My visit to Vietnam

I have now been in Vietnam for 26 days and will be leaving next Monday to fly to Bangkok, where I spend a week before flying back to Sydney.

I cannot say that my visit to Vietnam has been a walk in the park! There have been great experiences but also many challenging ones along the way.

The first challenge for me was that I had not organised my Visa to visit Vietnam with sufficient time. I did not realise that visitors cannot apply for a visa at the airport upon arrival. Airlines will not let you board a plane to Vietnam from Australia unless you are in possession of the invitation letter which is the first stage of the Visa. I suppose part of me had been resisting getting the Visa because it costs about $AUD50. I really had also thought that applying for a Visa online would be a 10-minute job. Little did I know that the Vietnam office for assessing and approving visas is only open from Monday to Friday. So, when I applied on the Saturday before my Sunday flight, I received an email telling me that if I could wait for the Visa until Monday it would be processed then. But I needed it because my flight was the next day Sunday. Therefore, having already bought the flight ticket, I really had no other option but to pay for a fast track Visa. I think that cost about $AUD 200! So, we live and learn, don’t we?!

I had been wanting to visit Vietnam for a long time because it looked so beautiful and also, I was interested in its history and politics. I knew a fair bit about Vietnam’s history in the war against the United States and also how Vietnam had freed Cambodia or Kampuchea from the genocidal Khmer Rouge. But I actually didn’t know much about modern day Vietnam other than that it still calls itself socialist but is engaged in lots of business and capitalism similar to China.

When I arrived at Ho Chi Minh City airport, the taxi was organised for me by a group of people working at the airport who determined what the price would be. It was about $10 and that seemed fine. The driver did not speak much English, just a little bit. As the plane had been flying in to land at Ho Chi Minh City, I had noticed that we were travelling over urban areas for many minutes. I had thought at the time that Ho Chi Minh City must be quite big. At that stage, I had not done any research on modern day Vietnam or its population. When I asked the taxi driver how many people lived in Ho Chi Minh City, he said about 1 million. I thought that he might be wrong because I had the impression that the city must be quite big. So later when I Wikipedia-ed, I discovered the city was more like 10 million. I also discovered that Hanoi was similar. And there are more than 90 million people in Vietnam. There are over 45 million motorbikes in the country as well. This topic I will come to shortly.

When I travel, I often try to keep things within budget. Doing that, makes me feel ok about just working half the year teaching in Sydney. If I am staying in wealthier countries with expensive hotels, I will usually stay in a dorm room. But when I am travelling in poorer countries where hotels are cheaper, I prefer to have my own space. Sometimes the hotel location is not in the tourist areas, but I usually still find somewhere that is not too far away. The hotel or homestay that I had found in Ho Chi Minh City was a great spot in terms of closeness to the city. The Hotel was on the south side of the river in an area that was mainly just Vietnamese. I did see quite a few tourists in Ho Chi Minh City at the central market & the museums. But almost wherever I went other than that, everyone was Vietnamese.

So, the first night in Ho Chi Minh City, I was checked into my hotel room, pleased to discover the air-conditioner worked fine and that there was a little fridge. The shared bathroom was right next door and only used by one other guest. I had just been on an eight-hour flight, it was about 10pm and I was hungry. So, I set off in the local neighbourhood looking for something to eat. As I walked the streets, I got to notice that there was much rubbish lying around and because it was late at night, there were many rats. Those animals kind of freak me out and of course anyone who knows some history, knows that they carry disease. I was not impressed! But I found somewhere to get some noodle soup and I also found a convenience store where I was able to get water and some other things. That night seeing all the rats and the mess on the streets, I decided that I would enjoy Ho Chi Minh City by day, and enjoy doing things in my hotel room in the evening!

My visits to museums was a big part of my time in Ho Chi Minh. Being such a big city, it was very easy to get lost and lose direction, so that was stressful, and combined with the heat and all the motorbikes everywhere, the first week I got very annoyed at times. But I did find a nice park in the city, and that became my place of relaxation most days where I would sit and drink my iced coffee.

