Feb 2007

what a tour it has been! im currently entering my last week of travel in vietnam and the sights, sounds and smells still arouse the senses.

the old quarter in hanoi is a labyrinth of narrow streets that are filled with colorful characters selling everything from gravestones to silk suits. i arrived here at 5:30am on my birthday and found the nicest "budget" hotel, which included a bathtub and hot water, two amenities i haven't had thus far on the trip. the last few days i've been roaming the quarter and indulging in some tasty treats, especially the french pastries that cost a whopping $.40!!!

about 4 hrs from hanoi on the gulf of tonkin is halong bay, home to a natural wonder out at sea. literally thousands of limestone islands rise up from the waters to create a surreal setting. i cruised on a boat through the fog and spent a night onboard with some new friends. the light wasn't ideal for photography, but the clouds and fog made for an eerie night in the middle of the bay. the 2nd day i went for a "trek", which was a 4km walk up a mountain. our tour "guide" was chain-smoking and walking in flip-flops (thongs). as you can imagine it wasn't quite the warm-up for nepal that i was hoping for. the kayak trip through the islands was a wonderful way to end the trip, and also to earn a few beer hanoi's in the evening.

as for the trip between the major cities, hoi an and the DMZ have been the highlights. i was fortunate enough to stay in hoi an for tet, the vietnamese new year. for one week, the people of this beautiful country spend time with their family and celebrate the nation getting one year older. hoi an, an old trading post that was utilized by portuguese, japanese and chinese (to name a few), is supposedly the cultural heart of vietnam. the fading yellow facades of old houses and brick streets certainly add an aesthetic feel that is unique in vietnam, but the sheer number of tourists make modern vietnamese culture invisible.

before i embarked on the hellish overnight to hanoi, i enjoyed a day touring the DMZ. the 17th parallel was the Demilitarized Zone from 1954 until Saigon fell on April 30th, 1975. throughout vietnam, underground tunnels were built by the viet cong to avoid intense bombing campaigns undertaken by the US. i went 15m beneath the earth's surface and saw firsthand where hundreds of people lived and 17 children were born!!!! tiny areas of rock were beds and muddy hallways led the vietnamese from the shores of the pacific into the jungle. it was truly an elaborate and well-thought out plan. afterwards the bus pulled up to khe san, and several former US helicopters were in the foreground. a few vietnamese men were selling US and Vietnamese dog tags, and the thoughts of the war surfaced in a gut-wrenchging way.

i have met countless vietnamese men, women and children on this journey. nearly everyone who can speak english asks where i come from. the answer america has rarely had a negative response, and more often than not they smile and say they want to visit my home country. the past has not been forgotten, but the people i have met here are looking to the future, to improve their country and become a desirable place to live. my experience in vietnam has been as much about the beautiful sights as it has been about meeting the people and sharing some great memories. the bia hoi always makes for a great night out!

all my vietnam pics are under the link to the right, but here are a few that i have time to include. (gotta catch a night train to the mountains....)

MEKONG DELTA


SAIGON (HO CHI MINH)

DALAT





NHA TRANG




HOI AN




DMZ


HANOI

Greetings from Viet Nam!

The French city design seems neverending in SE Asia. I guess the colonizers put the locals straight to work when they got here.

After cruising around Saigon I've come to the conclusion that traffic circles only add to the dangerous nature of urban motorbiking. Crossing the road between oncoming Hondas, driven by women covered from head-to-toe in a combination of silk and cotton, has become the norm here. I can't say my method is very complex. I look to the right or left, and just hope they don't hit me. Usually the men slow down to offer me a ride with the ubiquitous question "Where you go?". After a negative reply the driver cordially asks if I'd care for a prostitute or drugs. Apparently all white men are interested in only two things in life-getting laid and getting high. Ponder that thought and let me know its' validity.

Absolute chaos exists on all corners around my room, which is the 2nd floor of a silk shop. I can't go to bed until 3am, when the motorbikes and prostitutes dull down, and there are vendors hollering from 6 or 7 in the morning. Luckily I have Coltrane on the Ipod to put me back to sleep.

Yesterday I scoped out the city's attractions, which include a plethora of Ho Chin Minh statues and American War Museums. The pictures inside the main War Museum were absolutely striking-deformed babies, soldiers with limbs ripped off, forests destroyed by Agent Orange and of course, smiling portraits of the "culprits"-a succession of US Presidents, Robert McNamara and Henry Kissinger.

A propaganda stunt precedes the goods of the museum, in which the "Prelude to War" is summarized to make the reader believe that the imperialist Americans were the first to take the Vietnamese land. The imperialist French and Japanese were almost completely overlooked, but I guess the main emphasis of the museum was the American War. A French guillotine was situated inside a fake torture room, which paled in comparison to the real detention center that the Khmer Rouge used in Phnom Penh. Without the work of countless photojournalists, including one skillful Japanese man (jozu desu ne!), this museum would be severely lacking. The American war vessels outside provide some real-life flair, but I believe Howard Zinn's chapter on Vietnam was more insightful than any message provided at the War Museum.

Upon entering Nam I decided to rent a motorbike for a few days and venture into the Mekong Delta. The rice bowl of Vietnam was full of picturesque landscapes-floating morning markets, women in conical hats next to shades of green vegetable crops and rice baking on the pavement. Green Mekong water was never far from the dirt roads I bumped over, and the smells always enticed my appetite. The rice-paper wraps with fresh veggies, meats and peanut sauce are just divine. The friendly nature of the Southern Vietnamese was a wonderful way to start my trip, especially considering the Saigon hawks are setting prices 10 times what they should be. Bargaining has lost much of its' entertainment value here, but I'm still up for a good-natured argument over a quarter. It's all about the 4000 dong.

Tomorrow I'm off to Dalat, an old French outpost situated in the mountains. Hopefully the cool air will provide some respite from the sweaty nights I've spent underneath countless fans. Life never gets boring on the road. There's always a new town to go to.