Good Morning Vietnam! Part I
Blogger seems to be a bit better so I'm going to go ahead and post what I've got so far. Like I said, it's coming in installments.
The first leg of our trip was spent in Ho Chi Minh City. When we arrived at the airport, I was instantly taken back to my childhood -- everything looked as if time had been frozen to the year 1975. I doubt a thing at the airport had changed since the Americans had left. Same conveyor belts, same squirrelly looking tile. It even smelled old. Not rotting or foul, just stale. Like your grandma's bedroom.
Dragging two kids and our luggage, we looked for a sign telling us where to go. And then we found it. "Spiwak, Michael Mr." it read and we knew we'd been found. Our tour guide, Twee, greeted us with a suprising, warm welcome. Suprising not because of its genuine warmth, but because she said, "Welcome to Saigon!" We had it in our heads that this city was now called Ho Chi Minh City. Apparently, no one actually calls it that, except us Americans. Even when the dumb Americans try to get it right, we just get it wrong.
The weather was hot and humid and since we arrived on National Day (the Vietnamese equivalent of Labor Day), our driver had the day off. Twee found us a cab and we piled in and drove to our hotel. The streets were clear, but the sidewalks were nonexistent -- as in there was rubble where there once were sidewalks and remnants of curbs, but no sidewalks at all. It was immediately clear the abject poverty these people live in. I've been to Bangkok. This was worse.
Our hotel was gorgeous, however. We were at the Caravelle, which is directly across from the Opera House. We were told a big celebration and performance was to take place right out in front of the Opera House. As luck would have it, Mike and the kids passed out shortly after dinner and I got to enjoy the show from the comfort of a recliner in our air conditioned room, all by myself. Dragon dancing and pole climbing and other acrobatics, along with fireworks and singing and traditional dance. It was really fantastic.
The next morning, bright and early we met Twee for our trip to the CuChi Tunnels. The drive out was scenic and rural. Exactly how my imagination thought the Vietnamese countryside would look. Rice paddies and water buffalo with peasants in conical hats tending to them both. We drove through tiny towns on their one main road, littered with tiny grocers, dirty children, and old, toothless men. Decorating every storefront, every tin roofed shack, every flag pole was the national flag of Vietnam. The whole country, it seemed, was awash in red cloth with gold stars in celebration of National Day. Patriotism? Obligation? Either way, the people seemed happy and content to enjoy their holiday weekend.
The tunnels were built to house an entire village underground, beneath a US Army camp. The tunnels themselves are tiny. I wish I could post a picture of Mike in one of them, but blogger, for some reason won't allow it. He takes up the entire opening. And these were the tunnels that were widened to accommodate Western tourists. Reilly Kate was the only one brave enough to venture through a tunnel. The government guide scooped her up in his arms and down into the bowels of a Viet Cong headquarters went me wee lass. Needless to say, as her mother, I was terrified. Not only had I just met this man mere minutes before; not only was there a cultural and language barrier; not only was it terrifyingly dark in there... but I was too friggin' big to fit in there and go after her. My BABY was down in a dark tunnel that I couldn't save her from with a complete stranger.
She had a blast. Loved the adventure of it. I aged 15 years and gained a new patch of gray.
Edited to add this picture:
Mike actually attempted to go down one of the widened tunnels but only got so far before he started to feel like he was getting stuck. Now, understandably he is a big guy. But seriously, these tunnels, these WIDENED for FAT WHITE DUDE tunnels are flippin' tiny.
Thank God the next stop was food! We were taken to a tent where they served us some hot tea and tapioca root that we then dipped in a mixture of peanuts, salt, and sugar. No one liked it but me. Of course, it probably tasted like shit, but I'm a stress eater and given the stress I had just lived through, I would have eaten a dirty diaper pie if they'd handed one to me. Everyone else was leaving the tent and I was still shoveling in the tapioca root.
Right after this picture was snapped Roman took a big bite and promptly spit it out. Twee was shocked. She said most westerners like it since it tastes so much like potato. I had to explain to her that while my kids look white, they are very much Asian and definitely prefer rice to potatoes. In fact, the only potatoes my kids will touch are chips and fries. Otherwise, give them rice or they will die.
Oh, and just in case my traumatic experience of watching Reilly Kate descend into the pits of hell wasn't enough, she then started a love affair with millipedes as soon as we exited the food tent. Yes, yes. They are harmless, I know. But I've lived in Hawaii too long and those damn things look enough like centipedes to freak me right the fuck out. Not to mention, they aren't as harmless as we might like to believe. I watch Animal Planet. I know. These buggers emit toxic fluids that can be lethal to people with sensitivities to such things. And after handling them, your hands smell like ass for days. I was none too thrilled with her new found pets.
Not to be outdone by his sister, Roman started messing around with great big rocket looking bullet type things that made me want to cry out. Sure, I know they are dead IN THEORY. But for the love of Peet, people! You just cannot trust ammunition to be dead while you yourself are still living! Read the news! Man gives kids 40 mm shell to play with; 2 killed, 5 hurt I read this just days before we left. So when we posed for this picture and my son picked up that great big ammo looking thing, I'm about ready to give birth. Literally. If you can't tell, that's his pacifer in his mouth. Just imagine him in say... 16 years. Same scene, but a smoke dangling from said mouth. Ugh.