While I was in Ho Chi Minh City, I visited many museums. The war museum is shocking and dramatic. It documents the war from the perspective of the Vietnamese, but it also includes a lot of records of countries that supported Vietnam and the various movements around the world that opposed the war. There are sections detailing the various stories of the war including the impact on children and local people. I imagine for many Vietnamese who are quite nationalistic, seeing the displays must make them feel negative towards Westerners. Hopefully they see why war is such a terrible thing and how it causes damage in different ways to everyone. I think for the Westerners who visit the museum, you can’t help but feel some kind of shame. But at the same time, the detailed displays point out very clearly that not all people or countries were participating in or supporting the war. There are sections showing the children born after the war with various deformities. There is also much detail about different people who were involved in war protest including Kent State & Alice Herz. She was one of the protestors who had self immolated in Detroit. There was also a section of the girl burnt by napalm which was photographed & shown around the world, and lead to many people turning against the war. The amazing thing about the internet being around today is that you can go home or back to your hotel & google these topics to learn more like who they were & what happened to them. I am just old enough to remember a bit of that terrible war. And I remember seeing some of the news at the time. I had not known that Alice Herz who killed herself in protest against the war was Jewish & fled Nazi Germany in the 1930s along with her daughter. For her, the action of death was what she saw as her last possible action to end the war. Tragic as her action & sacrifice was, I do honour her and what she did in her love for humanity.

One of the images that always stuck in my mind was the scene of Vietnamese trying to get into the US embassy compound in 1975 as the US were leaving. These people were desperate. They had been allied and loyal to the Americans and knew that when Vietnam was one, they would be dealt with. So, one day in the heat, taking cover in the shady parks and other places I could find, and armed always with iced coffees, I headed over to the US embassy. It is heavily fortified. Having returned to Vietnam in the early 1990’s the US knows that their presence in Vietnam will not be welcomed by all. But of course, since September 11, security has been beefed up in all such locations. I did a bit of walking that day, finding another beautiful temple near a zoo by the Saigon River. When I found the US embassy it was high walled with nothing to see, but many street cameras, and no photos in the area permitted. But for me there was something about being in the area, where all that anguish & drama had played out in another time, a time when I was just a child.

The other museums that I visited were the Independence Palace built in the 1960s. The style of architecture both inside the building and its structure and its furniture make it a fantastic historical record of that time, as well as a record with various displays, of the history of Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s during the war.

Three other museums I visited was the city Museum which has a great collection of information and memorabilia upstairs detailing the campaign by the North Vietnamese to join South Vietnam with them; another museum is dedicated to Ho Chi Minh and had some great collections of things to do with him and his family, as well as details about his life; and a smaller museum dedicated to the life of another former President who had been held in detention during the time of French colonial rule.

The motorbikes! Prior to arriving as I said, I had not appreciated how big the population of Vietnam was. I had heard mention vaguely about motorbikes and Westerners having accidents, but I did not realise throughout the country there are 45 million motorbikes. People talk about pollution from the motorbikes, but I actually thought most motorbikes were in good running order, with very few emitting exhaust. I have heard mention that the government wants to get rid of motorbikes throughout the country, but the way I see it is that 45 million motorbikes means 45 million less cars on the road. The problem lies not with all the motorbikes, but with the lack of regulation in their conduct. Motorbikes especially in Ho Chi Minh will not stop for pedestrians. Many will not stop for red lights, and certainly no vehicle stops at a traffic crossing for pedestrians. One day as I was trying to cross a crossing even with a green pedestrian light giving me the right of way, I had 30 motorbikes heading down on me. By this point, I was really over the whole lack of courtesy and respect. And I stood there in the middle of the crossing, and yelled at them in my English. They actually did stop 😊 However, you can’t do that all the time. What you end up having to do, is weave between the traffic. And many is a time where you close your eyes thinking a bike is about to hit you, as many are travelling very fast as well. It’s a terrible situation for pedestrians, and it’s a terrible situation for tourists. Until this issue is resolved, I really can’t see tourism in a mainstream way working in Vietnam. You will get the backpackers. Young people with a bit of daring who are willing to put themselves in risky situations. But even they will get stressed and irritated. And you get the wealthy high-end tourists who will never walk on footpaths. But for the average tourist who wants to be able to walk around the city and explore, Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi and other cities are not good cities for this. What tends to happen in Vietnam that I have seen is that some tourists hire motorbikes, but then a good number of them end up in accidents. In fact, some travel insurance policies are now excluding renting motorbikes in Vietnam. So, the option becomes to travel in a rented car or a taxi and although they are cheaper in Vietnam, they still will cost money if you use them all the time. And anyway, when I am travelling, I like being able to explore cities on foot, which I continued to do, but it did involve many situations that felt risky. The other thing that I see as an issue with motorbikes in Vietnam, is that motorbikes take up the footpath. People will park their motorbike with the front wheel by the shop window and the back wheel extending out to the edge of the footpath. Between shops using the area to conduct business and dozens & dozens of bikes all over the footpaths, pedestrians have to walk in the dirty gutters. It’s a terrible situation. Vietnam not surprisingly, has one of the lowest counts for walking of all nations in the world. People learn that it is just safer to get on a motorbike than to try walking. To me, I see it is lack of education of considering others. I believe in societies where all are taken care of. I was told that the elderly do not go out much because the motorbike situation makes it unsafe for them. And the elderly are the ones who fought for independence for Vietnam.

