WHAT WE DID WITH OUR DONG IN HANOI

TOP ATTRACTIONS IN THE CAPITAL

Hanoi proved to be a great first stop in Vietnam. Prior to traveling there, at least for this hack, Vietnam still evoked ominous memories of the war, but now, after  traveling from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City, I feel her people are simply trying to get on with their lives, making ends meet and catering to a growing tourism industry. History is still a part of Hanoi though, and several attractions reference the struggle, but there is so much more to Hanoi. Thankfully many are free or are very cheap.

We arrived in Hanoi in time for their Reunification Day, April 30^th, the anniversary of the final fall of Saigon in 1975, but apart from appropriately festive displays of the Vietnamese flag hanging everywhere, from lampposts and buildings and stores, people were enjoying a 5-day holiday. There were no thunderous Communist rallies trumpeting their glorious win nearly 50 years ago.

A FISTFUL OF DONG 

Everything is cheap in Vietnam. Currently one Dong will cost you $00.000039 USD. That translates to a Bia Hoi or draft beer costing about 10,000 VND or less than $.50. Bia Hoi is a draft beer made daily and served by any number of street vendors or restaurants in the Old Quarter along or near Ta Hien Street, aka Beer Street. Other popular beers in Hanoi are 333, Tiger, Hanoi Bia and Saigon, but be prepared to spend 40,000 VND in a restaurant for them. Do the math, it’s still cheap. Your Dong or VND will go a long way in Vietnam. The difficulty is keeping track of the zeros on the paper money.  

WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE?

Speaking of zeros, in Vietnam there’s a lot of them. Standard amounts offered for withdrawals at an ATM are around 1 to 2 MILLION VND. The bills come out in 500,000 notes, which equals to less than $20 USD.

So, there’s not really a worry about spending a lot of money, is there? Our 5-star hotel in the French Quarter, the appropriately named May De Ville Trendy Hotel, was clean and comfortable with a free, expansive breakfast and cost less than $75.00 per night. While there we also got massages that together cost us 450,000 VND. That rubbed me the right way.

Still, there’s plenty to do and see for free. Here’s a quick listing of what we experienced in Hanoi.

HOAN KIEM LAKE

Hoan Kiem Lake

Perhaps the most popular activity for locals and tourists alike is Hoan Kiem Lake, a quiet place in the middle of a busy Hanoi city. Edged by both the historical French and Old Quarters, the lake offers a peaceful escape. On weekends the surrounding streets are closed off to vehicular traffic and people enjoy the quiet. Families and tourists flock here and in the early morning before the weather heats up, it is a popular place for runners. In fact, the whole area is filled with people exercising, or doing line dancing, or ballroom dancing or something called laughing yoga. One morning, around 6 a.m., your hearty and hale travelers ventured out and immersed and sweated with the locals who gleefully embraced our appearance.

You don’t have to exercise, but a visit to the lake is worth a visit. There is a tree lined walking path and plenty of cafes. It is a chance to experience Hanoi culture for free.

At the north end of Hoan Kiem Lake there is the Ngoc Son Buddhist Temple situated on an island. There is a nominal fee to cross over the red Huc Bridge (The Morning Sunlight Bridge) to visit the temple. Women need to have their shoulders covered and wraps are provided for no charge.

On a small island at the southern end of the lake is the Turtle Tower, a small pagoda. According to legend the holy Hoan Kiem turtle gave Le Loi, a Vietnamese rebel leader, a magical sword that gave him the power to gather his troops to fight against the Ming dynasty and defeat them. After his success he returned the sword to the Hoan Kiem turtle. There is a statue of Le Loi across the street from the lake.

Old Quarter and French Quarter

Exploring the chaotic Old Quarter or the comparatively sedate French Quarter costs nothing, except for the street food and beers you buy along the way. The Old Quarter consists of 36 streets north of Hoan Kiem Lake. Several of these streets specialize in certain crafts, as in Ta Hien Street, where there are plenty of restaurants and beer and food vendors. Some of the savory dishes waiting for you to try are spring rolls, Pho, a traditional Vietnamese soup, or Banh Mi, a Vietnamese sandwich in a baguette.

Other crafts found in the Old Quarter include Hang Bac Street, specializing in gold and silver jewelry, and Hang Bong Street, where quilts and blankets are sold.

