Cu Chi tunnels

On our second day in Saigon we went to the Cu Chi tunnels, some 75k to the north west.  On the way, we stopped at an animal rescue park, where they take animals that have been caught in traps or found for sale in shops (as food or for medicine).  Really, it was like a small zoo.  The animals we saw didn't look in bad condition, but there wasn't a great variety.  We saw gibbons, otters, cobras, turtles and a few different types of bear.  It was reasonably interesting and they are doing good work, but I shan't be rushing back for a return visit.

The Cu Chi tunnels were in a different league and, for me, utterly absorbing.  I haven't got time to describe the whole complex in detail or its history, so here is a brain dump of some of the salient facts.

• The Ch Chi area covers some 160 square kilometres and is situated about 75k north west of Saigon.
• It is only 25k from the village where the picture of the burning girl was taken.
• The US wanted to establish a base there, as it would have been a good site for protecting Saigon.
• The tunnels themselves were built by the VC as a way of hiding from the Americans and run for some 250k, right down to the Saigon river, branching out in many directions.
• The VC included both men and women and very many gave up their lives for the cause.
• The entrances to the tunnels were very well hidden.
• The tunnels were very narrow, so most Americans would not be able to get in.  If they did, they would likely as not fall into traps built within the tunnels themselves.
• The subsoil is heavy clay, which meant they could, with difficulty, dig with small spades.  It also meant that there were few tunnel collapses.
• The tunnels were on three levels (see diagram).  The first were largish rooms, just underground.  These were used for things such as cooking and first aid.  The second and third provided better levels of protection.
• As they dug, they had to get rid of the soil, else the US would see where they were.  They either filled in the bomb craters with the extracted soil or put it in the river.
• Some people lived in the tunnels for up to 18 years.  Many were born there.
• The VC were incredibly ingenious in the ways they found to deceive and fight the Americans.
• Other villagers, mostly women and children, lived above ground, but were totally supportive of the VC below ground.
• Below ground, mostly they slept during the day, coming out at night to tend to their limited crops or to attack the Americans.
• The wore black uniforms, providing maximum camouflage.
• The US did everything they could to clear out the area, bombing it frequently, with high explosives, Napalm and Agent Orange, and sending in masses of ground troops, but they never managed to clear out the VC.
• We saw a demonstration of how they disguised the holes and could quickly retreat into one, should an American come close.
• The VC laid many traps in the jungle, of many different types, to catch the Americans.  These were quite horrific, but mostly resulted in the soldier falling into a hole that was full of bamboo spikes, or, occasionally, iron spikes.
• The VC did not put poison on the spikes, as they wanted to inflict as much suffering as possible.
• They could not use kerosene or candles underground as these burnt too much oxygen.  They therefore used lamps filled with cashew or peanut oil.  I'm not sure I believe the reason.  Maybe it was that they used what was available (Vietnam is now the world's largest producer of cashews).
• They cooked underground, but couldn't afford to be given away by the smoke.  Their solution was to build smoke tunnels exiting 200 metres or more from the kitchen.  The outlet was covered with fresh leaves each day, the old leaves being taken back to the tunnels as fuel.
• Clearly, the tunnels needed venting, but the VC could not afford to have the vents discovered since the Americans would pump in chemicals or drop grenades into any vents they found.
• The VC's way of hiding the vents was to exit each in a termite's nest, of which there were many.  They also built imitation nests, which looked identical to the real thing, and exited some vents in these, as well.
• The Americans started using dogs to smell out the vents, having trained them to smell Vietnamese.  The dogs would bark when they found a vent.
• The VC retaliated by putting chilli and pepper round the vent.  This irritated the dogs and made them sneeze, so they didn't bark and the Americans didn't find any vents for some months.
• When they realised that the dogs didn't sneeze when they got back to base, they realised what was happening and so they then looked for dogs that sneezed.  This gave them the upper hand again and they cleared out more tunnels.
• The VC retaliated by hiding captured American uniforms near the vent, which confused the dogs so they didn't go near the vent.  And so it went on, a right old arms race, but on a very different level.
• There were no toilet facilities underground and so the VC trained themselves only to go at night.  Then they went down to the river.
• The conditions inside the tunnels were, of course, atrocious.  They were infested with rats and insects and many VC died of malaria and other diseases.
• When they found unexploded bombs, the VC would saw them in half to extract the explosive.  This was very dangerous and in about half the cases resulted in setting off the bomb.
• They made sandals from old tyres.
• Although the jungle foliage has recovered to a great extent, it is nowhere near as thick as it was originally.  The Napalm and Agent Orange virtually cleared it completely.

