Asia Trip 2005

Traffic in Saigon

2006-06-27T17:25:00.000-04:00

Traffic in Vietnam is the typical third world chaos. There seems to be no discernable traffic regulations and many intersections don’t have lights. The most common form of transportation is scooter. Anything that can be balanced on a scooter will be. We saw cages of piglets and chickens, ten foot lengths of rebar, boxed small appliances and entire families on scooters.

If you look carefully at the video, you can see some large parcels on the backs of few scooters. Small children usually stand of the frame of the scooter between the legs of the driver. In the center of the circle were I took this video is a statue and five roads feed into the circle. There are no traffic lights and vehicles from bicycles to buses just merge and weave around each other.

This video was taken in the Cholon section of Saigon near the market. The Cholon district is the city’s Chinatown era and has a long history. In the market, the stalls offer anything and everything at wholesale prices. My wife found a stand selling beaded cell phone ornaments. She bought a couple of dozen at about US$0.50 each. She has seen similar items in the mall for over US$5.00.

Guest Rooms

2006-06-24T21:29:00.000-04:00

Alley of guest houses
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

We stayed at what are considered luxury hotels while in Vietnam. There are a lot of other lodging options. At the other end of the spectrum are guest houses which are very inexpensive. My mother-in-law stays at these places when she visits for a month or two each year.

A guest house building is a narrow midrise building about five stories high. The ground floor is a lobby with offices. A central stair runs up to each floor. At each floor there are two rooms off of the stair. The room is about 10 feet by 15 feet in size (3m by 5m). The room will have two beds and a small window and an air conditioner as well as other amenities such as phone, a refrigerator and television . There is a bathroom which has a sink, toilet and shower head, but not a separate shower stall.

The rooms cost about ten dollars a day and are very popular with European backpackers. Because of this, they are sometimes called backpacker hotels. Travel agents work in this area offering travel arrangements to outlying cities. These agents offer open bus tickets on frequently traveed routes.

The Starbucks of Vietnam

2006-06-20T12:37:00.000-04:00

Trung Nguyen Coffeeshop
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

One of the many capitalist innovations that Vietnam is allowing and adopting is franchising. One of the most common chains is Trung Nguyen, a chain of coffee shops. We saw the brown logo of this brand throughout Vietnam, making it the Starbuck of the country. According to this article, there are over 400 of these shops in Vietnam. High tarriffs keep Starbucks and other chains out.

Since French colonial days, coffee has been an important part of the Vietnamese economy and culture. Vietnamese coffee is a very strong espresso style beverage.

One popular method of serving coffee commonly found in Vietnamese restaurants in the United States is iced coffee with condensed milk. Condensed milk is poured into a glass of ice and then a small pot filled with coffee grounds is placed over the glass. Hot water is poured into the pot and when the coffee is finished seeping into the glass, the coffee, milk and ice are stirred.

In any third world country, tourists are warned not to drink the water. In Vietnam, we stuck to bottled water, but ice is just as dangerous.

One morning I saw a local shop preparing their ice for the day. A large block of ice had been delivered to the shop and one of the workers had set it on the dirty sidewalk and was chipping it with a rusty machete. That sight kept me from drinking any beverages that involved ice. I stuck to refrigerated cans of soda and fruit juice.

Badminton Saigon Style

2006-06-19T12:34:00.000-04:00

In all of Vietnam, lots of people exercise in the morning and badmintion is a very popular game. On one of my morning walks I came across a park near the Ben Thanh Market in Saigon. People were doing everything from tai chi to aerobics to just walking. The group in the video was playing a very competitive game of badminton. Nearby kids and teenagers were just practicing with rackets but no nets.

Breakfast In The Streets Of Saigon

2006-05-22T12:38:00.000-04:00

A sidewalk breakfast stand in Vietnam
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

I tend to be an early riser and the rest of my family doesn't. The twelve hour time zone diiference didn't seem to affect that much. Every morning I would wake up about 6 am and take a walk around the city. The morning commute would begin about 7, but before that the breakfast street vendors would set up.

In Saigon, breakfast means small soup stands being set up on the sidewalks. The women in this picture had one of the bigger operations. Breakfast was eaten wherever you wanted or could find a seat, chair or park bench. Pho is the all-purpose meal in Vietnam, serving as a breakfast as well as a lunch or dinner. A propane stove would heat the soup and the herbs that went along it would be set out along the side.

Two guys eat breakfast on the sidewalk.
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

I have no idea if and how the location of the vendors was regulated or decided. There seemed to be a strong element of squatters rights involved, and many of the stand owners probably lived in the building behind their stand. Nevertheless all the food preparation and cooking was done right on the sidewalk. Dirty dishes are placed in a plastic tub of lukewarm soapy water. The overall cleanliness of the set-up discouraged me from ever giving the sidewalks stands a try.

Wherever outdoor dining occured, cheap plastic furniture was never far behind. These brightly colored children-sized stools, tables and chairs would be grouped around for the owners of the satand as well as the patrons. Plastic furniture is very economical and easily replaced if lost or stole. Even large cafes would use plastic lawn chairs for furniture. It tended to give the sidewalks the look of a badly cared for daycare center.

Fruit Gardens And Hammock Stands

2006-05-17T12:53:00.000-04:00

Drinking coconut milk at a fruit garden
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

One of the interesting niche businesses in Vietnam is the fruit garden. These are family run areas of a few acres covered with, obviously, fruit trees. Scattered around the gardens are seating areas tables and canopies. You sit down and they bring you fresh coconut to drink, and then you order plates of fruit to snack on. This was where I finally had my durian.

To get to a fruit garden, you take a small boat down a canal to the garden. The canals are lined with furit gardens and the boat driver takes you to the one he has a relationship with. This particular fruit garden was not particulary good. Most of the chairs were broken and we had to move around a few times. the fruits were slow in coming out. The insects were also starting to get thick by mid-morning.

Industrialization has been rough on this industry. Pollution and haze have impacted the quality of the fruit trees so close to Saigon. Also there are now many more types of recreation vying for the leisure market.

On the main highway to the Mekong Delta, we saw a lot of roadside stands that were a similar type of enterprise. Our guide called them "hammock cafes" for good reason. Each stand would have a grove of trees or a large thatched pavillion with rows of hammocks strung up. the patrons would come by and have refreshments or a meal served and then take a nap in the hammock.

It sounded like agreat idea, but I'm not sure it's a business ready for the go-go western world.

Durian Quest

2006-04-28T22:35:00.000-04:00

Smells like hell, tastes like heaven.
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

Perhaps one of the most notorious tropical fruits is the durian. Anthony Bourdain in his show Kitchen Confidential went to Vietnam to eat a live beating cobra heart. And a durian. Our guide says the Vietnamese saying about durians are that they "taste like heaven and smell like hell."

The smell is so awful that hotels have rules about guests bringing them to the room. The most common comparison is to dirty diapers.

Durians are actually available in the United States. The Korean run supermarket in my area sells them. Still, I was not leaving Vietnam without eating a durian.

Holding my durian.
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

The durian is large with a tough spiky skin. The inside is divided into a series of of compartments each with its own pod. The pod contains a seed and the fruit surrounds the seeds. The fruit is sweet and mushy like over-ripe mango. Personally, I didn't find the taste or the smell as extreme in either direction as hyped. My son whose olafactory sense is probably keener than mine did find the smell a little repulsive.

The meat was very sticky and rather messy to eat. This durian was on the small side and it was still nearly a meal all to itself. I was a little underwhelmed with the experience, but perhaps I had built up the legendary durian just a little too much in my mind.

Snake Not On A Plane

2006-04-28T22:14:00.000-04:00

Holding a python
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

While at the honey farm, we had a little time to kill waiting for the rain to die down. They had this big snake in a cage that they let me and my son hold. I think it is some sort of python or other constrictor. My wife wouldn't have anything to do with it.

Eco-tourism is an industry the Mekong Delta area is really hoping catches on. I'm not sure roadside attraction level items like enormous snakes will be enough to keep people coming.

Folk Singers and Tea

2006-03-16T12:13:00.000-05:00

Our second stop on our Mekong River boat tour, after we got soaked by rain, was at a honey farm. The didn't actually show any honey production. Instead, the served very delicious honey tea and fresh fruit, which we enjoyed as we dried off.

While we ate and drank, two folk musicians came out and preformed some traditional love songs. The man played some sort of stringed guitar like instrument and the woman sang. We were expected to tip, and we did.

Because of the rain, and also since it was the off-tourist season, we were the only ones there. Another boat did arrive as we were leaving. That caused a minor trafic jam on the very small plank "dock" at the bee farm.

