a two day “window” before we move on to Hanoi.
We both took a quick nap then decided to have dinner here at the hotel (a very large buffet) rather than going through the hassle of taking a boat and a taxi to get the 4km into Nha Trang. We really needed the day of relaxing after all the running around we have been doing. Tomorrow is going to be another busy day.
March 12, 2008
So much for a having a busy day… RD has been up since 2:00AM with food poisoning. I think it was the mussels he ate but it could have been anything. Just yesterday he was telling me what a poor traveler I was because I had swollen ankles…I didn’t say a word. We called our tour guide and had our days activities moved to tomorrow since it was supposed to be a “free day” anyway (i.e. no tours planned). By 10:30 RD felt strong enough to walk to the pool. He slept most of the day. I started studying some French lessons I had printed off the internet before we left. We both ended up with a pretty good tan.
At 6:30 RD was still unable to eat so I went to dinner alone. My suspicions were confirmed…the menu was in English and Russian. I had some wonderful Thai food and brought some plain rice back for RD…he still wasn’t up to even trying that. I may be going on the tour tomorrow by myself.
Still no hormones…
March 13, 2008
Bright and early this morning we were up, had breakfast and were off on our tour. As we drove out of Nha Trang and into the country side I noticed that the beautiful tombs that we saw in fields and backyards down in the Mekong Delta were now set up in large colorful cemeteries. I would have loved to ask why but since I couldn’t understand a word our guide was saying I’ll never know. Our first stop was Monkey Island, apparently some Russians lived on the island in the 1930’s and raised monkeys. When they left, they left the monkeys behind. From what I could gather there are close to 100,000 on the island now and they have turned it into a tourist attraction including a little animal show with monkeys, dogs and goats. Not on my “must see if you ever go to Vietnam” list.
From there we drove to Doc Let “Bitch” (read Beach). It’s a beautiful white sand beach, where the locals come for vacation. We had lunch and a beer (or at least I did, RD fed most of his lunch to a stray dog and drank water) and moved on to Bo Ha Falls. Our guide called it “eco-tourism”, I call it a sweaty hike through the jungle to a stream strewn with boulders that we had to climb over for several hundred meters to get to the first set of falls. It was pretty, but again…not on the list. All in all the Nha Trang area was not nearly as interesting as HCMC and the Mekong Delta.
Back at the hotel we both opted for massages instead of dinner.
Still no hormones…things are looking bleak.
March 14, 2008
Happy Birthday RD! We had to request an early boat this morning as the first scheduled one was not until 6:30 and we had to be off the island by 6:00 in order to make it to the airport on time. The hotel put together little breakfast “boxes” for us as the restaurant wasn’t open yet.
I am really looking forward to moving on to Hanoi. I read in the in flight magazine that there is an international contest to select the world’s top seven wonders. On August 8th, 21 finalists will be selected. As of late February Halong Bay (near Hanoi) was in first place ahead of the Grand Canyon, K2 Mountain and the Great Barrier Reef!
When we arrived in Hanoi it was 21°C and foggy. Our guide, “Duc”, speaks much better English. He is very sweet. He had a bouquet of pink roses and a T-shirt that says “Good Morning Vietnam” for RD for his birthday. Just driving in from the airport it was apparent that Hanoi is very different than HCMC. First off, every square inch of land on either side of the road was planted with rice for as far as the eye can see and it appeared to be much more organized. Secondly, it is a city of 5 million people but there are many more cars here than down south. In the paper last night there was an article confirming my earlier hunch that they are using price to control the number of cars on the road. Not only are they much higher priced to start with, there is a 60% import tax that is going up to 70% next week! Apparently the people of Hanoi are at a slightly higher economic level than their “comrades” down in HCMC.
We had a free afternoon scheduled here in Hanoi so once we checked in to the hotel we took a walk (I definitely do not blend in) and got some lunch. It was fun just sitting and watching the people go by. I tried to find a long sleeved shirt (I packed for 30°C+ weather) but didn’t see anything that would fit anyone bigger than a six year old. RD got a $12 massage and then worked out for 2 hours. I had a HA and my “cankles” were back after flying so I took a nap and elevated my feet…my God I’m sounding old!