There’s a YouTube video that includes a view of the tunnels.  It can be found at: http:\\www.youtube.com/watch?v=azxnc1nDkos

Here’s website about the war in general:

http://www.diggerhistory.info/pages-conflicts-periods/vietnam/tunnels.htm

Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)

Until we arrived in Saigon, we had pretty comfortable weather, but it all changed when we landed at the airport.  The temperature then, late in the evening, was approaching 30C, but in the morning it quickly rose to 35C, with high humidity.  Fortunately, my stomach had pretty much settled down by then and I had no real problems with the heat.

Saigon has a population of 8.3m and 3.7m motorbikes!  As with Hanoi, the roads are just packed with motor bikes and the driving just as chaotic.  The city is much more modern though, with wider roads and better quality building.

Did I mention that, by law, two adults are allowed to ride on a motor bike, together with up to five children?  That is, provided the children are not more than 1.2 metres tall.  It used to be that their ages had to be under eight and the driver had to carry the children’s birth certificates.  Now, if he stops them, the policeman has to measure their heights!  They’re also allowed to carry luggage up to one cubic metre, but it’s not clear if this has to be so that no dimension is greater than one metre.  If so, some are totally illegal.  One was carrying a metal beam that must have been about six metres long.  God knows how he managed to corner.

The first visit was to the Reunification Palace, renamed after the fall of Saigon.  Previously it had been the president’s palace.  After the original French building was partially destroyed in 1962 by two rebelling pilots of the Vietnam air force, work on a replacement palace was commenced and inaugurated in 1966.  To me, there is nothing especially appealing about the palace, although some of the rooms are pleasant enough.
 

The most interesting aspect was that it was here in 1975 that the government finally fell.  The Viet Minh drove their tanks through the gates of the palace (the actual tank that broke through is in the picture), only to find the president, Minh, sitting in the cabinet room, waiting for them.  Minh had only been president for three days!  He told them that his government surrendered totally and, suddenly, the war was all over.  The communists made him speak to the people on the radio to tell them of the surrender and then put him in gaol.  He was subsequently sent on a re-education program.

The War Remnants museum was, in many ways, the most interesting visit.  It consists almost entirely of war photographs, together with a few quotations and one or two artefacts (medals, uniforms, etc.).   As is often said, history is written by the victors, but the sole objective of this museum seems to have been to show how brutal were the Americans.  So there were lots of horrific pictures of dead and injured Vietnamese (always implied to be innocent, rather than Viet Cong). 

The pictures included the famous shot that many will remember of the nine-year old girl (Phan Thị Kim Phúc) covered in flames, having been hit by Napalm (a devastating chemical fire-bomb) in 1972.  Apparently, she survived and was sent to Cuba for treatment.  The final irony, so far as the communists are concerned, is that she eventually moved to Canada (Toronto, I believe).

As well as the on-the-spot war pictures, there was also a section showing photos of grotesquely malformed people, supposedly (and very likely) the result of so-called ‘agent orange’.  This was a defoliant used by the Americans in South Vietnam, both to clear jungle areas to make it easier to find the Viet Cong and also (approximately 40%) to kill crops, in an attempt to starve the combatants.  There are many gross images in the museum, just one of which is included here.  I'm afraid it is shocking, but so was the war.

Incidentally, the Viet Minh were the North Vietnamese army and the Viet Cong were the South Vietnamese citizens who supported the north.  Most of the fighting was done in the South and, surprisingly to me, there was a greater tonnage of US bombs dropped in the South than in the North.  The VC were the most difficult for the Americans to deal with, since they wore no uniforms and could just fade away into the background.  Most likely, in many of the villages in the South. the whole population would have supported the communists, but perhaps not by actively fighting for them.  Could this justify wiping out vast swathes of people, for example, as occurred in the My Lai massacre in 1968.  According to Wikipedia:

“On March 16, 1968 of 347 to 504 unarmed citizens in South Vietnam, all of whom were civilians and a majority of whom were women, children (including babies) and elderly people.   Many of the victims were sexually abused, beaten and tortured, and some of the bodies were found mutilated.  While 26 U.S. soldiers were initially charged with criminal offenses for their actions at My Lai, only William Calley was convicted. He served only three years of an original life sentence, while on house arrest.”

With these rather disturbing images in our mind, we moved on to view three French buildings, the Notre Dame cathedral (brick-built and rather uninteresting), the Opera House (reasonably attractive) and the Post Office.  This was by far the most interesting building and I only wish our queues were as short.  The pictures show the interior of the building, together with detail of the floor tiles.






The eighty-year old man in the picture has been coming to the Post Office every day it is open for the last 27 years.  He is paid by no one, but took it on himself to help people who can't read or write or who needs to translate letters into French or English.  Such dedication.







