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Vietnam
May 26 - 31, 2001
Early this morning, we drove to the new Hong Kong airport and boarded a Cathay Pacific flight to Ho Chi Minh City. We had lunch at a local Vietnamese restaurant followed by a lecture on the history of Vietnam by Professor Thu. Professor Thu then went with us as a guide to the History Museum. One of the rooms was dedicated to the over 50 minorities found in Vietnam. Others contained artifacts from different periods. There was also a water puppet show, which is Vietnamese folk art tradition. The puppets are attached to long poles which are manipulated by people behind a stage curtain. After the museum we rode back to the hotel in pedicabs, bicycles with a cab for one person attached in front. Several blocks from the hotel, it started to rain. All of the pedicab drivers pulled over to cover us up as best they could. It was a fun trip back.
The next morning we went on a day trip to the Mekong Delta. It was a long bus ride through the city and the countryside, but it was fascinating to see the areas. There were lots of people working the the rice paddies. Many of the fields had very small cemeteries in them. Overall it seemed much less developed than the areas we saw in China. We boarded a small boat at Cai Be and our first stop was at a popped rice factory. We saw the popping the rice by pouring it in a metal container containing hot sand. Once popped, it was sifted out from the sand and the hulls were also sifted out. Next it was mixed with a syrup substance and formed into large blocks. After hardening for a few moments, the large blocks were cut into individual pieces and wrapped in cellophane. They were really quite tasty. We got back onto our boat and motored past the Cai Be floating market. Whenever the farmers have produce to sell, they come by boat to the market, hoist some of the produce on a pole to let people know what they are selling, then sit back to see who comes. We saw bananas, pineapple, dragon fruit, as well as assorted vegetables. We then went through some of the canals that had been built across Minh Island during early dynastic times. We got a very good view of life along the canals . We had a very good Vietnamese lunch at a restaurant along the way. One of the highlights was elephant fish wrapped in rice paper. We also made a stop at a nursery to see the plants of the area. This nursery was run by a man who was with the local Viet Cong during the war. He had a Ho Chi Minh beard of which he was very proud. He served us various local fruits and some rice wine. We saw local women in the canal fishing for mussels for dinner. On the trip the trip back to the city we crossed over the My Thuan bridge which is a new suspension bridge built over the Tien river.
The next day we toured Ho Chi Minh City itself. We started at the Post Office which had high arched ceilings, and places where letter writers would help those who were illiterate write their letters. Across from the Post Office is the Notre Dame Cathedral, finished in 1883. Our next stop was the Reunification Palace which was built in 1966 and was formerly known as the Presidential Palace when used by South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu. Parked in front of the Palace are the two tanks which were the first on the palace grounds on 30 April 1975 when Saigon fell. The building had a small music room where we heard a short concert performed on traditional Vietnamese instruments. Glenda got to try her hand at playing one of them. There were a series of wooden pipes that you clap your hands in front of to force air through them. It was not easy to get the tones. Our other stop this morning was the War Remnants Museum. This was formerly known as the Chinese and American War Crimes Museum, but they are now trying to attract tourists. There are several large pieces of military equipment here, but most striking are the photographs, many of which we saw in the newspapers at the time. Most were of the suffering of the Vietnamese people and it is very biased against Americans. However, it does graphically depict the horrors of war and there are lessons to be learned here.
Later we had lunch at the hotel and rested during the afternoon as it was very rainy. It wasthe start of their rainy season. We could see the ferry across the Saigon river from the hotel and it was in constant motion back and forth across the river. The primary mode of transportation is the motor bike. You would sometimes see families of four on one bike. There were lots of cabs, but few personal cars on the road. For dinner we went to a restaurant in the home of a former Vietnamese UPI journalist-photographer. He had many of his pictures on the walls of his house. After the war he went into the Mekong Delta to be a farmer, but was found after nine years, arrested and sent to a reeducation camp for seven years. His wife opened up a tea shop to support herself and now they have this restaurant. This was one of the best meals that we had in Vietnam.
The next day there was another optional tour to the Cu Chi Tunnels which were northwest of Ho Chi Minh City, very close to the border with Cambodia. Ron and I opted not to take the tour, but those who went found it very interesting. The tunnels were three-tiered and included a whole underground complex with dining halls, meeting rooms, etc. We decided to spend some time exploring the city on our own. We walked back to the Cathedral, past Reunification Palace, and spent some time people watching in one of the parks. It was very hot and muggy and there was a constant threat of rain, although we had only a few sprinkles. We looked in many of the shops selling lacquer ware, embroidery, and other souvenirs, but didn’t find anything to bring home. We walked down to the river to watch the river traffic for a while. In the evening we had the whole group together for a farewell dinner. We ate at another Vietnamese restaurant and had spring rolls, marinated beef salad, prawns cooked in coconuts, chicken cooked with lemon grass, and for dessert we had pineapple and dragon fruit.
The next morning we flew on Vietnam Airlines to Hong Kong. Connections were such that we had to spend the night so we had another afternoon to explore the city. We walked to Kowloon Park and watched the Hong Kong people at their leisure here. There was one man there whose job was to keep the pigeons from gathering and he would continuously be chasing them away with a large straw broom. The park also seemed a favorite place for napping and for visiting with friends.
Tired and ready to go home, we returned to the Hong Kong airport on May 31 and began our trip home. We flew to San Francisco, went through customs, and then boarded the plane to Baltimore. We managed to get all of our fragile souvenirs back with no breakage, and we are slowing working our sleep cycles back to local time. It was a great trip, but as always, it was good to get home.