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Up The River

2006-03-07T12:06:00.000-05:00

This video is taken from the boat ride up to a coconut candy place. The canal is fairly wide and has tall wood pedestrian bridges over it. The occasional houses along the river are the typical rural wood construction with corrugated metal roofs. The boat ride up to the candy plant took about five minutes and we saw very few houses or other structures. The plants along the bank came right down to the water's edge.

At the candy plant, they demonstrated the traditional method of melting the candy in a large metal kettle and then rolling it and slicing it on a table. The candy is very sweet and chewy, a little like taffy. It is wrapped in an edible cellophane wrapper, which confused my coworkers when I brought some into work after the trip. It was a much bigger hit at the nail salon my wife goes to.

The gift shop was a large thatched roof booth that had a lot of tourist items made out of coconut. We were expected to buy some candy and we did as well as a few souvenir chopsticks carved out of coconut tree. They were very ornately decorated and a good functional souvenir.

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Small Boats and Smaller Boats

2006-02-14T12:11:00.000-05:00

Coconut drinks on the Mekong
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

The tour boat we crossed the Mekong River on was maybe ten feet (3 meters) wide with moveable patio chairs for seating. We were greeted with coconut drinks as the picture shows. The boat was just a little bigger than one we had ridden on the Perfume River, but then the Mekong River is a bigger river. What it did not have was a small cabin in the back, which would be important later. Our crew consisted of the tour guide and the motor operator.

Our first stop was a ways up a small river tributary to a place where they made honey candy. The stop had working displays of the methods used to make this traditional snack. We bought several packs to give to friends and the Vietnamese nail techs my wife goes to.

On our way to the next stop, while out on the open waters of the main river, we got pounded by a large thunderstorm that sprung up out of nowhere. The flimsy vinyl awning that was the roof of the boat was no cover against the fierce cold driving rain of the storm. The boat driver steered to a mangrove patch on the bank of the river that provided some shelter against the rain, but we were soon soaked to the bone. Meanwhile our tour guide tried to raise the main office on her cellphone to get direction on what to do about the tour.

Up the river on a small boat.
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

The rain soon let up enough for us to continue on our way. The next little river branch was too small for our “big boat”, so we transferred to another smaller boat with bench seats that drove us up the river to a fruit garden. This was the heart of darkness part of the trip. The river was very narrow with enormous tropical plants coming up right to the river edge. I imagined us being in Apocalypse Now going up river to find Colonel Kurtz. We ended up at a fruit garden where we could rest under shelter and dry of instead. A much more pleasant destination.

Really small boats
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

Elsewhere on the river we saw some boats no bigger than canoes painted in the same color as the other tour boats. I think the tour got cut short a little bit by the rain storm, but I imagine that these smaller boats are also used to take tourists up even smaller creeks. We were expected to tip the driver of both boats as well as the guide, so missing out on the last boat ride proboably saved us just a little money as well.

Across The River

2006-02-06T12:16:00.000-05:00

Map of the Mekong River
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

Between My Tho and Ben Tre, there are four islands in the middle of the Mekong River. The islands are named after the four sacred animals of Vietnam, the dragon, phoenix, unicorn, and turtle. The boat tour goes between the islands to get to the Ben Tre side of the river. The islands are heavily planted with small villages along the water’s edge.

On the phoenix island, Phung Island, there are the ruins of a complex built by an eccentric holyman named called the Coconut Monk because he subsisted solely on coconuts. The grotto was built in the 1960s and looks like an abandoned amusement park. Right on the edge of the water is a large steel Buck Rogers looking space ship.

The pass between the islands is very busy as all the river traffic goes through it. Large ferry boats are the primary way across the river. A very large modern concrete bridge is under construction that will connect My Tho to Ben Tre. When finished it will open up the Delta area to considerably more traffic from the Saigon area.

Swimming In The Mekong

2006-01-29T14:18:00.000-05:00

Child Swimming in the Mekong River
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

The Mekong River is the economic heart of Vietnam. The river starts in the Himalayas and winds it way through all of south-east Asia before entering the South China Sea. Nine tributaries branch off the river and form the Mekong Delta. My Tho is the town on the river closest to Saigon.

Eco-tourism has become a huge component of the economy in the area. At least two enormous open-air restaurants cater to the tour bus industry. The multi-course meal here features as its center piece a locally farm raised fish that is grilled and served at the table “standing” upright.

Tour boats operate from the river front and take tourists to a variety of local native craft exhibits strung along the river. The river itself is a huge wide muddy super-highway with ferries, sand dredging barges, tour boats and fisherman all trying to run each other over. The boats come in all sizes and shapes. Most boats have some sort of stylized dragon on the bow to scare away the crocodiles that traditionally ply the river.

Much to our amazement, considering the ochre color of the water, small children swim and play right in the river. The level of biological contamination in this country with a still developing sanitary infrastructure would scare away most first world swimmers.

Still, children are children and there is nothing more refreshing than a dip into a dirty crocodile infested river to cool off on a hot day.

Making Rice Paper

2006-01-20T13:07:00.000-05:00

Not all the exhibits at the Cu Chi tunnels deal with the war. One display shows the traditional method of making rice paper. Rice paper is used as the wrapper for the Vietnamese version of the egg roll, called cha gio. The rice past is put on a small crepe pan style burner and then set on a bamboo screen to cool. This way the rice paper can stay fresh for several days without spoiling.

The exhibit also included a still making rice wine. Wine is a misnomer since it is at least 80 proof.

Across the way from this exhibit is a firing range where visitors can shoot AK-47's. It is the only legal firing range in Vietnam.

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Visit The Cu Chi Gift Shop

2006-01-10T12:33:00.000-05:00

Scorpion and Cobra Liquor
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

One aspect of modern capitalist society that the Vietnamese Army has successfully emulated is the tourist attraction gift shop. As the Cu Chi tour ends, there is a long row of open air stalls selling souvenirs. The items for sale include all sorts of gear with the yellow star and red background, just in case you forgot who won the war. The tire tread sandals were tempting, although I’m sure they are no longer getting the tires from destroyed US trucks.

A large number of items appealed to the sense of machismo, like the cobra and scorpion liquor. Our guide mentioned to drink it while still in Vietnam if we wanted some because the chance of getting it through customs might be slim. They did offer free samples and it made Italian grappa and Kentucky moonshine taste smooth in comparison.

There was also a large (12 foot or longer) stuffed crocodile that you could pose with. You could get your picture either with or without the company of the very attractive lady in native garb at the booth. I kept getting a mental image of large groups of Japanese or Chinese businessmen on vacation trying to pass off the croc as something they killed while on safari.

I think the Communists may have won the war, but good old fashion marketing is winning the hearts and minds.

Into The Tunnels

2006-01-03T12:35:00.000-05:00

Crawling in the Cu Chi tunnels.
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

The premiere attraction of the Cu Chi Tunnel area is of course to go into the tunnels. After touring all the dioramas and displays, visitors are given the opportunity to crawl through a 100 meter long segment of the actual tunnels. Ironically, these particular tunnels have been widened to accommodate the larger frames of western tourists, which was one of the virtues of the original small tunnels.

No one is obligated to go through the tunnels and my wife declined. My son and I were game. The particular stretch of tunnel used for tourists has exit points at the 10 meter and 25 meter marks for those that do get too claustrophobic. We made the whole distance. The tunnel is too tall to walk upright in leaving the options of either crawling on hands and knees or duckwalking through.

Duckwalking through the tunnels
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

I crawled carrying my camcorder, giving me about 10 minutes of footage that consists of flashes from the Army guide up ahead taking our picture and the sounds of us huff and puffing our way through. The tunnel was very hot and just as humid as the outdoors, causing a lot of perspiration that turns the dry ground of the tunnel into mud when mixed. All in all, not an unpleasant experience, but not one I’m eager to repeat.

There is a convenient hand-washing station at the end of the tunnel for washing off the dust and mud.

Cu Chi Tunnels

2005-12-21T12:21:00.000-05:00

Army guide demonstrates the tunnel entrance
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

The Cu Chi area just outside of Saigon was the center of Viet Cong activity during the war. As such, it was the subject of much military activity and the Viet Cong went to elaborate measures to hide from American soldiers.

One of the major methods was an elaborate tunnel complex that ran for literally hundreds of miles. In many cases, tunnels went up to and into American bases. Entrances into the tunnels were elaborately disguised and were so small that few American soldiers could enter them, even if they were found.

The Cu Chi tunnels are now a major tourist itnerary. Various parts of the Cu Chi area have been transformed into displays and exhibits about life for the Viet Cong soldiers and supporters. Tours are given by Army soldiers who demonstrate various parts of the tunnel system.

Before visiting the tunnels, a visitor center has a cut-away diorama of the complexity of the system, and tourists are shown a grainy vintage black and white movie praising the tanacity and dedication of the Viet Cong rebels. It was not subtle.