We finally moved on to lunch, which happened to be the first I’d eaten in several days.  We went to a place called Pho 2000, so called because Clinton and daughter Chelsea ate lunch there in 2000.  I’d expected a rather fancy place, but it was just a simple noodle bar, albeit with good, cheap food.  I actually sat in the same seat as Clinton (see picture, with his picture behind me), but when we were there, the restaurant was crowded.  When he came, they closed the entire street from the restaurant to his hotel, 300 metres away.  Of course, he had the restaurant to himself and his entourage.

Here are a few more odd or interesting facts:

• Our guide is a Chelsea fan.  He even called his daughter Chelsea, which must be a pretty uanusual name in Vietnam.  She’s not the only one, Charles.
• There are four sacred animals in Vietnam: Dragon, Unicorn, Pheonix and Turtle (the only real one).
• The Vietnamese Unicorn is half dragon and half lion.  It doesn’t have a horn, except when in a temple.
• The Vietnamese culture is very much Chinese.  However, there are differences.  For example, their lucky number is 9, not 8.
• Vietnam has quite a lot of oil, mostly in the south of the country.  It exports the crude and imports refined oil.
• Some years ago, China occupied a few islands in the south and, although the UN has declared that they belong to the Chinese, the Chinese won’t move.  Guess what?  There’s oil in them there islands.  No wonder they don’t like the Chinese any more.

More on Hue (Day 15)

The day we left Hue, we had time to visit a couple of tombs and the royal palace at Hue.  They were all interesting, in their own ways.


First, we visited the Royal Palace and Citadel, on the banks of the Perfumed River.  This covers a large area and includes the Forbidden City.  Unfortunately, 80% of this was destroyed in the wars by the French and the Americans.  The pictures show a model of what it used to look like and what still remains.  The Vietnamese are now undertaking a renovation project and eventually hope to rebuild some 40% of the initial complex.

After a short drive, we arrived at the tomb of Tu Doc, the 4th emperor of the Nguyen dynasty, who died in 1883 .  This was in a lovely parkland setting, constructed by the emperor first as his summer palace, then as his final resting place.  I don’t have a picture of his tomb, as no photos were allowed.  However, it doesn’t really matter, as they say he would never have been interred in the tomb itself, because of the risk of grave robbers.  Instead, he was buried secretly somewhere in the grounds.

Finally, we went to the tomb of Khai Dinh, the 12th emperor of the Nguyen dynasty.  He died in 1925, aged 40.  He had 104 concubines, but, unfortunately, never sired any children.  It’s not that he was gay, but the poor guy suffered from mumps when he was a child and that left him impotent.  All those blanks he must have fired! 

His tomb is truly impressive and was built with the help of the French.  It’s hard to convey it properly in photos, but it’s on three levels, with lots of interesting things at each level.  The tomb itself is right at the top and is magnificent.  The walls of the room are completely covered in ceramics, all imported, mostly from China, France and Japan.  From Japan they included soup spoons (see picture).  He is buried beneath the tomb at the top, but some eighty metres below.  Apparently, they used French engineers to help with the design and are supposed to have implemented a scheme that made it thief-proof.  From what I could gather, it involves a sloping tunnel, dug in from the side, and some mechanism that is supposed to make tons of concrete fall on anyone who breaks through the sealed off tunnel.  It sounds a lot like the Egyptian pyramids to me and they weren’t exactly foolproof, but this tomb does seem to have survived intact.

Da Nang, Hoi An and Hue (Days 11 to 14)

We disembarked from our overnight train from Hanoi at Da Nang.  This is the capital of central Vietnam area, previously part of South Vietnam, and has a population of some 40,000.  In the war, there were many thousands of American troops here and this is where they came for their R&R.  The well-known China Beach, as it was known by the Yanks, is now being developed for tourists and there are currently twenty eight luxury beach-side resorts.  I can’t see how these will all be filled, especially given the prices that have been quoted.  According to our guide, one resort is planning to charge $5,000 per night for a single apartment.  But this does include a private butler.

We arrived at the train station at about 10:30 and met our new guide.  It soon became apparent that he is not quite so enamoured with the Government as the guide in the north.  He is from Hue, in what was South Vietnam, and he’s not at all happy with the level of corruption.  He reckons that it will only be ten years or so before they have to introduce democracy.

We left Da Nang for Hoi An and got there in time for lunch.  It has a very pretty old town, with lots of interesting restaurants.  The town is far less hectic than Hanoi, which was a relief.  Unfortunately for me, I’ve not been able to take full advantage of Hoi An and I’ve been in bed all day, with a terrible bout of the squats.  I only hope it clears overnight, as we have to leave for a fairly long coach trip at 9am tomorrow.