After visiting the souvenir stands and buying us each a bottle of snake wine (yes, the kids each had to have their bottles own snake wine), a VC military hat, and a copy of the propaganda video they show at the beginning of the tour, we headed back into Saigon. We went to China town. Apparently, these people are fully assimilated, but yet ethnically Chinese Vietnamese. There was much talk in the tour books about it having a different feel than the rest of Saigon and the people being different, acting different, looking different. I didn't get any of that. It looked really, much the same. The market we visited wasn't too friendly and the kids weren't comfortable since they were the center of attention there. Hence, we didn't stay and shop. We just toured around. The lady in this picture is selling finches for a Buddhist ritual where the worshipper sets the bird free. The little girl was giving me high pressure to buy one of her conical hats for a buck. She was easily distracted, however, by Reilly Kate. She just couldn't take her eyes off of her. She'd lose track of what she was saying and drift off for a few seconds, lost in staring at little white RK. Then she'd snap out of it and hit me up again for a buck. She followed us across the street and stayed with us while we waited for our driver to come back and pick us up. I never did buy one of those hats. I regret that now.
Our driver raced us over to the Lady Thien Hau Temple. It is an ancient Chinese temple, first built in 940 AD, to honor a woman psychic who protected the people of the sea. There are statues to her and every evening, before they shut down the temple, the "put her to sleep" symbolically, but shutting her off with curtains. This temple was very colorful and filled with worshippers. I didn't intend to take a picture of this man while he was in practice, but it turned out that way. The spirals hanging from the ceiling are coils of incense. Even the kids dug this temple as they had a fish pond with a big ass fish. I mean BIG. I don't even know how the thing lives in that little fish pond. Must be the work of her lady of the sea.
After that, Twee dropped us off at a restaurant near our hotel where we ate mediocre Pho (Vietnamese noodle soup) and delicious spring rolls. By the time we got back to relax, we were exhausted and unable to do little more than peel off our sweaty clothes, take the kids for a swim, and collapse from exhaustion.
And that was our just our first full day in Saigon.
The first leg of our trip was spent in Ho Chi Minh City. When we arrived at the airport, I was instantly taken back to my childhood -- everything looked as if time had been frozen to the year 1975. I doubt a thing at the airport had changed since the Americans had left. Same conveyor belts, same squirrelly looking tile. It even smelled old. Not rotting or foul, just stale. Like your grandma's bedroom.
Dragging two kids and our luggage, we looked for a sign telling us where to go. And then we found it. "Spiwak, Michael Mr." it read and we knew we'd been found. Our tour guide, Twee, greeted us with a suprising, warm welcome. Suprising not because of its genuine warmth, but because she said, "Welcome to Saigon!" We had it in our heads that this city was now called Ho Chi Minh City. Apparently, no one actually calls it that, except us Americans. Even when the dumb Americans try to get it right, we just get it wrong.
The weather was hot and humid and since we arrived on National Day (the Vietnamese equivalent of Labor Day), our driver had the day off. Twee found us a cab and we piled in and drove to our hotel. The streets were clear, but the sidewalks were nonexistent -- as in there was rubble where there once were sidewalks and remnants of curbs, but no sidewalks at all. It was immediately clear the abject poverty these people live in. I've been to Bangkok. This was worse.Our hotel was gorgeous, however. We were at the Caravelle, which is directly across from the Opera House. We were told a big celebration and performance was to take place right out in front of the Opera House. As luck would have it, Mike and the kids passed out shortly after dinner and I got to enjoy the show from the comfort of a recliner in our air conditioned room, all by myself. Dragon dancing and pole climbing and other acrobatics, along with fireworks and singing and traditional dance. It was really fantastic.
The next morning, bright and early we met Twee for our trip to the CuChi Tunnels. The drive out was scenic and rural. Exactly how my imagination thought the Vietnamese countryside would look. Rice paddies and water buffalo with peasants in conical hats tending to them both. We drove through tiny towns on their one main road, littered with tiny grocers, dirty children, and old, toothless men. Decorating every storefront, every tin roofed shack, every flag pole was the national flag of Vietnam. The whole country, it seemed, was awash in red cloth with gold stars in celebration of National Day. Patriotism? Obligation? Either way, the people seemed happy and content to enjoy their holiday weekend.
The tunnels were built to house an entire village underground, beneath a US Army camp. The tunnels themselves are tiny. I wish I could post a picture of Mike in one of them, but blogger, for some reason won't allow it. He takes up the entire opening. And these were the tunnels that were widened to accommodate Western tourists. Reilly Kate was the only one brave enough to venture through a tunnel. The government guide scooped her up in his arms and down into the bowels of a Viet Cong headquarters went me wee lass. Needless to say, as her mother, I was terrified. Not only had I just met this man mere minutes before; not only was there a cultural and language barrier; not only was it terrifyingly dark in there... but I was too friggin' big to fit in there and go after her. My BABY was down in a dark tunnel that I couldn't save her from with a complete stranger.She had a blast. Loved the adventure of it. I aged 15 years and gained a new patch of gray.
