Travel Chapter 22- Vietnam

Pictures of this chapter can be seen at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/akeyserlingk/Vietnam2009?authkey=Gv1sRgCOT1vuP__r6uNw&feat=directlink

As we sail away from 5 days of Vietnam I cannot but be impressed again by how this small country has been able to pull itself into the 21 century in such a short time. After the end of the years of the American War in 1975 which had destroyed so much, Vietnam 30 years later has become a success story almost without precedent. Despite or some would say because of the Communist government, the private sector has flourished and Vietnam has become a major exporter of many products. It is the second largest exporter of coffee sending 1 million tons a year around the world. It is competitive and is now even competing with China to attract foreign investment.

We arrived in Saigon after a lovely trip up the Saigon River which takes about 2 hours as Saigon, or now called Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) is about 50 miles inland. It is an impressive trip as from the ship one sees farming on both sides of this huge river where rice, shrimp and other products are being farmed. The port of Saigon extends along one bank of the river for miles. Huge numbers of ships float up and down this river carrying the imports and exports of this industrialized city and region. The weather was hot and humid as usual. The place is so efficient that we picked up 2 immigration officers in Thailand who did all the paper work for our passports while at sea. This meant that we were cleared to go ashore as soon as we were tied up. This time our ship was given a birth almost down town and the ship had set up a shuttle bus to take us to downtown which was very convenient and avoided the need to deal with taxi drivers and motorized tuck tucks and bicycles and motorcycle drivers who always congregate at the port gates in all cities.

We opted to go to visit the Cu Chi tunnels which are about an hour out of Saigon. We hired a taxi to take us there and back. The tunnel system is how the Vietcong hid from the French first and later from the American troops. The Cu Chi system was one of the most elaborate and allowed the Viet Cong to come out of the tunnels, attack and then disappear without trace. The American troops knew little about the system and built one of their biggest bases in South Vietnam almost on top of this system. The system was huge with place for thousands of troops, hospitals, weapons factories and meeting halls. It is too bad that the presentation one now sees shows only a small remnant of what once was very much larger system. In these modern times, one could really produce a wonderful virtual reality presentation with computer developed images of what the tunnels once were. In addition to the tunnels, the Vietcong had made many rather gruesome traps into which soldiers fell in holes with spikes and other lethal killing equipment.

The Vietnamese show off this system with considerable pride and tourists come in droves to see them. They do give a sense of the dedication of the Vietnamese to fight against what they considered invaders and of the difficulty foreign troops fully equipped would have had to seek and destroy an enemy which was largely unseen. What is particularly impressive to me each time I visit this country is how well the Vietnamese have but this bad chapter behind them and have gotten on with developing their country. They do not dwell on this period in time which they refer to as the American war. They consider they won and they have moved beyond recriminations and self-examination.

We returned in the afternoon to Saigon and I headed to the main market while Brigitte and Emmett headed to the local department store. I was in search of an extra trunk which will be needed to move the loot we have already and will continue to collect. Although we always promise not to buy a lot of “stuff” it all adds up. No doubt it will still be a tight squeeze when packing day happens. I also needed a sim card and a new phone as both my phone and my MP3 were lost or stolen from by bag somewhere between Bangkok and Siem Riep in Cambodia. They were not very valuable except that my MP3 had all my music and my Chinese language courses. Although I did not know it, I also needed a pair of knock off Ray ban sunglasses which a street vendor offered me for US$10. When I told him I already had a pair of sunglasses he was unphazed and continue to offer his glasses. In order to get rid of him, I offered him $3 which he immediately accepted…

I bought the new trunk, a Samsonite roll on at a cost of $30 and got a new phone and a local sim card for another $40. So I rolled my new trunk back to the Rex hotel wearing my new phone and my new Ray ban sunglasses. The ship shuttle arrived and we all returned back to the ship in time for dinner. It was great to get back on the cool ship after the very hot day out and about.

The next day we were up at 0400 to get to the airport to catch a flight to Ha Noi. This time we travelled on a ship organized trip with some 45 others. I had hoped to set up a trip on our own but the trip offered by the ship ended up being a better deal. After a smooth flight of 2 hours north we arrived in Ha Noi. We immediately boarded busses and headed east to Ha Long Bay which is about a 3 hour drive. It is an interesting drive as one sees the countryside with it endless rice paddies and small towns. We stopped on the way to visit a local market and a store where handicapped persons were selling their production of jewelry, embroidered silk and the usual array of tourist souvenirs. We arrived in Ha Long around noon and had the afternoon to amble around the huge tourist market there. It always surprises me that tourist markets all over the world all seem to be supplied by the same wholesalers. They all sell the same gadgets and carvings and most of it is of poor quality.