I did manage to go out to dinner last night, to a place called Mango Mango.  This is supposed to be one of the best restaurants in the country and boasts that Mick Jagger has been there twice.  The food was excellent and only cost £20, including wine.  Even Mick could afford that!

In two days time, it will be 35 years since the Vietcong ‘liberated’ Hoi An and so the town was decorated with hundreds of the lanterns and it really does look pretty at night.  There’s an old bridge in the centre of town that is very famous and features on one of the banknotes.  We have a lovely hotel just out of town and I wouldn’t mind spending more time here sometime in the future.

The following day we took the coastal route to Hue.  Before we got to the hills, we saw a ship that had been blown ashore in the cyclone they had two years ago.  This was force 14, much stronger than was forecast, and some 250 people were killed.  So far, they have been unable to re-float the ship and are now trying to dig it out!

Although the driving on the coastal road was horrendous, the views were spectacular and, we were told, National Geographic rates it one of the top ten coastal drives.  In the photo, looking down at the beach, you can just about see a leper colony, one of the few remaining in Vietnam.  The government wants to displace the lepers and build a luxury resort there, but it seems they are meeting some opposition.

Tallking of driving, I really never have seen anything like it.  The other day, we were driving along a busy road by China Beach.  There were two lanes each way, with a double-white line down the middle.  On many occasions, streams of cars, buses, lorries, etc. would cross the double line and force any on-coming traffic into the other lane, or, in the case of motor-bikes and cycles, right off the road.  Our guide said that the double line was just for decoration.  For some reason, the cyclists love to ride two or three abreast, despite the fact that other traffic misses them by inches when overtaking.  They just don't seem to care at all.  And of course, overtaking on blind hairpin bends seems to be pretty standard. In the towns, there are zebra crossings, but they are totally ignored and offer no protection whatsover.

I haven’t really seen anything of Hue as I’ve stayed in the hotel all the time. 

Tonight we’re off to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon).

Halong Bay (Day 10)

 Halong Bay is a UN World Heritage site, some hundred plus kilometres to the east of Hanoi.  We drove there by coach, taking about four hours.  On the way, we stopped at a site where they produce and sell a range of goods, including marble sculptures, paintings and embroidery.  This government run institution was set up to provide work for disabled and disadvantaged people from the surrounding area.  I must say that the work was of a particularly high standard.  I was particularly impressed with the sculptures and embroidery.  The prices were very reasonable and the shipping costs surprisingly low.  The only thing was, I didn’t really know where I’d put a pair of eight feet high lions or a twenty feet high fountain!  However, I did buy an embroidered picture, on which the girl is still working.  It will take a total of two months to complete!

Halong Bay is very impressive and quite beautiful.  It’s a natural bay of some 1,600 square kilometres, although you wouldn’t really know that you’re in a bay, since it is full of some 2,000 small islands, each with vertical cliff faces and covered in vegetation.  Apart from the visual appeal of the islands, they also break up the waves so that the bay is like a mill pond.  Unfortunatly, it was a bit misty the day we were there, so some of my pictures aren't too clear.

We went out on one of the specially designed junks (motor powered) and spent twenty four hours on board.  It was luxuriously appointed and we each had our own, well-equipped cabin, complete with a modern bathroom (our boat was only built last year).  We had an excellent seafood lunch and a good Vietnamese dinner in the evening.

After lunch, we visited some limestone caves that were on one of the islands.  These were only opened a few years ago and, although quite impressive, were not as spectacular as others I have seen, for example, in Portugal.

Kayaking and swimming was available in the bay for those who wanted, although sadly I declined.  I was hit with a severe round of the squats while on board, my first of the holiday, and didn’t think it would be too wise.

The way the Vietnamese crew crouch on their haunches on the side of the ship amused me, so I've included a picture.

I’m slightly concerned about the overnight train ride we have coming this evening.  Apparently it’s not too smart at the best of times and we’re advised to take our own toilet paper as that which is provided soon runs out.  Rushing back and forth to disgusting toilets throughout the night doesn’t sound like too much fun.

Day 8 - Mai Chau Village Homestay (and a lesson in rice production)

After our cyclo ride in Hanoi, we took a four hour coach ride east, into the mountains.  Our destination was Mai Chau, a small village that has taken the opportunity to offer overnight stays to tourists as a way of supplementing their income, something only possible since the government introduced its reforms about twenty years ago.

The people from the village originally came from Thailand and still speak Thai as their main language, although they also speak Vietnamese.  It is a farming community, the main crop being rice.  Until 1986, the government had a policy of “no poor, no rich” and so the food was divided out equally. What you might call true communism.  Of course, since you got the same amount of rice whether you worked or not, productivity dropped dramatically.  There was widespread hunger and Vietnam had to import a lot of rice just to prevent starvation.  Eventually the government realised that people need incentives and so they allocated farm land on a per person basis.  Now the farmers are allowed to keep whatever they produce, selling any surplus.  Productivity has increased enormously and Vietnam is now an exporter of rice.  To make things as fair as possible, the rice paddies were divided into small plots and then allocated so that a family would get a mix of plots, some near the village, some further away.