The streets of the French Quarter in Hanoi are wider, with plenty of 5-star hotels, like ours, the May De Ville Trendy Hotel, expensive restaurants and coffee shops. Many buildings in the quarter are from the French Colonial period and many are painted a butter-yellow, or more precisely an Imperial yellow. Meant to symbolize royalty and superiority reflecting the power of France throughout Indochina.

Presidential Palace Hanoi

Several buildings of note that are painted in this regal yellow are the Hanoi Opera House, the Presidential Palace and fittingly the notorious Ha Lao Prison that was built in the 1896. Now called the Maison Centrale and a tourist attraction brimming with propaganda the prison was dubbed the Hanoi Hilton by the American POWs who were held there.

The late Senator John McCain was shot down while on a mission in 1967 and was a POW at the Hilton until 1973. There is a memorial to McCain on a somewhat busy road that skirts West Lake where he was shot down. Our tour bus stopped so we could pay our respects. JOHN McCAIN MEMORIAL HANOI

The costs of the other venues mentioned earlier are much cheaper. The Presidential Palace is on the grounds of the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum, both of which have a separate entry cost for foreigners (approximately 40,000 VND). Ticket costs for the Opera vary depending on the show and the Maison Centrale is 30,000 VND.

NOT EVERYTHING IS FREE 

It’s sad to say that you will need to loosen your grip on your Dong at some point in your visit to Hanoi. Here are a couple of things we did that did cost us some of our hard-earned Dong:

The Women’s Museum, 36 Ly Thuong Kiet – cost: 30,000 VND

Houses a collection of artifacts, traditional clothing, tools and crafts focusing on the woman’s role in Vietnamese society. Especially riveting was the display about women combatants during the “American War”.

Rose Kitchen cooking class ROSE KITCHEN HANOI - cost $45.00 USD pp

We took this delightful class our first full day in Hanoi. A van picks you up at the hotel and gathers other participants before stopping at a local market to help buy the ingredients. The cooking instructor/chef gave us VND and told us what to ask for in Vietnamese thereby throwing us right into the culture. At the kitchen we learned how to make banana flower salad, spring rolls and Pho. It was a wonderful way to start our trip.

Water Puppet Theater – 57B Pr. Dinh Tien Hoang – cost: $5.00 USD

This traditional artform was started over 1,000 years ago in the Red River Delta and depicts different aspects of Vietnamese village life. The whimsical scenes depicted include fishing, unicorns, and a kid riding his water buffalo. The Thang Long Water Puppet Theater is not far from Hoan Kiem Lake, but as part of our tour group we attended a show at the puppeteer’s home in a small theater and got to see his craftsmanship in creating the puppets up close.

Railroad Street

You don’t need to book a tour to see this oddly perverse tourist attraction. One can simply show up to the tracks that pass within inches of area establishments and watch massive trains fill the narrow route, but we chose to go with an add-on tour with our Tour company, Overseas Adventure Travel. For $70.00 pp we rode around Hanoi on Soviet-era refurbished motorcycles that were driven by students hired for this excursion. We drove through both quarters, passed Uncle Ho’s resting place, caromed along dirt roads in the forests on the outskirts of Hanoi and barreled crazily through dark alleyways before stopping at a café on Railroad Street.

Railroad Street Hanoi

After the reunification of the country Vietnam decided to reunite both halves by building a railroad connecting the two. The tracks go right through neighborhoods and the trains pass within inches of patrons willing to sit right at the edge. We had heard of Railroad Street before we arrived in Vietnam, and it was a number one priority for us. Going on the tour made it easier. All we had to was place a drink order…and not stretch out our legs when the train approached.

Dinner was included with this tour package.

The train is not just a gimmick and one can ride the rails from Hanoi south. Here’s the website to book your passage.

TRAIN TICKETS VIETNAM

Hanoi was a pleasant surprise. My listing is just a very small list of activities available. Here’s a list of attractions in the city:

HANOI ATTRACTIONS 

Thanks for reading,

Love Janet and greg

© 2024 by Gregory Dunaj

THE PEOPLE OF VIETNAM

A WAY OF LIFE

Perhaps the oceans of time that separates them from the “American War” has faded their memory. The median population of Vietnam is roughly 33 years old, born after the war; too young to know better? Perhaps it is the thread of Buddhism that is Vietnam’s prevalent religion that gives them a serenity of living in the present and forgiving the past and not pining for an indeterminate future? Or perhaps it really is just this American, yours truly, oversimplifying a complicated past?

