Remnator's travels in Vietnam

 By Stuart Remensnyder

The weather here has been like living in a furnace room-a hot wet wind blows through most of the day. Fortunately when the wind blows it is quite nice at least in comparison to when the air is resting. It is simply a place that makes you sweat all the time. Like right now as my fingers grease across the keys. In fact it is not unlike being in downtown Boston or Hartford in July.

We went on a one day trip to the Cu Chi tunnels and the Caodai Holy See. The tunnels are part of a tourist/historical sight which is very interesting and sadly awing. When you first arrive a display of "nail" traps are explained and demonstrated. Nearly all of them are simple and designed to cause excruciating pain, hopefully result in infection (so the soldier would be out of commission) or be fatal -simply a block of wood with barbed nails protruding that would be buried in the ground and concealed with leaves.
A soldier would step on the nail which would go through the boot and into the bottom of the foot. Extracting the nail caused tearing in the foot and left a soldier badly injured. Evacing with the nail in the foot was difficult and painful--either was an effective deterrent. The tiger traps and beyond will await.
Hanging bats
The tunnels themselves have been divided into a tourist friendly expanded version and one of original size. It is incredibly hot under the ground--worse than above. The heat of the day must sink at least 6-10 feet down through the ground for we found no relief in the tunnels. I had my trusty headlamp and was able to peer into many corners and recesses and blocked of tunnels sections and found a row of hanging bats awaiting the night. We had a superb guide who had been a translator for the US during the war and he was able to share many personal experiences--very very interesting.
After the tunnels we went to the holy see of the Coadai religion which is the most accepting and eclectic religion on earth-drawing from Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, animism, spiritualism.....they have even made Victor Hugo and Sun-Yat Sen saints in their religion. The Holy See was a gaudy but wondrous place with massive dragon wound pillars, a blue vaulted ceiling with stars and a massive blue globe with an all seeing eye painted in the middle (some say it looks like the US $1 eye) We were there for a service which I have recorded on tape--a slow chant with gongs and sympbols and traditional instruments of Vietnam. the bus ride out and back was spectacular and seems to be almost "normal" now--rice paddies, palm trees, straw hats, water buffalo.........

Nicole and I had a great time and are safely back in Saigon once again. We will be here until Sunday and head on to, Cambodia. The strip of land from Saigon to Phnom Penh and up to Siam reap (Ankor wat) is a safe and heavily traveled tourist route at this very moment. A number of consolidating factors have led to a nice quiet time and people are traveling every day from Saigon and we have heard nothing but wonderful tales of the trips to Ankor Wat. We will be going nowhere but these two places and then flying up to Laos for a few weeks (also on the tourist safe hit list right now) and probably from there across to Thailand to regroup before heading to India!! We will try to communicate from Cambodia so you know all is well. If it gives you any feeling of ease we are going to go with a 50-year old grandmother accompanying us!!!

I would love to have the news from home!

Stu

The Mekong Delta, Vietnam
Well Nicole and I have just returned from a spectacular and well run trip to one of the worlds great river systems--the Mighty Mekong Delta!! We took one of the package tours with Sinh Cafe and the three day two night 350 km $25 tour was worth every penny--hotels, travel and tickets all included, only food on our own. Especially good things about this tour include that they started early and went long every day (7am to 7pm) and gave us time to enjoy each site/sight.
Many tours simply drop you off for a photo opp and then then pack you back on the bus. This tour gave us time to sit and reflect and absorb in every place and also treated us to nearly 8 hours on the rivers of the Mekong delta--long enough to really gain a feel for the region and people. The Mekong is an amazing river and region.