In addition to rice, most families farm fish, mostly carp, in small ponds right next to their houses.  They also grow some corn and a few vegetables as well as keeping a few pigs, chicken and the occasional cow.   Each family also keeps a buffalo, essential to rice production.  Each season, buffalo are used to plough the paddy, when it is time to prepare for planting.  Buffalo manure added extensively to enrich the soil, as there is no system of crop rotation.  

Rice production must be the most labour-intensive form of farming known to man.  The paddies first have to be prepared in carefully laid plots, separated by narrow pathways.  The levels have to be carefully adjusted so that each paddy is exactly level and water can be run in so that it can be flooded by just the right amount. 

Seedlings are first grown in a small area and then, when they are a few inches high, transplanted by hand to the main paddy, in perfectly straight lines.  The straight lines are to facilitate weeding, which must be one of the most back-breaking jobs you can imagine.  It is done entirely by hand, mostly by women.  Generally, the weeds can’t be seen and so the farmer runs a hand through the mud round each plant, pulling out the weeds individually.  This is slow, laborious and back-breaking work.  When our guide did his stint on the farm, his feet became infected (they work barefoot), he couldn’t steer the buffalo and couldn’t sow in straight lines.  He got very poor marks!

After about three months, the rice grows to a metre high, turns brown and is then ready for harvesting.  This is also done by hand, using a small sickle.  The rice is dried on the flat roofs of the houses and in the yard and then threshed, by hand.  The last stage is to remove the husks from the rice grains and this is the only stage where mechanisation is used.  The village has grouped together and bought a machine that removes the husks and, if they can afford to rent it, the farmers take their rice to the machine for de-husking.  If not, they have to do it by hand.  The rice stalks are used for thatching and, together with the husks, as food for the animals.

In the north, the Vietnamese manage two crops a year, whereas in the warmer Mekong delta, in the south, they get three crops.

Although looking after the rice is very labour-intensive, it seems that the people still have time spare for other activities.  The women do a lot of weaving and the men often go to Hanoi for piece-time work.

The Thai houses are built on stilts, with the living accommodation upstairs and the animals underneath.  For those houses that now take in visitors, the area under the house is now used as a dining area, rather than for the animals, who are kept away from the house. 
The houses are built with a hardwood frame and bamboo floors, which are very springy, but much stronger than they appear.   We all slept on the floor, in the one room, under mosquito nets and on thin mats.  Our only privacy was provided by thin cotton sheets hung from the ceiling, dividing the large room into a number of separate areas.

After an excellent dinner, we all went upstairs where we were entertained by a display of singing and dancing by some of the villagers, eight girls and four men.  They are not professionals, but nevertheless put on a very good show.  We also had to join in and the fact that we all jumped up and down without crashing through the floor proved that the split bamboo construction was very strong. 
Sweet rice wine was provided, drunk from a communal pot, through bamboo straws.  We were also invited to a wedding party that was going on that night, but this turned out to be just a Karaoke session, something which is very popular here and, I think, throughout Asia.

The toilet facilities were primitive, to say the least, but we all managed to do without showers.  Getting downstairs for the toilet in the middle of the night was a bit of problem, but we all survived without incident.

After breakfast, we had chance for a long walk round the valley in which the village was located.  This gave us chance to learn more about the farming methods and the community, in general.  We were surprised to see traps set to catch kingfishers, which otherwise steal the fish.

As everywhere, the people were charming and I found it to be a very worthwhile visit, despite the rather primitive accommodation.

Hanoi

If Bangkok is bustling, Hanoi is frenetic - and I loved it. 

The city was founded in 1010 and will be celebrating its millenium on 10/10/10.  It has a population of six million.  It was first captured by the French in 1886.

Our first morning was taken up with a visit to Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum.  Queuing for an hour to spend 45 seconds filing past a forty year old corpse is not really my idea of fun, but it was very interesting, nevertheless.  There were literally thousands of people viewing the body and Uncle Ho is clearly much loved by the Vietnamese.  We were in the so-called VIP queue, so I can't imagine how long it would have taken had we been mere Vietnamese.  But it was all done with the utmost good humour and quiet respect.  There's not much to say about the body itself.  We weren't allowed to get close enough to see any detail, but from where we were it looked more like he was carved out of stone.

Ho Chi Minh died of lung cancer in 1969, aged 79.  According to our guide, he never married, but supposedly fathered many children.  Wikipedia says he married a Chinese girl, but since Vietnam has subsequently fallen out with the Chinese, maybe this bit has been purged from the records.

