Sorry folks we lost the ability to log into Slash dot while we were in Vietnam. The log was originally posted January 6, 2003.

My Son Ruins
We went yesterday to see the great Champa Hoyland in My Son. The Champa were an Indian empire that ruled Central Vietnam between the2nd and 15th centuries. There are still Champa descendantspracticing their culture in Vietnam. This is the same empire that built Ankor Wat in Cambodia. My Son was the seat of their religious holyland, and the largest continously developed region in all of South East Asia. The Champa built temples there between the 4th and 13th centuries.

My Son was badly bombed by the Americans in the American War and pillaged by the Americans, Vietnamese, Chinese and Khmer for sculptures and valuable items. Today most of the temples are toppled and overrun with lichen and plants. However, this gives it a more romantic look, of a "lost civilization". The ruins are worth seeing, apparently, they had a complex ritualized religion with many water rituals based around fertility and animals. Even the pillaged ruins show complex sculptures of elephants, griffins, cows, the god Shiva and many goddesses. The ruins are surround by beautiful misty mountains and clear streams. If you go with a tour, take a bus back, not a boat.

A typical family
I would remiss in my writing if I did not say something about my great aunt Lan's wonderful hospitality to us and state in which they are living. My cousin Phoung is the only wage earner in the family, supporting 5 people on a salary of $50/month. She teaches English for a local high school and tutors private pupils. Her salary now is considered better than average for a Vietnamese person. The five members of her family live in older house in Dalat built in the 1950s with a concrete base and one main room with 3 much smaller rooms. The main room serves at their kitchen, dining room and living room. Their most precious posessions are a tv and an old Honda motorbike. My cousin is divorced and looking for an American citizen who would bring her to America where she believes that life would be better. She asked me to help with this.

Yet, the family paid me every hospitality when we came to visit: they set us up in a hotel that they knew; they came to pick me up every morning and take me out to breakfast at one of the restaurants frequented by locals; they set me up with a local tourist taxi driver that drove us around Dalat; and insisted that we eat every evening meal with them. They cooked 3 courses for us every evening, eventhough I told them that we couldn't eat so much, and that they didn't have to bother. My aunt and cousin were very kind and Jeffrey and I are thinking of ways to get my cousin to America.

One the road to Nha Trang

We took a taxi from Dailat to Nha Trang, a five hour ride (not as bad as it sounds, especially considering that the alternative was to fly back to HCMC and then fly from there to Nha Trang). We stopped at two Cham towers along the way, one of which was the Polkongari tower outside of Phan Rang. The other Cham tower we saw was in amongst some rice fields on the way to Nha Trang. The towers were more overgrown than Polkongari, but had somewhat better preservation of some intricate carvings in the bricks. Very impressive. A suitably foreign experience.

Nha Trang itself is much like any other beach resort town (think Ocean City) except for the nearly constant 'town broadcast' blaring from speakers lining the beach. At least the broadcast shuts down between the hours of 10:00 pm and 6:00 am.

The beach was not so great, but the surf and the view were fabulous. Once the sun went down you could see a nearly continuous line of lights along the horizon, which turned out to be squid boats out at sea (they are not visible from the shore when the sun is up, only their light can be seen at night. A cyclo driver told me that they were quite large boats).

We only had one day in Nha Trang, early the next morning we caught a flight to Danang.

Three Days in Hoi An

We took a taxi directly from Danang to Hoi An, a relatively short ride. Danang didn't look like anything much: a damp, muddy, industrial town. I suspect there is some part of Danang that is much nicer, but we didn't drive through it. Hoi An, however, is very charming. Much of the town is unchanged from its appearance 200 years ago. There is even an active restoration/conservation movement which helps a lot.

From Hoi An we arranged a tour of a major Cham site in My Son. There was much more to this site than the earlier two, but the level of preservation seemed, in many ways, worse. Still, very impressive, and it gave a much more tangible impression of age (much like the step pyramids in the rain forests of central america).

We took one day off to rest, since we've been feeling a bit exhausted from all the travel, and just bummed around Hoi An for a day. As I said, the town is very charming, but the high pressure sails tactics of both local merchants and wandering children, is a bit wearing.