Stu

The river itself runs from Tibet through Butan, along the boarder between Thailand and Laos, through Laos and Cambodia (Kampuchea) and into Vietnam. In the lower portions of the Mekong it is so flat that there are tides several hundred kilometers from the ocean which govern the rivers daily swings. We were fortunate to have a fantastic guide and great weather for the entire three days. Our guide was a young man named Bao (pronounced in a falling and rising tone like a "u" shaped sound) who was full of entertaining tories and local legend and lore. We learned about the significance of: the cham dress (men often wear a sarong skirt which the woman claim makes it harder fro him to run away!) and housing styles (built on stilts to guard against the rising tide and under the house is a bamboo cage for when the man is "in the dog house" as it were!); the all purpose snake wine (male potency first and foremost but also as a cure for back pain and how the snake and alcohol are left for 2 months or so to ferment into a light brown strong liquor--I must get up the courage to try this delicacy--I have only gone so far as to have the excellent snake in traditional sauce with rice dish!); marriage among Vietnamese majority and minority groups (e.g.. in the cham minority group the man is chosen by the woman and moves in with the woman's family while the general population sees the woman as belonging to the man's family); family size (he claims that families are large because:

  1. Since girls will become the property of other families each family needs a boy to take care of them in old age so they have often 3-5 girls and one boy in a family with the boy the youngest!
  2. Snake wine!
    There is often no electricity in the Mekong delta so when it is dark there is not much else to do so men and women will spend much time "making the babies" at night.
  3. In a communistic country there are propaganda LOUD speakers in every town which blare messages three times a day--the first at 4:30 in the morning to get the workers up for work, but .... since it is dark no one can work yet and no one can go back to sleep so....more making the babies time!!
The life and times of the the python - (maybe a boa??)
The male and female are left alone for a 2 hour coupling (thus the legend of the stamina improvement from snake wine and meat!!!) and some 3 months later the mother will give birth to up to 60 babies in large eggs--the mother will eat nothing for 1-2 months of incubation period!! These snakes were up to 30 kg and are amazingly beautiful and textured animals which we had the chance to touch and hold. One 3 kg chicken per month for food.Apparently these pythons are very smart and always eat the chicken from he head first so as to not get a wing caught like a barb-stream line dinners only.
We also saw the famed king cobra which exist in a few places like the Viet Cong headquarters that we visited, why boats in the Mekong have eyes painted on the bows. To make the boat look like a serpent. Apparently the legend goes that when boats sank in the Mekong that they had been swallowed up by the gragon serpents that lived in the waters and if they painted their boats with eyes and red paint that perhaps the river serpents would find a new friend instead of a meal.
Given some of the gnarled serpentine tree stumps, coated with a luxurious hide of rich brown alluvian mud flowing from as far away as the high plains of forbidden kingdom of Tibet, I found no difficulty imagining that in the weak light of dawn or dusk that these harmless outcroppings or drifting parts of the Kapok (for which Saigon is named), mango, palm, banana, lychee, papaya, tamarind or other exotic fruit tree would self-animate into a terrifying snake of epic proportions! (It would seen even more appropriate if the asp(en) tree were somehow involved in this description. ;-) [recall that ;-) is a wink in cyber talk!!]

Smugglers on the run
These boats are home to many families and a tremendous source of the river commerce. In the myriad of floating markets that we saw the tradition of advertising your product by attaching it to a bamboo pole and flying you product high above your boat gave these markets the look of a congregation of warring factions carrying their standards to the peace talks. We also learned of the boarder situation near Sam mountain (less than 5 km from the Cambodian boarder) especially with respect to the conflicts with the Khmer and the issues of smuggling. We were able to see well into Cambodia from the top of Sam mountain and could see the smuggling village in the hazy distance (it was perhaps 90 degrees and 80% humidity on our climb!) and learned of the many methods for concealing and transporting goods (primarily electronics and cigarettes which will avoid the taxes of the Vietnamese government). We were encouraged to arise early and look for people on xyclos (rickshaw bikes with motor) ridden by people who "look like robot..thin face and very big body and arms".
The smugglers simply pack the cigarettes and electronics along their arms legs and torso and sprint for it through the towns. Alas we have no luck spotting the elusive robots (nor have I not seen the snow leopard, the yeti, a tiger in the wild, or a free lunch). The mountains which arrive from Cambodia end in Sam mountain (which appeared to be the only mountain in the Vietnams portion of the Mekong delta).

