Vietnam Visionary, Pt. One

It is so hard to start this entry. In fact, I have been delaying it for quite some time. Why is it so hard to write about this past week? For a couple of reasons: you see, I have done half of the country of Vietnam in one week, and I saw so many things and made so many comparisons that it is difficult to condense all into one blog. I am going to try and I am also going to try to be as logical as possible in my organization of this particular entry. I will go by the cities I have visited, which would make for a clear rubric on how to dissect my Vietnam travels.

Ho Chi Minh City

On my Facebook profile I said that I am going to Saigon or Ho Chi Minh City, depending on whether you want to side with the French colonialists or the communists. Basically, Vietnam has been overrun by other powers: the Chinese for 1,000 years, the French for one hundred years and now the Communists, although I am not sure if that can be considered in the same category as the other two. I suppose it depends on the person you ask as to whether communism is a good thing or a bad thing for the country. More and more freedoms are available for the local people, which is really good. I saw a couple of communist propaganda posters in Hoi An and in Ho Chi Minh, but the only really visible communist motif is the presence of large images of the man Ho Chi Minh wherever you go. I think he is almost worshipped to an extent. I mean, many Vietnamese worship their ancestors or at least pray to them and light incense for them, so it is along those lines that people revere Ho Chi Minh. That is really interesting and different from what I have seen in other countries. Even in Thailand they venerate the king, but I would not say they worship him, as they have Buddha for that purpose. So, yeah, it was quite surprising to see how much people still value Ho Chi Minh as a national savior.

Anyway, the city itself is crazy, like motorbikes in every direction, meaning I have to be particularly vigilant when crossing the street. On my first night in HCMC, I almost got run over by a bicycle. I thanked the Lord that I learned my lesson from a more or less harmless moving object. It could have been a lot worse! Lesson one: look both ways when you cross the street, then look about a million more times just to be sure. It was so wonderful to arrive in a new place, but let me tell you a little bit about the process of getting into the country, for those of you who have never traveled here. First, you have two options for a visa: get one before you go to the country, which involves the whole visiting of the consulate or posting off your passport to the consulate and waiting for the visa; or, you can go online to www.myvietnamvisa.com and pay the online fee for a welcome letter, which is your ticket into the country. I did the second option, and it worked out pretty well. I stood at a window after disembarking, and they gave me an information sheet to fill out. Then, I waited for 15 or 20 minutes for them to verify everything—and they did even though I gave them a vague address of where I was staying—and after handing over 25 USD through the little slot, I had a nice paper sticker in my passport telling me I could stay for one month. Pretty slick!

They love USD here. All the hotels will tell you their rates in USD before telling you the price in VND (Vietnam Dong), which I find to be a little bizarre. Basically, that means that their currency is so worthless that they have to use a fairly stable currency to offer to tourists. I have heard many stories of people from Europe and England exchanging Euros and Pounds into USD before going to Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos just to be sure. Interesting, huh? And, not only do they accept USD, but they give you change in USD. Sorry, I am just really impressed that my currency is as acceptable as their currency even though the culture and surroundings couldn’t be any more different.

Back to HCMC: two of my students from the Philippines, who are Vietnamese and live outside of HCMC, met me at the airport and greeted me with a basket of flowers and two bags of fruit! It was so sweet of them and made me feel welcome, which was good because Saigon is not necessarily the most welcoming city, especially in the main tourist areas. I have never seen so many touts and people wanting to give motorbike and rickshaw rides. Then, there are some nice people too, but one has to be very careful and keep a straight face, gaze ahead, pretending as if you are blind an deaf to the cries of the salesmen and drivers on your left and right. Actually, it can be kind of demoralizing, for me and I would think especially for them. I am a friendly person and it is difficult to ignore people left and right, to set my face as steely as possible and to set my shoulders as if I were going to war (really, you should see the way I walk around when I am by myself—I am a don’t-mess-with-me kind of tourist). At any rate, why does this even bother me? Well, when you think about it, I am a guest in their country, and the general idea is that when you go to a different culture, you learn about the people and encounter them as well as other travelers. Well, this concept of meeting the locals is kind of ruled out when you are suspicious left and right of them trying to steal your money and/or violate you. Okay, maybe that is a little strong, but fears make us think strange things. I am not afraid; I have God on my side, but I am cautious. I guess, I have been thinking about this quite a bit. I am glad that I have friends in this city. I feel like I am more of a part of the city because of that fact.