Today we called Lina's grand-uncle and he took us on a custom tour of Hoi An, both to meet some of Lina's family (specifically her grand-aunt) and to see some points of particular interest to a Tong descendant (her grand-father's and great-great-grand-father's houses, one of which is a famous tourist attraction: the Tran family house and chapel). I must admit that was very impressed.

minor gripe

One or two minor anoyances: first, net access in Vietnam tends to suck, and by "suck" I mean "through a very small straw." With one exception (a demo booth for DSL and ISDN connections at a park/market in HCMC) we have seen very slow and unreliable net access. Second, we have now seen some of the less than admirable side of communism. The hotel in Nha Trang had some problems that would simple not be tolerated back home. All small details, but suggesting a larger pattern: service in the hotel restaurant was slow to glacial, the room featured a number electrical outlets that flat out didn't work, and the alleged "satalite TV" was a handfull of vietnamese channels accompanied by ESPN and MTV. We are still feeling news deprived.

This is Lina's entry
We met my Ong Chu (Great uncle) Tran today at the post office. He took us to see my (Great aunt) Co Sau and on a walking tour of Hoi An. Co Sau has alzheimers and does not remember me, but asked about Grandma. Ong Chu Tran is the picture of health and bicycles around Hoi an even though he is now 70 years old. He talked about my grandfather foundly. He wants my aunt to come to Hoi An with Sam. He says if the family comes back he will show them a complete tour of the central region. He is retired and spends his time making handicrafts, he gave us a carving of mandarin chinese man as a souvenir of him.

He is confused about the money we have though. Moms instructions were to give him $30 and Co Sau $50. I gave him $50 and Co Sau $50. He was expecting $500 from me. He said mom told him that she was sending $500 as a gift to the temple. Mom, if you are sending him $500 through someone else? Please write him and tell him, as I have given out the rest of the money to the other relatives.

Hoi An
Hoi An is so special. It was one of the major ports on the Silk Road and the entrance to IndoChina between the 13th and 19th centuries. Traders from Portugal, Holland, China, Japan, India and Malaysia frequented this port. The Dutch, Chinese, and Japanese especially, developed trading centers in the city and were permitted by the Nguyen Lords who ruled Vietnam to establish centers in town, live and marry here. Apparently, my great great grandfather was a sucessful Cochine Chinese trader here and settled and married a Vietnamese woman. Today the house where he lived is a major tourist attraction and has been kept exactly as it was in the 1800s. My great uncle took me to see it and talk to my cousin who lives there and keeps up the house. It's still very ornate. The entire town is in the process of restoring the older houses to the state that they were in at the height of Hoi An trading boom in the 1700s.

We also took pictures of the house in Hoi An that my grandparents used to live. My uncle tells me that on the 14th of every month the entire town returns to living life as they did in the Cochine era, they stop riding motorbikes, watching television, and dress up in old fashion Chinese attire and play Chinese games. Too bad we won't be here to see it.

Architecture in Hoi An
Since Hoi An is on the Perfume river and susceptible to flooding, the older Chinese houses were built with 2-3 levels and a large balcony in the center of the house. When it flooded, the trading boats could sail in on the lower floor, a basker could be lowered down to first floor with a rope and goods could be hoisted up with a rope.

Every where we see old fashioned Chinese murals of sea faring vessels and Sea faries. This is perhaps one of the most ornate cities in Hoi An. The locals still remember my grandfather Tong.

Internet service in Dalat is brain-numbingly slow. It's taken me half an hour to get to this page and I am paying by the hour so I will have to condense.

Last 2 days in Saigon
Zoo/Bontanical Gardens
We went to the Botanical gardens and the Zoo. The place is designed as a park to interact with plants and animals in a fantastical theme. For example you can go to dragonland and view reptiles/waterlilies/ topiary.

Vietnam History Musuem
I learned that there have been Vietnamese peoples living in Vietnam for over 5,000 years. There are more 53 ethnic minorities in Vietnam with different cultures, traditions and their languages span 7 separate language families. This museum was built like a Chinese Temple and used principles of ventilation and balance to keep the rooms and exhibits cool even in the heat of the Saigon afternoon (90 degrees F)

Ben Thanh Market in Saigon
We heard that you can get anything you want in Ben Thanh market. The place is like a large wall-to-wall warehouse of goods with just small narrow walkways between them for one(very skinny) person to walk through. My aunt Be said that there are 5 times as many goods there as there were when I was a child and she often gets lost.
I can see why you can't seen the signs dividing the good departs because of the mile-high stack of goods.

