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Hey there.
Many moons ago, at Uni, Geoff studied travel literature. That travel writing course, subtitled 'zones of the imagination', began by questioning the purpose of travel. What is the point of hurtling yourself into foreign climes? A Homeric lust for odyssey? A nomadic love of wandering? The reasons, as he recalls, were as many as the voyages.
So, as we reach the halfway point in the trip, trading hotel for hotel, taxi for taxi, it seems appropriate to reflect on the question why are we travelling through thirteen countries in roughly thirteen weeks? Our best answer, broadly, is to have fun…Tick. And to learn about other cultures and to broaden our minds (our success so far on that might be questioned :) But we are feeling, as we plough through our fourth continent since July, that we are getting a snapshot of the world in a brief period of time, a chance to compare different lifestyles and cultures. But should we have a methodology of appraisal, so that our views on countries don't just become a skittish reflection of our moods as we pass briefly through them?
Gi proposed entering factors like food, transport, accommodation, natural beauty, architecture, historical significance, into a further one of her adored spreadsheets. Geoff, more from the Robin Williams's character in Dead Poet's Society point of view, felt you can't plot these things on a vertical and horizontal axis, that it's more of a feeling kind of thing. So we haven't really got to a resolution yet on the format these blog entries should take. Feel free to leave any comments or suggestions you have in the messages section….
On to our report on Vietnam. It's been another wacky week in wanderland. Vietnam proved a delight to the senses, or an assault of them, depending if you ask Geoff or Gi respectively. The people are beautiful, polite and friendly. The food is wonderful, delicious meats and vegetables in stunning sauces, a welcome change from China. The driving, however, has continued in the same vein, or even deteriorated. Even mere walking in Hanoi, where we started, or Ho Chi Minh, where we ended, was a dice with death, making the cyclists who wear face masks against the pollution seem a little focused on an immaterial issue. Awesome scenery tho (ed. Geoff).
Starting in Hanoi, we spent four days in the Old Quarter, roaming the streets, just staring at life on the pavements, where literally everything from shopping to eating to drinking to flirting takes place on a 2m wide pavement surrounded by honking, whizzing scooters and cars and bicycles and rickshaws and people walking while carrying baskets either end of a bamboo pole laden with fruits and flowers and other merchandise. It was like a trip back in time. We also visited Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum (we missed the 11am close! and thus the chance to see the taxidermist's work) and museum (we wished we'd missed that close, it was such a bizarre place, full of odd plastic sculptures and bizarre explanations intended to glorify the revolution, all sponsored by the Ministry of Propganda and Education (in that order!)
We also did a day trip to Halong Bay, a four hour minivan drive through rice paddies and countless towns which, as in China, are growing or renovating rapidly (but on a smaller scale). While the formerly mud hut type houses are proliferating into luxurious (albeit thin) four story rendered concrete mansions with elegant arches and balconies, the streets in front of them remain potholed, the pavements broken. This is despite government buildings being the largest in each town you pass. Clearly the government, which retains a far heavier communist flavor (heaps of yellow star flags and plenty of soldiers in spiffy uniforms up north) than the Chinese, doesn't do much in the way of public works. Halong Bay was fantastic, steep limestone cliffs covered in greenery rising vertically forming a kind of colossal colonnade all the way around a huge bay.
Oh, and a dodgy taxi driver in Hanoi rigged the meter, then locked the doors and refused to let us out when we refused to pay 6x the market rate for a fare. Gi smartly asked him to drive us to an ATM. We conferred in Portuguese on the way (so useful to speak a common language few outside Brazil speak) and jumped out when the dumkopf let us out to withdraw his booty. That should have been the end of it but Gi then convinced herself every car that looked like his was pursuing us and we spent several minutes running from a potential foe and his imaginary friends bearing Vietnamese crossbows through side streets past people cooking on the sidewalks in thirty degree heat. You could say the heat had gotten to us. We then poured our sweaty bodies into the National Museum laughing hysterically, having had an experience the equivalent of 'The Game' for practically nought, Yay!
Hoi An was a dream. Well, strictly speaking, the beach resort we stayed at (le Belhamy) just outside Hoi An was paradise; Hoi An was good for a couple of brief excursions. The old town is chockers with interesting architecture, touts, classy clothes shops and really fine restaurants. It's also pretty down by the river at night. But the real star of our 3 days there was the beach, a golden sanded, clear watered, palm fringed bit of perfection with cracking weather to boot. It was a nice wind-down after hectic stays in Beijing and Hanoi.
As for Ho Chi Minh City, well….given what we were saying about communist governments, the disparity in development between HCM and Hanoi is telling. HCM is full of broad boulevards (with pavements), with clean, plate-glass type buildings from various eras, all well maintained. It also has nice parks, reflecting, as do the boulevards, the greater French influence in south Vietnam. The strongest impression though was made on us at the War Remnants Museum, unfortunately. Largely a collection of photos from the Vietnam War, it documents the atrocities committed in the name of various causes. Put it this way; it was too horrible to take photos. There were lots of tourists there from all round the world and we didn't see one person take a single photo. Anyone believing in righteous war and end justifies the means principles should check the War Remnants Museum out first.
To sum up: Vietnam was (a) a solid pass on the Gi scale (food 9, transport 1, accommodation 7, natural beauty 7, architecture 6, historical significance 7) [a good mark, she's a tough marker, or so Geoff claims] and (b) a rich feast for the senses on the Geoff scale, scoring high on tastes and visual sensations, if not so well on the aural (honking) and olfactory (whoofy smells) standard. The people are great too, less obsessively courteous than the Japanese, but very polite and very gentle (other than the taxi drivers). And being there was a serious historical lesson with an uplifting ending - despite all the wreckage wrought here by successive occupiers the people remain hospitable and the country is leaping forward.
Anyway, next up comes perhaps the most spiritual part of the trip. The answer to everything may unfurl. Laters friends.
- comments
Mac Good stuff. Having recently being in Vietnam I wholeheartedly agree with pretty much everything you say here. The one thing that cracked me up at the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum is they had all these Ho Chi Ming commerative plates stacked next to blonde haired baby dolls and all this capitalist tourist crap. We didn't make the War Remnants Museum which was a shame but the one place we did visit which you appear not to was the VC tunnels just outside of Ho Chi Minh City. It was truly amazing to see the tricks the VC used against the US. The fact they had a firing range were you could off load an AK47 made it a very surreal experience. We also went to some water puppetry which was ace. And literally everywhere we stayed had these delicious cheese boards...for breakfast! But the roads, the roads....man just chaos. I reckon the average age of a scooter rider there is...19...19....19 (none of them appeared to wear any helmets)
Neville Norman Agreed, Mac _ Except I liked the cpatilist crap: better that matrouska dolls you get everywhere in fromerl;y communist Russia. The 19yo scopoter riders in HCM city are hard to tell because they nearly aLL WEAR FACE Masks. The water marionettes were fba, but we told Gi and Ge about those - guess they got flicked. Also the tunnels were gab and I agree with Mac - expoklins why the 'west'go nowhere with all the bombs. Neville Norman (Ge's dad)(presewntly in Cambridge UK)
Geoff Norman nice one guys, like the input. actually we did get to the water puppets in hanoi, but um, i didn't mention them coz i didn't love them and don't want to waffle on..... gi really dug them tho. wish we'd had time to get to the tunnels. next time.....
Helena I suggest you never see Robin Williams's movies ever again. Other than that, I think the blog is lovely.