Familiar Names

Being in Viet Nam stimulates memories of names of so many places I never expected to see when I would listen to news reports back in the war days. This morning I traveled by bus from Ha Noi to Ha Long Bay. I think Ha Long Bay is where fellow Valdostan Norman Huggins was shot down and barely rescued from the bay by an American helicopter amidst exchanged gun fire between the helicopter and an approaching Vietnamese gun ship. If You have a chance to hear Norman tell the story do not miss it. It is a nail biter! Ha Long Bay is one of the most beautiful spots in Viet Nam and I look forward to exploring tomorrow.

ATM

Aren't ATM's wonderful? With your little plastic card you can go to a cash dispenser almost any place in the world and within seconds make a withdrawal from your account back home. I had a small problem today however. I requested 2 million Dong ($200) from an ATM in the market of old Ha Noi but I only received 1.5 million (3 half million Dong notes). I advised the the bank owning the ATM and also notified my bank in Valdosta. If all goes well the missing half million Dong will be credited to my account. If not I am out of $25. Could be worse and I surely learned a lesson: Always find an ATM attached to an bank and use it during working hours.

Tourist in Hanoi

This was John McCain's jumpsuit which he was wearing when he was captured. Fellow Democrats, do not worry. I am not switching!!!

Hoa Lo Prison, built by the French to incarcerate dissidents, was used during the war and dubbed "Hanoi Hilton". Propaganda abounds here and pictures of the imprisoned POW's show all happy and healthy looking Americans. In addition to McCain the current US Ambassador to Viet Nam was imprisoned here.

Statue of Confucius at the Temple of Literature.

Entrance to the Temple of Literature. This temple was founded in 1070and was the first university in the country. Highly placed men came here to study Confucius.

The War Strategy room in Ha Noi. What could have been avoided here and in D.C.

Tran Quoc Pagoda, one of the oldest in the country, was restored after heavy damage in the war.

Sometimes a city tour is the best way to get to know a few interesting highlights of a place. I booked a tour through my hotel and I thought I had made a good decision assuming since my tour was only 3 people that we would all be English speaking. Sadly the other 2 were Vietnamese from Sai Gon, so I understood little of the commentary. Well, I did get to see some important and interesting places anyway.

The most interesting things often are not on the tour. I am staying in the Old Quarter of Ha Noi which has been the shopping area for centuries. No doubt many of the wares have changed although some things like gongs and ducks and straw mats must have always been available. What impressed me most however was a street dedicated to the sale of new clothes all with U.S. Army insignia. Weren't we the enemy? Go figure!

A Few Random Observations

• Books I always enjoy life more when I am involved with a good book. After getting into the final 100 pages I start to dread reaching the last page and I ration my reading to forestall finishing. I started this trip with "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy, a favorite author who writes about beloved low country South Carolina where I spent a lot of time growing up. I hated coming to the inevitable conclusion. Now I am in that hateful stage of reading Michale Palin's "Himalaya" which is the former Monty Python actor's travel log of crossing the Himalayan Mountain Range from Afghanistan to Central China. Many hotels and cafes in Viet Nam have book exchanges so I hope to get lucky again when I seek new reading material.
• Onions I see all kinds of produce here. The markets abound with familiar and unfamiliar looking fruits and veggies. I succumbed to the taste for American food a few days ago and ordered a hamburger (which was actually very good). What I realized while eating my burger and fries is that I do not recall seeing a nice big ordinary slicing onion in any Asian market. How odd that something so very common to us is not available here.
• Crowds This is an unbelievably congested, noisy and crowded country. Ha Noi seems more so than any other place I have visited. The streets are narrow and the sidewalks are full of parked motorbikes and vendors selling food, belts, tee shirts, sunglasses; so pedestrians must walk on the edge of the street continuously aware of cars, bicycles and motorbikes all around. My observations of Ha Noi make New York City seem practically bucolic.
• Language The language of Viet Nam consists of all single syllable words. Note the way that the locals spell Ha Noi and Viet Nam.
• Uncle Ho Now that I am in Hanoi I am aware that Ho Chi Minh is accorded almost saintly status. In other parts of the country one can not help but notice his esteemed presence everywhere but Hanoi kicks it to a higher level. He is the George Washington of Viet Nam and I have read accounts of the USA in the years following the American Revolution that George Washington was similarly revered. I was disappointed today that his tomb in which resides his preserved remains is closed for renovation. It would have been interesting to see the local people pay tribute.