A tight fit
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

I was the only one of the Americans in our tour group willing to try to get into the tunnel. While I could just barely fit into the opening, when I crouched down, I got a minor panic attack. It took help from our guide to perform the rather gymnastic lift necessary to get out of the hole.

Other parts of the tour showed large craters from the constant aerial bombardment, different types and styles of pungee booby traps and pits, and all the various methods of concealing things like cooking smoke from detection.

There were also random pieces of destroyed military equipment on display and the opportunity to pose with cardboard cut-outs of black pajama clad insurgents. Please see my previous post here about my feelings about these types of displays.

Even accounting for differences in opinion over the war, it is hard to see the efforts of the Communist rebels and not be awed by their tenacity and ingenuity.

Room With A View

2005-12-12T12:29:00.000-05:00

The Saigon River
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

Our ninth floor room at the Grand Hotel in Saigon had great views of both the Saigon River and the city. In the first picture, the turret from the older part of the Grand Hotel (seen from the street in this picture) shows a series of low rise buildings near the waterfront. Immediately to the left as seen in this picture is the Rennaissance Saigon. Just to the right is another older hotel and another new high rise.

In a few years, I have to imagine that these older buildings will be demolished to make way for a new high rise that will probably block this great view of the river traffic up and down the Saigon River.

Highrises, built and being built, in Saigon
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

Across Dong Khoi street from the hotel there is a large construction site that is being billed as a multi-use high rise that was just starting. The construction noises woke us up pretty early one morning.

The pace of construction is Saigon is amazing and I fear a lot of the old character will be lost. While we were there a large department store opened further up Dong Khoi. Modeled after Japanese department stores, each floor specialized in a different area like women's clothes, electronics, and housewares. The top floor had a very nice food court and a huge gaming arcade that had videogames and bowling.

The prices were very high. Men's dress shirts were designer names and easily cost US$60 or more. Within walking distance on Dong Khoi, you can find tailor shops that will custom make clothes at a fraction of the cost. Times change.

The Grand Hotel In Saigon

2005-12-06T12:48:00.000-05:00

Grand Hotel in Saigon
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

Our headquarters while in Saigon was the Grand Hotel, which is a government-run colonial-era hotel on Dong Khoi near the Saigon river. The colonial portion of the hotel is three stories tall with large grand open rooms. A more modern addition is ten stories tall and has more standard sized hotel rooms.

Despite it's name, the Grand Hotel is not the grandest hotel in Saigon. The Caravelle is the premiere colonial era hotel in the area. Several international chains have built modern contemporary luxury high-rises in the area as well, including Sheraton, Sofitel, and Rennaissance. Rooms in these more luxurious hotels can be US$200 or more a night. Another large luxury hotel was about open while we were there in July.

Grand Hotel Lobby
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

The Grand Hotel had an excellent buffet breakfast with a great variety of fresh fruit and fruit juices each morning as well as the typical pho/omlette choice.

The location is also very nice being on the quieter end of Dong Khoi, which is the main shopping district for luxury goods. A wide variety of western and traditional restaurants were just blocks away.

The hotel itself had a very small lap pool with some token exercise machines in the corner of the outside pool patio serving as the "fitness center". A spa in the hotel offered a wide range of massages and manicures at prices competitive the salons all up and down Dong Khoi.

Overall, the hotel was very nice, but the general inexpensiveness of the hotels in the area would make us want to try one of the even more luxurious ones nearby if we visited again.

Khai Dinh in the Rain

2005-11-29T12:48:00.000-05:00

Khai Dinh Tomb
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

The newest of the Nguyen Dynasty tombs is also the smallest. It also has the most prominant view. Located on the side of a hill, it is visible for miles around.

We arrived at the tomb during a rain shower and our guide rented us umbrellas right by the entrance. You have to love that capitalistic spirit in a socialist country. The temple is 130 steps up to the top and the rain makes the worn treads very slippery.

Khai Dinh Statue
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

The temple is also the most "western" of the tombs with a lot of French influenced decoration. Khai Dinh was very taken with French style and many of the ornaments in the temple were imported from France. The tomb itself has a lif size statue of him sitting in a canopied chair.

We were inside the temple admiring the decor when the rain picked up dramatically and the power went out. The rain got so heavy that water was about to back up into the temple from the plaza outside. A worker went out and set a hose down to siphon off the rain to run down the steps instead.

After about a half hour, the rain had died down enough for us to risk the dash back down the steps to our van. The railings of the steps are elaborately carved dragons. The dragons can be seen in this post.

Tomb of Minh Mang

2005-11-20T18:51:00.000-05:00

Temple building at Ming Mang Tomb
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

The second tomb that we visited in Hue was the tomb of Emperor Minh Mang. This tomb complex is considered one of the finest complexes of the Nguyen Dynasty tombs. The buildings are laid out along a central axis and are flanked by by two large man made lakes. A third lake separates the main buildings from the actual tomb area. As seen from above, the lakes form the rough outline of a body with the round tomb area where the head would be.

The overall effect of the buildings, gardens and lakes is a serene contemplative atmosphere. Walking trails surround the large lakes and the total length of nature trails is several miles.

Formal Gardens
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

The main set of buildings are symmetrical around a central axis with a formal feel. The garden at the end of buildings just before the Tan Nuyet Lake is set in the shape of the Chinese longevity symbol that is a major feature of all the tombs.

As we were leaving this tomb, we greeted a group of Australian tourists that we had seen at the restaurant the previous night. In fact all day, we kept coming across the same people that were on roughly the same itenerary as us. Vietnam is an increasing popular tourist destination for Australians.

Working Elephants

2005-11-16T12:14:00.000-05:00

Elephant resting in his hut.
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

While traveling along a windy mountain road between tombs near Hue, we saw this elephant in his open air hut. Another elephant was in a hut right behind it. Down the hill in a much more ramshackle building were the owners of the elephants. They would let us take pictures but not get too close.

The elephants work in the forest pulling lumber. I think these elephants live better more comfortable lives than some of the local residents. I had always associated elephants with Thailand and India, completely unaware that they were in Vietnam as well.

Roadside Incense

2005-11-09T19:17:00.000-05:00

Roadside Incense Stand
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

Just outside the gates of the very serene grounds of the Tu Duc Tomb complex near Hue was a row of tourist shops and small cafes catering to the tourists. Further down the road was this stand selling incense. The incense is beautifully arranged in these fan shaped arrangements. The colors were so pretty, we made the van turn around just so I could take some pictures.

Roadside stands in Vietnam tend to come in clusters. There is a Nobel prize winning theory behind this phenomena, but Vietnamese merchants have figured this out on their own. We would pass a pineapple stand to then pass about ten more in the next mile. A little further up the road would be a dozen stands in a row selling rice wine, then a group of stands selling something else.

There were a couple of other stands right near this one selling incense sticks as well, but this one had the prettiest arrangement. The incense was for pilgrims to the temples in the area. As we learned in Hanoi, all the major religious attractions are also working temples.

Tu Duc Mausoleum

2005-11-01T12:32:00.000-05:00

Temple at Tu Duc Tomb
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

Scattered around the countryside around Hue are the tombs and mausoleums of the Nguyen Dynast rulers. Tomb is too light a word to use for these palatial monuments.

Each of these sites is really a summer palace complex that was built for each emperor. Construction would begin as soon as the emperor took the throne and would serve as a retreat from the Imperial City. Each one is different, reflecting the personality and ambition of it's emperor.

The first one we visited was the estate of the Emperor Tu Duc. The estate circles a beautiful lake and has several recreational pavillions surrounding the lake. Tu Duc considered himself a poet and he would sit in the pavillion overlooking the lake while he composed.

The Hoa Khiem Temple shown in the picture doubled as a working palace during his life and included a royal opera theater and lodging for his many concubines. After the the death of an emperor, his many concubines would often stay on as caretakers for the estate.

Courtyard to the tomb
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

The actual sarcophogous is within a courtyard up a small hill. The courtyard outside the tomb includes rows of statues of horses, warriors and mandarins. These life size statues are to guard the tomb area.

There was a slave revolt during construction and the design was changed to reflect a new-found humility and modesty on the part of Tu Duc. He still had time for 50 course meals and dozens of concubines.

Tu Duc Tomb
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

Unlike western tombs, the Tu Duc Mausoleum is open air and exposed to the elements. Our guide told us that the actual bodies of the emperors were buried in secret locations to avoid grave robbers.

The lake and gardens including a beautiful wooded area were magnificent but very hot. We went through two bottles of water each on the brief hour tour we took of the grounds. Fortunately there were several concession stands set up just for that need.