The only touring I have done in the city has been a half-day trip out to the Cu Chi Tunnels, which are a famous site here in the South from the Vietnam War. Now, it has been turned into a tourist destination, which I suppose is good considering many people’s lives and livelihoods were lost. At least now, they can make a profit from the once battered and dangerous war zone. The Americans bombed the hell—pardon the language, but it is difficult to euphemize things about war—out of this area known as Cu Chi. It was a peaceful agrarian area where simple peasants passed their days in a bucolic routine of village life—until they went to war with America, and everything changed. The villagers were committed to the cause of the Viet Cong and men and women alike became guerrilla fighters, building an incredible network of tunnels that were
almost untraceable where the Americans were concerned.

Besides the fun of actually crawling through the tunnels, which had been enlarged to twice their original size and were still difficult to navigate, the most interesting part was watching a video made in 1967 about the conflict between the Cu Chi warriors and the Americans. Since the movie had been compiled and filmed during the war, the narrator’s opinion was very much biased in favor of the Vietnamese. Of course this is very intriguing to someone who has only ever heard the American perspective. They called us devils! Pretty accurate, when you considered what happened, but what was fascinating was the way the narrator described the war. She said the Americans wanted to destroy this peaceful area and simply wanted to hurt the local people. I suppose that is the way it looked, as if the Americans only wanted to inflict pain and destruction. Who knows what is really the truth when considering a war-steeped situation. Who knows whether the soldiers were actually motivated by freedom or whether they simply had war fever and enjoyed killing innocent peasants and local guerrilla warriors who were protecting their homes. It made for some thought-provoking musings. I wondered whether my kids—or in 30 years or so—will go to places like Iraq and Iran on backpacking expeditions and go to places that had been destroyed in the wars. I wonder what they will say.

Then, HCMC was a fellowship stop. I was able to meet with some other believers, some truly inspirational Christians who have really given their lives over to following Christ and who are filled with a lot of love for each other and for others. I arrived on a good weekend because they had their baptismal and beach service the Sunday I was around. They invited me to go along with them to the sea, which was a marvelous setting for church. The immensity of the ocean seriously enhanced our knowledge that the Lord was with us. We only had to look out to our left and see God’s incredible creation for confirmation. Even though I did not understand the words that were being said, I was united to them in my spirit and was able to meet with God in my own language and my own way of worship along side these lovely people. We had perfect weather and enjoyed most of the day underneath the bungalow resting in the salty air of the ocean. I am not much for beaches, but when I can rest under a bungalow, minimizing the contact with sand and salt water, I can very much appreciate and find much peace within the sounds and smells of the ocean.

On our way back to Saigon, we stopped at a dairy outpost where they sold milk products and had a bunch of cow statues. It was hilarious and definitely made me think of Wisconsin although the ice cream and milk quality was not nearly as good. (That is to be expected, of course!) The whole complex made me chuckle. I was glad that we stopped. HCMC is more or less a transit point and the starting point of the more exploratory portion of my trip to Vietnam. Let me explain how the tourism industry operates in Vietnam. First, most tourists take what is called an open bus, meaning you arrange your journey through a travel agent, which has its own bus company and you choose how long you plan to stay in each city. Every company drops you off at different places and has different schedules for arriving at and departing a city. Second, once you are in a town, the most common way to get around is to book a tour, which is cheap and normally lackluster although some are fantastic. I mean, a tour is a tour, and for the most part, you check off what you wanted to see and bear with the inconvenience of being on a tour.

Do I sound like a jaded tourist? Okay, it probably doesn’t come as a surprise coming from me who is known for her independent wandering around and seeing whatever comes my way while walking, hiking or riding a bicycle. Well, here in Vietnam, it is a little more difficult to do things independently, so I took the normal route. I arranged my open bus tour with Sinh Tourist in Saigon, and this bus took me up to the midlands, passing through Dalat, Nha Trang, Hoi An, and Hue. I spent about 32 hours in a bus during a week’s period, which got me where I wanted to go and in the cheapest possible way. (The whole bus ticket cost less than 30 dollars!) Then, I arranged some other tours to the Mekong Delta and my flight from Hue back to HCMC. I did this all in the period of about three hours, which is actually a long time, due mainly to the fact that I was so indecisive about which path I wanted to take north and how to get back to Saigon, etc. Then, when you get into a town, you can decide to go through your bus company for tours or you can get your hostel to hook you up. Another funny thing is that all the tour companies offer the same things, so the only thing that differs is the price and maybe the lunch. There you have it: how to travel around like a prime tourist in Vietnam :)