He was clearly an intelligent man and spoke five languages fluently, Vietnamese, Chinese, Russian, French and English.  He was educated in a French school in Vietnam.  The French had colonised the country in 1886, along with Laos and Cambodia, combining the three countries under a single administration. 

Before WW1, he travelled to the USA and England, where he worked as a chef.  After the war, he went to France for four years, where he began to embrace communism.  After that, he went to Russia and worked as a waiter, then to China.  He later moved around a lot, spending time in Thailand and Hong Kong and then again in China, Russia and Europe, finally returning to Vietnam in 1941, to lead the independence movement.  He had been arrested a number of times on the way, serving various prison sentences.  As leader of the communist party, he became Prime Minister in 1945 and President in 1946.

After declaring independence in 1945, it wasn't until 1954 that the French were eventually defeated, at the Battle of Đien Bien Phu.  The French, as was their wont, had run a particularly vicious regime, one of their legacies being a prison in Hanoi for political prisoners ("Maison Centrale"), later to become known as the "Hanoi Hilton" (see below).


The Americans, coming out of the Korean War, at the height of McCarthyism and ever-obsessed with communism, were afraid that if South Vietnam fell to the northern communists, then the rest of South East Asia would fall ,  This was Eisenhower's so-called 'domino' effect.  Accordingly, they began to support the South Vietnamese in their defence against the invading north, first by providing advisers, then by sending in combat troops.  Step by step, first under Kennedy, then under Johnson and lastly 
under Nixon, they fell into an ever-escalating conflict.  They were finally defeated by the Viet Cong in 1975, with the fall of Saigon and the evacuation of the last American troops.

Since Ho died in 1969, he never lived to see victory over the imperialists, nor the re-unification of his country.

My impression is that Ho Chi Minh is still much-loved in the north.  I did ask our guide if the people in Ho Chin Minh City (formerly Saigon) felt the same, having suffered defeat at the hands of Ho's army and also having been subjected to more western (i.e. Amnerican) influence.  He reckoned that the majoriy were very pro-Ho, primarily because they were glad to be re-unified.  He did say that there were some who didn't have such a high regard, presumably the dissidents who look for democracy.  Of course, such people often end up in gaol.  On a later occasion the guide said that he thought the vast majority of the population were also happy with the present government.  Some ten or more years ago, the government introduced a lot of reforms under their own version of Perestroika and since that time the lot of the common man has improved enormously.  Given the ever-improving living standards (i.e. they are no longer starving!), it is perhaps not surprising that the government is still popular with the people.  One wonders what will happen in twenty or so years, when there is a much larger middle class?

After the visit to the Mausoleum, we went to the nearby Ho Chi Minh Museum.  This was built by the Russians after Ho's death and is in a typically communistic style.  It's full of pictures of Ho working in the fields, opening irrigation projects, kissing babies, etc., along with seemingly endless sets of documents he'd signed and quotations from his high-flown speeches.  All very boring.

Lunch, though, was delicious - tempura-style vegetables, followed by a very tasty pork and fish stew with rice, washed down by a couple of beers, all for £6.

After lunch, we went to an Ethnological museum which showed fourteen different Vietnamese ethnic groups, including the vastly different houses that they live in.  This was fascinating.  We've all seen pictures of how cyclists here load up their bikes and I include one here from the museum.  It is the bike used by a well-known fisherman and it shows how he loaded his bike with 800 fishing pots, each of which is beautifully made.  You can just about see his saddle.  The sculptures of couples were also rather graphic and particularly appealed to the Vietnamese girls.

Later that day, we visited the Hanoi Hilton, referred to above.  This was the gaol where captured American airman were held during the Vietnam war.   As you would imagine, the conditions were pretty appalling, particulary when it was used by the French, which is what the majority of the exhibit covers.  Only a small part of the gaol is still standing, but it does give a fair idea of what it must have been like.

One of the exhibits was the flying suit of probably the most famous inmate, John McCain.  He was there until the end of the war in 1973.  He returned for a visit a few years ago. One of McCain's fellow inmates, Douglas Petersen, later became the first American ambassador to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

The Hanoi streets are truly incredible, so hectic.  Hanoi has a population of 6m and it seems that almost everyone has a motor scooter.  There are thousands of them on the street, mixed in with the other traffic, but seemingly following few, if any, traffic ruiles.  Crossing the road is an adventure.  You just have to step out into the road and walk, trusting the traffic to stop.  So far, it's worked, and we've not yet lost anyone.  Apparently it's likely to be fatal to step back, as there will almost certainly be a scooter swerving to avoid you.