Mekong Delta
We toured the Mekong Delta for 2 days and slept overnight in a simple house on stilts. There is so much serenity there. I am reminded of the Yeats poem "Lake Isle of Innisfree". Time seems dripping slow there like honey from the bees. Life is easy there everywhere you go you can pick logan, rose apples, oranges from the trees. The people have been ingenious for using the river for everything bathing, washing and industry. We watched the making of tiles and rice crafts. It's amazing what still done by hand in the Mekong because labor is cheap. You might say that the people there are poor because the don't have many of the conveniences of modern life, but to me the seem to have it good. They can eat from the trees and fish from the river. Bathe and wash in the river. They are not rushed or hurried. They seem contented.

Da Lat
We left Saigon for Dalat and it's like stepping from the humidity into a cool pool or a well airconditioned house. Dalat is in the mountains and the town reminds me of the small Italian villages of Cinque Terre. Small, colorful villages. Jeff says it reminds him of Ithaca there are many lakes and waterfalls here and the temperature no is 50 degrees Farenheit during the day and 40- 30 F at night. It's refreshing. We're wearing our sweaters and long pants. My great aunt Lan and My cousin are taking complete care of us. They set us up in a small hotel next to her house that cost $13 a night. Everyone is still talking about the Rex hotel. We will never live it down.
They are feeding us at their house. I gave them the $100 dollars and the last commemorative plate. They seem glad to have it.

Today my cousin showed us around Dalat to its gardens, temples, 2 lakes, and waterfalls. She's teaching English and is the only wage earner in a family of 5. She is divorced and looking for someone to marry and go to America with.

More later.

Lina

We flew in to Dalat yesterday, from HCMC, after an hour or so delay. We were met at the airport by Lina's Aunt (Co Lam) and cousin. We then went to a small Hotel in Da Lat, only a few tens of meters from Co Lam's house. We had dinner with Lina's couse and Aunt and then went directly to sleep. (the wait in the HCMC airport and the flight took more out of us than we had thought.)

Today we went around Dalat by Taxi with Lina's cousin and saw the sights: We went to two Buhdist temples, a place called the crazy house (designed by the daughter of the first general counselor of united Viet Nam, Dang Viet Nga: it reminded me of a Roger Dean illustration), Bao Dai's summer palace, and the Prenn falls. It's been a pretty full day.

Dalat reminds me of the finger lakes region of New York state in almost all respects (except for the occasional palm tree): I almost cried on the drive in from the airport, it felt so familiar. Dalat city itself looks like the small villages we saw in central Italy. The red tiled roofs and similar geography (all rolling hills and valleys) are aided by the similar preponderance of motor bikes and miniature commercial vehicles.

The weather in Dalat is beautiful and mild, enough so that I forgot to put on sun screen today, much to my distress. (we are still in the tropics, and the sun is mighty strong. My forehead is now a lurid pink.) The guidbooks say that Dalat is in an eternal spring, the temperature never going below 50 degrees F or above 75 degrees F. Considering that we are here in the dead of winter and it feels like early September in D.C., I can believe it.

Yep, we went off the net there for a few days, but that's what it's like when your in the Mekong delta: not many floating internet cafes.

We toured the Mekong for two days, with an overnight "home stay" at the house of a fruit farmer (amidst an orchard of orange, longan and rose-apple trees). It was quite pleasant.

This is going to be a short entry, since we are now off to Dalat. We may not be able to make daily updates, since our days are pretty full and the heat gets you pretty much pooped by about three or four in the afternoon. All is well, otherwise, and the country is absolutely beautifull.

Jeff and I are able to well navigate in Saigon and converse happily with the people here. Everyone seems to have the same accent as my family and the women in the markets remind of my aunt. We've learned to walk the streets and cross the endless streams of motorbikes, cars and bicyclists. We figured out that they drive much slower than they do in the states so it's not as dangerous as it looks. The only draw back is the agressive selling and panhandling that happens everywhere. The street vendors are drawn to Jeffrey like moths to a flame and will not go away even after 5 or 6 nos. The heartbreaking part of all of it is that some of the street vendors are 5 and 6 year old children who should be in school in the middle of the day.

Vietnamese Architecture
We spent much of yesterday exploring French colonial landmarks like the Main Post Office in Saigon. The buildings- large dilapidated 19th Century Greco Roman palace structures painted in vibrant tropical colors like azure and banana stand out vividly in the midst of the city. To me they seem so out of place in this bustling town, more like plantation houses without a plantation.

We also visited the Reunification Palace, the former home of President Diem and Birth Place of the People Republic. It was bombed in a coup d'etat attempt in 1962 and was rebuilt by a famous Vietnamese architect who integrated the shapes of Chinese characters and Chinese principles of flow and peace into every facet of the palace. It's a fascinating building. I always thought that I didn't like modern sixties architecture, but I love it if it is interpreting with a sense for classical Chinese design.