A whole pig
This mountain has a number of temples on and around it. At the base is a very important temple in which nearly all families offer food or gold to ensure good harvests and children in their marriages. While it had the feel of a large railway station it is perhaps most effective that way in handling the massive daily and infrequent multitudes which "drop by" to pray. In a 4 story building next to the temple is the "souvenir shop" which contains the showcases for the intricate and elegant gold offerings. Primarily bas relief style images they are often mixtures of religious figures amid important farm animals.
When we were there a whole pig had been roasted and was being offered up to the gods of the harvest and the swirl of incense, brightly colored images, spiraling prismatic halo behind the alovakitesvara Buddha (spelling??) and throng of people lent a very festive feel to the place. Our walk up the hill through cave pagodas, monks quarters and tourist shop homes was prefaced with a reminder that the legless and armless individuals we had encountered in the temple had lost these limb in mines planted during a war with Cambodia in the late 70's and that it was therefor crucial that we (as George bush would put it) "stay the course" and not practice our beloved scenes of individualism as we climb up and down the sacred mountain. They evidently leave the extra mines there for fear of the return of the Khmer.
At the summit of the mountain is a temple which was bombed in the war with Cambodia in which the miraculously untouched Buddha remains. While the roof and much of the walls came down the statue survived and has taken on even more sacred import from its close brush with graveldom. While the temple was in disarray a palm tree began to grow at the base of their Buddha. As a sign of divine respect the temple was rebuilt with the tree intact protruding through a special hole in the roof. It quite a beautiful temple with bright green leaves emanating from its northern eaves.

Genuine moments
The view from the peak was a sweeping vista of luosciouly green rice paddies described by outlines of opulently emerald brown (a new color!!) canals. The pink roofs tile covered houses dotted the plains and increased the intensity of the softer colors of the rice and canals as a touch of salt makes a vine-ripe tomato inconceivably sweeter. I was accompanied hand held the entire way up ad down the mountain by a beautiful Vietnamese child. It seems that the children around the mountain enjoy talking, listening and touching all of the strange and interesting foreigners. I had some cynical feeling that we were being set up to buy something or give something when the walk was through and hated myself the whole way for this gut instinct. I felt all the worse when the children simply screamed "bye bye" and gave us big smiles as we boarded our big air-con bus.
There is so much begging that I have simply come to expect it and disappoint myself when I fail to recognize the genuine moments--they are my most treasured and perhaps most often missed opportunities. I have picked up swung about, tickled, been tickled, traded hats, traded names and ages, smiled, misunderstood, laughed with ad enjoyed countless beautiful children (they all are!!) from Hanoi to Saigon. The energy and happy spirit of so may children makes Vietnam one of the richest places I have been. So happy with so little seems is such sad contrast to the discontent exhibited by so many at home who have so (too??) much.
What these children can do with some string or a crunched up ball of newspaper baggles the mind and is such testament to the creative nature of young boys and girls left to their own devices. I hear Grim's words echoing in my head when he urges me to not try to control the fun of flaggies (now kravarians) by overplanning--"they know how to have fun!" (I am sure those are not the exact words but the sentiment of grim's understanding is the key!) In any event these children have a difficult situation which requires most to be working as soon as they are able and attending school only up to age of 14 or so before the economic demands force them out of expensive school ($100/year is expensive given the average wages of $400/year).
Speaking of money--in the Mekong delta the farmers and fishers have so little trust in the government that when they receive money for their harvests they purchase gold and jewels and bury them in bottles in the ground of their house--the lesson learned when the north Vietnamese devalued the south Vietnamese "dog" (1000 SV dong to 2 NV dong) people who had their saving in the SV dong were wiped out) has not been lost on these thrifty, frugal and hard working people.