God Bye Hue and Hello Hanoi

Mellifluous Perfume River in Hue

Dining room at Jenny Li's home

Dinner is served

I spent my last days in Hue with new friends I met at a travel agency near my hotel. My new friends from the agency Hong and Jenny Li were happy for an opportunity to practice English.

What started out as coffee at a very local and very chic coffee shop turned into a lunch invitation at Jenny Li's. I stopped by a bakery and took a cake for dessert. Later in the day as the agency was closing at 9PM, I stopped by to thank everyone for their hospitality and we decided to go out for a few beers which we had in an open air restaurant next to the Perfume River. One would expect a sweet smell from a river so named but I never detected any scent at all. That was a little disappointing.

I arrived this morning in Hanoi after a very uncomfortable sleeping bus ride. Previously my sleeping bus trips have been quite satisfactory, but on this bus I was assigned a bunk in the back of the bus right over the wheel well and my much too close next door neighbor snored all the night. I was ready to get off the bus long before we arrived at our destination.

I remember the horror and anger that the name Hanoi used to inspire. Hard to believe that I am here. I have forayed only briefly out of the hotel because I still feel rather wiped out after my overnight bus trip. Near my hotel I spotted what appeared to be a theatre so I went in to inquire about shows. The cast was just leaving rehearsals as I walked in and so they gave me a ticket to the performance tomorrow night. From the publicity shots it looks like Chinese opera, but you know it's all Greek to me. If there is any resentment of Americans here, I surely have not experienced it.

Hi Ho Hue

The Citadel of Hue

In the rain

Tu Heiu Pagoda overlooking the Perfume River

From Hoi An to Hue was a very short trip on the bus, leaving at 8 AM and arriving at noon. Just a half hour out of Hoi An we stopped at Marble Mountain which is a huge escarpment of marble and a center of marble sculpture. Wisely the Vietnamese have chosen not to excavate any more of their marble and so most of the sculpture is from imported Chinese material. (Seeing this as an example, the present Chinese economic success will eventually bankrupt them of natural resources and probably lead to some serious problems.) Approaching the mountain the road is lined with shops selling beautiful carved Buddhas, goddesses, lanterns and other things to decorate your yard or temple. Had I my truck with me, I am sure I would have shopped for just the right piece for my patio. As it was I settled for a fist sized carved Buddha.

We arrived on schedule in Hue and I was hustled by one of the bus greeters to have a look at his hotel and that is where I am staying. It is actually fine and I the price does not reflect any commission paid to him as far as I can tell. As usual I am in the backpacker area so there are a lot of other tourists around and it is entertaining and enlightening the share road stories. For example the day I arrived i was speaking with a Canadian and a Brit who had arrived the same day but from Hanoi in the north. One had traveled by bus and the other by train and both had been delayed by about 14 hours due to flooding. That is the direction I am headed and I am happy that the flooding now has past. This was a result of a typhoon then in the Philippines and now in China.

I was lucky to meet an excellent tour guide here who has shown me around. We went the first day to the citadel which was the royal compound. Hue was the imperial capital of Vietnam from 1805 until 1945 and the kings built for themselves a private city to inhabit. One king would have several wives and as many as 200 concubines. Evidently the kings cared little for sleep. I expect there must have been a lot of people hired as nurses and diaper changers. My guide told me his great-great grandmother was the second wife of one of the kings and he referred to the palace as his ancestral home. During this time the French colonized Vietnam and there were frequent battles between the kings' forces and the colonists until the French finally had a puppet ruler installed on the throne.

The next day was an day long trip out of the city to the kings' tombs. Each king had a complete palace built for himself as a burial area. Prior to his death these palaces were places the royals would go for relaxation. The exact burial sites for the kings is unknown for fear that enemies might want to disturb the resting places.

I am declaring today a day of leisure. Having sightseen the important sights places I am looking forward to some leisure time along the beautifully named Perfume River. It is 730 in the morning and I am meeting some new friends for coffee at 830. Perhaps my plans will change after out meeting, but I do want to take it easy today.

My Son

No, I have not discovered a long unknown heir to my fortunes. Max the cat is still my one and only son. "My Son" is Vietnamese for "holy mountain" and visiting My Son was an interesting day trip out of Hoi An.

