Vietnam Take Two

I'm so behind on my blog! It really is harder than I thought it would be on the road to keep up - we're so busy and when I do have time online I am doing accounts or just trying to keep up with email. My apologies! Anyway, I finished my first trip successfully, and I'm now in recovery mode in Bangkok. I'm leaving tonight on an overnight bus to Chiang Mai for some peace, quiet, yoga and trekking. Then my next trip starts in a week!

Some recaps on Vietnam-

My first time through Vietnam, I really felt a love/hate-ness for the place. It's overwhelming, the traffic is insane, just walking down the sidewalk is an effort in and of itself, it's incredibly communist-feeling and it's just jarring compared to it's laid-back neighbors. That said, I knew there was something I was missing, and I resolved to keep my mind open one the next trip and try to see past the tough outer layer. And I am so glad I did.

I LOVE Vietnam. It's still completely insane, especially the cities, but this time around, I did see what I had been missing. I had my bearings a bit more in Hanoi and was actually able to walk through the old town without getting totally lost and practically run over, the weather was cool which helps curb the frenetic energy in general, and I was able to see what a cool town it is. Our second night there, a few members of our group were leaving us, and we had a farewell dinner and drinks at a small restaurant down an alley in the old quarter. Amazing food, as usual, then we headed up the street to a little bar. The bartender was playing music by request and when one of the guys in the group, an English guy named Steve, requested the Stone Roses, the bartender darted out the door, down the street, to a little shop that sold burned CDS and DVDs and bought three albums, just to be able to play the one song Steve wanted to hear. It's these encounters that happen so often that make me love that place. That the people are so up for a good time and aiming to please that he would run down the street in the rain to get some random album by a random (albeit beloved in the UK) band for a random patron is amazing to me.

The highlight, or one of them, may have been Hue. I knew I liked the town the most on my initial trip, but on this one, we took a guided motorbike tour all throughout the town, in through the villages, out into the countryside. Don't worry - we had helmets and the drivers are excellent, and Hue is nothing compared to Hanoi traffic wise. At one point, riding through the tiny alleyways of the small villages, the kids standing out to yell "Hello!" and give high fives, the sun beginning to set over the rice fields, I almost started to cry. It must have been the wind in my hair, or the fact that it was just so damn fun, but I was almost completely overcome by emotion. And my group must have been, too. One woman, Gail, hugged me afterwards, saying that it made her feel young again. Ha. I know what she means...

The one place I don't care to revisit again, and I will stay outside next time, is Cu Chi Tunnels. You may recall from my former blog that this is a sort of propaganda-filled museum depicting life for the Viet Cong who had infiltrated the south to fight the Americans during the war by building tunnels and setting booby traps. I went through for a second time with my group, but rather than being moved as I was before, I was just pretty disgusted. It's beyond propaganda. It's so over the top it's almost funny, except it's not. What made me feel better, though, was our guide, who was excellent. While we were walking through, he had a pretty scripted explanation for everything, and he seemed impatient and annoyed with my group who was too turned off to really listen closely. But back on the bus, in the safety of the closed quarters, we got a different story out of him. He is a government employee, and he cannot dissent from what he is told to say as a guide. However, he admitted to the place being a tool of propaganda still. In fact, referring to a large US tank that stands on display with a sign explaining that the tank was gunned down by VC and captured thanks to the cunning fighting tactics of the Cu Chi Village people, the real story, our guide said, was that the tank was actually left there when the Americans left Vietnam, and the VC used it as their own tank to fight rebel South Vietnamese. The placard at the site is a complete falsification. Anyway, it took guts for him to admit that, and it became clear that although it's still a communist state, the people don't necessarily fall in line 100 percent...

In general I just felt like all of my initial impressions and feelings along the way were different the second time around. Which just goes to show how much I still have to learn over here. The word complex doesn't begin to cover it. I have felt scared, I have felt heartbroken, I have felt elated and welcomed and saddened and frustrated, all in the course of a few weeks. And this is just the beginning!

Cambodia, coming up...