There are pavements, but these are completely unusable for walking since they are fully occupied by a combination of market traders and parked scooters.  This means you have to walk in the road,  notwithstanding that the traffic may come from either direction, as even one-way signs are ignored.

By law, a motor cycle may only carry two adults and the traffic police will stop any bike with more than this.  However, it is OK to add children and, apparently, some couples take as many as five children with them, squeezed in between the mother and father.  I only saw parents on a scooter with two children, but one of our party saw three.  Our guide said that they had to allow children to be carried as that is the only way they can be taken to school.  

Dinner was again very tasty, but it was absolutely imperative to ignore all health and safety considerations.  There was no choice of food, just a single dish of what they called grilled fish, but which was actually fried catfish.  The scary bit was that the waitresses brought in little burners full of hot coals, topped with frying pans of part-cooked fish.  Sparks were flying everwhere and in the cramped conditions, on rickety tables, it's amazing that none of them ever seems to get tipped over.  The fire risk must be pretty high and then the chance of getting out down the steep stairs unscathd must be virtually zero.  But we made it out safely and the food was great. 

After dinner, we went to a Vietnamese water puppet theatre, not something that I would immediately jump at.  The stage consists of a pool of rather greenish looking water.  The puppeteers stand in the water, behind some sheeting, with the puppets attached to long poles and wiresm, hidden under the water.  The whole thing is very colourful and, in our case, was accompanied by a very good eight piece orchestra, using entrely Vietnamese instruments.  I did enjoy the show, especially the music, although again the seats were made for midget Asians and so it did become rather uncomfortable.

I wrote this blog as I sat on a coach, bound for our homestay visit, to be the subject of a later blog.  It's a good job I wasn't watching the road.  I heard all the honking in the background and just looked up to see a four-wheel drive careering towards us on the wrong side of the road, trucks with their headlights flashing, cars overtaking recklessly, motorbikes swerving all over the road, cyclists and pedestrians meandering everywhere and cars pulling out right in front of us.  And this was on one of the main highways!  It's truly hair-raising, but no one seems to bother.  Our guide said
that, on average, thirty-two people are killed on the roads each day, but I think it must be a lot more than that.

The following day began with a ride on a cyclo, a bit like a rickshaw, only powered by a cyclist.  I wasn't especially looking forward to this, as it seemed a bit too touristy and not the sort of thing I would normally choose.  But it turned out to be a great experience.  We went into the heart of the old town and were right in the midst of all the traffic, with scooters overtaking us on both sides, cutting in front of us and generally creating havoc.  My driver was, perhaps, a bit more cavalier than most.  Whilst I was his passenger, he managed to cause two scooters to crash right next to us, narrowly avoiding me (see picture) and ran over the foot of the girl on another scotter, whilst she was waiting at one of the few sets of traffic lights (where there are lights, they're often ignored).  He also took delight in sweriving from side to side, singing 'whoooa, whoooa, whoooa' and laughing as he went.  All in all, a very interesting start to the day.

A few (to me) interesting facts:

• If you work for the government and don't have two children, you will lose your job.  If you have a third, you will have to pay a fine.
• Education is free, until university.
• There is a lot of corruption in the state-run schools - money buys you the grades you need and access to the best schools, but children of goverment officials get no privileges (not sure I believe that).
• They do eat a certain kind of dog, but it is expnsive.  They also eat moles, rats, silk worms, locusts and grasshoppers.
• Ho Chi Minh wanted to be cremated, but the other officials decided his body had to be retained.
• Vietnam claims to be the second largest coffee exporter in the world.
  
• Our guide is an Arsenal fan.

A Day in Bangkok (Day 5)

I only had one day in Bangkok before I had to fly off to Hanoi and so I decided to take a day tour of the highlights. I ended up with a car, driver and guide, all to myself. The morning was mostly spent looking at various temples. After my experience in Hong Kong, I was slightly wary of spending much time visiting more temples, but I am glad to say it was well worth it. The three temple sites were nothing short of spectacular. They also seemed to be treated with more respect than the temples in Hong Kong. For example, you have to remove shoes before you can enter and photography is prohibited in most of the temple buildings.
The first temple, Wat Trimitr, houses the so called "Golden Buddah". This is fifteen feet tall, weighs five tons and is made of solid gold. It is over 700 years old and was originally covered in plaster, to hide it from Thailand's enemies. It was only in 1955 that it was discovered to be solid gold and was then completely cleaned of its plaster covering, revealing the spleandour we see today.