Di Be
My aunt Di Be came to the hotel to visit us last night and we gave her our gifts of the commemorative plate and money. She seems to like the plate. I talked with her a while and became very sad. She says that she has sold off most of the granmother's house and is living in a very small section of it. The section is so small that she's ashamed to have us over and is going to bring food to our hotel room. She is not well and has heart problems and must be careful with her diet.

Ben Thong Market
Today we visited the famous Ben Thong Market in the center of town and are going to American tourist agencies looking tours of the Mekong Delta and Dalat.

Poverty and Homelessness
After 2 days of wandering the streets my observation is that Vietnam is not a desparately poor country, and in fact it's much better here than it is in Mexico or the Caribeen. Ethel had said that friends of her had been shocked by the poverty, but the people here are much better off than the ones in Mexico City or Jamaica. Also homelessness is not so much a problem as it is in Adams Morgan, DC where I used to live. There aren't that many homeless here, as everyone is busy trying to make a living for themselves by selling you some good or service. I have not seen gangs of drunken or high homeless people in the parks as I regularly saw in DC. Overall I think the city is warm, friendly and first rate.

For the next 3 days we will be at
141 Nguyen Hue Blv. Room 255
Ho Chi Minh City
Vietnam

My first impressions of Ho Chi Minh are that it is amazingly whirling, busling and full of commerce. If it weren't set in a tropical climate the commotion of the people alone would give off enough heat to make up for it. There were 500 people in line waiting to get through customs the same time as us (we had time to count the number of people in line and the number of lines) and atleast 1000 people outside waiting for each person inside the airport. Everyone was holding signs and flowers and calling out names. My uncle's wife somehow managed to recognize me among the crowd. She's never seen me before, but had seen me in pictures.

My uncle called for a taxi driver he knew and the driver guided us through a melee of swerving people, cars, motorcyles and bicycles in the city. The driver and My uncle seemed to talk on and on about the expensive hotel I had chosen and how it was a waster of money. The driver offered to give us a tower of the area.

We are at the Rex Hotel in Saigon, a historic hotel where much of the Vietnam war was broadcast from, and which is still a favorite with American reporters. Something in me snapped during the 26 hour flight into Saigon and I decided I wanted to stay at a nice hotel. It's $70/day, about twice what we were going to pay before. But it is so worth it the hotel is like a Chinese palace, with a beautiful rooftop restaurant with great views of the city and every amenity. There is an inner courtyard garden, with roses and tropical plants. They gave us complimentary tropical fruit, bottled water, and a good map of the city. They have a fabulous breakfast buffet with fresh fruit, Vietnamese, Chinese and American food. I just felt like we were living the good life.

Last night I gave my uncle the gift we had brought: a memorial plate with the signatures of all the American presidents and the $100 dollars my parents gave us. He asked about his vitamins, but I had not thought that candy and vitamins would be good gifts, I am sorry. Maybe we can send him the vitamins.

Today we went to the postoffice to call our parents and my aunt. We are wondering the city looking at the dilapidated, extravagant French facades and crowds of whizzing motorbikes. Everyone seems to want to help us, some people are not even trying to sell us anything but just give us directions. We're having a fabulous time even in the oppresive heat.

Malaysian Airlines was a splendid choice. I had originally chosen them because they offered the lowest fare to Vietnam ($747 RT) but they turned out to be a first class airline with fantastic service. The stewardesses dress in colorful turquoise and pink Malaysian costumes and are delight to watch. The stewards are in 3 piece bowtie suits and offer responsive service. Before each meal you are offered a rosewater soaked towel to wipe of the grime of the journey. Each seat has a complimentary video screen and headphones, you can choosed from 6 movies, 5 video games, world news and nature shows. Jeffrey is getting spoiled Malaysian Airlines offers food on par with Air France. The menu is printed on a multicolor brochure, and you get to choose from a multicourse meal. I had fish with hoisin sauce and vegetables, chicken sausage omellette with hash browns and fish with spicy noodles during our 20 hour flight. I can only recommend them to anyone traveling to Southeast Asia.

The countryside of mainland Malaysia itself is also lush and seemingly undeveloped.
The KL airport is the most beautiful and impressive that I seen. Everything is chrome and glass, high towering and inspiring. Our flight to Saigon was full of Viet Kieu returning to Vietnam and Americans. We met another young girl who had been living in Australia and was returning to Vietnam for the first time in 20 years.

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