Experience in Vietnam

Part of the adventure in moving to Australia was to explore more of this side of the world as other than Japan, I haven't been to any other Asian country. I have a pretty long list but candidly, Vietnam wasn't very high on that list. Yet as the Cisco Asia/Greater China/Japan Corporate Communications team was having an off-site in Ho Chi Minh (Oct.19-22), I decided to take advantage of this trip by adding a few days at the front- and back-end of the business trip to explore the country. And happily my friend and Cisco Japan PR colleague Mari agreed to join me for a side-trip to Hanoi.

I arrived on the evening Friday, Oct. 15 via a direct flight from Sydney to Hanoi (via Ho Chi Minh) on Vietnam Airlines. The first morning I took a personal "Glimpse of Hanoi" tour with a guide named Hai. Our first stop was the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. The guide Hai was telling me that typically it's open to visitors in the mornings (not the afternoons as that's when Uncle Ho as he's affectionately called by the Vietnamese is working in the garden) but from October-November it's closed as specialists from Russia are touching up the embalming of Ho Chi Minh so that his body is well preserved for when he comes back sometime in the future and they evidently do a beautiful job as he looks very natural and peaceful.

That's when what the guide Hai was saying actually hit me - the Vietnamese people believe he's going to come back (he died in 1969) - and had I gone in to see the coffin I would have seen Ho Chi Minh through a glass coffin (I was thinking it'd be like seeing Napoleon's coffin where you only see a short wooden coffin).

Here's the changing of the guard in front of Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum:



Then we went to visit the Presidential Palace of this communist run country.



And saw the gardens Ho Chi Minh so enjoyed taking care of.



And here's the one-legged pagoda which looks like a lotus flower also on the grounds of the Presidential Palace.



Our next stop was the Temple of Learning which is dedicated to Confucius. In this FlipVideo you'll see the "stone tablets" that list the names of elite Vietnamese who passed several tests to achieve the level of "doctorate" and went on to become leaders of towns and villages.



Temple of Learning - Part 2



One of the most lasting impressions of Vietnam is the heavy and chaotic traffic - mostly made up of not cars but motorcycles (and I'm not talking about the Harley Davidson-type of motorcycles, but mopeds). In fact families of 4 would be riding on one motorcycle - the father, mother, 4 year old and a baby squashed between everyone. And more often than not - in Hanoi they didn't wear helmets. With Ho Chi Minh being more the commercial center, I not only saw new motorcycles but more people wore helmets. And when there was traffic or a hold up of some sort, these motorcycles would run up on the side walk or even go against traffic to get wherever they were going. And there was no appreciation of lanes - they would just travel on mass. In many of the shuttle vans, cars I rode in when the cars ahead weren't going fast enough, they'd move into oncoming traffic and just before a head on collision would swerve back into their lane. I must admit that one evening I even had a nightmare that a motorcyclist crashed head on into our tour shuttle van and died.

And did I mention that there's a LOT of honking! There were absolutely no turn signals used when passing or turning so everyone just honked when they wanted to pass, when someone was going to slow or no reason at all. You'd have these big trucks honking at motorcycles and from the look on their faces they were totally unfazed - if it were me on a motorcycle and a big truck was honking at me I'd move fast out of the way because in a crash I'd come out the worse.



The last stop was to Turtle Island where I crossed a red bridge to hear the legend of the green lake. Note to Papa: Take a look at the black ornamental metal gong that looks a lot like the one we have at home.



On the walk back to the Hanoi Hilton Opera Hotel I stopped off at the Hanoi Post Office where I purchased postcards and stamps to send to family and friends.



Later that evening, Mari finally arrived from Tokyo and we headed to the Hanoi Night Markets. That evening we sat down with the locals and had "chicken hot pot". Little did we realise that from the moment we ordered they sent a guy to kill the chicken and next thing we knew we heard a "chop, chop" behind us and voila out appeared a plate with the whole chicken - head, feet and all.



On. Sun. Oct. 17 we headed to Halong Bay which after the traffic, noise and pollution of Hanoi was beautiful, serene and like stepping into a Chinese ink painting. There are 1,969 islands in Halong Bay and on the Emotion Junket Boat we sailed through many of these.



Here's a little tour of Emotion Junket:



After lunch on the boat we headed to this cave and it was massive inside. Here we are entering the Caves:



Here we are in the caves:



In the Caves Part 2:



After exploring the cave we went to this other island where we climbed to the top of "Ti Top Mountain" (I call it "Tip Top Mountain" as we climbed to the tip top).



Then I went for a swim in Halong Bay which was quite warm. Here's a FlipVideo that I took and since I have a waterproof case I was able to take it into Halong Bay with me:



At 6:00 a.m. on Monday, Oct. 18 we did tai chi on the top deck of the boat. It was what I call a "Zen moment" where I fully concentrated on breathing in and out, stretching, relaxing and just being in the moment amongst these majestic islands, sailing on an ancient style boat in this place that feels trapped in time with no sign of modern buildings in sight.



After breakfast we headed to a fishing village where Mari and I rented a kayak and while everyone else was rowed around we kayaked ourselves into this Blue Lagoon-type area and around a fishing village.



There is actually fish in a fishing village:



On our last night in Hanoi, we went to see the Hanoi Water Puppet Show.