Captive Market

2005-10-25T12:14:00.000-04:00

Silk robe for sale.
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

One trend we didn't quite expect on our trip to Vietnam was the tendancy for tour guides to bring out the gift selection in the middle of the trip. I think that because the tours themselves are so inexpensive, the boat operators rely on the supplemental sales of drinks and merchandise to make a profit. Several times when we wanted to buy drinks at the various stops, our guide suggested we wait until we get back on the boat. They always had a good selection of canned and bottled beverages on board, so it wasn't a problem giving them our business.

Inevitably, there was also some other type of merchandise available as well. We first encountered this on our boat ride in Halong Bay when as we were returning to port, the hostess on the boat brought out a large assortment of pearl jewelry. We ended up buying several items as gifts.

On the Perfume River, during our boat ride from Hue, we were presented with all varities of silk robes and and locally manufactured name brand clothing The prices were very reasonable and we did end up getting a few items. My son is modeling the reversible silk robe that he selected.

In the Mekong Delta and around Saigon, the tour operators expected tips instead. Overall, I prefer the clothing and jewelry as tour operator revenue enhancement. At least the purchases qualify as souvenirs.

Begging By Boat

2005-10-19T19:15:00.000-04:00

Old Lady Begging On The River
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

As would be expected in a developing nation like Vietnam, beggars would be found everywhere tourists would be. This very old lady had a small, small boat that she had rowed up to the dock at the Thien Mu Pagoda in Hue. From here she could solicit all the tourists arriving on the brightly colored dragon boats like the one in the background.

Beggars in Vietnam seemed more genuinely destitute than the equivalent homeless street person in the United States. They tended to be very old or suffered from some sort of severe disfigurement. They were also more persistent than American panhandlers.

Overall, the number of beggars we encountered was smaller than we had anticipated, but that didn't make their presence any less heart wrenching or pity inducing.

Thien Mu Pagoda

2005-10-16T09:01:00.000-04:00

Thien Mu Pagoda in Hue
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

The first stop on our river boat tour from Hue was the Thien Mu Pagoda, which is also known as the Linh Mu Pagoda. Boats pull right up to a dock at the river bank and the pagoda is at the top of a set of steps overlooking the river. The pagoda was first built in 1601 and the current version dates back to 1844. The pagoda is seven stories high and each level has an altar to a different Buddha.

The temple is a working Buddhist monastery and school. We passed a school in session in one of the back buildings. Children in the traditional brown robes were studying and chanting the teachings of Buddha. The grounds also have a wonderful collection of small gardens and fruit trees.

Temple Guard statues
Originally uploaded by yellojkt

In addition to the pagoda, the temple includes a large bell that was cast in 1710, the usual collection of Buddha statues and a group of carved and brightly painted statues that guard the temple area.

After the division of the country when the French left, Buddhists were persecuted under the Catholic dominated South Vietnamese government. Buddhism being a very pacifist religion, a form of protest was for monks to douse themselves with gasoline and immolate themselves in a public place as protest.

The first monk to to this, Thich Quang Du, was from this temple. The temple still owns and displays the car that is in the background of a very famous picture showing the protest. The photo can be seen in this article.

River Dredging

2005-10-12T19:07:00.000-04:00

Dredging river bottoms for sand is a major cottage industry along rivers in Vietnam. These boats are on the Perfume River just upriver from Hue. The river dredging operation relies on manual labor. We passed the boats too fast to completely digest the full operation, but this video shows a quick glimpse. It seems to involve a couple of people at a paddle wheel sort of spindle and a long pole that gets raised and dropped.

Each river boat is a family enterprise with everyone on the boat helping out in the operation. Sand is then barged downriver to riverside concrete factories where concrete blocks are made and sold to the fast growing construction business.

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Sand Boats

2005-10-09T15:45:00.000-04:00

Sand boats ply the waterways up and down the Perfume River in Vietnam. The sand is used to make concrete for construction. These boats are powered by small motors.

This video shows an empty boat traveling upstream which passes two fully loaded sand boats headed downstream. The full sand boats are loaded up until they barely float under the weight of the sand. Most boats have at least one crew member constantly bailing water out that overflows into the boat.

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Up The Perfume River

2005-10-06T19:24:00.000-04:00

Tourist boat painted like a dragon.
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

Hue is located on the Perfume River, which is one of the six major rivers in Vietnam. Hue is actually fairly inland and near the foot of a series of mountains. The older fortress Imperial City part of Hue sits on one side of the river and the newer commercial district is on the other.

The river is a major economic factor for the area with boats and barges forming a steady stream of traffic. River boats are wide bottomed and shallow with a pointed raised bow and a small cabin near the stern. Many families live on their boats and either fish or dredge river sand for a living.

Double tourist boat.
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

Tourist excursions up the river a very popular way too see the attractions on or near the river. The tourist boats are standard river boats that have been painted a light blue and decorated like a dragon. They have about six rows of seats with a canopy or awning for protection from the sun. Larger tourist boats are double hulled catamaran style.

The slight breeze as the boat goes up river helps disperse the stifling humidity. But even with the draft, Hue was even warmer and muggier than Hanoi.

Dragons Everywhere

2005-10-01T06:00:00.000-04:00

Dragon steps
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

In Hue, and in Vietnam in general, dragons are a very common decoration on the palaces, temples, and tombs. The dragon is one of the four sacred animals of Vietnam. The others being the turtle, the phoenix and either the unicorn or the lion, depending on your source. Dragons are often carved into the ornamentation in ways that make the carving part of the building or structure.

The first picture shows the largest dragon in Vietnam. His body and tail go all the way up this very grand set of steps. This dragon is one on of four or five dragons that are stair railings going up to the tomb of Khai Dinh. This tomb is set on the side of a mountain and the stairs are very steep.

The photo is streaked by rain from the torrential downpour that started while we were at the top of the tomb. The fast flowing rain and worn steps made descending back to the tour van very hazardous.

Dragons on the roof
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

The second picture is a close up of the roof of the Imperial City. There are a total of nine dragons on the roof of the building. Nine is a sacred number in Vietnam.

Dragons are on nearly all of the buildings in the Forbidden City. If you look at the full 3 megapixel size photo (warning to dial up users: link is 1.5 MB) that was used in the post about the Forbidden City you can see the dragons all along the roof of the entrance pavillion as well.

Bicycles: An Endangered Species

2005-09-26T17:18:00.000-04:00

Bicyclist in Hue
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

As recently as five years ago, the sterotypical desctiption of major cities in Vietnam included a reference to streets choked with bicycles. As wages have risen since economic reforms, the scooter has replaced the bicycle in most areas.

Only in the more remote areas will you see bicycles still used as the primary means of transportation. Here, a young woman is using her bicycle as a delivery truck. A steady stream of similarly laden bicycles passed beneath our hotel window in Hue.

In Saigon or Hanoi, these would have been scooters laden down with twice as much. We saw scooters carrying anything you can imagine being balanced on the back of one: Chickens in coops, piglets in cages, construction rebar, huge stacks of 5 gallon water bottles, you name it. Unlike bicycles that still require human muscle for propulsion, the only limit to what can go on a scooter is imagination and balance.

Bun Bo Hue for Breakfast

2005-09-20T12:18:00.000-04:00

Bun Bo Hue
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

Soup is an important breakfast food in Vietnam. The best known soup is called pho, which originated in the North, but has spread throughout the country with minor regional variations.

Another popular soup is bun bo hue which translates loosely as "beef soup from Hue". It's named after Hue in the sense that Buffalo chicken wings are named after the city of Buffalo. Like Buffalo chicken wings, bun bo hue is spicier than other similar dishes.

Bun bo hue is available in other regions and is often advertised alongside pho, but we wanted to try the real thing from Hue. Like all the hotels we stayed at, the Saigon Morin offered a full breakfast buffet, which had both pho and bun bo hue. We were there at the same time as a large group of tourist industry workers on an incentive trip, so the lines for pho and bun stayed much longer than when we were at places with a more Western mix of guests.

Passion Fruit
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

The fruit tray also offered a fruit we hadn't seen at the other buffets. This one is greenish on the outside with bright yellow juicy meat and a lot of seeds. We were stumped as to what it was until I e-mailed a link to the picture to the noodlepie guy who guessed that it was a passion fruit. Further web searching confirmed this.

Passion fruit juice was often available with breakfast along with papaya juice, mango juice, pineapple juice or lemon juice. Vietnamese lemon juice is not the concentrated tart cooking ingredient like in the US, but is a drink that is lighter and sweeter than American lemonade.

Fresh fruit was always available for breakfast. There was usually a choice of that could include pineapple, mango, lychees, rambuttans, grapefruit, or dragonfruit. The Saigon Morin was the only place that had fresh passion fruit as well.