We here at VFH Central came away from our recent trip to Vietnam with a greater appreciation of her people. Whatever trepidations we had flying in were dispelled by the end of our trip. Thinking there would be corners of hatred or disillusionment with America with having abandoned the war in 1973, were not apparent. It is difficult to hate for that long.

Instead, everywhere we went we were greeted with smiling faces and a devout appreciation of our presence. Afterall, the Vietnam War was a fight for reunification of North and South Vietnam, a country bifurcated by history with the colonialist French and the threat of Communism. By just visiting Vietnam meant we accepted them as a people and not as a historical footnote.

Well, since Doi Moi (renovation) was rolled out in 1986 as a means of boosting a withered economy struggling with wars and the vagaries of Communism, Vietnam has adopted a market-based economy, and the country has excelled. One might even say, Communism doesn’t work, but whatever.

Personally, I have heard that Americans focus too much on the war and not the growth of her people and the beauty of the country. The people we met throughout our Vietnamese travels were just trying to make ends meet, many with smiling faces and showing an interest in us and honored that we were visiting their country. With some, the past is there, you can feel the slight edge in remembrances, but we genuinely ran into a lot more people who were happy.

We met a Hanoi business man in the elevator of our Saigon hotel who beamed at us surprised we had traveled all the way from the United States. Two little girls approached us while we strolled through a market, and wanted to practice the English they were learning in school. In that market, with stalls brimming with fruits, vegetables and meats, like beef as well as snakes and fish and dogs, the owners smiled back at us even when we just gawked at their wares. 

We stopped at a “Heroes Cemetery” for those who fought in the many wars and the caretaker there nearly jumped out of his shoes when I handed him a $2.00 US bill, which is considered extremely lucky in Vietnam. 

There was no hint of anger or regret when we visited with a stately matron of a splendid home in Bat Trang, a city known for ceramics. Her business of kilns and such led to wealth, but much was taken from her by the Communists in the notorious Land Reform program of 1954-56. We then met with a “worker” who was “gifted” a kiln and forged a pottery business that might not have been possible in the old way of doing things in Vietnam.

Everywhere we went there was a lot of this yin and yang going on that may seem troublesome to this American but by trip's end accepted as a way of life in Vietnam.

I was humbled.

Thanks for reading,

Love Janet and greg

© 2024 by Gregory Dunaj

I GET AROUND IN VIETNAM

TRANSPORTATION CYCLO-SHAWS, SCOOTERS AND TRAIN STREET

The history of Vietnam can be as complicated as crossing a street in Hanoi, where the traffic hurtles through intersections seemingly without regard to traffic signals or personal or pedestrian safety. Yet, the company we are traveling with Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT) has made this trip easy. Though they touch on the darker periods of Vietnam they are not weighed down by the enormity of the past and instead focus on the warm embracing people who seem genuinely happy that we are visiting their country. 

Sampan along the Mekong

We are constantly thrust into the midst of the Vietnamese. We do not emerge from the hermetic seal of our tour bus only to pause long enough for a kodak moment before piling back onto the bus. No, we have been given several opportunities to engage and converse and understand Vietnam and her people.

At times these opportunities have been harrowing as we have gotten quite up close and personal with the aforementioned traffic with several novel modes of transportation arranged for us by OAT. Some of the travel can be superfluous, or deemed less efficient than a tour bus, but every single "chariot" listed here served to enhance our travels throughout the length of Vietnam. 

OVERSEAS ADVENTURE TRAVEL

HANOI

Cyclo-shaw

Think of a bicycle pushing a trough in which a passenger sits like an offering to the horsepower gods. Admittedly this is a very touristy mode of transportation, but the bus dropped us off where all the “rickshaw” type vehicles were waiting, and we tootled through the crammed frenetic streets of the old quarter of Hanoi to reach a restaurant for our welcoming dinner. Crossing the street had been an eye-opening experience, but the cyclo-shaws put us in the middle of traffic which at times were a mere few inches from our knees. Slower than the rest of the traffic, scooters, cars, trucks and buses swirled around us like we were standing still. Later, in Hoi An, a UNESCO World Heritage city, known for lanterns, the Japanese Bridge and rampant tourism, the cyclo-shaws barreled swiftly through the pedestrian traffic.   