Duc recommended a French restaurant that was in walking distance of the hotel so after getting a map from the concierge and some brief instructions we set off on foot. First attempt was unsuccessful…mostly because they sent us to the wrong restaurant. Second attempt was successful but really only out of dumb luck and RD’s amazing sense of direction. At one point we stopped to look at our pitiful hotel map only to realize that we were standing right in front of the Iraqi Embassy! After finally finding the restaurant it turned out it was Vietnamese food with a menu in French! No French food for us! As we were sitting outside eating our dinner (which was quite good despite not being French) I looked up and saw a Hanoi “squirrel” (read rat) run across a power line! Toto, we are definitely not in Kansas!
March 15, 2008
After breakfast this AM our tour guide and driver picked us up at 9:00 with our first stop being the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. The line was very long, you are not allowed to speak or take pictures inside. They have what appears to be a wax replica of HCM lying in repose inside a glass tomb. They worship this man even though he died in 1965. Next was the royal palace (which we could not go inside), HCM only lived there for 2 months deciding it was too big for one person, he then moved into a small stone cottage for 2 years until they built him a house on stilts completely out of Teak with an adjoining bunker to shelter him from bombs. We saw several Temples (including Temple of Literature) and Pagodas(such as the One Pillar Pagoda), all with long histories, most of them based on folk lore and legend. At one temple we actually ran into a French couple that was on the boat with us in the Mekong Delta! What a small world!
We stopped at a tailor shop and RD bought one pre-made shirt and is having 3 shirts and a pair of loose “pajama” style pants made and I am having a traditional “áo dài” dress and pants with amazing hand embroidery done. They will be delivered to our hotel on the 19th.
We then stopped at a “pharmacy” and after writing down the names of my hormones (they couldn’t understand him because they pronounce them so differently) RD was able to get me some emergency replacements. Looks like both of us will survive.
After lunch (which we had at a restaurant on the shore of the lake that McCain parachuted into before his stay at the Hanoi Hilton), RD was feeling a bit wiped out (remnants of his earlier food poisoning) so they took him back to the hotel and I went to another small lake with a “turtle” pagoda. There supposedly is a 500 year old Golden Turtle still living in the lake (last photographed in 2000). They have one in a glass tomb that died in 1968 and supposedly it has been determined that it was over 400 years old. There is a very involved legend around these turtles, a sword and defeating the Mongolians. I couldn’t quite catch it all but they are very into folk lore around here. I then went to see a traditional Vietnamese Water Puppet show (including Golden Turtles, dragons and assorted representations of life in Vietnam). I thought the best part was the music played on a variety of instruments that I had never seen before.
Today I learned how to say hello: chaō, goodbye is chaō with a wave of your hand, please: lām ỏn, thank you: cám ỏn, yes: vâng, and no: không. No word in the Vietnamese language is more than six letters.
Dinner tonight was at a Thai restaurant. One of the interesting things of note in this country is that often you cannot get a cocktail (such as a gin & tonic) by the glass but must buy the whole bottle of gin. A 750ml bottle of gin is about half the cost of a bottle of wine!
March 16, 2008
Turns out Hoa Lo prison (or Hanoi Hilton as we Americans so fondly refer to it) is only 1 ½ blocks from our hotel. There is only about ¼ of it remaining but it is easy to see just how grim it would be to be locked in there.
After our tour of the prison we stopped at a bakery for some French pastry and then went back to the hotel to relax and download the camera onto the computer. RD has taken over 850 photos!
Overall I have found Hanoi to be very foggy, damp, dreary and depressing. It is more expensive and less tourist friendly than HCMC. I wanted to come up North to see Halong Bay but unfortunately we are spending more time in Hanoi than either one of us would have liked. Luckily we leave tomorrow.
OK…just to be perfectly clear…I hate this place. As we were finishing dinner tonight, in what appeared to be a “decent” restaurant (piano player with a violin accompaniment), two rats ran across the floor and up the wall then back across the floor…I left...RD is still there paying the bill.
March 17, 2008
After breakfast we checked out and met our driver and guide at 8:30AM. We drove through the Red River Delta from Hanoi to Halong City to board a “Junk” for our cruise of Halong Bay.