Traditional Music In Hue

2005-09-17T17:25:00.000-04:00

Traditional musicians at the
Tropical Garden Restaurant in Hue
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

Hue is much more tourist oriented than Hanoi or Saigon. Several restaurants in the downtown area cater almost exclusively to tour groups. They have multi-entree fixed menus and feature musicians in native costume playing traditional music.

The musicians are quite good and play about a thirty minute set at a time. The restaurant was, like many in Vietnam, un-airconditioned and even after sunset quite hot despite large fans set up near every table. My family was about the only group there without a tour guide to help them with the menu.

The table next to us was a group of Australians on a guided tour. We would keep running into them at all the local attractions the following day.

Cyclos are tricycles for hire.
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

The restaurant was less than half a mile from our hotel, but the heat tempted us into taking a group of cyclos parked in front of the hotel. Cyclos are the traditional Vietnamese form of transportation that consist of a seat attached to a tricycle that has two wheels in front and a driver in the back.

Scooters have all but eliminated cyclos in the bigger cities, but both tourist cyclos and everyday cyclos were still in use in Hue. The three of us cost some ridiculuously low price, probably about USD$2 total, to be ridden the five minutes down to the restaurant. Once there, the drivers agreed to wait until we were done with dinner and then drove us back for the same fare.

Royal Fruit

2005-09-14T19:52:00.000-04:00

Jack Fruit
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

The jack fruit is one of the largest fruits in the world, and it grows throughout Vietnam and other tropical countries. We were familar with jack fruit because Vietnamese immigrants in the US frequently eat dried jack fruit chips as snacks. We had picked up some jack fruit chips in the Hanoi airport lounge, but hadn't seen real jack fruit until we got to Hue.

The jack fruit is typically about a foot tall and about a half foot in diameter, but can be much bigger. The trees are taller than citrus trees and have large broad leaves, but the fruit hang off branches very close to the trunk. The fruit also tend to grow in clusters like grapefruit.

A cluster of jack fruit
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

The meat is in little pulpy pods and ripe fruit have a single seed in each pod. The pulp is softer than ripe banana and sweeter.

In Hue, unlike the rest of the country, the jack fruit was reserved for royalty and could only be grown on the grounds of the Imperial Palace. This restriction is still honored today in modern Hue.

For more than you could ever care to know about jackfruit see this article from Purdue University.

Dynastic Urns

2005-09-13T22:19:00.000-04:00

Dynastic Urns
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

Nine enormous bronze urns stand in front of the Hien Lam Cac temple in the Imperial Palace complex in Hue. Cast between 1835 and 1837 and weighing between 1500 and 2600 kilograms each, the urns are considered the pinnacle of Vietnamese bronze casting.

Each urn is a tribute to a previous ruler and has 17 decorative figures inscribed into the side. The largest urn weighs 2755 kg and is dedicated to Gia Long, the founder of the Nguyen dynasty. The figures illustrate various geographic, cultural, and historical aspects of life in nineteenth century Vietnam, including rivers, animals, flowers, and landscapes.

Engraving Detail
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

The Hien Lam Cac temple is also dedicated to the Nguyen dynasty rulers. Separate altars are set up for ten of the thirteen Nguyen emperors. The French refused to allow temples to be erected for the later leaders out of fear of creating symbols for nationalistic pride. Altars for these leaders were added in 1954.

The Restoration of Hue

2005-09-07T12:33:00.000-04:00

Imperial Reading Room
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

Hue lost its government function after the division of the country and the last emperor abdicated (Although there is apparently a misguided group somewhere trying to reinstall the dynasty. Good luck with that, guys.), and Ho Chi Minh moved the capital back to Hanoi. During the Tet offensive, North Vietnamese Army (NVA) forces occupied and held the Imperial Palace grounds for nearly a month. The fierce hand to hand combat and intense shelling destroyed most of the existing buildings.

One of the few buildings to survive was the Royal Reading Room. This building has very ornate styling but is structurally unsound and not open to the public. Carefully camouflaged buttresses hold the building up. One side of the building has a small lake and garden designed around feng shui principles.

The government is slowly restoring or rebuilding the rest of the grounds under auspices of UNESCO. The restored buildings are stunning in both beauty and size. A large diorama shows the entire complex before it was destroyed. The entire royal city was a large fortified enclave complete with multiple sets of moats. There were separate areas for the mandarins, the military, the emperor’s concubines, and different members of the royal family.

In the northwest corner of the complex, a large construction project is underway to restore the corner of the palace dedicated to the Emperor’s mother. The artist rendering on the construction fence bore no resemblance to the massive earthwork and construction going on within the fence. The final product will be gorgeous. Several temple areas and the main palace have already been completed.

The Tet Offensive was military victory for the US and South Vietnam, a propaganda watershed for North Vietnam, and an incalculable tragedy to the people of Hue and the country’s cultural heritage.

See this website for more information about the Imperial Palace in Hue as well as the surrounding area.

Forbidden City

2005-09-04T18:46:00.000-04:00

Forbidden City front gates in Hue
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

The Nguyen Dynasty moved the capital of Vietnam from Hanoi to Hue, in the center of the country, to consolidate the north and the south. When they did, they built an enormous imperial palace modeled after the Chinese Forbidden City. The massive front gates for the complex are pictured here. Each gate was for a specific rank of person and only the emperor could use the large center gate.

The Nguyens only ruled Vietnam for less than 150 years beginning in the early 1800's, but their dynasty had enough palace intrigue and back-stabbing to rival any royal family westerners are familar with.

Our guide for the two days we were in Hue kept explaining the roles of the thirteen different emperors, but it was a lost cause for me to try to keep them straight. What makes it very confusing is that each emperor has a family name, a dynasty name, a temple name, and a posthumous name. For example, the founder of the dynasty had the family name of Nguyễn Phúc Ánh, but took the name of Gia Long when he became emperor. After his death, he was known as Cao Hoàng Đế and he is buried at the Thế Tổ Temple.

The Nguyens were a colorful lot. One emperor had over 60 children and another, as our guide delicately put it, preferred men to women. One emperor only lasted three days because the mandarins discovered he had forged the previous emperor's will. And that's just the juicy stuff I remember. Some future James Clavell has a rich tapestry to exploit here.

Flying The Friendly Skies Of Vietnam

2005-09-01T17:40:00.000-04:00

The airport in Hue
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

While traveling in Vietnam, I wanted to see as much of the country as I could. A train trip sounded nice until I did the research. The fastest train between Saigon and Hanoi takes over thirty hours. A direct flight by plane is just over two hours. The train idea was nixed. Airfare within Vietnam is also reasonably priced considering the government run airline has a virtual monopoly. One hundred dollars get you one way from Saigon to Hanoi and sixty bucks is the rate for Hanoi or Saigon to Hue.

Nationalized airlines, especially those run by third world countries, have a lot of national image at stake that gets projected by their air carriers. The domestic jets we flew were new and clean and attractively decorated. All the inflight literature bragged about Vietnam Airlines brand new Boeing 777’s on selected international routes. We had seen one of these ready for delivery on our factory tour of Boeing in Washington state a year earlier.

As part of that nation image, the airlines do not suffer the politically correct employment practices that don’t allow for appearance to be a hiring criteria. Male and female flight attendants on Vietnam Airlines flights (and JAL for that matter) are casting call perfect examples of health, youth, and courteousness.

National pride also immunizes them from the cost cutting rampage that has destroyed service in the domestic United States. Our two-hour morning flight to Hanoi included meal service, something that has become extinct on US domestic flights of that length. A chice of fish porridge or pork sticky rice was offered with choice of juice. The shorter flights between Hanoi and Hue and Hue to Saigon had banh mi sandwiches with full beverage service. We have been on New York to Baltimore hops where 4-ounce water bottles were dispensed sparingly.

From Narita as we progressed to Saigon, Hanoi, and finally Hue, we kept reaching progressively smaller airports reaching the practical limit in Hue. The terminal there was a two story rectangular building that could have been built anytime in the past fifty years. All the check-in and security was downstairs and the upstairs was one large cavernous waiting room with some vending machines and gift shop counters selling the ubiquitous silk blouses, ties, and other knick-knacks. We picked up some cute little silk purses. Two flights worth of departing passengers filled the place to capacity.

In Vietnam we also became accustomed to the forgotten practice of boarding from a ramp on the tarmac. Ramps would be placed at both ends of the plane and boarding would be a free-for-all of shoving up the narrow staircases. Boarding by seat row is not a concept that has caught on yet. It also seemed a little ridiculous to take a shuttle bus for the 100 yards from the plane to the terminal. All in all, air travel in Vietnam is a comfortable and relatively inexpensive way to traverse the long narrow country.