A ferry

A big part of traveling with OAT is immersing us with the locals and on their “A Day In The Life” excursion in North Vietnam was to have us purchase goods at a local market and then take them to the village elder so they could prepare a lunch for us. Getting to the village meant we had to cross a river by ferry. No more than a sheet of metal propelled by a motor we clamored onto the craft along with a scooter or two to traverse the waterway.

Soviet-era motorcycles

At first, I was worried about getting on the back of a chortling motorcycle driven by students eager to practice their English on us. Nevertheless, I rallied and put on my ill-fitting helmet and tucked in behind my driver and cracked nervous jokes about losing my life. He laughed and said I was very funny.

Heck, I even paid for this as this was an extra excursion and cost us $70usd each. The motorcycles moved a lot quicker than the shaws and they took us all over Hanoi. At one point it started drizzling and we put on plastic ponchos that in the humid night caused the sweat to pour.

We caromed through the streets passing Uncle Ho’s mausoleum lit dramatically in the night. We barreled through dark alley ways that were difficult to negotiate on foot. We entered the forest that hedged the city and churned along the dirt roads dodging joggers, pedestrians and for a time trailed behind a Soviet-era jeep laden with tourists from another group.

Finally giving my butt a rest we stopped first at the Black Market, where all things were for sale, from electronics to machine parts to a market of all sorts of animals ready for the kitchen, including snakes and dogs. Then we stopped for a long time at the reason why we were so interested in this excursion: Railroad Street.

Railroad Street

After the reunification of the country Vietnam decided to reunite both halves by building a railroad connecting the two. The tracks go right through neighborhoods and the trains pass within inches of patrons willing to sit right at the edge. We had heard of Railroad Street before we arrived in Vietnam, and it was a number one priority for us. You don’t need to book a tour to visit this oddly perverse attraction, but logistics made this a better choice for us. Dinner was included.

HA LONG BAY

Junk boat

Another must do when visiting Vietnam is Ha Long Bay. This UNESCO World Heritage site is dotted with over 1,000 limestone islands rising dramatically out of the waters of the bay. After boarding a tender that brought us to our ship we weaved through the islands and we spent a glorious night on the water.

Ha Long Bay

At first glimpse the boat looked spartan, but our staterooms were comfortable. On the final morning Janet joined a class in Tai Chi, with the idyllic limestone cliffs rising beautifully all around the boat.

We were fortunate as sometimes weather prevents visitors into the bay.

HUE

Dragon Boat Ride on the Perfume River

We spent two days in this city that was the scene of vicious fighting during the Tet Offensive. Save for the Citadel that is still scarred from the fighting Hue is vibrant lively and youthful and the bars brim with revelers. We toured the Citadel that has slowly been renovated, but our only extra trip was a Dragon Boat ride on the Perfume River. 

Dragon Boat on the Perfume River

There are a lot of boats for hire and OAT arranged a ride for us. Our tour bus took us out to a historic pagoda on the outskirts of Hue and the double hulled boat plied the river on the way back to town.

HOI AN

Sunset cruise along the Thu Bon

During our next stop in this very touristed UNESCO World Heritage site, we would take taxis, and multi-passenger golf carts from our Silk Hotel location to the city center several times over three days for sight seeing and shopping. I had an Aloha shirt made for me, Janet bought some jewelry and some decorative lanterns. Whenever taking a taxi here make sure you negotiate the price before accepting the ride. Don't be afraid to haggle. 

Hoi An street scene

Hoi An was once a major maritime port for the Silk Road and a  commercial hub for European, Chinese and Japanese merchants, and these influences remain in the old city's buildings and structures like the Japanese bridge (which is the city's logo), her religious influences (there is a large Chinese temple in town) and her cuisine (be sure to order a sandwich at Bahn Mi Phu'o'ng). 

BREAD IN HOI AN

We also took a hotel shuttle to the Silk Hotel's private beach club to spend half the day swimming the East Sea (formerly called the South China Sea), but the transportation highlight of our stay in Hoi An was an extra cost excursion honchoed by our tour guide Mai. 