I booked a tour to My Son with my hotel and was picked up at 0800. The tour was not full so the minivan was comfortable. As always the tour was conducted in English although there were several non native English speakers touring. I resent the USA's efforts to dominate politics and business all over the world but I do enjoy the benefit that English is used worldwide as a common language of communication.

I wonder if non English speakers can understand the sometimes heavily accented English used here in Vietnam. I often struggle to catch words or phrases and they are speaking my language. How difficult it must be if you are Italian, Spanish, French, etc. to translate from Viet-English to standard English to your own language. It is the same, by the way with currency. Often prices here are quoted in unweildy Vietnamese Dong and also in US dollars. Fortunately for me, I have no further conversion to make. New Zealanders, Europeans, Japanese, etc. on the other hand must make an additional conversion. To explain my use of the word unweildy above, there are about 20,000 Vietnamese dong to one dollar. That means you must move the decimal place 4 to the left and then divide by 2 to calculate the dollar amount. When I go to the ATM here to withdraw money the maximum I can withdraw at one time is a whopping 2 million dong. 2,000,000 Dong is only $100, but it seems like a lot and it is difficult to count the number of zeroes on a bill .

Well, that was an aside and now back to the main event. My Son was founded in the second century by people called Cham who came to this part of the world from Indonesia. The religion was a localized form of Hinduism so there are remains of Shivas and Krishnas all around. The Chams ruled the area for about 14 centuries. I noticed the similarity of the artwork (sculpture) here to that in Cambodia's Angkor Wat, not surprisingly, but, inexplicably similar to some that I have seen in temples in Mexico, Peru and Guatemala. It seems to me there must be some anthopological connection between these cultures so far apart. I would like to research the idea when I have time.

Time and civilization have taken their toll on the temples and there were many more temples than now exist. A great amount of damage was caused by American bombing during the war. On this point even the official stand does take some responsibility since the Viet Cong used the temples as hideouts thus prompting the bombings. It is not often that the American actions are portrayed so magnanimously.

Nha Trang to Hoi An

The Japanese Bridge built in 1600's by local Japanese merchants to honor their emperor
Waterfront in Hoi An


Champa dance demonstration

Lantern making is a tradition here. Would love to bring some home with me but too early in the trip to start acquiring things like that.

I departed Nha Trang bound for Hoi An on the "sleeping bus" which was about a 10 hour ride. I had only seen the Vietnamese sleeper buses through the windows and I always felt they looked quite comfy, certainly better than those I had experienced in Laos. The entire bus was configured with lower and upper bunks designed to accommodate Asian size bodies, now over sized westerners, but I scrunched in, snuggled under the blanket they provided, donned my well used eye shades (my gratitude to the inventor) and actually slept fairly well. Two or three times during the night the bus stopped and the co-drivers got out, opened the motor compartment, fiddled around and then resumed the trip. Each time that happened I thought, "Oh, no! This is gonna be bad.", but we arrived in Hoi An right on schedule at 6 AM. Interesting to me was the policy when boarding the bus all passengers were given plastic bags for shoes so you walked barefooted from the door of the bus to your bunk.

I found a hotel close by the bus stop which will also be my departure point when I leave here, and after a short rest set out to explore Hoi An. This is an ancient city dating back to the second century. It was the principle port for international trade in this part of Asia from around 1200 until the mid 1800's. Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Persian, Indonesian, Portuguese, French, British and American ships called here and traded in silk, porcelain, paper, sugar, pepper, lacquer, mother of pearl, sulphur and lead. Fortunately by cooperation on both sides this city was not damaged in the war.

Baby Got New Shoes

Historically Hoi An in a merchant town and today that tradition is well in effect today. One does not go anywhere and not encounter shop keepers and street vendors trying to relieve you of a little hard earned moola. There are tee shirts, souvenirs, peanuts, candied ginger everywhere. Also there are tailors and shoe makers.

I resisited the above tempations (some were not so tempting actually) pretty well up to a point. Finally I caved in to the idea of custom made shoes so I decided to look at least. First I was presented with a huge display of shoes from which I could select the style I wanted. Then I was given a choice of leathers. Now came the time to negotiate price which started at $48. I explained I had a budget of $25, but I would consider going to a maximum of$30. After a persistent but low pressure discussion I agreed to "help out" the salesgirl and we settled on $33. She was good! I was measured and told to return the next day for a fitting. About 24 hours after my first contact I walked out of the store with my new shoes (but not wearing them because the glue had not set). It was kind of empowering to custom design shoes and I felt a bit Donald Trumpish.

