Vietnam
Back to our Past, but the Best Part is the Present
The authorities have banned ocean going ships from sailing up
the Mekong, so we motored up the Saigon River instead to reach Ho Chi Minh City
(Saigon). Much of our time here, we have
spent trying to bridge the disconnect between the country that we last saw when
we here 49 years ago and what it is now.
We have been happy to see that Vietnam has made great progress in
modernizing the country. Although the
government is communist, capitalism is alive and well here and accounts for
much of the relative affluence, especially in Ho Chi Minh. We were
amazed to find stores selling Rolex, Gucci, Ferragamo and more. Skyscrapers and cranes pepper the landscape. There’s even a sky tower like the one in
Kuala Lumpur.
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| Night Skyline |
Our first activity here was cooking school. It was well organized, allowing us to cook a 4-course
meal and eat it during the course of the afternoon. The food was delicious and flavorful. Whereas Thai cooking depends more on chilis
and spiciness, Vietnamese food is flavored with herbs and just a bit of
spice. Some of these herbs looked like
weeds in the market place, but when tasted and shown to us in a class setting,
the flavors were fresh and lively.
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| Steamed Sea Bass in Banana Leaf |
Next was a day spent in the Mekong delta. Since the ship couldn’t go there, we spent 3
hours on a bus for a boat ride on the river and lunch. The only thing notable about this excursion
was that we drove through the city of Vinh Long, where Renee spent 7 ½ months
working on the base there during the war.
I have no clue where the base was relative to the town; in those days
Vinh Long was just a village on the Mekong.
Today, it is a busy city and appeared to be of some governmental (provincial)
importance, judging by the number of official buildings.
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| Boat Hauling Rice Hulls on the Mekong |
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| Life on the Mekong |
After the day in the Mekong delta, we disembarked the
ship. Just a few words about the
so-called expedition. Every day was met
with changes, cancellations, delays and disappointments. Lengthy bus trips were substituted for the
itinerary to try to meet expectations of the passengers, only to make things
worse, since most of us don’t travel on buses in groups . Many of us felt that we were being held
hostage! At the end of the cruise, the
expedition leader quit and walked off the ship.
He said he was tired of being beaten up by the guests. We’re not sure where the breakdowns occurred,
but it seemed that communication and coordination on every level was
compromised. The ship is continuing its
itinerary, sailing off tomorrow for Hong Kong.
We wish the new passengers luck!
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| Lunch on the Mekong |
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| Musician |
Saigon – Ho
Chi Minh City
The most poignant experience we had in the city was a tour of
the War Remnants Museum. It was very
touching and notable that most visitors there were very quiet and subdued as
they walked through the exhibits showing the horrors of the war. The worst of
the worst were the Agent Orange exhibits.
Unfortunately, some of the younger generation in our country don’t know
much about this period of our history.
We were trying to explain how we met to a young woman on the ship, and
she likened our story to a movie she saw about Pearl Harbor. She was surprised that it wasn’t the same
war. She was college educated and worked
in a professional capacity.
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| Photos from the War Museum |
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| Saigon Central Post Office Late 19th Century French Building (2 Photos) |
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| Opera House, Also Late 19th Century French Architecture |
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| Independence Palace |
We’re now staying at a lovely Vietnamese hotel and enjoying
the freedom of planning our days our way.
We have a couple more days before we fly to Hawaii, and we plan on
enjoying that stay, too, as we put the ship behind us and carry on.
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| The Myst Dong Khoi Hotel |
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| A Rapidly Growing City |
ADDITIONAL
THOUGHTS
The local people we have engaged for one reason or another in
our hotel, at shops or restaurants, do not seem to show any animosity towards
Americans. They are warm, friendly,
gracious and respectful. The US Dollar
for the most part is widely accepted.
Small motorcycles/scooters outnumber cars and are
everywhere. Fifty years ago, it was the
bicycle that predominated.
On our last day, we took a taxi northeast of Saigon back to the area that used to
be the base where we met 49 years ago.
The whole area is now an industrial park with lean-to cafes next to the
street. The taxi driver thought we were
utterly mad when we asked him to stop at one of them to take our photo. I guess he had a good story to tell his wife
that night.
