Post Card from Hoi An- January 1, 2015

Happy New Year from Hoi An, where New Years Eve was every bit as big as in the U.S. Can't imagine Tet, the upcoming lunar New Year.

Hoi An was a trading center, a seaport from the 16th-19th centuries, with Japanese, Chinese and Vietnamese influences. It's is the #2 tourism destination on Viet Nam (#1 is Ha Long Bay) and the old center is a living UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Today we left the hotel at 7 a.m. to drive to My Son. This Hindu temple complex was built be the Cham people in the 4th-13th centuries. In 1969 My Son was carpet-bombed, and largely destroyed. 

Arrived in time to have the place literally to ourselves, and left as it was getting crowded. Mary's best birding day so far- drongos, barbets and bulbuls.

Not writing much as a cold or flu has laid me low, and a really sore throat makes it hard to sleep.  

Hoping the "Cures Sore Throat and Calms Cough" tea I drank at lunch will help.

A few tidbits-

- Yesterday afternoon we visited the small and simple rural home of elderly friends of Hank's . At the top of the large altar, a statue of Ho Chi Minh.  Of course, says Hank.  They're both members of the Communist Party.

- Ever wonder why we spell "Vietnam" and they spell "Viet Nam?" Most Vietnamese words are very short.  The longest word in the language has only seven letters.  Seems when Western journalists started filing dispatches from the wars, they were still using the telegraph, and putting Ha and Noi or Viet and Nam together saved a space!

- On the drive to My Son, we passed many wedding ceremonies. The timing of these is set by shamans, and today must be an auspicious day.  As we passed one, Hank asked the driver to pull over, and we piled out to congratulate the bride and groom.  They and the family took it in stride.

Tomorrow we leave Hoi An, and fly to the beach town of Nha Trang.

Love, Toni

Photos from Hue and the drive to Hoi An- December 30, 2014

Most, but not all, from the Citadel/Imperial Palace/Forbidden City and the orphanage.

Postcard from Hue- December 29, 2014

Today we end our brief stay in Hue (pronounced with an upward Valley-girl inflection Hue?) and drive to Hoi An.

On the tourist front, yesterday included a boat ride up the Perfume River to a 17th century pagoda, Thien Mu, a visit to the immense Forbidden City (Hue was the imperial capital until 1945), lunch at another pagoda where Buddhist nuns served us a delicious vegan meal, then sat down for Q&A about their lives, and finally a visit to an orphanage (another pagoda) where more nuns care for almost 200 orphans, ranging in age from 1 month to late 20's.

The orphanage visit was surprisingly fun. The nuns and children clearly see themselves as one huge family, with older kids helping the younger kids,  all in a state of what felt like happy bedlam with structure. After one unhappy placement, the nuns abandoned the idea of adoption.  Instead the kids stay as long as they like, often into adulthood, and the nuns are their proud parents. The orphanage receives ongoing support from the Grand Circle Foundation, ranging from new dormitories to washers and dryers to a computer lab.

At some point this afternoon we will sit down for a round table discussion of "controversial topics," i.e. issues Hank is less comfortable discussing in public. Hard to say just what these will be, as Hank has been very open about what he sees as the #1 challenge in Viet Nam- corruption, which Hank attributes to the one-party system, followed closely by territorial disputes with China, Viet Nam's once and future enemy.

I have succumbed to a cold making its way through our group, probably helped in its progress by the damp, cool conditions we've encountered so far.   

Hope to send photos later today.

Love, Toni

Photos from Ha Long- December 28, 2014

Better luck with the WiFi here at this workshop for the disabled, halfway between Ha Long and Ha Noi. Although these are mostly young people, many are suffering the effects of Agent Orange, which apparently go through to the third generation, theirs.

Postcard from Ha Long Bay- Trouble in Paradise- December 27, 2014

If you've seen "Indochine," you've seen Ha Long Bay, filled with limestone karst islands  (1969 of them) and caves. The bay is part of the Gulf of Tonkin, which is part of what Vietnamese call the East Sea, as opposed to the South China Sea. Ha Long Bay has twice been named a UNESCO World Heritage site, first time for natural beauty, second time for its geomorphology.  It is also one of the more recently named Seven Natural Wonders of the World.

