Category: Vietnam

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Another big city, Saigon is the biggest located in the south. It is also newer than the capital Hanoi. They still don’t like each other but can’t really talk about it. Since the fall of Saigon in 1975, two years after America left, Vietnam has been ruled by the Communist Party from the north. The south wasn’t happy to be defeated by the north and the north is very happy to have the south now too thus expanding their reach. Most people work for the government and you won’t get any information from them. The few that don’t work for the government, like tour guides for example, will talk, especially southerners. The government has their hand in everything and they don’t like it, especially email and Facebook. The Internet is heavily censored so they don’t see a lot of news, only select things. Plus they watch who they are friends with and what they are saying if they aren’t happy they will be called in. Most of the police are corrupt and the traffic police make a lot of money detaining people for bogus traffic offenses and since they usually have plans, they hold them a long time until they finally pay them to let them go. I am sure this is money that never gets reported to the government! Then when people warn others on Facebook about areas of these traffic stings, they are punished! If you noticed, the city is officially called Ho Chi Minh City because he was the leader of the north and who wanted to reunify the north and south under the Communist Government. Up north in Hanoi he is a hero, down south he is not but they have to pretend he is. They never wanted him or to change the name of the city, so they still call it Saigon. Up north and officially it is called Ho Chi Minh City. Our guide was amazing in the fact that at a lot of the tourist attractions, he skipped all of the HCM statues and propaganda films about how they won the war, and their defeat of America. He was just as unhappy with these tributes and monuments as we would be. The city is separated into districts similar to the way they do it in France with most of the tourist attractions in district 1. Mostly everything was in walking distance so it made things easy for us, especially in the heat. We took a trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels and saw some of the tens of thousands of miles of tunnels in the area northwest of Saigon. The Viet Cong, or VC, were the Communist guerrillas from the north, who dug these tunnels and used them to their advantage against the better supplied American and south Vietnamese. It was amazing to see the tunnels and to try to imagine what it was like for our troops here in this brutally hot, humid jungle climate. The boys loved crawling through the tunnels, I found them a bit claustrophobic! Then when I saw 4 inch long millipedes all over I had no interest in any more tunnels!! Jeff had fun getting to shoot some of the guns used back then like the AK-47, wow was it loud!! We went out to the Chill Bar at the top of a high rise hotel and it was just beautiful! The skyline of Saigon is gorgeous and we had Martinis with a very clear view of the city. A great experience. Some typical tourist attractions to the gorgeous Post Office that looked like an opera house! Amazing architecture and beauty. Notre Dam cathedral is in the middle of the city and beautiful, most of the building materials were brought from France during their long occupation. They converted a lot of poor Vietnamese during the colonial era so you still have a small community of Roman Catholic Vietnamese. How does this work in a Communist government? They are free to choose their religions but they will never have jobs working for the government. The gates in front of the Reunification Palace are a very famous place in history. It is where the Northern tanks crashed through in 1975, two years after America withdrew. They weren’t able to compete with the north who was supplied by Russia and China and without our support anymore, the fell to the north and Communism. After spending a week in this country, I still feel like I am just skimming the surface of understanding the people and politics. There are still so many places we didn’t see in this large country that would allow more understanding. I would have to come back and see more of the central area and countryside. I am happy that the people we have spent time with have been very friendly and gracious.