Our group cobbled together funds and hired a boat to glide along the Thu Bon River to capture the sunset and join a parade of festively lighted boats. The colorful lanterns and lights on the passing ships and on the shore made for one of the most serene, enchanting nights on our trip to Vietnam.

Hoi An

Near the end of our boat ride, we each were given floating candles to float on the river and to make a wish.

NHA TRANG

Scooters

On the outskirts of this very touristed beach town very popular with Russian and Chinese tourists is a community of formerly South Vietnamese who went through a reeducation school run by the victors of the “American War”. 

We were each partnered up with a member of that community so we could ride on their scooter to see how life is like in the southern version of “A Day In The Life” excursion run by OAT. The traffic was non-existent compared to Hanoi, and the scooters were roomier and more comfortable than the motorcycles we rode in Hanoi.

At one point we rode over a ramshackle wooden bridge with several loose planks, but it was all much less fearsome than the motorcycles. Still, I was glad the bus came for the return to Nha Trang.

DALAT

Tractor

Dalat flower farm

As part of our day-long excursion while staying at this city in the highlands of Vietnam we visited a flower farm and a coffee plantation that specializes in Weasel-shit coffee (yes that’s a highly prized cup of coffee) and the Banana Village populated by the hill tribe people of the area. At one point the bus dropped us off we all piled onto a tractor for a rough and tumble ride along the dirt tracks. Coffee plants and banana trees hedged the dusty road and we visited with the village elder, a Catholic church and we tried to crash a lively wedding.

The tractor was entirely superfluous as our bus later met us at the village and drove back along the same road, but the ride was fun. The excursion was an extra cost.

HO CHI MINH CITY

Junk boat and Sampan and TukTuk

Once called Saigon, with the name change coming after the reunification of the country. It used to be expressly taboo to refer to this very cosmopolitan city by its original name, but that “rule” has eased a lot since the United States lifted the trade embargo on Vietnam in 1994.

One day we traveled by bus to the Mekong River to board a junk and glide past fish traps and visit a farm, where our hosts treated us to fruit and Banana liquor. Next ,we were given classic conical hats to wear for a ride in a classic wooden Sampan. Riding low in the murky brown water we slipped past reeds before reaching a dock and a waiting TukTuk. 

This ride was a type of flatbed cab with a covering. The driver barreled around sharp turns on a narrow road that eventually took us to a coconut candy facility. To help us make purchases of the candy and several other crafts and artifacts offered for sale we we were given more Banana liquor.

We then rode the junk back to the waiting bus.

Cu Chi Tunnels  

Not quite extra transportation on our last day in Vietnam we were driven out to visit the Cu Chi Tunnels. Once the end of the Ho Chi Minh Trail it is now a tourist attraction. Part of the tour was to climb down into the tunnels and see how the combatants lived. I had to crawl on my knees to make it in some places.

 

Vietnam is a long county and included in our trip were several domestic flights, none lasting little more than an hour. We first flew from Hanoi to Hue. From Danang we flew first to Saigon... oops Ho Chi Minh City and connected with a flight to Dalat. After our time in Dalat we flew back to Saigon ... oops Ho Chi Minh City for the last day of our trip to Vietnam.

There’s more to write about while in Cambodia, but this article is getting too long already. Check back in later for another entry at Vacations From Home.

Love to all,

Janet and greg

© 2024 by Gregory Dunaj

A DAY IN THE LIFE in VIETNAM

THE PEOPLE OF VIETNAM 

Bulbul male

North and South Vietnam have been reunited since the 70s with the fall of Saigon, but though they share a common language and heritage, customs are different in either section of the country. Overseas Adventure Travel (O.A.T.) focuses on the people of Vietnam and not just her vistas and monuments. Interacting with the people of Vietnam has been the greatest joy for this humble scribe. O.A.T. calls their visits to experience the customs of Vietnamese people “A Day In The Life” and we have spent two separate days in both the North and the South seeing a bit of the daily life of the Vietnamese people. Depending on your mindset the nuances between the two were either miniscule or glaring.

NORTH VIETNAM

We visited a small village not far from Hanoi and met the chief and his family. To reach his village we had to take a short ferry ride across a river. The ferry was little more than metal sheeting being propelled by a motor.