It looks a lot like the archipelago of Palau but they have done a poor job of preserving it and keeping it pristine, probably because they take all the tourists to the same area. There is garbage floating in the water and washing up on the beaches. Inside “Sung Sot” cave (which means ‘amazing cave’) there is graffiti in places that people can reach and people just drop their gum wrappers anywhere. I find it hard to believe that Halong Bay is in 1st place in the previously mentioned contest.
After lunch we went to Titop Island…there was a Pagoda 500 steps up a very steep hillside…I waited on the beach…you all know where RD went. Some people were swimming but I had seen several big jellyfish as we were coming toward the Island so I opted to stay out of the water
The best surprise was that the French couple (Allen and Chantelle) we met on the boat in the Mekong Delta, and again in Hanoi, was on this boat with us as well. I got to practice my French a little and find out just how awful my accent is. Many times I would have the correct word but my pronunciation was so bad they couldn’t figure out what I was saying!
As we anchored for dinner RD commented that it felt like camping at the trailhead on the 4th of July…there were boats everywhere (70 to 100 of them all carrying anywhere from 8 to 30 people). Sleeping on the boat proved to be a bit of an adventure as a huge thunder storm came in at about 3:00AM and lit up the sky right over us. Rain and thunder pounded for hours…and this is the dry season.
March 18, 2008
In the morning it was still pouring rain so the planned activities, which involved long rides in uncovered boats and more caves, were cancelled and we switched boats to a day cruiser for a trip further South in Halong Bay. We were dropped off and then took a car across Cát Bà Island to Sunrise Resort where we will be spending the night. Our guide Duc had promised (through use of magic) sunshine, but unfortunately it was overcast, foggy and drizzling on and off.
This was one of our favorite place’s here in Vietnam. Very secluded, relatively pristine beach, if it had been sunny we could have stayed here for days.
We walked the 1 km into town twice, for lunch and for dinner. They had arranged for us to ride into town on the back of motor bikes but there was NO WAY I was getting on the back of one of those.
March 19, 2008
After a lazy morning we walked back into town for lunch and then took a 45 minute speedboat ride to Hai Phong. The drive back to Hanoi took about three hours, of course about an hour into the ride I needed to use a restroom so we stopped at a gas station…and you thought the restrooms at gas stations in the States were bad. It was so bad (think hole in the ground and no running water) that when I got back to the car RD had a “wet nap” waiting for me…he’s such a boy scout. It was one step up from squatting in a rice field but a very small step. This made “peeing” in the woods seem comfortable! Boy have I come a long way!
We are continually amazed at what we see strapped on the back of motor bikes…chickens, ducks, goats, baby pigs, even a cow!
Back in Hanoi we decided to go across town to have dinner at a hotel that was advertising a U. S. Beef Promotion. I was thinking a big sizzling T-bone…no such luck, but the prime rib wasn’t bad.
When we got back to the hotel our custom made clothing was waiting for us…of course it fit like a glove.
March 20, 2008
Our driver picked us up at 9:00 for our 11:00 flight to HCMC. During the flight I read an article in the newspaper about a man from Hanoi who has literally “built a better mouse trap”. His monthly profit is $1875/month! Partly from the contracts with the business’s he helps with their rodent problem and partly from selling the rat meat! (I’m pretty sure I didn’t eat any rat…) That’s nearly twice as much as a physician in this country!
When we got to HCMC there was no driver to be found (a bit of a frustrating glitch). RD gabbed us a cab and we came back to the same hotel we stayed at previously. It felt like coming home. We really like HCMC that much more than Hanoi.
We had hoped to just relax by the pool but of course it started to rain. We ended up walking around, looking into stores and generally just wandering around and soaking up the feel of the city. It’s hot and humid here but it’s cleaner and the streets are more open and inviting.
On our walk to find a restaurant for dinner I walked into a dress shop and fell in love with a halter top version of the traditional “áo dài”. They were so sweet…no, they didn’t have my size…but they could custom make it for me. I said something about feeling big compared to them…they said “no, you’re western”. That is actually comforting in a strange sort of way when you are surrounded by women who are no bigger around than your thigh and weigh less than 90#. After taking a wide variety of measurements she said “you have a good shape”…I’ll take that as a compliment because I have a feeling the women in these shops have measured all shapes and sizes!
We are leaving for the airport at 5:00PM tomorrow…lucky for me they will have it ready at 4:00PM.
