Tour of Vietnam

Vietnam adventure

Xin chao! ("sing chow" - Hello!)
For anyone who has read my memoir "Free My Heart of Grief To Love", you know that my late husband was a veteran of the Vietnam conflict. The dream of seeing the land he called the most beautiful place on earth became a reality October 30 - November 11, 2013.  

Several months ago the opportunity came along for my husband and I to join a small tour group, hosted by another Vietnam veteran to see this nation of great conflict. We recognized this as an opportunity of a life-time as my present husband's father had also served our nation in that war.  With both veterans deceased it seemed like seeing the far away country where they risked their lives was the right thing to do to honor them. That war was 40+ years ago now. How long ago and far way that sounds. What would it be like to see the villagers, the terrain and the way of life of those people we heard so much about from our loved ones?

Our adventure began with many air miles (7,500+) requiring more than 18 hours of flight time and crossing the international date line. Needless to say, I was confused about the day of the week right from the start. Thank goodness we arrived in Hanoi late in the evening so it was easy to sleep for hours in the dark of night, even though it was early daytime in the western U.S.

Hanoi is the capital city of Vietnam with a population of approximately 6.5 million people.  

By 8:30 a.m. we had had a bit of breakfast and were loaded onto the 20 seat bus that had transported us from the airport to our hotel. Interesting facts about Hanoi were imparted by our Vietnamese tour guide. Our tour group consisted of only eleven people so it was always easy to hear the guide and any questions or comments posed by other members of the group.  And the twelve-day whirlwind adventure began.

In Hanoi we visited the Vietnam Military History Museum, Truc Bach Lake (site of John McCain's crash landing), the "Hanoi Hilton", Old Town Hanoi/Dong Xuan market and Hoan Kiem Lake.  

Vietnam Military History Museum

N. Vietnamese Veterans happy to see Americans

Plaque inside museum - Notice mis-spelling "LB Fohnson"

Exhibit of prisoners within the "Hanoi Hilton", legs in shackles

Site of John McCain crash

These veterans were genuinely happy to shake our hands, give us hugs and take photos.

They've torn down most of the original Hoa Lo "Hanoi Hilton". ("Hoa Lo" means Hell Hole.) What is left is now a museum containing original artifacts, including a guillotine  and life-sized figures so visitors can understand what it was like to be a prisoner here.  This prison was used from the late 1800s until around 1985.

Typical site in Old Town Hanoi 

Then it was on to the city Ha Long 

View of the Ha Long bridge from across the street from our hotel.

and Ha Long Bay
Ha Long Bay is an area where the the people actually live on the water in floating homes. There are hundreds of small islands that make up this "bay" area.

Ha Long Bay resident's fishing vessels

A few of the floating homes of Ha Long Bay village

This beautiful lady effortlessly rowed our six-passenger boat among the private residences and islands. 

These hats are very comfortable, allowing the air to circulate while it keeps out the heat of the sun. I don't look as cute as she does. 

Fishing vessel with awe inspiring surroundings.


We started our bay tour on this larger vessel and then transferred to the smaller rowing boat.  Interesting that the name of the boat is "Bai Tho Junk 59". Not junk at all, just the word they use for "boat".

Next up, Hue (pronounced "way") where we visited the Imperial Citadel, Thien Mu Pagoda and Dong Ba market

Pagoda built in 1601, tallest pagoda in Vietnam.  Pagodas will always be 7 stories because of  the Buddist beliefs and what each level represents.

Stairs leading to Thien Mu Pagoda and other outbuilding structures

Behind the Pagoda is a Buddist monastery where we saw these two; a female "monk" and one of the young students.

 The Imperial Citadel at Hue, built in 1802, this served as the Capital of Vietnam. Many of the buildings and grounds are being reconstructed after being destroyed during the Vietnam War. 

On our bus ride to Hoi An we stopped at My Khe Beach in Danang, traversed the Hai Van Pass and took a short break at Lang Co Beach.
It was on this route that the interpreter and bus driver knew that we would be going through the exact area that my late husband stood for the March 1, 1971 "Stars and Stripes" photograph and news article "Scout Dogs Save Time, Lives On RR".  They studied the article and stopped at the spot - Yes, THE SPOT (or at least within the general vicinity).  As we turned and compared the terrain on the copy of the news article we could see the same hillsides, water and railroad tracks. I was amazed, but experienced no feelings of sadness or anxiety, simply awe and gratitude that I was so blessed to be provided this moment of "connection".  

The sticks in the water (top left) is a clam farm.

As we went up the pass we shared the road with many semi trucks loaded with eucalyptus trees and passed many workers on the sides of the road harvesting the trees, cutting off all the limbs and leaves.  Then we came upon where they were all being delivered to. The chipping mill where they make the chips for chip-board. In the photos below, it's difficult to see, but there are full-sized semis lined up and completely surrounding these huge mountains of wood chips. The dark spots on the top of the chip piles are full-sized equipment, like bulldozers. 

