As she went climbing in the hills around Hue, using these maps,with her Marine buddies and their families she confessed to being somewhat worried about old land mines Apparently these guys knew what they were looking for. At one point one of them pointed to a rock, looked at his wife and said "honey- that's where I read your letter". On another day she sat down in a jungle clearing next to a burly ex marine, who now sells insurance, and he softly said to her - "Flower, - we came here with 175 men and I left with 25" - then he broke down, and collapsed into her arms - both weeping. As they walked back to the bus past a small village he asked her - " -how much is a water buffalo?"- she told him somewhere between $200 and $500 - he peeled off some bills,handed them to her and said - "Do me a favor -buy one for them- from me". Her next day off (of which there are few) it was going to happen.
To distract us from the reality of our newly empty nest this September my wife and I spent two weeks in Vietnam - the country I spent so much of my youth trying to stay out of. It was hard to read the names of the places on our itinerary without stopping to take a breath after each one- Hanoi, Danang, Hue. As we swam in Halong Bay during our overnight boat trip gaping at those spectacular towering rock formations that rise dramatically from the pristine green water - I kept thinking - "holy moly - we're swimming in the Gulf of Tonkin"
A few minutes into our one hour cyclo ride in Hanoi (picture a bicycle rickshaw) I stopped feeling self conscious as I realized that we were wearing the goofy tourist invisibility cloak because as you sit in those things you blend unnoticed into the Hanoi street chaos.As you move slowly thru that amazing city you see every inch of side walk and street space being over used as everything from a restaurant with little kindergarten chairs that we could never have gotten out of or in to for that matter-to a barbershop an iron welder, a motor bike repair shop or an underwear store.
Hanoi has 4 million people and 3 million motor bikes. Traffic initially seems like wild stoplight free mess but it quickly became clear that there is a predictability that people seem to respect. Crossing the street is like trying to get to the other side of a fast moving school of fish -you just go forward at a predictable pace and somehow you get to the otherside. The view from the cyclo is like a video game as motorbikes and bicycles come at you from all directions- laden with pigs, chickens, 5 foot high stacks of straw conical hats, building supplies or families of three with an infant standing on the running board and often a third or fourth person on the back gabbing away on a cell phone. Just as it felt like one of these things was about to crash into you- some unspoken ancient social contract kicks in and the oncoming motor bike, bicycle or car slows it way around you and the driver smiles . The horn is used the way bats send out sonar to keep from running into each other- honking is constant nobody gets pissed or even turns to look. Some of the taxis seem to have a horn that sends out a preset pulsing tone that goes from loud to soft in about three or four beats. Road rage is not in the national psyche-we saw a couple of smiling people casually sitting around smoking and chatting as they waited for a cop after a fender bender- apparently the cop is the judge and whatever he says goes as to who pays what.
Weaving their way through traffic on and off the impassible sidewalks are women with those classic two baskets attached to a wooden plank balanced over their shoulder- selling fruit and often vegetables we have never seen before or steaming cooked meals on plates. Surrounded by this high energy beehive of intensely focused small scale private enterprise I kept asking myself- this was the falling red domino that 55,000 Americans died trying to stop?
It speaks volumes about the past, present and future of Vietnam that Americans are welcomed without a trace of bitterness only 30-40 years after what we did to them in that clueless disastrous war.The consistent overwhelming impression in Vietnam is how genuinely good natured,good humored and kind people are to each other and in particular how adoring they are with their children. Everywhere you look people are working really hard. They're also pretty good looking.
I asked our guide in Hanoi, what the main religion was.This smart, funny guy in his late 20s, who was very proud of his country,shot back without missing a beat - money.
The population looks very young - one has to assume its because a generation of Vietnamese were decimated by the war. When you look into the eyes of old people on the street - returned smiles were noticeably fewer.
It also spoke volumes about America's past, present and future to pick up the International Herald Tribune in Danang and read that Bush was promising not to "cut and run" from Iraq. All I could think about was the Vietnam era protest song -"we were waste deep in the big muddy and the big fool said to push on ".
The proverbial elephant in the room for a tourist is how cheap things are because people earn so little. The average wage is between $30 and $50 a month. US dollars are used everywhere as is the 16,000 Vietnamese dong per dollar exchange rate.As we slept and ate in a beautiful hotel our guide got $3 (roughly 50,000 dong)to sleep and eat for the night. This wonderful trip was arranged by a very good and responsive travel agency in Hanoi (Exotissimo).Without plane fare,it cost us only $1,500 a piece with two internal flights; two overnight trains; an overnight boat with meals; deluxe hotels with breakfast; and pickup in Hanoi, Hue and Sapa by our owncar, driver and guide). It felt somewhat like enjoying a nice pair of cheap sneakers and not wanting to know how and where they were manufactured.
Mid September is apparently Australian school break travel time. Bali where the Aussies used to go for holidays is now out after the bombings. For Australians, Vietnam is like a flight from NY to Paris -for us it was 24 hours of flying.The pace of change and the exploding tourist industry certainly makes thefuture of Vietnam a work in progress. A couple from Australia had a very different experience than ours with a creepy Vietnamese tour guide who demanded a huge tip in advance. Onthe way home the guy who sold me a newspaper at the Frankfurt airport offered his opinion that in 10 years Vietnam will be like Bali. It is certainly worrisome.There are shorefront strips of real estate in Danang and in Hue where its too easy to picture big hotels and casinos . For 100s of years the Vietnamese have fought to protect their proud national identity from invaders and occupiers. It looks like they're going to have to protect themselves again but this time the invaders are tourists and their wallets.
