Before I actually visited Vietnam, my whole frame of reference about the country was based on Hollywood movies on the Vietnam war, television news reports I saw as a child, television documentaries I saw later on in my youth, and a few first hand encounters with American vets in high school and college. What I expected to find in Vietnam, and what I actually experienced upon arrival, were two totally different things.
The vast majority of people in Vietnam are young and have no (or very limited) memories of the war. The older generation seems to have moved on with their lives, to have forgiven and forgotten, and although I'm sure there are many painful memories lurking deep within many hearts, they don't show it outwardly. The Vietnamese people have suffered in so many different ways for many years, and yet they retain an incredibly welcoming outlook on life. If you have ever considered visiting Vietnam, you are in store for an amazing cultural experience. I found it beneficial to leave all preconceived notions about political ideology and who was right and who was wrong about the war behind. It's over and has been for 25 years! This is not to say that there weren't atrocities commited by both sides in the war - there definitely were, and they should be acknowledged. The point is, from everything I saw, the people of Vietnam have left that era behind and are living in the present while maintaining a strong connection with the treasures of their rich cultural heritage.
HO CHI MINH CITY (SAIGON), VIETNAM (visited 99 and 00; written circa 1/01)
Saigon (officially known as Ho Chi Minh City) is amazing! It's hard to know where to begin. Why don't I start by saying that I have heard and read reports that some tourists have put down Saigon as being an inferior place to visit compared to the rest of Vietnam. Well, that may be true for them, but personally I loved Saigon!
First of all, everything is really inexpensive. I suspect it will not stay that way for too much longer, especially with proposed increased trade with the US, and the ever booming onslaught of foreign tourists.
Secondly, the people are fascinating. I met many people during my time there, and found them to be friendly, strong, industrious, good humored, and very adaptable. For example, they can sleep anywhere - even on a hard cement floor in their stores!
Thirdly, the food is outrageously delicious. I think that Vietnamese food is my all time favorite food (with the exception of Siddha Yoga food which is in a class unto it's own); especially the food I tasted inside Vietnam itself. My favorite place was a little family run restaraunt called "Zen Vegetarian" (don't be fooled by the cheap imitators - a nice woman named Kim Chi is the owner) in the Pham Ngu Lao district, and I went there almost every day. One time we had a group of 7 people, and we all had full courses, drinks, and desserts. The entire bill for this incredible feast was all of $13 US dollars! The food is an incredible blend of flavors, and you still feel "light" after eating. That's what I call eating healthy!
The Pham Ngu Lao district is where most of the young Western backpacker tourists types hang out at. The area is filled with inexpensive restaraunts and accomodations. It is not uncommon to find a room in a guesthouse for $10 or less per night! Unfortunately, there is a huge construction project underway which may gentrify the entire neighborhood. Considering the resourceful nature of the Vietnamese people, however, I'm sure that if this area is taken over by more expensive corporate hotels, that another cheap area of the city will emerge as a new backpacker hotspot.
One of the funniest moments happened when I first arrived in Saigon and hired a guy with a rickshaw bicycle to take me downtown. I was feeling really nervous and paranoid due to all of my aforementioned "conditioning" from movies, when I heard a loud explosion and a sudden feeling of pressure on my lower leg. My first reaction was "I've been shot!" All that really happened was that one of the bicycle tires had ruptured and the pressure on my leg was just air escaping! I started laughing until I realized we were stranded in the middle of a very busy intersection; in Vietnam there are virtually no traffic laws or patterns to follow - it's total chaos and extremely dangerous. Luckily I made it safely to the sidewalk and walked the rest of the way (with my heart beating rapidly).
Sidebar: if you visit Vietnam, be prepared for the corruption that predominates almost every aspect of life there. Even though the people are friendly and welcoming to tourists, there are ever-present reminders that it is still a communist police state. The police in Vietnam are said to be "the best that money can buy". There is a bogus curfew imposed on all crew members on ships as a way of collecting a payoff if you want to go out after the 11 pm deadline. Also, officials routinely boarded the vessel, especially in the northern part of the country, and demanded cigarettes, alcohol, and whatever else they could get before allowing passage. One time they accepted a payoff of some extra rolls of carpeting that the ship was storing on one of it's rear decks!!