March 21, 2008
After sleeping in we went down to the pool and baked in the steamy heat until 1:00 check out. RD is still out there cultivating skin cancer…I on the other hand am sitting in the air conditioned hotel (still sweating because of the humidity but at least it is not pouring off of me). We tried to get a late check-out but the hotel is full. I’m sitting here in the air conditioned lobby, working on this journal, because if I go out on the street I will surely find something else to buy and I have no more room in my luggage.
We sent our tour company an e-mail regarding the lack of a driver to pick us up at the airport yesterday and to confirm that in fact we would have one today to get back to the airport. Turns out the boss here at the HCMC office had an emergency appendectomy yesterday and everything was in turmoil.
At 4:00 we went back to the shop for my dress…they were still hand sewing on the beading. A bowl of ice cream and a cup of coffee later it was done. At 4:45 our driver picked us up and we crawled through rush hour traffic. Eventually we hit the airport and sat back and waited for our 8:00 flight back to Doha.
Three movies later we landed in Doha just before midnight (4 hour time difference). It was an interesting feeling to feel like I was “home” in such a foreign country.
RD's Journal
March 7, 2008
You have read Lisa’s journal and her ordeal of trying to get her supply of hormones. Another little twist of that was that when I got the package labeling at my office, it had attached to the “detained” stamp, a piece of paper entirely in Arabic, that said that the medications were being sent to the National Healthcare Authority but, after I had the form interpreted, there was no clarification as to why the shipment was detained and gave no number to call for inquiry. I am still hopeful that they might show up at my office while we are in Viet Nam. Inshallah!
Before I left the hospital yesterday, I made rounds on the inpatients. One of whom was the farmer that I discussed in an earlier entry. He had had his knee scoped and was very pleased with how things went. He asked me to call him when I returned from vacation so that we could go north and have a picnic. He was impressed and smiled when I wrote his number in Arabic and smiled more when I spoke from “safa to shwayshway” (Arabic for zero to a little). He grinned his carious grin and said that he spoke shwayshway English. And he elaborated through his son who interpreted, that he wanted me to drive him in his land cruiser on this excursion. If it turns out to be just the two of us, it will be an interesting trip of sign language.
We have five of the six hospitalists (medical consultants as we are now called) on board. The name change occurred since our current title would indicate that we are doctors in training. And since we will want a pay raise, it will be good to be called medical consultants to ask for the same pay grade as medical consultants do in other hospitals. We have started a 24/7 coverage of the hospital. One of us takes a 1530 till 0830 shift and the others will cover the duties during the day…one doing the staff clinic and doing medical consults for the ortho and sports guys and the other will take care of ward work and do pre-op evaluations. In all of this, we are working with the staff to develop and implement policy and to help develop the electronic record. (Another bad dream…somehow GE got the contract for providing the electronic medical record. The catch is that they don’t have a product up and running so they are developing it as they go….this in light of the fact that there are plug and play products everywhere. On top of this, the guy who was hired to be the IT (information technology) director had no IT experience. )
Anyhow, as a result of the shift work and because of the hours we work, we are getting some nice lumps of time off as comp time. I have been able to add a week onto this vacation from the comp time that I had built up during the prior two weeks. Those long night shifts really pile on the hours while they are not particularly demanding and in fact allow us to get a pretty good night’s sleep. Figure it out five people doing 40 hours per week and there are 168 hours in a week. That doesn’t give us room to not work some long hours if we cover the time one of us is gone and the fact that we have to have 2 people on during at least part of the day.
The consultants (see, I am already using my new title) who are married want to work less during the day putting in part days and the single docs are trying to get their time off in lumps so it looks like we will all get our way. This is really turning into a dream job.
This trip to Vietnam will be interesting for me. I still have a few ghosts floating around and I think that this may help put them to bed. While I didn’t spend a lot of time “in country” being assigned to a ships Marine Detachment, it wasn’t all sweet time. We often noted how pretty the country was and how it would be fun to visit it in a more peaceful environment. I look forward to visiting some of the places that I visited before such as Siagon (Ho Chi Minh City) and Danang. Going north into Hanoi and taking the cruise in Ha Long Bay will put some interesting perspectives on the pictures I have in my mind’s eye. From what I have read, the southern part of the country has maintained it’s capitalist free wheeling attitude even though it is now communist and the north has maintained a more restrictive life and business style.