Uncle Ho's Resting Place

2005-08-26T21:34:00.000-04:00

Ho Chi Minh Masoleum
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

Not all the tombs in Vietnam are ancient. Ho Chi Minh is embalmed in this giant masoleum. Uncle Ho has gotten the full Lenin-in-wax treatment that communist countries do so well. It helps that his narrow beard makes him a dead ringer for other revered ancient leaders from Vietnamese history.

Each day large crowds line up to pay respect to the founder of modern Vietnam. We came at lunch when the square was empty and the plaza around the tomb was just enormous. An extremely large flag flies from the center of the square and Socialist sayings fill the walls leading up to the tomb. Other banners around the city exorted some sort of worker of the year competition. Central Hanoi was also where we saw the most Army uniforms on drill or parade. It wasn't quite like a scene from 1984, but it came close.

Ho Chi Minh Bust
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh City, but only oficial government documents actually use the name. Understandably, Ho Chi Minh's presence in his namesake city is much more muted. His face was on all sorts of red posters commemorating the 30th anniversary of reunification, but otherwise it was fairly low key. One room in the Presidential Palace did have a prominent gilded bust of him in front of the current flag. Our guide told us of a non-ideological Saigon resident that had been brutalized for having Ho Chi Minh posters in his house.

I expect that as the wounds of the war heal, Ho Chi Minh will eventually become another semi-mythological hero of the country, but for now he is still a good marker of the feelings in the formerly divided nation.

Hilton Hanoi And Other Ironies

2005-08-26T12:38:00.000-04:00

Hilton Opera Hanoi
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

While researching hotels to stay at, it would disturb my sense of irony that there is a Hilton hotel in Hanoi. Technically called the Hilton Opera Hanoi, it definitely should not be confused with the wartime prison that was sarcastically referred to as the “Hanoi Hilton”.

I guess Hilton has much right to be in Hanoi as much as Sheraton or Soffitel or any other international chain. The Hilton Opera Hotel, which is just a block down from the Metropole, where we stayed is called such because it is adjacent to the elegant colonial Opera House. The Hilton’s architectural style echoes the French colonial style and even the light yellow paint of the recently restored Opera House.

The “Hanoi Hilton” was actually the Hoa Lo Prison, which has been mostly demolished to make way for a large modern office building. The small section still standing serves as a museum dedicated to the atrocities of French rule, although I am sure it’s role in the “American War” is touched on briefly. American POW’s here were kept in inhumane conditions, tortured to extract false confessions, used as human shields for the Long Bien Bridge and generally abused beyond the rules of international warfare. Having had our share of war propaganda earlier in the day we decided not to visit this rather dubious monument to the abuses of war.

Opera House and adjacent Hilton
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

The second picture, which shows the Opera House on the left and the Hilton on the right, is not deliberately soft focused. Every morning in Vietnam was a waiting game as my electronics, which had been in an air conditioned room overnight, adjusted to the extremely humid weather outside. The lenses needed to be continually wiped free of dew and the camcorder would take up to an hour for its internal moisture sensors to dry out.

Having lived in both Florida and the Philippines, I will categorical state that Vietnam is the most humid place I have been in my life.

Cot Co Flag Tower

2005-08-22T12:35:00.000-04:00

Cot Co Flag Tower in Hanoi
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

Our first stop in Hanoi was to the Museum of Military History which is housed on the grounds of an old 19th century fort. The fort is a rather elegant brick building centered around the thirty meter tall Cot Co Flag Tower that dates to the beginning of the French colonial period. Even after two days in Saigon we were still getting used to seeing the communist Vietnam flag with its bright yellow star everywhere rather than the yellow with red striped flag of the former South Vietnam that is on display in Vietnamese shops and restaurants in the United States. Naturally, none of those were seen anywhere on our trip.

The museum itself is in a rather plain converted barracks style building which did not have any significant level of air conditioning other than lots of large fans. The museum’s premier display is the Soviet tank that actually broke through the fence of the Presidential Palace in Saigon at the fall of South Vietnam. The exhibits and displays had a good bit of background on Vietnamese independence from the French going back to an abortive attempt just after World War II.

Soviet tank from fall of Saigon
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

The sections on the “American War” clearly documented the strong and significant support the north was giving rebels in the south throughout the war. Another rather propagandistic section champions the strong international support that North Vietnam had internationally in trying to reunify the country. Oddly, no pictures of Jane Fonda were to be found.

At the base of the Cot Co tower is a tall jumbled pile of wreckage from US planes that had been shot down over Hanoi during the war, including large sections of some B-52’s. I’ve expressed earlier in this blog, how distasteful I found the frequent glorification of American casualties.

Colonial Splendor

2005-08-18T12:33:00.000-04:00

Soffitel Metropole Hotel in Hanoi
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

When we started researching where to stay in Vietnam, we kept running across the legacy of the Metropole. A French colonial institution built in 1901, it is the only five-star hotel in Hanoi. In the past it has been the lodging of such famous and/or infamous people as Graham Greene and Jane Fonda.

The Metropole is currently operated by the Soffitel chain of the European hotel conglomerate Accor (which ironically also owns Motel 6). There are two Soffitels in Hanoi, but the other one is a new modern high-rise at the edge of the city.

Sitting on a triangular block, just two blocks from Hoan Kiem Lake, the hotel is an oasis of luxury service at very reasonable prices. We are not sure exactly what we paid for the room, which was large and spacious with mini-bar, desk area and hardwood floors, because the room price was rolled into the package Ann Tours put together. The rack rate for the hotel is still well below what we are used to paying for a mid-range hotel in New York. It was also much less expensive than the four star hotels in Saigon. Since we were only in Hanoi for two nights, we decided to splurge.

The level of luxury was unparalleled. I took a brief dip in the pool to cool off from the humidity and when I got out there was a damp facecloth and complimentary mango juice by my pool chair. One afternoon we got back to our room to find a plate of fresh lychees.

Like all the other hotels we stayed at, the room included a breakfast buffet with an omelet station and a pho stand, but at the Metropole, the cook at the pho stand wore native costume and cooked in the style of a very upscale street vendor using all fresh ingredients.

The Metropole offers a brief glimpse into how pampered colonial life could be for westerners.

Street Life and Markets

2005-08-17T12:25:00.000-04:00

Sidewalk vendor in Hanoi
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

Besides the fitness-minded exercisers, the other people who are out very early are the street vendors. Like this person, they will carry all their wares on baskets to their particular location on a public sidewalk and then set up "shop."

This vendor has one of the small charcoal stoves that is used to heat food pho or other typical sidewalk fare. The food is cooked right on the street and dishes are washed in a small bowl of hot soapy water. We did not eat any street food for health reasons.

Hanoi also has a large open air market where produce, meat, and prepared food can all be bought. The market is in the middle of the street and each vendor has some sort of canopy, but all the food, including whole butchered pigs, is just laying in the road exposed to the heat and the sun with no hand-washing station or other sanitary facilities in sight. Two European tourists were tasting some cha gio right from the vendor which even had our guide concerned.

A British journalist keeps a blog called noodlepie that discusses Vietnamese food, including reviews and commentary on various street vendors. While he rates some of them very highly, it still seems too risky for a tourist to indulge.

Good Morning, Hanoi

2005-08-16T12:27:00.000-04:00

Early morning aerobics in Hanoi
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

On our first morning in Hanoi, I woke up about 5:30 am local time and decided to go for a walk around Hoan Kiem Lake. Vietnam is very close to the equator and does not practice daylight savings time, so there was a good bit of light out already. I was surprised to find a lot of people already outside that morning. The sidewalks were crowded with badmitton nets and there were kids playing pick-up three-on-three soccer in the street.

As I turned on Le Thach Street to head to the lake, I heard loud music and then saw over one hundred women in the park exercising. The tour books and travel websites mention that Hoan Kiem Lake is a popular place for tai chi practicers. Well, these women were not doing tai chi. This was knee-kicking, hip-shaking, hand-waving aerobics set to American-style dance music. The dancers were all in rows following a single instructor who was playing the music over an large portable speaker system.

Exercising in front of a statue of Lao Tse
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

Across the street and even in front of the lake were other women that had spilled over from the crowd in the park. At the lake the sidewalks were packed with people in shorts and t-shirts walking or jogging around the lake. As I continued my walk around the lake I found a much smaller group of older people doing some tai chi type stretching.

At another place, about a dozen men had set out some free weights and bench presses in the middle of the park. At the far southwest corner of the lake was another large goup of aerobicizers all circled around a fountain with the same instructor and loudspeaker set up, but their group was not as large as the first group I had come across.

Exercising by the lake
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

Elsewhere in Vietnam I would always come across groups of people exercising early in the morning, but never quite as many or quite as organized as Hanoi.