The Wat Phra Kaew (Grand Palace) was equally impressive. This is not just one building, but a huge complex of dozens of buildings covering sixty acres. The buildings are nearly all covered in gold leaf and/or porcelain. Apparently, the porcelain came from China (no pun intended). Thailand used to export tons of rubies and emeralds to China and in order to give ballast to the ships on the way back and to equalise the balance of trade, they used to import Chinese porcelain. A lot of this was broken on the journey and on some of the buildings you can see where the broken porcelain was used. For example, one wall showed a scene of a ship, with the sea made up of broken bowls and plates in what looked something like Willow Pattern.

The name Bangkok is never used by Thais and, indeed, many people from outside the capital would not even know the name. Roughly translated, Bankok means City of Angels (c.f. Los Angeles). Its real name is actually the longest ciy name in the world: "Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Ayuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Piman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit", which translates to "The city of angels, the great city, the residence of the Emerald Buddha, the impregnable city (of Ayuthaya) of God Indra, the grand capital of the world endowed with nine precious gems, the happy city, abounding in an enormous Royal Palace that resembles the heavenly abode where reigns the reincarnated god, a city given by Indra and built by Vishnukarn".  Of course, in everyday use this is always abbreviated, usually just to Krung Thep.

The Thai alphabet has 44 letters, but makes no use of upper case.  The language is tonal, but only has five vowels, and, like the Chinese languages, slight changes in the way a vowel is pronounced completely change the meaning, so that there may be up to five different words that to us would sound virtually the same. The language itself is rather similar to Lao, the language of Laos, so much so that the people can understand each other.

Thailand was never colonised by any Western nation, although it did come to an accord with the Japanese in WW2 to let them have access through Thailand.  In 19th century, the king was so proud of never having been colonised that he decided to erect a large building in a European style to show that he could do everything the West could do. He lost heart at the end, though, and stuck a Thai roof on the top, with lots of gold, symbolic creatures, etc. (see picture above).  This building is part of the Grand Palace complex.

Thailand did occupy Cambodia for a while and the then king decided he would like to move Ankor Wat to Thailand.   However, he decided it was too large an enterprise and so he build a model of Ankor Wat at the Grand Palace.

95% of the population is Buddhist, with some Hindus, a few Muslims (in the south, towards Malaysia) and a smattering of Christians and other religions.  The people appear to be quite spiritual and have a strong love of their king and royal family.  Even today, all Thai men are expected to join a monastery for three months when they are about twenty for their religious education. Nowadays, with much more widespread schooling, many men will only spend a week or so in the monastery.

There are a lot of street demonstrations going on at present (some of which I saw).  This is in an attempt to re-establish Thaksin Shinawatra as Prime Minister and certainly not to overthrow the king.  Shinawatra, the ex-Prime Minister and ex-Manchester City owner, was ousted in a military coup in 2006 and now lives in self-imposed exile in Dubai after receiving a two-year sentence in his absence for abuse of power.  The  'Red' protestors have vowed to continue protesting until the Government falls.  In the meantime, the Government has strengthened its powers and says it will not give in.  Troops are clearly in evidence on the streets, particularly near the airport.

The city is very lively, espcially at night, although I am sorry to disappoint in saying that I never made it to any of the well-known fleshpots.

A few random facts and observations:

• "The King and I" is banned in Thailand since it doesn't give a good impression of the monarchy.
• It is considered very bad manners to touch someone on the head or hair, but not on the bum. You do see people do the lotus greeting and then lightly stroke each others bottoms.
• There are lots of of fifyish white men walking round holding hands with young Thai girls, looking quite ridiculous. I am sure they would not do that with their wives or girlfriends in England.

Temple in Hong Kong

I forget the name of the temple I visited, but whatever it was called, it was rather bizarre. It was much smaller than I'd expected and rather tatty. The first thing you notice on entering is that it is completely full of smoke. There are literally hundreds of insense sticks burning and every new person who comes into pray takes a large bundle of jossticks and lights them all at once. In addition to this, there are large insense sticks burning all the time. The spirally shaped objects in the photo are actually insense sticks, which burn continually for a month or more. Apparently, the smoke acts as some sort of conduit to the Gods.

The other odd thing is the way tourists are completely intermingled with the supplicants, who, themselves, seem to be totally oblivious of all the tourists crashing in on them and snapping away with their cameras, flash and all. Of course, all the smoke makes taking photographs rather difficult. There weren't masses of locals praying, but there was a steady stream and, in contrast with most churches in the West, of all ages, from about fifteen to eighty.

The picture taken outside the temple shows another odd aspect, a lady just feeding sheets of paper into a furnance outside the temple. It's not a very special looking object, more like a brick-built barbecue you might see in Portugal. Apparently, they buy the special paper and burn it as another way of contacting the Gods.

At present, I'm having trouble getting the pictures to show where I want them, but I'll try to sort this out later.

This is all very different from the very impressive temples I saw in Bangkok, which I'll cover in a later blog.