I do look forward to the $5 dollar massages and the haircuts and shaves with foot massage.
March 10
Saigon has changed……A lot!!! Actually the first thing I noticed was what I didn’t notice. The smell. For all of you who have been to the third world Orient in the 70s and 80s, you are aware of the odor. Kind of a musky, sewer “ish”, moist, dark smell. While still a faint trace lingers, the almost over powering stench that I experience at all ports in the Orient is gone here.
Saigon has become a real city and is not third world. Its traffic remains crazy with all of the motorbikes darting in and out of the traffic but there is a less frenzied pace. While the horns still honk, the din is much less intense than 35 years ago.
Could it be that my memory exaggerated the smells and the traffic?
Today’s tour took us to Cu Chi tunnels north of HCMC. It was a pleasant drive and it gave me a reminder of rice paddies and the other topography. But the outskirts of Saigon have become much more modern. The hooches have been replaced with home’s made of block with tin or tile shingles and the roads are paved.
The tunnels reminded me of the tenacity and dedication of the North Vietnamese toward their goal of a unified Communist Vietnam. The work required to dig them and the discipline needed to live in them says a lot for the toughness of the North Vietnamese. According to our guide nearly two divisions of North Vietnamese Regulars made their way about 7 to 8 kilometers underground and lived there for an extended period of time as they grouped for their pincer movement from Cambodia to Saigon. I had never before realized this military tactic that effectively separated the US forces in the Saigon Area from the forces in the north toward Hue and the DMZ. While this was a successful strategy, we must remember that it occurred in 1973 and 1974 as the US was putting its tail between its legs and working on an “honorable withdrawal”.
While I expected some emotional baggage to surface today, I was surprised when it happened as I viewed a crater made probably by a 500 pound bomb from a B-52. Somehow that triggered a lot of déjà vue’s that weren’t nice.
March`11
We are getting ready to leave Saigon after two days of very scenic and interesting touring around the Mekong Delta aboard the junk Bussac. It is a beautiful wooden junk of about 100 feet. We were aboard with 8 French people and due to the language barrier; there wasn’t a lot of chit chat. I tried practicing my limited French and learned that I am a stand-up comic if I judged the reaction correctly.
The Delta is an amazingly lush and productive area. With all the natural abundance of food, the people, while very poor, live simply but well. We toured a small area north of Can Tho and found the people friendly and interesting. As we hiked through the countryside along the rice paddies and irrigational canals, I was reminded of how tough a locale this was for the US GIs 35 plus years ago. But now without the airborne particulate of lead and shrapnel, it is a peaceful area.
Our guide, Lôc, was very helpful in telling us about the local customs and was quite knowledgeable about the local flora and fauna. He introduced us to a lot of new tastes and treats (and some non-treats too). My favorite new fruit was Jack fruit which has a very hard spinney shell but a sweet milky fruit inside. There are two types of jack fruit, wet and dry, and apparently the dry type is what we tasted and enjoyed. They have a variety of grapefruit that is much larger, has much more course granules and is less acidic than what we are accustomed to eating. Lisa had to try the snake wine which the locals use as a medication, mostly to make men more virile. It is rice wine with a cobra and tarantula inside the bottle. Other than the itching from the new hair on her chest, Lisa had no ill side effects.
Our guide was quite in tuned to the “communist propaganda”. He scoffed at calling Saigon by its new liberated name, Ho Chi Minh City and made frequent comments that were critical of the government. He openly discussed the inefficiency of the government and how it was full of corruption. He explained how there were three ways to become rich in Vietnam….be born rich, become a successful entrepreneur, or to “work for the government”. He explained that you have to kiss ass and give lip service to the government to get a job but once you did, it was a gravy train that allowed you to have other business’s and run them on government time and then at age 55 you received a pension equal to 70% of the highest 5 years income.
