Good Morning, Vietnam!

We went to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, February 10 – 26, 2013, on an German tour, a dozen or so people, led by a Vietnamese guide who learned his German in the German Democratic Republic in the seventies. On our ongoing search for the most perfect system, we have checked out Cuba, Egypt and now Vietnam. In April, we will we visiting the mullahs in Iran…

“Good Morning, Vietnam!”  This famous movie title is very much visible on t-shirt, hats and mugs. Robin Williams left his mark on the country with his 1987 movie.

 

Touristing in Vietnam – a most pleasant experience. Great hotels, a delicious cuisine, friendly, open people and so much to see – the mountainous north, the beaches in the middle and the fascinating Mekong Delta in the south. Plus interesting cities like Hanoi, Hue, Hoi An, Saigon and Can Tho. The French colonial period is not much in evidence any more, but there are beautiful buildings and parks in the great cities that merit attention. Very actively attended pagodas are fragrant and welcoming sites from north to south. Our tour had inserted a number of bicycle tours through interesting countryside and cities or villages. That was a wonderful experience, with children and adults welcoming us with loud “hello’s”.

Vietnam Primer:    On April 30, 1975, Saigon fell and America lost the “Vietnam War”. On July 2, 1976, North and South Vietnam were merged to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The death toll of the war is estimated to be between 800,000 and 3.1 million. About 165,000 prisoners died in “reeducation camps” in the South. Another 200,000 to 400,000 died between the late 70’s and early 80’s, when the “boat people” tried to flee Vietnam. America lost almost 60,000 young men in Vietnam, and another 300,000 were wounded.

Following the economic collapse caused by the mass campaign of collectivization of farm and factories, in 1986, reform politicians introduced “doi moi” or renovation, which carefully managed the transition from a planned economy to a “socialist-oriented market  economy”. The Economist has characterized the Vietnamese economic leadership as “ardently capitalist communists”.

Vietnam has a geographic size almost that of Germany, reaching from latitudes 8°  to 24° north, level land covering no more than 20%, tropical forest around 43% of the area. The country has about 92 million people (about half of them riding around on motor scooters, see below).

Vietnam’s economy has made tremendous progress in the last 25 years. It has been estimated that the country will maintain a very high growth rate in the next decade, making it one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Vietnam is now one of Asia’s most open economies. It also has become a major exporters of agricultural products, but the share of such products is decreasing in importance as technology-based exports continue to increase.

War Memories:  The “American War”, as the Vietnam war is called there, is not much in evidence as one travels in Vietnam. Yes, there is the large “War Remnants” museum in Saigon (officially now Ho Chi Min City) that displays the horrors of the war on several floors of documents, photos and munitions as well as fragments of shot-down airplanes, like a B-52. Outside in the courtyard, a large display of American tanks, helicopters and F-4 fighter planes. But in the countryside and in the cities of Hanoi and Saigon, we saw no signs of the tremendous bombing damage America inflicted on the country in eight years of war. But my American passport raised no eyebrows.

You can imagine my very personal reaction to Vietnam’s war history when I tell you that I was a U.S. Army officer between 1963 and 1965 and I was discharged just as the war was getting very bad. I know of several fellow officers who did not return from Vietnam. I also know that I would have agreed to go, if I had been assigned to the war zone. But only a few years later, my attitude had changed dramatically, as did that of millions of fellow American when in 1968 and 1969, I was marching with protesters around the White House and the Justice Department, urging the government to end this senseless war.

The People:  To our surprise, English in not spoken well by many, even in the four-star hotels we often stayed in. We were told that the language of the enemy was simply not taught for many years after the war ended in 1975. But menus are in English and tourism is a major industry that is slowly having an impact on language skills, too. We experienced the Vietnamese as open and friendly and incredibly energetic – almost everybody seems to have a store, even if it is only stool and a charcoal fire on a sidewalk.