Our itinerary had us spending close to 24 hours poking around the bay on a "sailing" vessel called a junk.  After a 4-5 hour drive from Hanoi, we arrived at the dock in Ha Long City, and boarded a tender that took us to our junk, a boat remarkably similar to the dahabiya in which we "sailed" up the Nile. Like the dahabiya, the junk was Instant paradise. We admired the cabins we would be assigned to after lunch, opened a beer, snapped a couple of photos, and enjoyed a late and fabulous lunch.

After lunch, Hank said, "I have good news and bad news." The bad news was a hurricane warning meant the harbor master (or his Vietnamese equivalent) was ordering all boats off the bay. The good news was OAT had found us a place to stay in Ha Long City. After a quick visit to Surprise Cave, which was being visited at that exact same moment by dozens of junks which had also been ordered off the bay, we returned to port, and checked in to our generic hotel. Today will be spent slowly working our way back to the Hanoi Airport to catch our 6 p.m. flight to Hue.
                                                  
Ha Long Bay is uniquely beautiful, and invites leisurely exploration. Most important for me, after four or five days of traffic, crowds and fumes, the wind, water, air and wide open spaces were exactly what I craved.  As Tatti (Great Aunt Toni) often said, "Nature recharges my batteries."
                                                                       
I'll leave you with a digression on the for-me impenetrable Vietnamese language. As Westerners, most of us don't realize every syllable is crawling with diacritics, accent marks heading in various directions, both above and below the vowels. As I understand it, the diacritics determine tone, and tone determines meaning. To make matters worse, there are 29 letters, including 11 vowels. Depending on the inflection (or tone), a syllable can have six different meanings, leaving lots of room for misunderstanding.  For example "xin chow" is the universal "hello." But chow with a backward accent over the o is the word for "porridge."  I leave you with my favorite Vietnamese phrase, phonetically "Oy choy oy!", meaning "Oh my God!"

Sorry, no photos. Although I took a few before the front rolled in, the wireless here isn't up to the task. Maybe tomorrow.

Love, Toni

Postcard from Hanoi- December 26, 2014

So much to tell.  So little time to tell it.

We have visited the Ha Noi home of Mr. Liem and learned the ancient Viet art of water puppetry, and visited the Tho Ha home of Mr. Viet, and learned the art of making rice paper, in which we were trained by Mr. Viet's wife. Not that anyone is about to hire me on as a skilled worker. Lucky Mary was pronounced "qualified" by a market woman who taught her the proper way to peel a potato.  Better yet, she got to play music with Mr. Viet, who has quite a collection of traditional Vietnamese instruments.

We learned the rice paper trade in Tho Ha Village, reached by a very short ferry ride, where most homes are also rice paper workshops.  This is relatively new craft for the village, which until some decades ago was in the clay coffin business. Fifty years ago, Tho Ha ran out of clay, and the government suggested they switch to rice paper. This is the edible rice paper used to wrap those delicious spring rolls.

When a village doesn't have agricultural land, it is apparently common tor it to specialize in some craft.  Today we visited Bat Trang Village, whose 240 families have made ceramics from white clay for over a thousand years.  Unlike Tho Ha, when Bat Trang ran out of clay, they kept on with the ceramics, and started importing the clay.  After learning the ceramic making business, we visited the home of Mr. Duc, and learned about his family's experience during land reform from 1954-57. 

In all our home visits, we see large family altars. Although 90% of the people have no religion, from the Vietnamese perspective, ancestor worship is tradition, not religion. Pretty serious stuff, though. In addition to the home altars, each village has a pagoda to honor Buddha, and two temples- one to honor the village ancestor and one to honor Confucius. 

Vietnam so far is like one endless farmers market. On every street it seems you can buy fresh produce, eggs of many varieties, and cooked foods to satisfy every hunger. These are prepared on little charcoal cookers.  Some are snack foods, like green rice wrapped in a taro leaf or a sweet cake of sweet potato, coconut and sesame. Others, like pho and bia )2% fresh draft beer that costs $0.25 a glass), are served at the ubiquitous low red and blue plastic tables and chairs. With fresh food so easily available, Vietnamese shop every day, and big refrigerators are not important.