Serpentine inhabitants
Our visit to the VC headquarters near the Cambodian boarder was very interesting and we got to walk around in the mangrove swamps and climb in and out of the dark, dank, cramped hiding places for the Vietcong, visiting bomb craters, bamboo shacks (in whose roofs reside many snakes of a variety of venomous toxicity--including a few rogue cobra.
We were warned to make lots of noise before entering any of the houses in order to avoid surprising one of the serpentine inhabitants who might find us a threat and react with fatal instincts. As it turned out our group of 25 or so must have scared away every living creature for miles around!! Save for a few rustling lizards in the undergrowth the swamp seemed relatively benign.) Once again as we had found in Cu Chi the living spaces were too narrow for even a relatively small American (like myself) to even enter. Wedged at the chest as I tried to drop into a few of the tunnels I soon found renewed respect for the courage and slenderness of the VC.

Be a Sinh Cafe zealot!
As always one of the joys of a small group travel is that you have sufficient time to make genuine connections with other travelers. When moving on our own from town to town, Nicole and I find some nice acquaintances but rarely reach the "trading address" level of friendship. Over the course of three days of traveling and eating together we come away from our group of new Zealander, Australian, Belgium, Irish, Danish, French, Quebecois, isle de la reunion (near Madagascar!), British, American and German companions with warm memories of laughter, stories, jokes and conversations--perhaps the central pillars of good travel.
We recommend Sinh Cafe without reservation and should you travel to Vietnam remember that the Sinh cafe arch rival is Kim's Cafe!! Be a Sinh Cafe zealot! Look for the t-shirt appearing near you soon. Speaking of T-shirts I have been carrying a "Shaorn Trading Post" T-shirt for the last 6 months and have a cheesy shot of this quaint Vermont town's image with Mao, Ho,The forbidden city, the Mekong river and it will travel with me to Ankor Wat, Vientien and .....????

Well this has been a good long sit down and I think I shall take a rest for my fingers and let a few others on the computer for now. It may well be for a little while before the internet reappears but keep posted through faxes to Bear and my folks!!!

Stu

Inner pictures of the orient

The following are just some images along the trip from my journal, exercises in similies and analogies and imaging--enjoy and sorry for the DIM (Deep Inner Meaning) comments. It is okay to mockingly say ooh aah to yourself if I seem to be reaching too far

Stu

BANANA LEAVES - flapping in the tropical wind like the ears of an elephant cooling itself on steamy afternoon.

THE PREVALENT GRAY - brown mud color of sun bleached wood and bamboo thatching along the long brown canals lined by stilted houses reaching out over the water.

PALM COCONUT TREE TOPS - exploding like old fashion feather dusters charged with static electricity.

RUBBERY GREEN BANANA BUNCHES - flopping out of the tangled mess of the tops of the banana trees like the crazy eyes on a spring coil comically emerging in a gravity conceding hook.

RICE FIELDS - to turn every golf course superintendent "green" with envy.

THE PIECES OF CLOTH - that affix the conical rice hats to nearly every citizen become exaggerated smiles as we recede into the distance.

BOATS - moving like captain Nemo's "Nautilus" in "20000 leagues under the sea" semi submerged under the weight of fruit cargo.

SNAKING - our way through the serpentine maze of canals.

THE FLOATING MARKETS - confluence of fish and fruits reached my nose with a blend of smells that made me feel that we were longtailing our way through rivers of miso soup.

OUTHOUSES - from all of the boats all suspended over the river itself - while a savings in the water we use to flush ours it certainly seems to compromise the usefulness of bathing in the very same place!

A SUNSET STREWN - with long whispy clouds took on the same look as the streaks of pastel roses and robins egg blues one finds in the trail raspberries and blueberries leave when stirred through a bowl of off - white French vanilla yogurt.

THE GENTLE REFLECTIONS - of the dragon's eyes set in angry red and aged by sun and water, the way that well - worn bluejeans have a look of purposeful existence, and the yellow and blue hulls painted to the waterline. In the quiet undulations of the water the alternatively longer and shorted distortions combine for an ethereal (dreamlike) version living in the river -- an alternate reality to the sharp and crisp existence of the boat itself.

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