Back to Saigon: the city has a fine selection of Buddhist temples worth visiting. Some of them were brought into being by the large population of ethnic Chinese who call the city their home. The area known as Cholon is where most of the ethnic Chinese people live, and there have been several generations of Chinese living in Cholon. One of the more popular temples features huge incense sticks, in the shape of coils, hanging from the ceiling. Another temple is dedicated to the Goddess of the Seas, and people go there to pray for good fishing, safe nautical passage, and blessings from the ocean.
Each time the ship visited Saigon, we had the good fortune of hearing a group of extremely talented practitioners of Vietnamese classical music called "Homeland's Voices". They came on the ship to perform a program on traditional instruments, sometimes accompanied by traditional dancers.
I befriended their musical director, a delightful woman named Hai Phuong. I came to learn that Hai Phuong is one of the top musicians in her field, being a virtuoso on at least five different traditional Vietnamese instruments. I was astounded by her technical proficiency on these very difficult instruments to play, the purity of her sound, and the way she connects emotionally and spiritually with the music. I came to find out that she started at a very young age, received many national honors, was encouraged by her parents (her mother is a talented musician and composer in her own right, her father is a poet, and her sister Hai Yen is also a great musician currently residing in Houston), and attended conservatory for many years. In short, she is a very serious musician, one of the best I have heard anywhere in any genre of music.
Anyone who has committed themself so fully to a discipline commands respect, and this was true with Hai Phuong. Being around her, I felt an atmosphere of dignity, which is something I have experienced only around the most accomplished of artists. I was honored when Ms. Phuong invited me to her family's house for the Vietnamese New Year celebration (Tet) with family and friends. I had a wonderful time and gained an insight into Vietnamese culture I would not have known otherwise. There were many foods served which I had no idea what they were! They respected the fact that I was a vegetarian, though. Buddhist monks in Vietnam are vegetarians, and many people refrain from eating meat before visiting a temple.
The most incredible event was being invited on a subsequent visit to a Buddhist monastery for a vegetarian feast. I'm still not even sure why this feast was prepared for our group of about five people, but Ms. Phuong arranged for it to happen. She told me that the head monk was her friend. We arrived to the low pitched humming drone sound of the monks chanting in their eating area before their midday meal, which is the last meal of the day for them - they rise at 4 am every day. I thought we would have some rice and bowl of soup. Boy was I wrong! This was a meal fit for a Buddhist vegetarian king, if there is such a thing. Every morsel of food was astonishingly delicious, and I knew this was blessed food, and that it was a special moment in my life. I didn't know why it was happening, but I savored every minute and every bite of that incredible offering.
Later that day, we got to accompany "Homeland's Voices" on their final performance on our cruise ship for the season. I wrote an arrangement for piano, bass and drums of one of the songs on Hai Phuong's CD, which was composed by her mother. It turned out to be a great collaboration, and they told me it was the first time that they knew of that Vietnamese musicians and American musicians had collaborated in that way. The instruments all blended together very nicely without taking anything away from each other, and I am certain that there will be more musical collaborative efforts with Ms. Phuong and her friends in the future.
DANANG, VIETNAM (visited 99 and 00; written circa 1/01)
Danang has two attractions which I found very enjoyable. The first is a place called the Cham Museum. The museum houses some incredible artifacts from the Cham civilization, who inhabited the entire southeastern Asia region at one time. I was surprised to find out that these people were predominantly what is now considered Hindu, and the museum has fine examples of sculptures of the Indian deities Saraswati, Ganesh, Krishna, Vishnu, Shiva, and many others. Apparently there are descendants of the Cham people still living in parts of Vietnam today.