Yesterday we visited Hoa Lo Prison, also known as the "Hanoi Hilton," where John McCain spent the better part of six years after being shot down doing a bombing run over Hanoi. Although this era of the prison's history is presented, the major focus is on Hoa Lo Prison's earlier history as a place of incarceration and execution for Viet Minh fighting the French. The men and women were kept under pretty barbarous conditions, with one foot locked in stocks.  Execution was by guillotine, with the severed heads displayed in baskets.

Of course we've been eating lots of good food. Tonight was the best. Fried snake-head fish at Cha Ca La Vong, Vietnam's oldest restaurant, serving one dish (and one dish only) since 1871. The fish is fried at the table. You add greens and herbs, peanuts, and fish oil and serve over rice noodles. 

Wish I could go back to Cha Ca La Vong tomorrow night. Instead we leave Ha Noi for a night on Ha Long Bay. Sunday evening we fly to Hue.

Until next time.

Love, Toni

Postcard from Hanoi- December 25, 2014

This is our first trip to Southeast Asia, and our first flight further west than Hawaii. Twelve hours and three movies into our flight from L.A. we were passing over Japan, with Taipei still over two hours away. From Taipei, a three hour flight to Hanoi.

We arrived in Hanoi at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday (8:30 p.m. Tuesday MST), and are now ensconced at the Golden Lotus Hotel in the Old Quarter of Hanoi.  After a shower, Mary and I were refreshed enough to wander out in search of bottled water and Vietnamese coffee. We found a whole street of coffee houses, then a street of shoes, a street of engraving, a street of sunglasses, etc. Sidewalks are crowded with street food and produce vendors, plus parked (and occasionally moving) motor scooters, which are the primary means of transportation in Hanoi. As we had been warned, crossing streets is an adventure. You step out into the endless stream of scooters, bikes and cars, and walk across at a slow and deliberate pace.  So far, so good.

Our morning routine has us out at 6 to pass through the sidewalk markets and walk around Hoan Kiem Lake, where every few yards, a different club is doing morning exercise- from tai-chi to aerobics to badminton and Latin dance.  Every club has it's own music coming from boom boxes. This morning, the big aerobics groups is still moving to "We Wish You a Merry Christmas."  Our favorite club is laughing yoga- ho, ho, ha, ha, ha (seriously!). Believe it or not, scripted belly laughs and smiles leave you feeling exhilarated. 

Wednesday morning , we had beef noodle soup (pho bo) for breakfast, then a cyclo-rickshaw ride through the Old Quarter and the French Quarter. This turned out to be a surprisingly satisfying way to see the hectic activity of the Old Quarter, without having to negotiate crowded sidewalks and rush hour street crossings. We passed through streets of Santa Claus outfits, bamboo, tarps, hardware, welding, and more. Although each street is named for the wares historically sold there (like silk), the current product may be something else entirely (like funeral banners).

The cyclo-rickshaw ride finished at the Ho Chi MInh Mausoleum, a place of reverence for Vietnamese, for whom Ho Chi Minh is, as Mary put it, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln rolled into one.  No cameras and no talking as you file by the embalmed body of Uncle Ho, newly returned from its' annual refresh visit to Moscow. Later, as Hank told us the story of Ho Chi Minh and the liberation of Viet Nam from the Chinese and the U.S., we saw a group of decorated veterans posing for a photo in front of the mausoleum. 

Two digressions here-

(1) The Vietnam War- Half the population of Viet Nam was born after the end of the American War, as it is called here. This includes our 30-year-old guide Nguyen Duc Hanh (call me Hank). Not only is the war in the past, it is not their first or last war. Just before us, the French. Just after, the Cambodians, followed by the Chinese. Although men are age fought in the American War, whether in the Viet Minh or the Viet Cong, they seem to have forgiven, if not forgotten.

(2) Christmas- Big deal here, but more like New Year's revelries with lots of Santa Claus costumes (even little boys and girls), reindeer head gear, and the like.  Although Christmas Day is not a holiday, Christmas Eve is a huge party.  All Hanoi, paricularly young Hanoi, is out and about, and streaming in to the area where we are staying, often with the whole family on one 100cc motor scooter.    

So much more to tell, as in I've barely begun, and it's time to head off for Bat Trang village, a ceramic-making village near Hanoi.

Love, Toni