Vietnam Post Script

A few nights ago we drank a couple beers looking, for the first time, across the Mekong River toward Thailand. Laos marks something like our ninth country since we left the US. Looking back, some images of Vietnam that'll stay with me...

Fairly Typical Saigon Street

Scooters - I've never seen a country with such a preponderance of two-wheeled motos on the roads. You can be riding down a major city avenue with a view for many blocks. The street will have hundreds or even thousands of 100cc motos (and bicycles) but not a single car or truck. The streets look more frenetic but the traffic actually moves more slowly and you're not separated by walls and windows. It's more fun and somehow more civilized than auto culture. Huge plus. If you want to cross a street, you merely step out into the flow and ford it as if it's a stream. In Saigon, we met a young architect from England who was so astounded by how flawlessly this worked that he crossed an entire avenue with his eyes closed.

Side-saddle Tami

We bought bread from this man every morning in Hue

Food - I'd be challenged to find a country with a more vibrant food culture. That's right, France or Thailand, you might be beat. Vietnamese markets have an unbelievable variety of fresh produce and ingredients. People are obsessed with food there. Everywhere we walked with groceries, the locals would zero in on what we carried and try to figure out what we'd bought. If we stopped to show them, they'd go through every single thing in our bags. Their coffee is nothing short of a revelation. I am spoiled forever as all other coffee else will be a weak, pale reminder. If you eat seafood, Vietnam might be the ultimate heaven. The entire length of their coast with the South China Sea is one gargantuan fishery. The variety and freshness of what they catch is like nothing I've ever seen.

The Love Hotel - We stayed at a place in Hue that had us scratching our heads at first. The room was decent enough and the price was right (about $5). The only hitch was that our bathroom was separated from the bathroom next to ours only by a partial wall. Over the top we were able to discern (all too well) our neighbors' comings and goings. After a couple days, we realized the room next door turned over a few times in a day . . . and it was always couples going in or out. Empty wine bottles often appeared outside the rooms for the cleaning lady. Then Tami noticed that many of the fluorescent light tubes gave off a lurid pink light when they were on. The giveaway was the wall-sized banner in our second room (we moved to get more privacy in the bathroom) picturing an undergarment-clad couple (Caucasian, oddly enough) surrounded by mounds of fruit and wine. At least the new room had a balcony.

Smoking - Vietnamese smoke a lot . . . and they smoke early. It's limited almost entirely to males but age seems to make little difference. I wish - I WISH - I'd gotten a photo of the young boys playing video games in the internet cafes SMOKING. I'm talking kids ten or eleven years old.

History - Vietnam certainly took me back to a different time. Apart from Cuba, I've never traveled in a country where I felt so cautious about how, as an American, I might be perceived. In many places I feel like I'm able to establish who I am as an individual without being labeled as part of something larger or external of me. In Vietnam, though, American history is so wrapped up with theirs and so recent that you can't help but be aware of how it's impacted the people. The devastation that was caused in Vietnam (and Cambodia and Laos) by the US lasts until this day. Yes, other forces added to the chaos in Indochina but I can only speak as an American about our involvement and impact. We withdrew our forces but the populations left to sort out the mess. To paraphrase one American general - 'the Vietnamese will never be able to recover from this (the war). They lost an entire generation of men. 'Famous Photo of Kim Phuc After Being Burned by Napalm and Photo of Her Twenty Years Later

The culture of life on the water - Between the Mekong Delta which takes up the southern quarter of the country and the long coast, I'm surprised Vietnamese don't have webbed feet and worship Poseidon. I grew up with the term "Vietnamese boat person" as part of my lexicon. I had no idea how apropos that is. Deliberating the Morning Haul - Mui Ne
Scene From a Mekong Delta Floating Market
"Big Belly" Freight Boat in the Mekong Delta

Link to Vietnam Central and Highlands photos.