I cannot imagine that level of public activity happening in America. All the dance classes were completely open and free and people just joined in as they felt like it.

The Magic Turtle

2005-08-15T17:49:00.000-04:00

Turtle from Hoan Kiem Lake
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

The Water Puppet Theater story about the magic turtle is based on a real battle in the 15th century where Vietnam defeated a Mongol invasion to preserve Vietnamese independence. Turtles are one of Vietnam's sacred animals, and the only non-fictitious one, the others being the dragon, phoenix, and unicorn.

One summary of the legend that emerged bears strong similarities to the King Arthur Lady of the Lake legend, except with turtles:

While fighting against the Chinese, King Le Thai To has in his possession a very valuable sword. After 10 years of continuous struggle, the King finally defeated the Chinese and reclaimed Vietnam's independence. One day, while sailing on lake Luc Thuy, a large turtle appeared. The king drew his sword and pointed at the creature. The turtle immediately grab hold of the sword with its mouth and submerged. The king mourned the lost of such valuable sword, demanded that the lake be emptied and dredged. Both the turtle and the sword were not found. The king realizing that the gods must have lent him the sword to drive back the enemy, but now that Vietnam is free, the sword must be returned. King Le Thai To named the lake Ho Hoan Kiem or Lake of the Returned Sword.

In the Ngoc Son Temple, there is a large preserved turtle that was found in the lake in 1968, proving that giant turtles do live in the lake.

Water Puppets

2005-08-13T18:34:00.000-04:00

Updated August 15, 2005>

Water Puppet Theater in Hanoi
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

The number one tourist attraction in Hanoi is the Water Puppet Theater. Up to six times a day a troupe of marionette puppeteers stand in waist deep water behind the "stage" to work the puppets that are in the pool of water before the audience. The puppets are finely detailed. Click here for an enlargement.

The story tells how the kingdom is saved when a magic turtle appears from Hoan Kiem Lake to fight off invading dragons. Except for the magic animals, the play dramatizes a 15th century war between China and Vietnam.

Traditional Vietnamese Musicians
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

Water puppetry started in the rice paddies as a harvest time form of entertainment and is now a uniquely Vietnamese cultural art form. The show include fireworks and is set to music by traditional instruments and songs.

Like most buildings in Vietnam, the air conditioning is fairly weak and souvenir fans are handed out at the beginning of the performance to help Westerners keep from wilting during the 70 minute performance.

Religious Rituals

2005-08-12T21:44:00.000-04:00

Ancestor shrine at Den Ngoc Son
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

Here is a view of the Huc Bridge from the temple on the island. Like nearly all the temples we visited, these are active places of worship as well as tourist attractions. This lady is making a sacrifice in a small altar just outside the temple.

She has a message on a card that she soaks in a small bottle of alcoholic spirits and then burns it inside the altar. After a few prayers she leaves the empty bottle and returns back over the bridge to go on with her day. Ancestor worship is a stong component of Buddhist teachings and is strong in Vietnam even among non-Buddhists.

Hanoi - City Of Charm And Beauty

2005-08-12T12:18:00.000-04:00

The Huc Bridge in Hanoi.
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

Hanoi vastly exceeded my rather vague expectations with its charm and beauty. There was a sense of history and a serenity there that Saigon definitely did not have. Hanoi is the historical and colonial capital of the country and has a mélange of architectural styles from the ancient Buddhist tradition to the French colonial influences to the Soviet-style brutalism. While the surrounding area has the typical sprawl of a developing nation, the city itself is orderly and well-kept.

The central city area surrounds Hoan Kiem Lake, which is ringed with park area and forms the hub of activity in the city. On an island in the lake is the Temple of the Jade Mound, which is accessed by the beautiful red arched Huc Bridge pictured here. This is one of the most beautiful pictures I took on the entire trip and judging by other photos on Flickr and the web in general, it’s tough to take a bad picture. I particularly like the reflection of the bridge in the water and the contrast between the red of the bridge and the green of heavily forested island.

It cost 3,000 dong (~$0.20) to go across the bridge, definitely a bargain. While I was there, the bridge was used by a wedding photographer and an endless stream of tourists. Definitely one of the most picturesque sights in all of Vietnam.

Teach A Man To Fish, Teach A Woman To Row

2005-08-12T07:26:00.000-04:00

Fishing in Halong Bay
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

Most of Halong Bay in Vietnam has been preserved as UNESCO World Heritage Site and a large part of it is set aside as natural park. In the other areas, commercial and industrial activity is strictly regulated. The bay is dotted with small floating villages that support traditional occupations such as fishing.

In this slide show, a husband and wife team is rowing around checking their nets and traps. Because of the leisurely pace of the boat ride, we were able to watch them for quite awhile. During that time the wife did all the rowing from net to net, while the husband did all the net checking. She is also wearing the bamboo conical hat that is ubiquitous among Vietnamese with jobs that keep them outdoors.

While this couple is fishing with traditional methods, aquaculture is becoming quite a significant economic activity in throughout Vietnam. It seems that rice paddies are not very different from fish ponds. Shrimp exports from Vietnamese fish farms are becoming a major US-Vietnam trade dispute. One of our Ann Tour guides explained that dumping has nothing to with it. Raising shrimp is really that cheap and easy. Sounds a lot easier than rowing your husband all over Halong Bay.

Fashion In The Fields

2005-08-09T12:18:00.000-04:00

Farmer harvesting rice.
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

This picture is an enlargement of another picture and shows a typical women harvesting rice. Vietnamese women are notoriously sun-shy. No one wears shorts or tank-tops as daily attire. This farmer is wearing a scarf and along sleeves under another shirt on a day that is over 90 deg F with wilting humidity levels while working outdoors. Presumably all the clothing is to prevent tanning although it must also provide some protection from the rough edges of the freshly harvested rice stalks.

Most people from the West would assume conical bamboo hats are a quaint article of native dress sold only in tourist shops. Actually they are a nearly ubiquitous fashion necessity that meets a variety of requirements. It provides good shade, it’s light, and it’s inexpensive. Some men wear baseball caps instead, but those are prone to flying off while riding a scooter, while a bamboo hat can be trapped under the chin. We spotted several people have their caps fly off and get lost in traffic. Some entrepreneur should collect all the roadside caps and resell them.

Nor is the complete coverage of clothing restricted to farmers. Women commuting on scooters typically wear elbow length gloves to cover their arms and a face mask that covers the mouth and nose and latches over the ears. These face masks come in a variety of colors and patterns, so they can be coordinated with the rest of the outfit.

The Good Earth Revisited

2005-08-07T08:39:00.000-04:00

Farmers in the rice fields.
DSC02553
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

I managed to avoid Pearl Buck during my high school reading assignments, but I think she would recognize the farming techniques still used in northern Vietnam.

Our day trip to Halong Bay occurred during the height of the rice harvesting season in the Red River delta that surrounds Hanoi. Rice fields that are normally empty were buzzing with activity as the local farmers harvested and replanted the rice crop. Everywhere were people wearing the blue farmer workshirts and the conical bamboo hats performing all the tasks associated with rice farming.

Nearly all the labor is by hand with the help of water buffalos and other domesticated cattle for plowing. The farmers cut the rice stalks with long knives and then bundle and gather the stalks up to a central location. The first round of threshing occurs on the side of the road. Water is hand-pumped into or out of individual fields with portable swing troughs on tripods.

The factory in the background of this picture shows that industrialization is coming to even these very rural areas of Vietnam.

Luray Caverns - Vietnam Office

2005-08-04T12:52:00.000-04:00

Illuminated caverns in Halong Bay
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

Our one stop on the Halong Bay boat trip was the illuminated cavern of Hang Thien Cung, also known as the Celestial Palace. The cavern is on the first large island right across from the tour boat harbor. The particular cavern had remained undiscovered until about 1994.

After walking up a short hill on one of the islands, we entered this grand very tall cavern. The limestone stalagtites and stalagmites are lit with a variety of bright colored lights to emphasize the features. Our guide kept apologizing for the garishness of the lighting effectw within the cavern, saying that the many Chinese tourists that visit like that style. I didn't particularly see the problem since it reminded me of some of the tackier tourist caverns in the Shenendoah Valley area. Vietnam was just late getting to the Gaudily cavern tourist attraction party.

The exit of the cave was about 50 feet up the side of the island and it was a steep winding billy-goat walk back to the boat

Halong Bay

2005-08-02T12:40:00.000-04:00

Junk Tour Boat
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

When we knew we were going to Vietnam, the one "must-see" destination was Halong Bay. This area is spotted with unique natural limestone formations that rise out of the water and are considered a world cultural heritage site by UNESCO.

Halong Bay is on the northeast coast of Vietnam and is about a three hour ride from Hanoi.