In terms of consideration of others, I think I would classify Vietnam’s as the worst country I have visited. No one holds doors open for each other. It’s not just a thing about Westerners; it’s a way of how everyone seems to treat each other with very little care. I call it dog eat dog and I see it as a thing common in certain Asian cultures. I think some countries that have lived with some form of socialism with state control regulation and suppression of human rights, have made for hard lives with poverty and harshness and it creates a toughness & brutality. But I think that this way of operating in Vietnam has been like this for a long time, long before the revolution led by Ho Chi Minh. Except for the people working in the tourist areas who are trained in speaking English and Western values (and that can be even limited in many tourist places) there seems to be very little regard for others. I found that friendship was not easy to achieve with many people in Vietnam. Many was a time where I would smile and get no smile back. Or a nonresponse in many shops when you say thank you and you certainly don’t hear it very often from staff working in shops. There have been lots of times where I talk to people and they do not respond, I suspect this is all the legacy of the war with the west too. I suspect there is a dislike of foreigners. And countries with big populations can become a bit closed.

I think Ho Chi Minh City is a little bit friendlier than the north. Someone said it was probably because people don’t understand English, but I have been in many countries now particularly Dominican Republic, Morocco & Thailand all nations where most people are poor & many is a time in those countries where I meet people who do not speak English. But smiles are universal and usually reciprocated in those places. But it is true that English was spoken by people in Saigon during the war, while Hanoi went from French back to Vietnamese.

Until I came to Vietnam, I had always thought the war was about socialism vs capitalism or Communism vs freedom as the US often tried to put it. But what I learnt was that it was about independence. As I learnt at the war museum in Hanoi, Vietnam has a long history of invasion & battles for it’s freedom from outside domination. When the French got out of Vietnam, they had held on for quite a while after WW2, before they saw the writing on the wall. It was so clear by that stage that Vietnam wanted no more control or interference from foreign powers. It had been a long struggle to get the French to leave. The entrance of the US into a campaign in Vietnam to stop the spread of Communism, was failed from the beginning.

After 10 days in Ho Chi Minh, I decided I wanted to see more of the country & had learnt just how big Vietnam is. To go to Hanoi by bus would take 3 days so I flew. I also wanted to visit Ha Long Bay, but to see Hanoi interested me as well. I flew with JetStar Pacific. I had flown up from Australia with JetStar so travelling within the country with JetStar was an interesting idea given it is a wing of the Australian company. I think there was one other westerner on the flight. Ticket prices were fairly good. I found a good place in Hanoi, near Ho Chi Minh’s museum & mausoleum. That museum is fantastic with lots of sections on modernism and the spread of new ideas as an internationalist movement. Along with all the socialist propaganda art in the streets, museums like this help to clarify and promote the ideas of socialism, far more so than the divide that is everywhere to be seen between rich & poor. In Hanoi many fancy hotels are located in the tourist area with very expensive prices catering especially to the new rich Chinese & Koreans.