Edited to add this picture:
Mike actually attempted to go down one of the widened tunnels but only got so far before he started to feel like he was getting stuck. Now, understandably he is a big guy. But seriously, these tunnels, these WIDENED for FAT WHITE DUDE tunnels are flippin' tiny.
Thank God the next stop was food! We were taken to a tent where they served us some hot tea and tapioca root that we then dipped in a mixture of peanuts, salt, and sugar. No one liked it but me. Of course, it probably tasted like shit, but I'm a stress eater and given the stress I had just lived through, I would have eaten a dirty diaper pie if they'd handed one to me. Everyone else was leaving the tent and I was still shoveling in the tapioca root.Right after this picture was snapped Roman took a big bite and promptly spit it out. Twee was shocked. She said most westerners like it since it tastes so much like potato. I had to explain to her that while my kids look white, they are very much Asian and definitely prefer rice to potatoes. In fact, the only potatoes my kids will touch are chips and fries. Otherwise, give them rice or they will die.
Oh, and just in case my traumatic experience of watching Reilly Kate descend into the pits of hell wasn't enough, she then started a love affair with millipedes as soon as we exited the food tent. Yes, yes. They are harmless, I know. But I've lived in Hawaii too long and those damn things look enough like centipedes to freak me right the fuck out. Not to mention, they aren't as harmless as we might like to believe. I watch Animal Planet. I know. These buggers emit toxic fluids that can be lethal to people with sensitivities to such things. And after handling them, your hands smell like ass for days. I was none too thrilled with her new found pets.
Not to be outdone by his sister, Roman started messing around with great big rocket looking bullet type things that made me want to cry out. Sure, I know they are dead IN THEORY. But for the love of Peet, people! You just cannot trust ammunition to be dead while you yourself are still living! Read the news! Man gives kids 40 mm shell to play with; 2 killed, 5 hurt I read this just days before we left. So when we posed for this picture and my son picked up that great big ammo looking thing, I'm about ready to give birth. Literally. If you can't tell, that's his pacifer in his mouth. Just imagine him in say... 16 years. Same scene, but a smoke dangling from said mouth. Ugh.
After visiting the souvenir stands and buying us each a bottle of snake wine (yes, the kids each had to have their bottles own snake wine), a VC military hat, and a copy of the propaganda video they show at the beginning of the tour, we headed back into Saigon. We went to China town. Apparently, these people are fully assimilated, but yet ethnically Chinese Vietnamese. There was much talk in the tour books about it having a different feel than the rest of Saigon and the people being different, acting different, looking different. I didn't get any of that. It looked really, much the same. The market we visited wasn't too friendly and the kids weren't comfortable since they were the center of attention there. Hence, we didn't stay and shop. We just toured around. The lady in this picture is selling finches for a Buddhist ritual where the worshipper sets the bird free. The little girl was giving me high pressure to buy one of her conical hats for a buck. She was easily distracted, however, by Reilly Kate. She just couldn't take her eyes off of her. She'd lose track of what she was saying and drift off for a few seconds, lost in staring at little white RK. Then she'd snap out of it and hit me up again for a buck. She followed us across the street and stayed with us while we waited for our driver to come back and pick us up. I never did buy one of those hats. I regret that now.
Our driver raced us over to the Lady Thien Hau Temple. It is an ancient Chinese temple, first built in 940 AD, to honor a woman psychic who protected the people of the sea. There are statues to her and every evening, before they shut down the temple, the "put her to sleep" symbolically, but shutting her off with curtains. This temple was very colorful and filled with worshippers. I didn't intend to take a picture of this man while he was in practice, but it turned out that way. The spirals hanging from the ceiling are coils of incense. Even the kids dug this temple as they had a fish pond with a big ass fish. I mean BIG. I don't even know how the thing lives in that little fish pond. Must be the work of her lady of the sea.After that, Twee dropped us off at a restaurant near our hotel where we ate mediocre Pho (Vietnamese noodle soup) and delicious spring rolls. By the time we got back to relax, we were exhausted and unable to do little more than peel off our sweaty clothes, take the kids for a swim, and collapse from exhaustion.
And that was our just our first full day in Saigon.
posted by The Histrionics of a Fat Housewife at 8:08 AM
2 Comments:
Glad you and the fam got to take a family vacation. Yes, children do give you grey hairs. Hope you take more vacations. The kids looked like they were enjoying the visit. (even if Roman spit out the food).lol
love ya
Despite you being stressed taking family trips, consider yourselves very fortunate that you can travel in such a way. Most people will never see any part of Asia.
You probably liked that root concoction not because you're stressed because you're pregnant! With my son I HAD to have Tobasco on everything and with my daughter I craved pickled tomatoes!
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