At the top of the pass are French and American bunkers that still remain after both conflicts. (no photos, sorry)
At the beach we saw this family filling bags with sand in preparation for Typhoon Hyiahn. The sand bags will go on the roof to help hold the roofing material in place. Rick took a few minutes to help fill a couple of bags. As we read in the news, many homes lost their roofs when the tropical storm hit after annihilating the Philippines. 

Next stop, Hoi An and Tra Que Village. Hoi An is another diverse community that supports farming, fishing and shopping  with ancient, historical sites in the middle of the town and nearby.

After observing the insanity of traffic for 5 days it was now our turn to see if we could successfully navigate on bicycles to the nearby Tra Que Village farm, also referred to as the "Water Wheel". Unless you have seen it or watched a YouTube video there is no way to properly convey the "choreographed ballet" that takes place on the road. Semis, buses, small utility trucks, motorbikes, bicycles and pedestrians all share the same space in numbers that far exceed anything one can witness in the United States of America. There are lane lines painted on the road, but they are only pavement decoration! More often than not traffic is running three abreast going one way while we anxiously witness vehicles coming two abreast from the other direction - all on a two lane road. In the city there are usually no signal lights at intersections, meaning that if you need to turn left you just need to head in that direction. Other roadway participates make allowances - swerving left or right to get around the one that needs to cross traffic. The same goes for foot traffic. One steps from the curb, looks both ways taking advantage of anything that looks even close to a gap in the traffic. Slowly and steadily the pedestrian paces across the street. If you stop you're done for because they are so used to predicting the route of the pedestrian.  Honking is ever-present, day or night but we never detected even the slightest road-rage or ill tempered drivers. Horns are used there to indicate a presence… beep beep (on your left), beep beep (coming up behind you), beep beep (I'm passing, move over!) BEEP BEEP (oh God, don't cross in front of me NOW!)
Ok, back to the Water Wheel. We successfully arrived at the farm to learn how they prepare the soil, plant, water and prepare a meal using the greens and other ingredients. Our chef also taught us to how they make rice paper.

We enjoyed a great lunch.

We took a short drive to see some Cham ruins at My Son.

We are having such a great adventure, but the best is yet to come.  Our next trip is the most touching day of the entire trip.

It was a long drive south and into the jungle to An Do Village. Our host, Doug, met a woman and her very young daughter while he was serving his tour in 1970 in this tiny village. Last year he paid the village a visit just to see if either of them still lived there. He had a beautiful reunion with both of them.  This year we joined him on his mission to see them again. Doug and his wife and many others in our group brought gifts for the children of the village. The "Mayor" of the village greeted us, escorting us to the community hall. One phone call from our guide and word spread like wild-fire. As we waited for the woman and her daughter to arrive we witnessed people coming out of the jungle en-mass to come to see the Americans.  The woman had recently suffered a heart attack so she could not make the reunion, but her daughter and sister were there along with so many others from the village. 

And here's a little video:

After this heart-warming reunion and new experience for most of us we continued on our way to Quy Nhon. 
As short as it looks on the map, the trek from Hue to Quy Nhon took 11 hours. The roads narrow and very rough so speeds rarely surpassed 35 mph.
On our way we were able to see more historical sites, like the My Lai Massacre at Son My and more temples, ocean beach and ruins. The My Lai memorial site carries very heavy energy and I had to fight back tears as I seemed to feel the pain of those that lost loved ones. No one was spared, no matter what their age - as the large plaque sets out names and ages.

Our final city destination was Ho Chi Minh City (aka Saigon).
Here we experienced how the Vietnamese used tunnels and booby traps to fight and survive. Crawling through a short section of tunnel brought reality to what they went through. It's a good thing I am about the same size as most Asian men. I could crouch through most of the tunnel, but the taller and larger people in our group had to go to their hands and knees to navigate their way through. 

We also saw their beautiful Post Office, caught a glimpse of the old American Embassy (too far away for a quality photo) and toured the Presidential Palace when he visits the south.

Our final adventure was a day trip out to the Mekong delta region.  While the government provides northern farmers with smaller plots of land to produce and make a living, the people of the southern delta region actually own their land and most have acres and acres of land, primarily growing rubber, bananas, coconut and rice, but also other fruits like mangos, sugar cane, pineapple, star fruit, dragon fruit, passion fruit, rose apple, and many more. (Coffee is grown in the highlands that we did not visit) In the picture below you see rice patty in the foreground and coconuts, bananas and sugar cane in the distance.

We learned so much on this fascinating adventure. I could go on endlessly sharing what we experienced. 
I invite you to comment and ask questions.
We gained many new friends from our tour group and gained new appreciation and respect for the people of Vietnam.
The photos in this post are those that we took - we can't wait to exchange pictures with the others in our tour group.
New words learned: 
Hello = Xin chao
Good bye = Tam Biet
Thank you = Cam on