Vietnam – the centre and the south
We spent two months in total in Vietnam, travelling from north to south.
We spent two months in total in Vietnam, travelling from north to south.The geography of the country makes it easy to get around – long and thin so places can easily be visited en route from one end to the other. After Sapa, we decided to reward ourselves with some beach time and headed for Cat Ba Island. After lounging around for a few days, we took in the main reason people visit here – Halong Bay. This is a Unesco World Heritage site, made up of some 3,000 breathtaking islands, most of which are uninhabited. The only way to see these is on the open water so, along with a group of Canadians, we chartered a boat for a couple of days; something that in Europe would have been prohibitively expensive but for which we paid around 15 pounds each.
%%Could not get body element policy for VersionedContentId(1.7361.UNDEFINED)After this we headed for Cuc Phuong National Park for some more trekking. Unfortunately, the Vietnamese don't value hiking through the wilderness, and in an effort to encourage locals to do so, all of the paths have been concreted over. This sanitisation completely ruined the experience for me and, upon finding out that all the parks were the same, we decided to abandon the idea of visiting the rest. The site does host something that is worth the visit - an endangered primate centre. They do excellent work here - taking in endangered monkeys that have been rescued from captivity, nursing them back to health and preparing them for release back into the wild, where possible also running a breeding programme. We saw some of the rarest creatures on the planet, including two of only 60 remaining Cat Ba monkeys. The conditions they are kept in are very good - much more adequate space is provided than in most Western zoos. They do face possibly an unwinnable struggle though with security being incredibly tight because of previous break-ins. Many locals are professional poachers - the price they can get for only one monkey will be enough to provide for their family for well over a year. The result is that numbers of these creatures are unfortunately always diminishing.
%%Could not get body element policy for VersionedContentId(1.7360.UNDEFINED)In the centre of the country we visited Hue, the capital from the 18th century until 1945. The main attraction here is the old palace complex, much of which has been bombed during the turbulent recent past but still retaining much of its charm and impressiveness.
%%Could not get body element policy for VersionedContentId(1.7359.UNDEFINED)The place I liked the most was a coastal city called Nha Trang home to a large expat community where we learned to Scuba dive. More affluent than the majority of the country, it has one of the best atmospheres, not to mention amenities that are lacking elsewhere.
%%Could not get body element policy for VersionedContentId(1.7358.UNDEFINED)The last place we went to was Ho Chi Minh City, known more commonly locally by its previous name, Saigon. This was the capital from 1945 until 1975. We spent a few days sightseeing, the most impressive being a day trip to the Chu Chi tunnels - an extensive underground network used by the Viet Cong to launch guerrilla attacks. The tunnels were impressive, and very small. The guerrillas would sometimes live here for weeks at a time. Instead of actually going inside the originals, which are too small for Westerners, we walked (or rather crawled) through some that have been especially constructed for tourists. These were plenty small enough and the consensus once we'd done it was "I'm not claustrophobic but after much longer in there I would be."
%%Could not get body element policy for VersionedContentId(1.7357.UNDEFINED)One of the most interesting things I have encountered in Vietnam is the continuing legacy of the American War, as it is known here. The most common response to questions regarding the existence of harboured anger is that people prefer to look forward and not back, and any continuing animosity towards Americans and their country is only apparent amongst the older generation. This is really a question of who you speak to though. There exists in Vietnam a young, educated, upwardly mobile section of society that is eager to learn the elements of Western culture that will help them to success and prosperity, such as business practices. They are the ones who are forward-thinking and progress-orientated and, as such, their mentalities are very open-minded. However, they are compromised by an obvious desire to project as favourable an image as possible of their country, and though their own opinions are genuine, they are in fact in the minority. The majority of Vietnamese are not open-minded but quite the opposite and treat all foreigners with a disdain that could be explained by the war, or their recent history of almost constantly being at war with various overseas aggressors. That or a plain, natural dislike of outsiders - something all-too apparent the world over.
The majority of people here are still bitter about what happened, not least because there are still everyday reminders, such as babies being born with hideous mutations as a result of Agent Orange. They are bitter towards the Americans; the outside world for letting it happen; and towards the other side of Vietnam to which they themselves belong. This last element is especially noticeable in the south, who justifiably blames the Communist government for much of the nation's problems. However undesirable outside military intervention into a foreign state's internal affairs may prove to be, and not that they were correct to get involved, the Americans, in backing the south, did choose the right side. The differences between the north and the south are considerable, mainly in that the south is more affluent, more developed, and the people more welcoming. It does raise the question of what the country would be like had the south won. They would be richer for a start. They wouldn't have endured the closed-market conditions of the 1980s that the government inflicted on the nation which caused widespread famine and was so damaging to the economy. The majority of aspects of life, from governance to business to education and more, are approached in the south with a greater degree of intelligence, creativity and efficiency than they are in the north. But then of course, if the south had won, their government would have been viewed by many as a US puppet, lacking in legitimacy. In such an environment, violent turmoil would have continued. The comparisons with Iraq of today are so glaring as to be frightening.
Though people are still angry, I think that most of this resentment is fuelled by the fact that many people are poor and looking for a scapegoat. Because of intense levels of government propaganda such as the numerous street-side loudspeakers blasting the 'Voice of Vietnam' twice daily, this scapegoat is not their own leaders but rather foreigners. They see tourists, obviously much richer than they will ever be - some flouting their wealth - and are disgusted and jealous. Aside from unfriendliness, this manifests itself in ridiculously hostile over-pricing of goods and services. On average, the quoted price for something will be around five times what it should be, so if you can haggle down to two or three times, you've done a good job. Although the traders will be happy with themselves for taking advantage of Johnny Foreigner and are in fact doing what the 'Voice of Vietnam' has told them, this practice is bad for the economy in that it has a destabilising effect. Wild fluctuations in pricing such as this cause large differences in a country's Gross Domestic Product from one year to the next. This in turn scares off many potential investors and raises inflation rates. Thus, the 'get rich quick' mentality of Vietnamese business causes a lot of unnecessary damage to the country's economy. As with many Developing countries, more able and effective leadership is required to allow this beautiful country to make the best of itself.
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Weather for Grantham
Wednesday 10 March 2010
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 1 C - 7 C
Wind Speed: 10 Knots
Wind direction: North