He was a North Vietnamese war veteran which helped him get this government position, although he served mainly as a musician playing for morale. There was an ease about him as he talked about his ‘tasks’ as chief and he played for us several songs on various stringed instruments. One was a “lazy violin”, and he rested the one-string instrument to play. We had lunch with the family.

A Woman’s World

We also learned how to make rice paper while there. Rice paper is used to make spring rolls. After watching his daughter make several rice paper ovals and placing them on a bamboo rack, we had the opportunity to try. My attempt at this culinary staple was hideously deformed.

Before meeting the chief, we had stopped at a small local market to purchase food for offerings to the family altar which is ubiquitous in nearly every Vietnamese home. Pictures of deceased family members are sometimes displayed at the altar and incense is burned, blessing the offerings. They prepared lunch for us, using some of the ingredients we purchased at the market before we reached the ferry.

my rice paper

The visit to the market was the most remarkable part of the day. Mai, our guide, broke our larger group into small pairs of two couples and we were all given money and a shopping list of items in Vietnamese to buy.

Google translate helped identify what we needed thankfully.

We were supposed to ask for the item in Vietnamese and hand over the money and have the proprietor fill the bag. It was a great way to interact with the stall owners, many of whom were very happy that we paused at their stand.

what's on the 
menu?

In purchasing, we often would give back a couple of items, like a tomato or a few limes, to the shop owner as a way of "tipping" and they were extremely gracious with our generosity. I was even given a few hot peppers in return for my "gift". We got a extra points if we took a selfie with the owner afterwards.  

They do eat some odd things in Vietnam and some, like dog and snakes, both of which were on display in the market. Thankfully they were not on our shopping list. 

While looking for our grocery items two precious little girls, one around 8 and the other around five approached us from a store. They were eager to practice their English and the elder girl in a halting cadence told us she was very happy to see us, and she hoped we enjoyed visiting her country. Touched, I gave her a $2.00 USD which is considered a lucky charm in Vietnam, said our good-byes and we started walking away. We got around 50 feet when she caught up with us to give back the bill, saying her father didn’t want her to accept the money, which I guess is a proper thing to do. At first, I felt I had offended them, but in hindsight that was good parenting. 

SOUTH VIETNAM

We had focused on the woman’s role in Vietnamese society but for the South Vietnamese version of Day In The Life we experienced more of the man’s role in society. We were in Nha Trang, a beach resort halfway between Danang and Saigon. A long sandy beach edged by high rise hotels and apartments, Nha Trang is very popular with Chinese and Russian tourists. Lots of the menus are listed in these two languages as well as Korean and English.

Nha Trang

We did not visit markets in Nha Trang on this O.A.T. day trip excursion, and the only food product we learned to make was the Vietnamese version of a Mojito.

We also heard about life as the loser of a war though the eyes of the village chief.

Bird Watching Cafe

Not sure how the men make their living, though we’ve been told they work hard at several jobs to provide for their families. Yet, on this day trip to the South Vietnamese version of A Day In The Life we hopped on the back of scooters and the drivers weaved treacherously through the backstreet traffic of Nha Trang until we reached the Bird Watching Café. We would never have found this place if not for our guide, Mai. We stopped here at this very local place not only for Vietnamese coffee with sweet, condensed milk, but to watch and listen to the “girlfriends” of several men gathered there. 

Bird brains

The cafe was nothing more than an empty lot covered partially by suspended tarps and some corrugated metal sheeting. Several pipes were suspended in the middle and from them hung several birdcages. The “girlfriends”, which were actually male Bulbul birds, chatted with each other as the men sipped drinks and chatted softly. They were as intrigued with us as we were of this Vietnamese cultural practice.

Turns out men take their pet birds from home to the café to enjoy some peace and quiet away from their wives. Transported here in covered cages, which keeps the birds calm on the harrowing journey to the café, the cages hang from the handgrips of the scooters. The covers are removed after a while and the beloved birds all talk to each other. Periodically a cage would be moved to another end or side so the Bulbul birds can make some new conversations with a whole other set of birds. As we marveled over this joyful scene, we watched a man prepare to leave. He covered two cages and placed them on the ground near his scooter. After a time, he hung the cages on his hand grips and puttered away. 