Where Pho Is King

Pho is to the Vietnamese what grits is (or should I say are) to us Georgians. Pho is soup served in a huge bowl with a lot of noodles, a little meat and broth. Always a side dish piled high with all kind of veggies is served with pho and these are added to the broth making for a delicious filling and healthy breakfast. Above is a Nha Trang restaurant which serves good pho and caters to tourists

Searching for Sponge Bob

After a last minute weather observation I decided to take a chance on the skies not opening for another drenching and booked a snorkling trip out of the Nha Trang harbor. What a shame I did not have an underwater camera because some of the sights were so perfectly photographical. The tour lasted about 6 hours and stopped at 3 snorkling sites. After the second stop the guests climbed aboard and what awaited us was a tasty lunch served on the deck chairs which had been flatted into a makeshift dining table. As an added bonus the owner declared our trip to be a free beer, free soda cruise since all 20 spots were taken.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintainence

I am still here in Nha Trang enjoying the days by the ocean. Despite a few torrential rains the weather has been good, not too hot and fine for the beach. For the past two nights the rain has come while I was sleeping and it sounds like the roof might fall in under the impact. I am always glad when the rain comes while I am comfortably inside and sleeping because it seems that there is a correlation "rainy at night, sun shining bright." I especially enjoy waking up in the hotel and looking out at sunrise over the China Sea. The sun surely does rise early here, before 0600.

Two days ago a Vietnamese friend and I rented a motorbike to explore the area around the city. We decided to head south where there are beautiful beaches with crystalline water (and no pollution like right here in the city.) The beach we found exceeded expectations and we were able to take our motorbike right on to the sand and ride for a long distance. All was perfect until we decided to ride back to one of the fisherman huts and try to buy some lunch. The ignition switch was inoperative! Not only were we unable to start the bike but we also could not get in to the underseat storage compartment where our money and phone were because the same ignition switch unlocked and locked that compartment.

I was becoming a little anxious at this point because we really were far from any town and other people. We started pushing the bike along and finally came to a beachside shack (truly a shack and not a cute cafe that calls itself a shack) where there were 4 really rough looking characters eating lunch and drinking whiskey. If we had been in Georgia I am sure the soundtrack of "Duelling Banjos" would have been playing. There was supposed to be a screwdiver at the next place down the beach and sure enough there was so we brought it back to our bike and one the above characters took a look at our bike unsuccessfully.

We continued onward pushing the bike to where we got the screwdriver and the lady there knew of a mechanic and she called. About a half hour later the fixer arrived and began his investigation of the problem. This was a Japanese (Suzuki) bike and just like a Japanese car, you have to take everything apart to get to what you want because all is so interconnected. We had the bike in pieces spread out on the beach and finally he made a temporary fix and the bike started.

Then it was time to pay but our money was still locked up so the next challenge was to get into the storage area. Mechanics are almost magician-like to me and eventually he was able to open the underseat storage. For his services he asked for 25,000 Vietnamese Dong. That is one dollar and twenty five cents. That's right sportsfans, a buck twenty five for his trip out to us and well over an hour of work. It would not be so bad to take your car to the shop at home at that rate.

Being hot and sandy my friend asked the proprietress if there was a shower and she offered us what she had, which was a deep well and a bucket. Standing on a few planks of wood you would drop the bucket into the well and pour water over your head. That was the first shower like that I ever had.

Beautifu Teeth

I am back in Nha Trang and now I remember why I really liked Vietnam. This is a delightful city bounded on the west by mountains and on the east by the ocean. I am reminded again of Rio de Janiero back when it was a pretty safe and inexpensive place to visit. I have spent the past two afternoons on the beach, so now I feel like I am really on vacation. I have an excellent hotel overlooking the ocean and it is only $10 per night. "Why not just splurge sometimes?", I always say.

If there is a downside to being here it is the ceaseless parade of salespeople offering sunglasses, maps, fans, beer, massage, marijuana, tours, books and the list goes on. I think these are hard working entrepreneurs which I admire and nothing like the stereotyped communists we were taught to detest back in my school days. I told one little girl who was selling fans that I was sorry but I was not interested. She huffily told me she did not want my sorry, she wanted my help.

If you wonder about the title of today's blog, "beautiful teeth" is the translation of Nha Trang. No one has been able to tell me the origin of the name, but now I recognize the signs for dental clinics because they incorporate the word "nha" and I have seen "trang" meaning beautiful used for hotels, restaurants and other places.