92 Million People, 46 Million scooters:  City streets, from the Chinese border in the north to the Mekong delta in the south are filled with, yes, well over 46 million scooters. Fortunately. Because 46 million cars would simply not fit on the very basic streets and highways of that long and narrow country. Traffic is incredibly noisy, totally confusing and unimpeded by most traffic lights and rules of the right-of-way. But it flows, with horns blaring – but tempers very calm with busses and cars and trucks – and millions of scooters - coexisting peacefully.

Capitalist Communists:  Taking their cue from the not-much-loved neighbor China in the north, the Vietnamese have calmly transcended the restrictive boundaries of a centrally planned economy and created a largely free market place for private investment, large and small. The country is a major producer of goods that are found in the stores of Europe and the U.S.. While the state is still a one-party communist country, the party is not much in evidence. Occasion posters will carry the hammer-and-sickle emblem of the Party, in cities and in the countryside, and Uncle Ho, founding father Ho Chi Min is honored, much like Fidel Castro in Cuba, with innumerable statues and pictures. The feeling in Vietnam was much freer than in Cuba, with very few uniforms in the streets and no tedious em- and disembarkation procedures entering and leaving the country.

Pushy Minorities:  We spent a few days among the Black Hmong and other exotic minorities (Flower Hmong, Red Dao, Zay, Tay) in the far north of Vietnam. They have one aim – getting dollars from tourists. Their pushy and voluble approach quickly got on our nerves and made us avoid them when possible, taking pictures of their colorful dress and headgear from a safe distance only. There are over 50 minorities in the country, all speaking very different languages. We were reminded, unpleasantly, of the hordes of begging and selling crowds in Egypt and India…

Young Worshippers Everywhere:  Visiting many pagodas we noticed that they are much attended, in large numbers also by younger people. They burn long thin incense sticks that spread their fragrant smoke throughout. We observed rows and rows of scooters right in front of the pagodas. Western churches should be so lucky. Ancestor worship is deeply engrained in the Vietnamese and Chinese cultures.

Food & Drink:  What a pleasant surprise! Having tasted Vietnamese food in the U.S. and in Europe – and not finding it very interesting – we can say that we very much enjoyed our many different meals in the mountains, in the small cities and in Hanoi, Hoi An, and Saigon. We followed in the footsteps of Bill Clinton and First Daughter Chelsea when we ate a delicious lunch in a now very famous, and very simple, restaurant in Saigon the President visited in 2000. We also remember the delicious Vietnamese breakfasts in our fancy hotel, the perfect bowls of made-to-order soups and much, much more.

Money, Money:  The Vietnamese dong currency exchanges at about 20,000 to the dollar. Took us a while to quickly translate that a “Tiger” or “Saigon” or “Hanoi” beer (“bia”, as the cans and bottles are labeled), at 30,000 dong really cost only $1.50 or €1.15. You will understand that we had much practice doing this calculation because temperatures, especially in the south, were often well above 90 degrees with high humidity; Saigon is only 8 degrees north of the equator. Local wines are simple, not expensive, but very modest. Dollars are readily accepted, with the minorities and other street sellers offering everything at “one dollar, one dollar!”

The Year of the Snake:  We were lucky to arrive in Hanoi on February 10, the official date of the Tet New Year celebration – which this year shut down the country for about five days. We saw thousands of banners everywhere wishing the world a Happy New Year and the beginning of the Year of the Snake. Nevertheless, we declined to order the snake menu in a restaurant by the Saigon River; that menu item is there throughout the year, by the way, not only this year – the Year of the Snake.

Vive l’Hospital Francais!  The better half’s painfully dislocated hip joint forced us to interrupt our journey, taking a gruesome, sleepless overnight train from the Chinese border to Hanoi. Ambulance awaited us at the train station there and whisked to L’Hospital Francais, a world-class institution with over 40 doctors on duty. Mainly foreigners and the wealthier Vietnamese make use of this private hospital. A non-invasive orthopedic procedure put the bones back in the right place and we retired to a great hotel where later we rejoined our tour and proceeded on down the coast to Saigon, by plane and bus.

Good-bye, Vietnam! Thank you, for a great experience.