History is written by the victors

We visited a Northern village, and now we had the opportunity to see life in a Southern village.

After the Americans left in 1973 the conflicts continued in Vietnam, but without the support of the United States Saigon and the South Vietnamese government fell in April 1975. The South Vietnamese felt abandoned by the U.S., and while some tried to flee the country, others had to endure a “reeducation camp” offered by the Communist victors to be indoctrinated fully in this new way of thinking in South Vietnam. Part of the process tasked these former enemies with rebuilding the infrastructure destroyed during the war before they finally were deemed properly indoctrinated. If you resisted indoctrination, you were invited to stay longer and longer.

We visited a village that was populated by nearly 2,000 people who had endured these reeducation sessions. The chief of the village had served with the South Vietnamese Airborne division as a Lieutenant and went to “school” for a year. Now 85 years old, he has served in this elected government position for the past 15 years, with elections held every 5 years. After he was first released, he worked as a farmer, mostly harvesting bamboo. The chief at that time had been appointed by Hanoi, but the villagers rejected an outsider, and he was elected to this current position.

White-haired and wiry, there was a spark in the man’s eye, despite the difficult past.  He was quite happy to help his village in this capacity. During our visit to his home, he fielded phone calls pertaining to village business. 

The chief also led us in making the Vietnamese version of a Mojito. All the ingredients are the same, but lemongrass is muddled as well. Our group drained a bottle of rum as we were offered shots after the concoction was finished. We had lunch with the chief and his wife and they served some odd foods too.

what's on the menu 2
duck embryo

On our way back to the bus we passed several women making chopsticks from bamboo. Three generations of women were working quickly and it was fascinating to watch how they carved and smoothed the bamboo to whittle them down to the appropriate shapes with very sharp instruments. We bought a bundle of chopsticks from them, happy to help with their economy.

making bamboo chopsticks

 

Thanks for reading

Love Janet and greg

© 2024 by Gregory Dunaj

WALKING IN VIETNAM

STICKY RICE and WHISPERS and HAPPY ROOMS

pineapple purchase

We’ve never gone on a group excursion before, fearful traveling in an ever-moving horde would be more of a slog than an adventure, but the Overseas Adventure Travel company (O.A.T.) keeps it small and intimate. There are just 14 travelers on our “Inside Vietnam” tour. Thankfully the traveling is slower paced. We are in Hanoi for 6 days, before moving on to the next destination.

This has allowed us to ease into the culture of Vietnam without having to sacrifice sleep or experiences. We’re always given the choice to opt out of different planned adventures, though so far, we’re happy to go along with everything O.A.T. has planned for us.

Our tour guide is Mai, from Saigon. Her informative walks brim with details and personal anecdotes about the complicated history of Vietnam that could not be culled from a guidebook. Her infectious laugh and gracious ways make the smallest moments great fun, and her catch phrases like “steps by step” and “sticky rice” conveyed to us through headsets she calls “whispers” make crossing the treacherous streets or finding a “happy room” much easier.

The first stop on our introductory walk was across the street from our hotel, the May De Ville Trendy Hotel, to enter the Old Quarter of Hanoi and to buy pineapples from a street vendor wearing a typical conical hat. Mai pointed out how the woman carved and sliced the pineapples for us with a special tool.

We basically walked around the block on this introductory trek in the Old Quarter, which is densely packed with shops, cafes, and restaurants. Along the way she pointed out a French Colonial mansion now broken up into several “homes” and Communist-era drab construction and air raid sirens leftover from the war. Space is a luxury in Vietnam and the cramped conditions in the Quarter reflect that.

After lunch we went to get Iced Coconut coffee and then given the choice to either return to the hotel or go to the Women’s Museum. We opted for the museum to learn about life in the hill country and women’s roles during the “American” War.

Later that evening we were embedded in the maniacal traffic of Hanoi and rode in cyclo-shaws, a bicycle version of a rickshaw to an opening dinner at a restaurant in town. With cars, trucks, scooters, pedestrians and buses converging from every direction with intersections especially frightening we surprisingly arrived at the restaurant after this white-knuckled ride unscathed.

Great experiences.

Love Janet and greg

© 2024 by Gregory Dunaj

Cyclo-shaw rides are not for the 
faint of heart