The next morning we board two junks for our 4 hour ship ride through the waters of Ha Long Bay. I took extensive pictures of the place as can be seen in the pictures as I find it to be a most magical place to which I love returning and to which I will return again. The pictures describe this bay better than words and I recommend you look at them to get a sense of the beauty and tranquility one experiences on these waters. We were served a wonderful lunch on board and we got back to the shore around noon in time to reboard the busses to head back to Ha Noi. After checking into our hotel, I ambled along the streets searching for English or other language newspaper. Despite walking for more than an hour, nothing was to be found. This reflects the difference between Ha Noi and Saigon, between the North and the South of Vietnam, even today. Han Noi lives cut off from the world and is the administrative capital of the country. Saigon is open to the world and is the industrial motor of Vietnam.

That evening after an other Vietnamese dinner we went to watch the water puppet show which is a traditional Vietnamese folklore presentation. The puppeteers are behind a bamboo curtain and control the puppets which are on long poles under water. It is really quite ingenious. I did suffer through the presentation as the distance between the rows of seats was about 6 inches less than I needed. I survived by almost kneeling through the whole presentation with my circulation almost cut off. What one all does for the arts…

The next morning we went off to visit the sights of Ha Noi: the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum, the first university of Vietnam and a few other sights. As we headed to lunch, it started to rain so we decided to have lunch at the City View restaurant which is on the 5th floor of a building downtown near the lake. It was a great vantage point to watch the traffic feeding in from 5 different directions. There seem to be no laws but in fact the law is that you do not try and jockey for position, everybody has the right of way if they are ahead of the other person. The traffic works almost like a zipper does and the flow is constant with everybody making their way around everybody else. Most of the traffic is motor bikes and scooters and it works. It rained for almost 3 hours so we took a long lunch at a table outside and watched the world from our vantage point. Eventually, the rain stopped so we paid and set off slowly making our way back to the meeting point to pick up the bus for the airport. Our amble took us through a huge market selling everything from meat through vegetables to clothing and other dry goods. In these countries, I am always impressed how many people are selling. It seems that the majority of the people are selling but not that many are buying. As one walks the streets of these cities, it is wall to wall stores one beside the other. I do not understand how this works but it does. I have to presume that sellers must find enough buyers but I wonder how they make enough money to survive.

We met up with our bus and headed out to the airport. After a smooth check-in through a modern airport we had an hour before our flight. Here I once again attempted to find a foreign language newspaper but again found none on sale. Our flight boarded and we left on time arriving back in Saigon at around 9pm. We were back on the ship by 10.

The next morning we decided that we would not do any serious tourism. Emm was still a little under the weather and opted to have a quiet day on the ship. B and I headed into to town on the shuttle bus after lunch. We walked down to the central market for her to see it. The temperature was well into the 90’s and the market was stifling hot so we spent only a short time there. We headed back to the area of the Rex hotel as B wanted to find some silk sleeping bag liners she had seen at the big department store earlier. I then headed up to a book store to find a book for Emmett on Ho Chi Minh who is his current hero. B headed back to the ship on the next shuttle. I followed after buying a book on Uncle Ho and a foreign newspaper available at several street corners. I then got off the bus near the ship and headed back to a store just outside the port gates to buy some shirts for Emm. He loves Lacoste shirts and I found this place selling them for very little, knock-off’s no doubt but they look alright. I still had $15 of Vietnam dong in my pocket so I decided to get myself a watch. I picked out a red and black Rolex and asked the price. The girl said it would be $55. I told her I only had 300 dong left ($15) and she agreed. I am once again the owner of a fake Rolex. The market for fake brand name products is rampant in Asia in general, and in Vietnam in particular. It is a market which employs millions in these countries, particularly China and the authorities are reluctant to shut them down despite the reputational costs involved. I always marvel how they can make watches for $10 or 15 and still make profit.

So we all boarded the ship that night by 8pm. The ship then spent the night in port and left at 0600 hours as the transit down the river is best done in daylight given the traffic and the fishing boats on the water. It is a beautiful ride down and worth an early morning rising which we did not manage to do.

So here we are at 250 miles from Hong Kong where we arrive in the morning. These short days between ports do not really give one enough time to transit mentally from country to the next. In this leg, we had two days at sea. I was fairly busy as the Economics professor asked me to speak to all 3 of his classes. I gave me presentation on the World Bank which was useful as very few of the students had ever heard of the World Bank before.

Tomorrow we fly from Hong Kong to Xian then by train to Beijing and then after 2 days by train to Shanghai. The ship will move from Hong Kong to Shanghai where we will meet it after our China tour. More on that when we get back.

All is well with us. We passed the mandatory fever test which all passengers had to take to satisfy Chinese entry requirements, so we are good to go.
Cheers