Dalat, Vietnam

These are two orchids I saw today at the famous Dalat Flower Display.

Wandering in the market I came across this tasty looking salad bar. Where is the oil and vinegar?

I took the first leg of my long bus trip to the north of Vietnam yesterday traveling from Saigon to Dalat. What I had expected to be a 5 hour ride turned into almost 8, but I had two seats to myself so it wasn't bad. Also I am reading an excellent book by Pat Conroy, one of his earlier ones- The Great Santini , and that helped pass the time. The roads in this part of Vietnam are excellent, however going is slow because the entire way of about 200 miles we were almost always in some settled area. It seems there is hardly any open highway in Vietnam. I had forgotten that from my previous trip. Of course the motorbikes are everywhere and every driver seems to be alerting every other driver with a beep beep of his horn.

Dalat is antithetical to HCMC. The streets are not clogged, and the mood is much easier going. This is where the Vietnamese have traditionally come for honeymoons and also for the refreshing coolness. This is tea, coffee and grape growing country, and the tea and coffee are delicious but the wine is not good. One would think that the French would at least have left a good wine making legacy. I think I will stick to beer here in Vietnam. Very few people including those in my tourist hotel speak English.

Since the weather here is very rainy and is supposed to stay that way I will leave tomorrow for Nha Trang on the coast. I remember Nha Trang for an excellent beach and great breakfasts from my last trip. I am hoping that I can still find the same breakfast spot, but the beach should be easy to spot.

That's What I Call Rain

Yesterday I went to the outskirts of HCMC to meet a Vietnamese-American man who operates an English school for corporate executives. Trying to blend into the local scene as much as possible I hired a motorbike taxi for the round trip from my hotel to the suburbs. Going out took just about 45 minutes and the driver was as daredevil as a New York taxi driver, only I was sitting on the back of a motorbike and not in the back seat of a relatively secure taxi. The danger factor is probably about 1000%, but we made it to my appointment on schedule.

By the time I was ready to return to the city the light drizzle of the early afternoon had turned into a full fledged downpour, so I donned the plastic poncho I had carried with me and climbed on the back of the bike. The streets were jammed with thousands of motorbikes all jockeying for the pole position at seldom observed traffic lights while trying to avoid the deeper puddles of accumulated rain. More than once we brushed against another bike but no harsh words were exchanged and after over an hour of sloshing through the streets of Saigon, I was back at my hotel thoroughly exhausted by the waterlogged trip home. I learned (aa new expression in Vietnamese today. The motor bike taxis are called "xe om", "xe" being the word for taxi and "om" being the word for hug. That is how you ride these conveyances, hugging the driver for dear life.

The result of the job interview, by the way, was that I got an offer to teach. After considerable thought about the matter I decided that this would not be a city where I care to spend too much more time, so I declined the offer for now. How different my situation is now from those days back in the 70's when I was desperate for any job I could get as a recent college graduate. I like this scenario much better.

Undecided

Discussion group at the Sunday English Speaking Club

I have been here in HCMC for a week and have barely made an attempt at finding a teaching job. When I was planning this trip teaching seemed to be a fine idea but now that I am here in Asia with so much unexplored territory at hand I am having doubts about anchoring myself to one city. I will take a few more days and send out a few feelers to see what happens. If a job turns up then I will follow that course. If not I am mapping out a slow trek to the north of Vietnam. This is a long narrow country and to go from south to north will take a few weeks.

"What is he doing the rest of the time?", you may be wondering. This is a huge city of over 8 million and I enjoy wandering the neighborhoods, stopping in at the rare temples for a little quiet meditation and the ubiquitous markets for a sensory onslaught. I leisurely explore the museums and I stop at cafes for a coffee or beer. In every place there are Vietnamese people anxious to speak with a foreigner and I sometimes enjoy the almost celebrity status.

Yesterday I went to the English Speaking Club at the suggestion of a Vietnamese friend who thought that I might get some job leads there. There were over 100 people; young children, students and older adults; who meet on Sunday afternoons because they enjoy speaking English. I only saw one other westerner (as we are called) so I was quite a sensation. The recommended discussion of the day was "movies" and after about an hour of chat in small groups a formal program began. There were games like identifying theme songs from movies and guessing the title of movies from verbal clues. Of course the movies were English and I was surprised at the knowledge of these Anglophiles.