According to Lôc, the whole concept of a “people’s government” is a farce. The politicians who run are selected by the party and often run without opposition. But the people are required to vote and therefore, there is nearly 100% turnout and when someone is elected, because nearly everyone voted for all the candidates, this is interpreted as wide public approval of the government and the politicians. After the election the government puts on a big PR campaign about how successful the government has been for the people. There is a continual campaign of this sort even when there is no recent election with bill boards and reader boards frequently boasting of the success of the Party and how the country continues to honor the memory of Ho Chi Minh by being so successful. From my perspective, the people are happy and live well but are certainly not affluent. While the national income is said to average $2000, most of the rural people live on less than $500 per year. There is a huge disparity between the “haves” and the “have not’s” and there are amazing contrasts to be seen between the living conditions between those two classes. Lôc indicated that the people generally felt like the government thought most of the people to be fools who really believed that the people believed in what was being professed by the propaganda. One can certainly see why rebellion occurs when such vast socioeconomic contrasts occur within a densely populated country.
The ingenuity of the mind of man is amazing. Looking at how these rural people have adapted machinery to make life easier speaks a lot about man’s ingenuity. The phrase that “need is the mother of invention” is very apropos here. They have devised small pile driver devices to drive the small poles into the river banks which they use for their Hyacinth gardens and to use as the basis for the “rip rap” that they need to prevent the river from eroding their homes. They also drive these poles into the ground to use as the foundations for their homes since the ground is very wet in the Delta and the homes need to be a bit off the ground. They use type of wood that lasts 50 years once driven into the ground.
Along the river we saw many brick factories with the old style bee hive kilns. They harvest the clay from the bottom of the river and they fuel the kilns with the dried rice husks.
We visited a rice processing center in Can Tho and it was very similar to a typical grain elevator in the US. They have a series of vibrating screens and fans that separate the rice grains from the chaff and they have a polishing process that turns the rice very white. There are also other by-products of different densities and sizes and some of these are used to make rice flour and others are used for animal feed. Not much is wasted here; they seem to be able to get every possible use out of a product.
As we traveled back to Saigon, our guide was commenting on the cost of new cars. It appears that most cars cost over twice what they cost in the US. We speculated that this may be a way of discouraging their purchase and a way to keep the roads which have marginal capacity from over crowding. A Mercedes or Lexus will cost over $300,000.
March 11-13
To Nha Trang. After a short 55 minute flight on Vietnam Air, we landed at the airport in Cam Ranh, constructed by the US in the 60’s, it still has the barracks and bunkers standing and the terminal remains the same. Very basic and with a definite US military feel for those who can recall that environs. The coastal area of Cam Ranh is very similar to the coastal area that is seen in the area of Jacksonville FL.
As we made our way north over the 30 km to Nha Trang, the coast changed to resemble that of Big Sur with high cliffs above the water and the road along these cliffs. The surf was much less strong than seen along Big Sur and there were a lot of fish farms and commercial fishing operations seen close to shore.
As we traveled, here and elsewhere, I have made note of the really shoddy workmanship in most of the infrastructure. While they seem to have all the equipment that we have in the west to build buildings and highways, they look very crude when completed. When I have looked at some construction work in progress, I have noticed large defects within concrete pours for walls and beams that have left re-bar exposed and the workers were simply filling these with stucco. Similarly, there were areas in which the runs of re-bar were not contiguous both in vertical and horizontal structural elements. It reminds me it is fortunate that this area doesn’t have much earthquake activity.
While we are in Nha Trang, we are not actually in Nha Trang but rather on an island off shore about one mile. The resort is called the Vinpearl. It is really built up to be a classy place and it is a nice place but they have a lot to do to make it a real destination. First, being off the coast really makes it tough to visit town where most of the nightlife and restaurants are located. And when you do take the boat to shore, it is a ten minute taxi ride to down town…so, you feel a bit stranded. While they do have a tram that runs to and from the island, it takes a lot longer and puts you no closer to town.
In the resort itself, the staff is very gracious but their English is still very poor and it is difficult to communicate such things as a need for a 220 to 110 voltage converter or to make special requests for travel arrangements. At the pool, they have an excellent bar service but they have a real time serving beer that is really cold and the drinks such as daiquiris somehow are not cold and icy. While they seem to wait on you in a timely fashion, it is nearly a daylong event to get a bill.
While here, the GI virus that I had been seeing and treating in Doha caught me and I had a less than enjoyable 36 hours as that bug made its presence noted first in my proximal GI tract and then more distal. I think the main purpose of this virus was to move the middle of my GI tract toward which ever end seemed handy. Kind of like being turned inside out in two different directions…..I am sure you get the picture….fortunately Lisa did not get any pictures.