The morning of our departure to Ho Chi Minh (in the past it was known as Saigon) I took a run around Hoan Kien Lake. It was a 1.5 K around and I was going to take a second lap but the humidity and the bad polluted air was making it tremendously hard to take a full breadth so I passed and just headed back to the hotel.



We arrived in Ho Chi Minh on Tues. Oct. 19 and the team off-site started with an informal dinner that night and over the next two days. It was a great opportunity to meet many of the colleagues I've never met before and those that I hadn't seen in a very long time. There were mostly workshops and discussions so it was a very productive session. On the afternoon of Thurs. Oct. 21 we had a team-building exercise that took us on an "Amazing Race-like" jaunt around Ho Chi Minh. I led "Team We Rock 'n Roll" and we came in second place but won most spirited for our creativity and presentation.

That last evening we went to Cham Charm Restaurant which was this amazing buffet restaurant in what was like a museum.



On Friday, Oct. 22 those of us that were staying through the weekend went to the Ben Tahn Market for some shopping. Here's a Flip Video of me purchasing these flip flops for myself and my nieces.



On the way back from the markets we took a mini-bicycle tour of Ho Chi Minh.



In the afternoon, we went to a Vietnamese Spa. I paid about US$75 for a 70 minute massage and a manicure and pedicure. The massage was unusual in that rather than using a typical massage table, they use a low twin-sized bed. And the masseuse was a tiny Vietnamese woman who got up on the table to contort and twist my arms and legs in a few different positions while putting her foot in my back. It was uncomfortable and I felt like I'd suddenly found myself in a acrobatic training camp for Cirque du Soleil. Before it went too much further and because I'm definitely not as flexible as an acrobat, I asked her to stop.

On. Sat., Oct. 23 we took a tour to this religious sect called "Dai Dao":



Then we ultimately arrived at the Cuchi Tunnels located about 35 km outside of Ho Chi Minh. They are an immense network of connecting underground tunnels that were the location of several military campaigns during the Vietnam War, and were the Viet Cong's base of operations for the Tết Offensive in 1968.

I'd never truly understood the meaning of a guerrilla war, but visiting the Cuchi Tunnels gave me a glimpse of what American soldiers were confronted with in the Vietnam War (or as the Vietnamese call it - the American War). I found the tunnels and the traps the Vietnamese used to be ingenious and very simple yet vicious in the damage they inflicted. The jungles were hot and humid and it was pretty unbearable in the tunnels - very tight, pitch black, damp and hard to breath.

When we first arrived, we were shown a overview video from 1969 that many times referred to the "crazy, devil, bad Americans attacking the peaceful, tranquil Vietnamese villagers". It was intimidating to watch the video surrounded by Vietnamese soldiers who also demonstrated entering the tunnel entries and the dozen of traps that were used.



Here are demonstrations of the traps they made by hand:



Here's the soldier as well as me and my work colleagues Terry Anderson and Peter Witts entering the tunnels through this very small entry hole.

Vietnamese soldier's demonstration:



Terry enters the tunnel:



My boss Peter enters the tunnel:



And finally, here I am entering the tunnel:



Here's more on how they hid air holes in termite holes and the larger entry ways if you have to carry in guns and food:



There was also the option to purchase a round of 10 bullets to fire in the firing range (I decided not to). My boss Peter, however, wanted to fire an AK-47 as it's illegal to do so in Australia and asked me to take a FlipVideo of him shooting the AK-47s. Since only shooters were allowed into the shooting range (where they were provided with ear protections) I took this FlipVideo from behind and as you'll hear in the Flip, the sound for Peter firing the AK-47 was incredibly, ear-splittingly loud!



Near the end of the tour, we went into the tunnels ourselves. The first one was 30 meters and as you'll see it's very, very dark but you'll hear my narrative as we walked through the tunnel.



The second tunnel was 20 meters but had steps that went up and down (at one point I bump into Supriya who was ahead of me and had abruptly stopped to climb up some steps) and then just before we exited the tunnel there was a turn of the tunnel. The guide played a trick on me and jumped out from around the corner, totally catching me off guard (and yes, I scream in surprise as well). I'm glad I was able to give everyone a good laugh at my expense :)



Later that evening we headed back to the markets and Supriya had the option of purchasing the Weasel Coffee we'd heard about earlier from the tour guide (she politely declined). As an aside, I did very much enjoy the filtered Vietnamese coffee with the sweet condensed milk.



On Sun. Oct. 24, Terry, Veronica and I went on a private tour of the Mekong Delta. It was a cultural tour as well. When we arrived at the Mekong Delta we took a boat to the island where we had honey tea a few short meters from a honey bee hive. We also had other dried fruits as a snack. What was amazing is that with so many bees we didn't get stung!



Next we visited a coconut candy making shop. Check out the fast-wrapper lady packaging these candies!



We were also presented with local fruits, singing and music in the village alongside the Mekong Delta.



Then we jumped into these boats and were rowed along the Mekong Delta back to our boat for a refreshing coconut drink.



In the last afternoon in Vietnam, I took the opportunity to goto the Independence Palace which my team didn't get a chance to check out in the "Amazing Race" as it had already closed.



And then had my last Vietnamese coffee outside the American Embassy which is the location (although since rebuilt) where the Broadway Musical Miss Saigon took place.