Victor Block

PUBLISHED IN: The Washington Times; SeniorBeacon (Travel Columnist); Lowell (MA) Sun; Copley News Service; Travel World International (columnist; Maine Sunday Telegram; The Syndicated Group:

SPECIALTIES: Budget travel; general travel; overseas destinations; offbeat travel; seniors travel.

BOOKS: The Pelican Guide to Maryland (1995).

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Vietnam is a Land of Vibrant Contrasts

by Victor Block,The Beacon

A silent prayer on my lips, I stepped off the curb into an onslaught of rushing motorbikes and motorcycles, some carrying an entire family of four and even five.  I carefully adhered to what had been offered as lifesaving advice: “Walk at a steady pace and don’t make eye contact with the drivers.” 

Strolling through a remote mountain village, I listened with rapt attention as a 14-year-old girl named Samay described her life.  What most excited her was the upcoming wedding of her older sister, scheduled after the maize harvest because corn would be required for the ceremony.   

The environment was very different while paddling a kayak among dramatic limestone mountains soaring straight up out of a huge bay, creating a spectacular waterscape like none I have seen before.

Even knowing in advance that Vietnam has magnificent landscapes and intriguing lifestyles of its inhabitants didn’t prepare me for the experience.  Another revelation was how genuinely friendly the people are to visitors from the United States, decades after suffering during what they call “the American War.”

That was explained by Le Van Cuong, the guide for my two-week Myths and Mountains tour through the north of Vietnam.  He explained that ancient Chinese dynasties ruled the area for close to 1,000 years, the more recent French conquest lasted nearly a century, and other conquerors had come and gone. 

Given that history, I was told, the Vietnamese people long ago adopted a philosophical outlook toward those who once were their enemies.  Friends, they figured, don’t attack friends.  Furthermore, Cuong added, the 20-year U.S. military involvement that began in the mid-1950s “was only a blip on our radar screen.”

Recollections of that “blip,” including pictures of bombed cities and clouds of foliage-killing napalm blanketing forests, lead many people preparing to visit Vietnam to anticipate vistas of war-torn cities and devastated countryside.  What they find is very different.

This is a nation of extreme natural beauty.  Over 1,000 miles of coastline are rimmed in places by broad white-sand beaches.  Hillsides terraced by the graceful curves of rice paddies rise up to steep mountain peaks often topped by a cloud hat.

Cities, towns and villages have their own distinct appeals.  Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) serves as a symbol of Vietnam’s straddle between Communism and capitalism.  In this Communist Party-dominated one-party state, the government retains control of major economic sectors and activities.  Yet the priority, for both individuals and the national regime, has shifted in fact if not in theory from strict adherence to ideological orthodoxy to economic development and personal enrichment.

Ho Chi Minh City retains vestiges of its historic heritage of magnificent pagodas and lush gardens, along with graceful architecture left as a legacy of the French occupation.  But in an ironic twist, the city named after the national Communist hero stands today on the leading edge of financial progress, home to bustling business, the latest trends in fashion and westernized  leisure pursuits.

By contrast, Hanoi has a much more charming and intimate feel.  Granted, its streets bustle with traffic and the sidewalks with vendors and food sellers.  But the tree-lined boulevards, tranquil lakes and French colonial structures provide  oases of rest and respite. 

My visit with Myths and Mountains tour company concentrated on northern Vietnam, primarily Hanoi, the hills and mountains to its north, and the mystical scenery of Ha Long Bay. 

Must-see sights for visitors to the capital city of Hanoi include the austere granite and concrete mausoleum where the embalmed body of Ho Chi Minh lies in state, and the Temple of Literature, a former university built in 1070 A.D. in dedication to Confucius and his teachings. 

Hoa Lo Prison, built by the French in 1896 to incarcerate nationalist and Communist leaders, is the ominous “Hanoi Hilton” where John McCain and other Americans captured during the Vietnamese War were imprisoned and tortured.  While most exhibits concentrate on the pre-1954 French Colonial period, two rooms devoted to the American POWs seek to convey the message that they were well fed and treated.

Other attractions combine a sense of Vietnam’s history with life as it is led today.  Hoan Kiem Lake in the city center surrounds the One Pillar Pagoda, built in 1049 A.D. by an emperor to celebrate the birth of his only son.  The lake is a gathering place for gray-haired locals doing their Tai Chi exercises, young lovers strolling hand-in-hand, and others seeking a temporary escape from the city’s noise.

The Old Quarter is best experienced on foot or riding in a “cyclo,” a single-passenger pedicab that provides intimate introductions to passersby and countless near misses with the ubiquitous crush of motorized vehicles. Walking there and anywhere else in Hanoi, vying with curb-to-curb vehicles whose drivers use their horns much more often than the brakes, I followed  the sage advice I had been about how to cross a street and remain alive. 

A number of the twisted tangle of thoroughfares in the Old Quarter still are named for items – like paper, tin, mats and herbs – that, beginning in the 15th century were the only things sold there, and which still are offered by many shops and vendors.    Some of the goods come from handicraft villages just outside Hanoi.  Residents of entire suburban towns make their living fabricating the familiar conical hats, embroidering, or making wares ranging from furniture and woodcarvings to pottery and silk. 