The other place is called Marble Mountain, which is located a short distance outside of the city. It is one in a series of mountains that seem to jut up out of nowhere. Marble Mountain is famous for a special kind of marble (hence the name...duh!) which has attracted many great sculptors from all over Vietnam, some of whom sell their wares very aggresively at the bottom of the mountain.
I didn't have much time that day, so my walking trip up and down the mountain was kind of a whirlwind trip. However, I would really like to visit this place again because it had a very mystical and intriguing vibe about it. It's the kind of place where it's really better if you take your time and soak it in slowly. There are little shrines, temples, and caves in honor of the Buddha in many different spots along the path which takes you up and down the mountain. It's very peaceful and relaxing, especially towards the top of the mountain, where it gets quieter and you can see nice vistas of the surrounding landscapes.
Danang is also becoming known as a seaside resort location with some great beaches (it was an R n' R spot for American GI's during the Vietnam war). I visited a new luxury five star hotel near the beach for a few minutes because a lot of the other crew and passengers were hanging out there. The whole thing seemed a little out of place to me, especially considering the incredible poverty that most of the local people live in over there. I didn't feel at all comfortable. The word was that it was too dangerous to go swimming at that beach anyway because of the powerful undertow - mother nature strikes back!
HONGAI, HALONG BAY, AND HAIPHONG, VIETNAM (visited 99 and 00; written circa 1/01)
Hongai and Haiphong are cities located in the northeast part of Vietnam, and they have a very different feel than the places I visited in the south. Hongai is primarily known as a "jumping off" spot for people wishing to visit beautiful Halong Bay, which is actually quite spectacular; it's one of the most breathtakingly beautiful natural sights I have ever seen.
Halong Bay is an area that stretches along the northeastern coast of Vietnam and the southeastern coast of China. Being on a cruise ship is a great way to see this amazing phenomenon. You have undoubtedly seen paintings or photographs of this natural wonder, as the beauty of the bay has inspired generations of artists to try and capture it's essence. Halong Bay boasts these huge mountains of solid rock that shoot straight up out of the calm waters for miles. There is no way to describe it, except maybe as "other-wordly".
Hongai itself is really not much to write home about! The town is separated into two parts by a small bay, and people shuttle back and forth on public and privately owned ferries. One side of Hongai has some really amazing rock formations, kind of like a Halong Bay "Junior", with people's dwellings built right into the bottom of the rockface. However that same side of the town also has a coal factory, so as a result, there is a thin layer of black grime that covers almost everything!
The people in the north seem to be a lot more reserved and less outgoing towards foreigners than the southern Vietnamese people. There is definitely more of an emphasis on traditional culture in the north, and the economy is not nearly as developed as it is in the south. You still see men riding around on motorbikes with the green safari helmets and military jackets that reminded me of Vietnam War era movies. In a way, if you are looking for a traditional authentic cultural experience, you would do good by visiting the northern part of the country.
However, I didn't really see too many smiles or relaxed faces. Each time we were there the weather was grey, misty, cold and dreary. It seemed to me that the people in this part of Vietnam have really suffered over the years. Maybe life is better in Hanoi, which I never got to visit.
I will always remember Haiphong as the first place I visited in Vietnam back in 1999. It was on the day before Tet, the traditional Vietnamese New Year holiday, and the bus trip from the port to the center of town will remained etched in my memory for a long time. The sight of thousands of people in traditional clothing filling the streets riding bicycles was simply amazing - many of them were carrying orange trees, which is a traditional symbol of Tet. There were also flashes of bright red decorations in celebration of the holiday mixing in with the scenery, and the whole thing was like stepping into another realm completely. It was quite an experience!
We walked around the town a little bit, looking in shops at the bizarre items offered for sale. For example, there were all kinds of weird birds and animal parts "pickled" in jars. I believe that people buy them for medicinal purposes. Unfortunately, the superstition that certain animal parts can heal illnesses still persists, and as a result, many rare species of animals have already gone or are on the verge of extinction. Certain animals can demand a very high price, and because of the desperate poverty of the villagers, they have no qualms about hunting down the last few existing examples of a species.