Once at the beach town of Bai Chay there is a large marina filled with tour boats built to resemble old "junks". The style of sail is very picturesque, but most of the boats were under power because of the complete lack of wind that day.

Our private cruise lasted about three hours on a boat large enough to fit about 30 people. The cruise included a five-course meal of local seafood cooked on the boat. The prawns alone were about the size of small lobsters.

Each little cove we sailed into was more gorgeous than the last. We took tons of pictures and video footage. I created a Flickr slideshow of the islands to showcase some of various formations we saw.

Strange Fruit

2005-07-26T17:17:00.000-04:00

Plate of lychees
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

One minor obsession we developed on our trip was the need to identify and taste as many different fruit as we could find. One tropical fruit that is actually not uncommon in the US is the lychee. A lychee is about the size of a golf ball with a thin but tough reddish brown skin. The inside is a translucent white and has a small seed in the center.

The taste is very sweet with the texture of canned pears. Canned lychees can be found in better grocery stores and can be bought fresh in the dedicated Asian supermarkets.

In the US, we rarely see the lychee still on the branch with leaves like in this picture. These were a complimentary gift from the Soffitel Metropole in Hanoi. As you can see from the small plate of skin and seeds next to the lychees, we were well into the bunch before we stopped to take a picture.

Reunification - And Other Euphemisms

2005-07-20T12:44:00.000-04:00

Dsc02478
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

Every person in southern and central Vietnam over the age of 40 or so can divide their life into "before 1975" and "after 1975". The use of a calendar marker avoids other politically incorrect descriptions of the fall of South Vietnam to North Vietnam and the reunification of the country under a communist government.

The Reunification Palace is a frozen-in-amber reminder of the years of the Republic of Vietnam. This building in particular is emblammatic of that era. Originally named Independence Palace, it was built in 1966 after the original French colonial building on the site was severly damaged in an assassination attempt on President Ngo Dinh Diem. It ceased being a working government building when North Vietnamese tanks stormed the grounds, symbolizing the collapse of South Vietnam.

The English language tour gives a fairly unbiased history of both the building and South Vietnamese politics. The architecture is Modernist along Frank Lloyd Wright lines with subtle to the point being undetectable Asian accents. The original 1960's and '70's era decor and furnishings give the place the air of a slightly mildewed Austin Powers set.

The building itself has developed some mythology around it including the the bad feng shui of the site and the folklore of some poached elephant tusks in the presidential office.

The tableau on the roof has the helicopter that Nguyen Van Thieu used to survey battlefield conditions and marks the locations where two dud bombs dropped by a South Vietnam Air Force defector fell through the roof. Had either bomb detonated, the building would likely have been destroyed.

History Is Written By The Winners

2005-07-17T06:51:00.000-04:00

History is written by the winners. ~Alex Haley

Throughout our trip we would encounter reminders that the United States did not emerge the victor in what the Vietnamese call "The American War." In fact, both the United States and Vietnam came out of that conflict battered and scarred, metaphorically and literally.

Both my wife and I have strong family connections to people who served in the war. I have met people who spent time as prisoners of war. The bravery and commitment of any American who serves his country in armed conflict cannot be dishonored.

This post does not have any pictures accompanying it because there were many things we did not take pictures of. Anytime we encountered displays of destroyed American military equipment, we realized that there was American blood on exhibit. Out of respect to the over 160,000 Americans who gave their lives in service to their country, we do not have pictures of places memorializing the killing of Americans.

Not That Notre Dame

2005-07-15T15:40:00.000-04:00

DSC02474
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

Not all the houses of worship in Vietnam are Buddhist. The Cathedral of Notre Dame in Saigon is a good bit plainer than it's more famous cousin in Paris, but it does serve Saigon's small but significant Catholic population.

Vietnam has the second largest population, behind the Philippines, of Catholics in Asia. Officially, Vietnam has religious freedom, but the Catholic churches we saw in the northern region had either been abandoned or converted to secular purposes after the French left the country and many northern Catholics fled to South Vietnam.

One morning, while walking past Notre Dame, I say a group of about five nuns on there way to Mass wearing blue ao dai's and matching wimples. The ao dai, which is a very practical but formfitting type of formal clothing was also frequently worn by waitresses, store clerks and other women in the tourist district.

Thanks to Ann Tours

2005-07-15T10:33:00.000-04:00

Throughout our trip to Vietnam, we relied on a great private tour company called Ann Tours. We wanted to see a lot of Vietnam in a fairly brief time frame and they worked hard to get us a custom designed tour including hotels, excursions, guides, and airport transportation.

In particular, Tony, the son of the founder, gave great personalized service. With the miracle of the internet, we would e-mail questions or requests in the evening and have detailed responses when we awoke the next day.

This great attention to detail carried over when we arrived in Vietnam. We were met at the airport for each leg of our trip and had a private van for all our touring with an English-speaking guide. We had three different guides in all and each had a unique perspective on both contemporary and historical Vietnam.

I would definitely recommend a private tour company, and Ann Tours in particular, for anyone wanting to see Vietnam.

Temples and Tombs Part II

2005-07-14T15:40:00.000-04:00

Dsc02518
Originally uploaded by yellojkt.

This Buddhist temple is a supported on a single pillar in the middle of a pond, hence the name of One Pillar Pagoda. Like many historical buildings in Hanoi and Vietnam in general, it is not original. The original one at this location dates to 1049. The current one was rebuilt at a smaller scale in 1955 after being destroyed by the French.

Temples and Tombs

2005-07-13T03:36:00.000-04:00

Whenever people travel to Europe, I joke about there being nothing to see except castles and cathedrals. Well, the Asian equivalents are temples and tombs. In 14 days, we saw some of both.

This picture was taken at the Temple of Literature in Hanoi. The temple was founded in 1070 and dedicated to Confucius. It is the oldest education facility in Vietnam. For centuries it was the university for scholars aspiring to become to officials at the royal court.

It is still used by students today to make prayers and offerings for good luck on their exams. The incense in this dragon altar was placed there by college age students that were about to start exams that week.

For more information about the Temple, click this link.

Money Talk

2005-07-12T15:20:00.000-04:00

One of the interesting aspects of visiting both Vietnam, a developing socialist country, and Japan, a modern industrial power, in the same trip is the ability to contrast the two cultures and economies.

Well, the currency is a great place to start. Vietnam has obviously had at least one round of hyperinflation in the past since the conversion rate between the dong (VND) and the dollar (US$) is 15,000 to one. The actual government set rate is around 15,800 to 1, but most merchants and stores round down to 15,000 in their benefit any chance they get.

The smallest denomination of currency is the 1,000 VND note (~US$0.07), although coins are more common in this range. The largest note is for 100,000 VND (~US$6.50) and bills for 5,000, 10,000, 20,000 and 50,000 VND are also very common. The problem is that with all the zeroes on the currency, telling them apart requires more concentration than it should. Pulling out a 50,000 VND bill when you want a 5,000 and vice versa happened way too often.

The relatively small value of the biggest bill was not that big of a problem since relatively few things cost more than 100,000 VND. A bowl of pho (a popular meal-sized soup) cost around 20,0000 VND (~US$1.50). At most small cafes, a meal for three got change from a single 100,000 bill.

For bigger purchases, and many smaller ones, US currency was accepted and even preferred. Some merchants would only quote dollars to obvious foreigners like myself. This policy is officially frowned upon, but nearly ubiquitous. I was able to buy 7 arcade game tokens with a single one dollar bill. The price of a high quality silk tie was US$5 nearly everywhere. A little money went a long way in most circumstances.

Japan, on the other hand, was a completely different story. Japan deservedly has a reputation as a very expensive country and the currency reflects it. The yen has been pretty steady for many years at about 110 yen to the dollar. Once you embrace the concept of a yen being about a penny, everything makes sense (no pun intended).

The smallest available bill is the 1,000 yen note (~US$10). It's a little unnerving to buy a soft drink from a fast food place with the equivalent of a ten dollar bill and only get change back. The 500 yen coin seems to be a relatively new item since many vending machines couldn't or wouldn't accept it.

As I left the country, my goal was to spend all the 100 yen coins I had accummulated over the few days I was there. With soft drinks and candy snacks at about 150 yen each, or about as much as a whole meal did in Vietnam, that didn't take long.

So in summary, the smallest bill in Japan is worth more than the largest bill in Vietnam. And the dong goes a lot further than the yen.

Vietnam and Japan Trip

2005-07-11T16:58:00.000-04:00

My family took a trip to Vietnam and Japan this year. This blog will contain thoughts and impressions about that trip including, hopefully, pictures and images. This is not meant to be a diary since the trip is already over. Instead it will be more observations that I find interesting. All opinions are mine and all material is coprighted by me unless credited otherwise.