Traveling north from Hanoi is to exchange urban crowding for rural serenity.   There is some of Vietnam’s most awe-inspiring scenery:  jagged mountains,  hillside terraced in gently curving rice paddies, and isolated villages inhabited by many of the 53 ethnic minority peoples that comprise about 13% of the nation’s population.   (The Viet people account for the rest.)  

The French term for the minority “hill tribes” was montagnard, meaning “highlanders.”  Many live separately from the Viet majority, both geographically and culturally.  Most groups adhere strictly to ages-old traditions that extend to housing, clothing, food and customs.  Many, I was told, identify themselves first with their ethnic classification and only then as Vietnamese.

Some ethnic subgroups have dwindled to only a hundred or so members.  The largest – the Tay, Tai (Thai), Hmong and Muong – each number an estimated million people. 

My immersion in these colorful cultures came during leisurely strolls along gently sloping paths and dirt roads that connect settlements.   The itinerary included some villages where few visitors venture, which provided opportunities to observe life largely untouched by tourism.

Thai Giang Pho is inhabited by the Flower Hmong, one of the main subgroups – along with Black, Red, White and Green Hmong – descended from ancestors who fled southern China.  Their name comes from the dazzling display of dyed and elaborately embroidered cotton from which the women’s clothing is made, set off by heavy silver jewelry.      

It was at a village of Red Dao people near the town of Sapa that I met Samay, a delightful sprite of a girl who charmed me and my small group of travel companions.  When she wasn’t answering questions about the village and herself, she was asking them, and also translating for the older townspeople who spoke no English.   We learned that the Dao cultivate rice and corn, build houses both on the ground and elevated on stilts and, like many minority groups, worship their ancestors.  Women wear elaborate turban-like headdress that is embroidered or decorated with silver coins, beads and tassels.  

Our most personal introduction to the minority people came during dinner shared with the Ta Cuong family in their Tay village.  Several relatives descended upon the simple home made of mud and straw to observe four foreigners from a distant land.  They watched us help to prepare spring rolls, then dine at a small table and somewhat rickety chairs placed outside the house.  Then they joined us in observing Mr. Cuong pray to his ancestors at the type of simple alter that is erected at the heart of many a minority people’s house.

Communicating with smiles, gestures and the help of our guide, we were told that the Tay dress in less elaborately decorated clothing than many of their fellow ethnic minority groups.  We also came to understand that our host family owns four horses, two pigs, a water buffalo and chickens and ducks.  One of their proudest possessions is an electric-powered rice husking machine, although as a conservation matter electricity is turned off during the day. 

A high point of a visit to Vietnam’s northern highlands is encountered in the town of Bac Ha, and Myths and Mountains tailors its itineraries to be there on the weekly market day.  What started years ago as trading among members of local hill tribes has evolved into a sprawling bazaar where colorfully dressed Flower Hmong and other minorities gather to buy and sell goods.

Wandering through the seemingly endless warren of vendors’ stalls, visitors observe spirited bargaining for items ranging from embroidery, silver jewelry and traditional musical instruments to farm implements, live chickens, and cows, horses and water buffalo.

Another high point of my journey was an introduction to a place that often has been called the Eight Wonder of the World, and which UNESCO has designated as a World Heritage Site.  Ha Long Bay (“Bay of the Landing Dragon”) encompasses some 1,500 square miles of water decorated by close to 2,000 islands, rock outcrops, caves and lagoons.   

The limestone formations have been sculpted over time by rain and sea into whimsical shapes that comprise a surreal, other-worldly setting.  While a few are large enough to support settlements, the vast majority are much smaller islets and even narrower columns that protrude vertically out of the water.  Some images resemble familiar objects, including a man fishing, a cat, a goat’s head and a dragon.  Others – the face of George Washington, the nose of Charles de Gaulle – require a bit more imagination.

As boats built to resemble junks make their way through the rock labyrinth, it’s fascinating simply to watch from the deck as the seascape constantly changes.  Equally inviting, for those willing to clamber down the side of the boat, is a kayak ride around the dreamlike shapes, through tunnels and into hidden lagoons.  You have a choice of paddling or sitting back as your guide does the work.

Some tunnels are narrow, pitch-black waterways lighted by flashlights that reflect off stalactites and stalagmites.  The entrance to one was so narrow our guide had to let some air out of our inflatable rubber sea kayak so we could slide through the opening.

Other caverns impress with their enormity.  Surprise Cave is said to have gotten its name from the fact that it is a mile and a half from end to end.  The ceiling of Hollow Cave soars to 100 feet, and at times wind blowing into it plays a drum-like sound on the formations.

The  serenity of Ha Long Bay is a far cry from the teeming traffic in Hanoi.  Yet both provide memories of Vietnam that are sure to linger in my mind.

If you go  

I chose to travel with Myths and Mountains because its trips, limited to less-traveled destinations, seek to get inside the culture of a country and provide intimate introductions to its people.  My accommodations in Vietnam ranged from the Sofitel Metropole in Hanoi, truly one of the top hotels in the world, to accurately described “simple” places to stay in smaller towns.

As for dining, rice is the staple of Vietnamese cooking, followed by noodles, each typically accompanied by a meat or fish dish and vegetables.  Pho (pronounced “fuh”)  is a rice noodle soup with beef or chicken and seasonings that is eaten around the clock, but is especially popular for breakfast.

For more information call Myths and Mountains at (800) 670-6984 or log onto www.mythsandmountains.com.