We took a tour out of Nha Trang up north where we went to another beach resort area that our guide explained was planned for a lot of development for tourists in the near future. While the beach is nice, it is bounded by a deep water port on one side and a large ship yard on the other which leaves the visible ambiance wanting.
Later that day, we did an “eco tour” to Bo Ha which is a small fresh water creek that has had its upper areas made into a park where no one can live or harvest (except bamboo). While it was a pretty area, it was far from pristine. There was lots of paper trash and they have painted the signs for the trail directions on the rocks with red spray paint.
While we had a nice time here, it was spent recovering from the virus and found the locale lacking in what we look for in terms of a resort destination. So we are off to Hanoi.
March 14
My 56th birthday. We were greeted by our guide Duc bearing a bouquet of roses and a birthday gift of an XXL T-shirt with the logo “Good Morning Vietnam” with the Vietnamese flag. A nice touch.
We are staying at the M-Hotel which is a higher end place and its rates are in the $300 range….much higher than we had intended.
We had the afternoon free so I had two massages separated by a very good workout. It felt good to get a good pump and to get past the aches and pains of 56 years of underestimating gravity, momentum, and impact. Testosterone is enabling but not protective.
March 15-18
Hanoi has been a disappointment. The infrastructure has not been maintained and unlike Saigon, there isn’t much new development. The city is very dirty both in terms of sanitation and lots of litter. Trash is thrown onto the sidewalk or streets where people rummage through it until it eventually gets picked up by the “trash crew”. In the mean time it smells and we frequently saw rats running around in the trash and litter.
The communist presence is definitely more noticeable in the north. On our city tour, we visited the tomb of Ho Chi Minh. There were a lot of guards and ceremonial types of military displays. Our guide who is quite smitten with Ho and his memory, Uncle Ho Chi Minh as he called him, explained that most Vietnamese honor his memory and actually make him a god like figure. I was impressed with the tour of the national “house” similar to our Whitehouse. While we could not tour the house, it was a pretty French type building that is reserved for “official events”. What impressed me is that after Ho completed his revolution and kicked the Frogs out of North Vietnam, he didn’t live in this house but preferred to live in a small two room house next door saying that the leader of the people should not live above the level of the common people. While he was a champion of the Vietnamese underdogs and working class, his protégés have bastardized his dreams and flaunt the power; status and money given to them by belonging to the party and working for the government. One can see the cycle of poverty, widening socioeconomic differentials and revolution working here. Only by keeping the poor un-informed, misinformed, and uneducated, can the “well to do” maintain their status. I was surprised to learn from our guide that if people are to get an education, they have to pay the government for it. While the government does provide the schools and the teachers, the people are taxed individually for using them…..quite a successful way to keep the poor from getting an education.
I think that I have mentioned earlier about how the people here seem to waste little and make use of nearly all parts of the plants, equipment, and animals. I have realized in the last few days that they do waste a lot of white paint….the white paint that they use to paint lanes on the streets and highways. After two weeks of being on the road here, I have not figured out what the rules of the road are. The motorbikes seem to go both directions in both lanes and cross traffic where they feel necessary. I have seen no indication that anyone pays any attention to the traffic signs or signals. Red lights seem to mean that the other traffic” has the right of way” but they certainly don’t stop for the red lights. Pedestrians cross the road wherever they like and just put their upstream arm in the air to indicate that they want the cars and bikes to make room for them. It was a bit comical to watch an old mama san lifting her bicycle over the double guardrail that made up the median of one of their freeways.
The traffic laws are selectively enforced and the fines are generally paid to the cop who gives the citation. He decides on the fine and provides no change…..so, if you have a 50,000 Dong fine ($3.00) and only have a 100,000 dong bill, he keeps the difference. I suspect that they have figured which level of fines will enable them to make the most of the difference. Seatbelts are required for those in the front seats of vehicles and all on motorbikes have to wear helmets. Again, this seems to be very selectively enforces as many people follow neither of these laws. I wonder if the enforcement doesn’t occur when the cop determines he needs another couple hundred Dong to meet his monthly budget.
