Roadtrip through Vietnam

[Amanda, me, and an old woman we met by the river in Hoi An]

Amanda (friend from home), Kit, and I flew into Hanoi in the north and traveled down to Ho Chi Minh City in the south by buses and trains. It was a fast trip, so I really only got a glimpse of the country, but I think I left with a pretty good idea of the places and people. I'd love to go back, it is one of my favorite places so far.


Hanoi
Hanoi is a medium-sized city, with a huge French influence and a lot of scary traffic. We spent our time there just wandering and exploring, trying new food, and enjoying the atmosphere. On the first morning, we met a local who was hanging out by the big lake in the city and wanted to practice his English, so he asked us if he could join us for a bit. So we walked together and he showed us around and was great to have as an interpreter as most people do not speak much English. The city is divided based on products sold. There's an area of only shoes, or hats, or herbs, flowers, wedding needs, tools, etc. Most of the buildings are two stories, with the top being very French and the bottom very Southeast Asian (dirty and falling down), which makes for an interesting combination. The body of Ho Chi Minh (whom the country LOVES, his image is everywhere) is there, but I did not have time to see it. But hey, I lived in Moscow and never saw Lenin either, so I'm just keeping up the trend!


Hue
The city of Hue is the old capital and the site of the Tet Offensive, and took a 14hr overnight bus to reach. Around it are many interesting sites, so we rented motorbikes (with drivers) and went all over! There are several old royal tombs, which are huge, and very Chinese influenced. One of the emperors had 104 wives and countless concubines, and no one knows where he is actually buried. He was buried with many riches and, being afraid of grave robbers, had all the men who participated in the burial executed, so his grave site remains unknown even now. We spent some time at the tombs, and stopped to see several pagodas. A lot of these places are out in the country and down tiny roads so we got to see a lot of villages and countryside which is beautiful.


Hoi An
Hoi An was my favorite! It is only a few hours from Hue, and is very atmospheric and pleasant to be in. We stayed at a family owned guesthouse which was old and wooden and gorgeous and only has three rooms. The three of us got the entire upstairs which had a big bed and a small bed, wooden shutters with the window facing the market, mother of pearl inlay, and a massive shrine to some god, with offerings. We spent our time there just walking around, getting clothes tailored (there are tons of tailor shops and it's cheap), and enjoying the atmosphere. One morning we went to My Son which was the city of the Cham people who lived in the area centuries ago. At My Son there are several temples left over from the civilization, although most of them were destroyed by US bombs during the war. The temples reminded me of some of the ones we saw at Angkor, although less elaborate and in much worse condition.

On the last morning, we woke up at 5am to see the market open and watch the fisherman bring the fish. Two old ladies in cone hats motioned for us to get in their long, wooden, pointy boat, and took us down the river just as the sun was rising. It was kind of the typical Vietnamese scene - sunrise, river, mountains in the background, lots of green, old wooden boat, cone hats. After that, we walked around, and saw some people playing badminton, so we joined in and played with them, which was tons of fun. One of them told me he loved America because his cousin lives there and invited us to his house, where he showed us pictures of his family, fed us fruit, and made us listen to awful 80s music. He is a local artist so he showed me his work and talked to me about art, and I bought a small painting from him.


Ho Chi Minh City
We took an 18hr train from Hoi An, which was actually very fun - I met a lot of locals, saw some gorgeous scenery, bonded with my friends, relaxed. We met Don there - he was an exchange student in Penang last semester and is Vietnamese-Canadian, so after he finished studying here, he went to Vietnam to live with his uncle and grandparents for a bit, about 1hr outside of HCMC. We wandered around for a but and accidentally got lunch at the same place Bill Clinton ate when he was there! Then we went to see a few touristy places:

Reunification Palace
Here's what my guidebook has to say:
On the morning of 30 April 1975, the 43-hour-old government of South Vietnam sat quietly on the second floor of this grand building - then called the Independence Palace - waiting to transfer power to the Northern forces who were crashing through the wrought iron gates below. 'There is no question of you transferring power,' they were told by a Viet Cong officer. 'You cannot give up what you do not have.' The building took its current form in 1966 after it had been partially destroyed in an attack by South Vietnam leader Diem's own air force (they really hated him, it seems). Now, the building is a magnificent example of 60s architecture - airy and open, with spacious chambers and tasteful modern decorations. The building is still used for official functions.

War Remnants Museum
The museum is all about the Vietnamese War (or the American War as they call it there) and mostly consists of photos, mostly focused on the effects the war had on civilians. There are images of the battle field, wounded and dead soldiers, and the torture devices Americans used to get information out of those they believed to be the Viet Cong (beatings, sawing body parts, etc), children and women being gathered and shot, the effects of Agent Orange (children are still born with very severe birth defects today), civilians fleeing American soldiers and bombs, people all over the world protesting the war by having demonstrations or burning themselves in front of government buildings, love letters written between couples who were separated for 10 years, and stories of journalists many of whom were killed during their work. Overall, it was horribly depressing and hard to deal with. It's crazy to think of what people are capable of doing to each other, especially considering there was a draft and many Americans did not go willingly.

After the museum we walked around the city for a bit, saw Notre Dame Cathedral, the French-inspired post office, and walked through the park where there were many many Vietnamese women doing exercises to music. Don tried to join in and got some odd looks.


Cu Chi Tunnels
The village of Cu Chi is about 50km outside of Saigon and has a network of 250km of tunnels which were built during the war with the French and expanded at the start of the American War. The locals would hide in the tunnels, appear out of nowhere, shoot American soldiers, and disappear. The doors out of the tunnels are very well camouflaged and SO tiny, as are the tunnels themselves. I crawled through about 40m of them, and I was extremely uncomfortable and wanted to get out as soon as possible. And the tunnels have been expanded to tourist-size, so they were originally even smaller which is hard to imagine. They also had meeting rooms and kitchens, all underground. At the site, you can now shoot guns - AK47, M16, etc - which are VERY loud, so as we walked through the tunnel site, we could hear gunshots which was a bit creepy. Our guide was very knowledgeable but also very affected by the war - his father fought and his younger brother was affected by Agent Orange - so his explanations and information was very one-sided, but I did find it interesting to hear his views on America.


Don's house
Right before I left we spent some time at Don's house outside of Saigon. It was great meeting his family, and his cute little cousins, and seeing his house. We also went to a very crazy night club which played insanely loud techno music and had lots of flashing lights... Plus we were in a village so white people do not go there very often, which made it an interesting experience.


Food
I did not eat anything too weird. I think the strangest would be fried frog, but that's not too unusual. I also drank snake wine which was less than delicious. It is some alcohol which tastes more like liquor than wine, and has a whole cobra with its organs and all inside the bottle. Overall though, the food was amazing. It's all very fresh, lots of vegetables, herbs, and of course rice. The flavors they mix are pretty simple but make awesome combinations.


The People
I met a lot of very friendly people and several who loved America because they had family there. However, overall, I found the people demanded money a lot more than in any other place I have been. Every time you took someone's picture, they wanted you to pay them, and a lot of the time I felt like a dollar sign walking around. Cambodia, for example, is a lot more poor than Vietnam, but the people there were smiley and open and sincerely friendly, ready to invite you to their home and give you what they can. This was certainly not my experience in Vietnam. However, I did meet friendly locals, many of whom patted me on the butt as a sign of affection which seems to be common there!


I will post tons of pictures on Kodakgallery once I get them all from Kit!