It gets light very early in Vietnam around 5am and with the hot humid days hitting around 40, I found it difficult to sleep at night even with air conditioning. One night in Hanoi, I only slept one or two hours. I also felt energised in Hanoi too. So, one morning I set off walking to a park I had located as near where I was staying. I always studied up on google maps a lot because I found that so many people in Hanoi outside of the tourist area, would not be able to speak English, but also that many people were unfriendly. So, I became very independent. If people were friendly, and there were a few people that were super friendly, that was fantastic, but it certainly was not common. In fact, two or three local places where I went to get my food in Hanoi were all totally no English communication & very unengaging. But over the week or so I conducted my experiments to break the ice. It was an interesting experiment for me too, to be ok if people were friendly or not friendly. Most of the time, I have got to a point where it does not worry me as much, where as earlier in Vietnam, I would get upset that many people would not want to engage even in exchanging a smile. By the time I was leaving Hanoi, people who worked in those shops were much friendlier, so they had got used to me. I think there has been a lot of stories about westerners being bad people.

I am guessing that people who only stay around the tourist zones will return from Vietnam and say how friendly the people are, because often that is very true. But leave the tourist zone, and it is something different.

Anyway, I headed off to this park and at 6.30am found it full of Vietnamese, some meditating, some doing yoga, Thai Chi, other exercises, dancing, walking, sitting & chatting. I then continued on to a lovely temple and a famous pagoda, then found a great place for food where the food was great and the people very friendly.

My favourite place in Hanoi is the lake by the tourist area. It has many seating areas and shade with beautiful trees; a great place to sit & drink my iced coffee. A lot of people try to get money from tourists there with selling overpriced stuff, but also many younger Vietnamese will come there to talk & practice their English. Last Saturday I was sitting there and got swooped upon by a group of 10 young Vietnamese students! They had travelled 30 minutes from where they live to find a tourist to practice their English. And that’s the side to Vietnam that you just gotta love. There is determination & dedication and desire to work & improve.

Now I am staying on an island called Bat Ca in Ha Long Bay. The scenery is very beautiful. I came from Hanoi on Monday on a tour which included a boat trip. I stayed in Ha Long City on Monday night & Tuesday, and then Wednesday came to this island. Not much English spoken here. Shops do not list prices and most things are far more expensive than places like Hanoi. It is very hot here now. I would have maybe gone for a climb and walk of the island, but the Vietnamese I have chatted with here agree that anyone going out doing lots of exercise here at the moment are unwise. Sounds like January & February is the time for that.

Tomorrow I head for Hai Phong City and will stay there 2 nights then Monday I fly to Bangkok. I’m looking forward to Bangkok as it is a place I have stayed twice now & there is lots that I am familiar with now & places that I will enjoy visiting.

But Asia is hot at this time of year. Staying in places with an air conditioner is essential. And moving from one air-conditioned location to another is how a lot of people operate, with short periods in the heat, at least until you adapt to it.

While I have been in Vietnam, there have been some interesting developments in terms of environmental awareness and action & education. The Prime Minister has made announcements about Vietnam’s problems with permanent plastic pollution in the ocean. Vietnam is one of Asia’s 5 worst polluters. And so, I have been posting lots of information on a facebook environment page for issues in the developing world that I manage as well as into a beyond plastics group. So, I have been busy with that as well as promoting ideas about solutions for the developing world in terms of poverty and promoting ideas about democratic socialism for the world.

When I leave Vietnam next Monday, I will not be disappointed to go. I have learnt lots. I have seen some good things, but I have not been in a friendly place really. I could return here. I could even work here. But I get this feeling of indifference from so many & it ends up feeling like I am not really welcome. So, I prefer to be in my own countries or other ones where friendship is more easily exchanged. As I said, I do believe that there is a harshness to this culture which goes back hundreds of years. The tough survive. And western privilege is living in places where we do not feel we have to be tough like that. And the war and isolation has got to have left a big divide. And yes, I did meet some people who were very friendly, but even those ones did not feel enduring. It’s a country with lots of environmental issues to resolve, but a feeling that westerners are not really wanted. But that they will do that work themselves, or they won’t. Independent.

An interesting place to visit, and certainly some beautiful places to see, but without the feeling of engagement, the desire to return is diminished. And the great thing is that I am ok with that 😊 Because there are so many great places to visit. And I do believe that the damage done by the west has not been forgotten. Even if you protested the war, in the minds of many here you are still part of that group that waged war, killed many of the population & all that trauma is not going to be forgotten overnight. In fact, it leaves a legacy of division & feeling different. And maybe my impressions & thoughts are invalid or incorrect, but that is how it looks to me.