Watching the huge amount of manual labor that is done here performing jobs that are done by machine in the modern world makes me wonder what will happen as mechanization hits. Just in the production of rice, even with the cheap labor, I can’t imagine that mechanization would not increase production and reduce the total cost. What then happens to the huge numbers employed in that occupation? They actually sprout the rice in small plots and then plant the individual plants by hand. They then harvest it with sickles and bundle it by hand and then carry it to a small motorized threshing machine that separates the grain from the straw. The straw is then rebundled for feed for animals.
I am surely showing my age by having such a vividly bad memory of the hammer and sickle insignia of the flag of the old USSR. Obviously, there is still a strong communist connection with that insignia as it still flies besides the national flag in certain locations and in many of the national monuments you see it displayed as well. I think this is a historical association more than representing any current relationship or loyalty to Russia.
All of our guides made it quite clear that while the country is Communist, free trade and capitalism are a necessary fact of life. Before the concept of allowing people to work for themselves and taking a share of the profit rather than getting a set amount of allowance for food and money based upon family size, there was a very low level of productivity in the country and in fact there was an issue of hunger due to lack of poor rice production. Since capitalism is allowed and hard work and productivity are rewarded, Vietnam has become an exporter of rice and many other products.
Other countries are capitalizing on the huge, inexpensive labor force in Vietnam. It is common for these foreign companies to pay an equivalent to $700 to $900 per month for 14 hour days and 2 days off per month. Despite the fact that this sounds terrible by western standards, this puts these workers above the average income and according to our guides, they feel fortunate to be able to do this kind of work rather than the very hard agricultural work required otherwise. A similar phenomenon to what we see in the US as many of the young people are leaving the agricultural business to go into something that is not 24/7 and which has a guaranteed salary and time off.
March 19-21
It was nice to get back to Saigon after our time in the north. The south is much more “user friendly” from the viewpoint of a westerner. At the same time, almost everything is cheaper and the service provided in the hotels and restaurants is better. It was also very nice to get back to warmer, dryer weather.
We had no plans for our remaining time in Saigon so explored the city a bit more on our own and found a nice store in which Lisa had an Ao Dai custom made for 50 dollars and I got two very nice silk dress shirts for $25 each. (I bought a similar shirt in Hanoi and it cost me $35 after a lot of haggling).
Of course, I had to get my daily massage which is such a real treat for me since I am an aficionado of that art. While it is hard to get a bad massage, there were a couple here in Vietnam who were as marginal as I have experienced. On the other hand, I had three or four excellent Thai massages. One “masseuse” spent most of her time trying to convince me that I needed a “special” massage for a $40 “tip”. Nearly all of them did offer at the end of your allotted time to perform some extra manual therapy for $5-10. One, when I said I wasn’t interested, continued to pursue the issue, as if I wanted “boom boom” for only $70 extra. I was intrigued as to how these “extras” were provided in that all of the massage rooms had doors with windows. One would have to have some exhibitionist qualities to partake. I was teasingly testing one of the girls after her offer of “value added services” and asked her if she gave specials to her female clients as well. After first being confused, she then acted quite disgusted when she realized what I was asking….kind of giving me a response like, “What kind of a girl do you think I am?”
Today, the 21st, was mostly a pool day as we waited for our flight time at 20:00 in the evening. We did take a short trip down the street a couple of blocks to pick up the custom made Ao Dai that Lisa had ordered only 16 hours before. It was awesome and a perfect fit.
I spent time today reflecting on our trip and on my return to Vietnam after 35 years. I am happy to note that the ghosts of time past did not haunt me except for the one night after going to the Cu Chi tunnels. I felt a great deal of antagonism and animosity toward the soldiers that I encountered at the Ho Chi Minh tomb. While there, we encountered a group of veterans of the North Vietnamese army who were also visiting. In that group, there was one man wearing his old uniform and the “Hollywood” sunglasses that were such a status symbol in the 70’s. I felt an immediate dislike and aggression toward him and when our gazes met for a bit, I think that he had similar emotions. Time heals and while we try to forgive and forget, there will always be triggers that take us back and rekindle unpleasant emotions.
My summary is that Vietnam is a nice place to visit with a lot to see but it is not somewhere to which I would return. While they do have some nice beach resort areas, they are very trashed with litter and the service mentality expected at that type of locale is not developed. And it seems like it is a very crude attempt at being 4 or 5 star service but very little to offer for lower level accommodations. 
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