Hanoi, Vietnam

Whoa, Hanoi is like nothing I’ve seen, crowded, frenetic, hot, beeping horns, mopeds, heavy traffic but amazing food! It’s a very large city so we situated ourselves right in the heart of the Old Quarter so we would be surrounded by everything we wanted to see. We were also close to the beautiful Hoan Kiem lake a bit of peace and serenity in the city. We did some exploring but had to keep it in short spurts due to the heat. We’d go out for 1-2 hours, see a museum or part of the city then back to the hotel for another shower and rest or swim. We did this a few times a day in order to not burn out and get on each other’s nerves! There’s nothing worse than profusely sweating in mid 90’s temperatures and 100% humidity and to have the kids hanging on to you. So far we have been lucky with no rainy days. It has rained a lot at night and we have had a few quick sun showers but nothing that affected our plans. I thought we would be in rain jackets and umbrellas most days. I like Hanoi but it took a little getting used to! The noise and traffic was annoying at first, well it still is but I’m acclimating to it. We were terrified to cross the street in the beginning because the cars and scooters don’t stop for you or red lights! Everyone drives on both sides of the street and there are always almost head on crashes, even on the highways with the trucks and buses-I just sat in the back with my head down, if I watched I would have had an anxiety attack! In the city it is mostly scooters with a few cars and a few buses here an there. The intersections are so much fun to watch! Complete chaos with horns just beeping and everyone going in every single direction at the same time! So to cross, you just walk into the traffic and slowly navigate through…nerve wracking! (See video) You really can’t walk on the sidewalks because they are full of parked scooters and people sitting eating or drinking or cooking right there. So you must walk in the street most of the time with the crazy driving! It has some really cool things to see and great markets. The food was the most exciting part of the city!! Every shop is full of fresh meat cuts each morning and produce just sitting out for sale. By the afternoon it’s all gone and all the restaurants have prepared it for the days meals. They don’t have many refrigerators and don’t order ahead. Buy in the morning, prepare, sell and they are empty by nights end. The way they eat is pretty interesting too. Since it’s a big city, rents are really expensive so they have very narrow storefronts with seating inside in the back and/or on the sidewalk. But you don’t eat at regular tables and chairs. Since they have to fit more people in, you have a preschool sized table and mini stools to sit on-see the pictures. I felt like I was in a kindergarten lunchroom! But all of this doesn’t matter once you eat the amazing food! You need a whole book to explain the different foods, how to order, where to order, how to eat, etc! Luckily we hired a local guide to bring us to the best places and she explained everything to us. It was so exciting to learn about all this new food and the boys loved it too. But three hours in, we had to throw in the towel…we were done! I couldn’t look at anymore food! I think this night was the most exciting in Hanoi-see all the food pictures from each stop.

tp. Hạ Long, Vietnam

We landed in Hanoi late last night, it is the capital of Vietnam and located in the northern part of the country, close to China. Just like in Laos, it is a Socialist Republic but has good international relations with the U.S. and other countries. There are only five remaining single-party socialist states that officially practice communism-China, Cuba and North Korea are the others. We will be exploring Hanoi more after our cruise. An early morning transfer to Halong Bay brought us to one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen! Besides being a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it is also one of the New Wonders of the World. There’s not much to tell about this area so pictures tell it all. It is karst topography, limestone formations that were carved from water to make these formations that jut out of the beautiful emerald green water. There are also lots of caves and grottos around every corner. Our junk, the Paloma is so pretty, exactly what you would expect to be plying these mystical waters. All dark polished wood and very comfortable. Our cabin had a beautiful deck with lounge chairs right on the front of the boat so it was perfect to just sit with a cocktail as we sailed through the bay. We had delicious local food prepared for us each day, it was too much! We went kayaking, swam from a beach or the boat, explored a spectacular cave, visited a pearl farm and just relaxed. The boys met two girls their age so they were happy too and played lots of card games. Halong Bay means bay of the descending dragon. The legend of Halong Bay is beautiful: “Long ago, in the first founding days, the Viet people were attacked by foreign aggressors. The Jade Emperor sent the Mother Dragon and her band of Child Dragons to help the Viet people fight the invaders. While the enemy vessels were launching massive attacks against the mainland, the dragons descended in flocks from the sky. They spat out innumerable pearls which changed into jade stone islands the moment they touched the water. These islands linked together to form firm citadels that checked the enemy’s advance and smashed their vessels to pieces. After the invaders were driven out, Mother Dragon and her Child Dragons did not return to Heaven but stayed on earth, right at the place where the battle occurred. The spot where the Mother Dragon landed was Ha Long, and where the Child Dragons came down was Bai Tu Long. The place where their tails violently wagged was called Long Vi, the present-day Tra Co Peninsula with its soft sandy beach stretching many kilometers.”