Vietnam - the last few days

Wednesday 3rd March



We have just sailed down the Saigon river and out to sea on our way to India. But I am way behind in my story telling so must go back to Nah Trang.

George and I spent our last morning relaxing with no early dead lines, knowing that we had only to report to the front desk to check out at 12.30 pm. We finished packing and sat in our air conditioned room for a couple of hour after breakfast: George watching Arsenal and myself reading an older Richard North Paterson novel which I had somehow missed. (Ipicked it up in the second hand shop at the Anglican Cathedral in Hong Kong!): I love his novels, the best I've read being a recent one called 'Exile'.

I digress! We went for a walk along the beach front (under the trees for me), to a Brewery Club about a half mile along the beach. Here we met up with our tour leader, Dan Abel and his wife Mary. We had been advised to eat lunch before going to the airport but I was still feeling breakfast so sat and knocked back two absolutely delicious tropical fruit smoothies. There is nothing to beat the flavour of very fresh mango, pinapple, banana, paw paw and others that I don't know all blended together in a chilled glass.....I drool as I write!

We had what felt like an even swifter flight back to the sauna that is Saigon and were on the ship by about 5 pm. We had an early night as we were going to the Mekong delts the next morning, departing at 8 am. I had done the trip last year on my own (ie. without G. but with students and others) and loved the experience, so it was all new for George.


On our bus trip to the airport to go to Nah Trang the guide came up to us and said "Hello to George and Maggie". It was Ve our amazing guide to/in the Catien National Park last year. It was wonderful to see him and I received a special hug...I think for surviving that 10 km hike through the jungle I know I described to you all last year. We promised to look out for him on our Mekong Delta trip on which George was one of the leaders. So we managed to manoevre our way on to his bus and spent yesterday with him. under his very expert and responsible guidance. Occasionally on these travels you meet someone you want to keep in your life and to whom you are very loathe to say good bye. Ve is one of these.

He shepherded us through the delta without a hitch. We had an hour and a half bus ride first, starting off through the motor cycles and mopeds of Saigon. I imagine the hospital emergency departments are kept busy with accidents, near fatal and fatal. The near misses are legion and there was a moment when a frail looking woman on a moped shot out right in front of our bus, her toddler clasped in front of her and made her way across at least two more lanes of traffic when I simply had to shut my eyes....I presume she arrived on the other side.

We passed at first the stained and grubby low rise buildings, the shops and cafes intermingled with sad looking flowering bushes, trees and crumbling side walks which make up the outskirts of the city. Gradually we entered the less populated country side of rice paddies, sugar cane fields and flooded areas next to which ancestral graves lie so that you feel they are in danger of being submerged. Ancestral worship is one of the religions of Vietnam but the largest majority are Buddhist and there is also a minority of Roman Catholics. As we neared the delta the fields became lusher and were a marvellous fresh lime green.


Alot of the Mekong delta trip is spent on the Mekong River of course. We started off in a large barge type boat for about 20 minutes, then visited a tiny village in the rain forest where we tried balancing a pole with a basket full of fruit at each end as Vietnamese women do with such ease and grace, standing with it across one shoulder. I can report that if balanced correctly it can seem quite comfortable and light. However we didn't try walking far! Then in a shady thatched 'long house' we were given different types of fruit to taste.....some wierd and some delicious but all refreshing. In the forest there was little breeze and it was extremely hot with barely any movement of air. As I sweat only from the neck up you might imagine the wet, ruddy look of my face! Even my Tilley hat, which is the only kind to stay on in a strong wind, (so useful on rivers and boats) felt oppressive and damply uncomfortable.


Our next 'port of call' was to see some pythons, those most beautiful of snakes. There were two in a large covered glass walled case looking well fed and strong. A small woman lifted one out with ease and some of us held him. I was taught by an expert in West Africa to always grasp a snake behind the head if at all possible, to render him (or her) harmless. I noticed that when he was held lower down on his body, his head would rear up, especially towards faces and arm pits! When my turn came I grasped him firmly where I had been shown and he struggled against it preferring more freedom. I could feel the enormous power of his muscles against the palm of my hand. I was glad that he had had his venom removed and been recently fed!


After the snakes we rode to our next stop on a dirt road in a 6 seater mule cart. The poor scraggy animals looked pathetic in the awful heat and although they walked slowly they seemed fragile and unsuitable for the task. Fortunately it was a short distance and we soon dismounted.
We visted a coconut candy factory and then had lunch. it was a magnificent meal there is no other word to describe it.

First of all an 'elephant ear' fish was set down (standing on its side, boggle eyed and jaws agape) in the centre of the table. A young woman then came with a bowl of water and a pile of round rice paper wraps. She expertly filleted the fish, dipped the rice paper in water then rolled the fish in it with lettuce and herbs and placed one in each of our bowls. To say they were delicious is an understatement. We ate two or three of them each with our chopsticks. We were then brought a dish of sateed chicken and vegetables, small brown spring rolls and crispy fish 'fingers' ...for lack of a better word, they were not like any fish fingers we knew...all accompanied by tiny bowls of spicy or tangy sauces. We leaned back and groaned with pleasure, the meal was surely over. No? Next came a bowl of brown, fried rice and a huge bowl of soup with noodles. Did we turn away and say 'Can't possibly manage any more!'....we did not!

Finally, satiated, we made our way to a narrow canal bordered by jungle and climbed, three and four to a boat, into sampans which took us back to our barge. Each sampan paddled like a Venetian gondola by a young woman or older man. Many of our students and staff have bought the straw Chinese type cone hats which really blend in well with the scenery and looked very appropriate bobbing in the sampans.

We climbed precariously back on to our barge and headed for the far shore and our waiting bus.
We arrived back at the ship at 5 pm and said our final farewells sadly to Ve. Here is a man who is a university graduate, working long hours in an underpaid job (by our standards), with a wife and 2 year old daughter, living in a small apartment in Saigon. His office is a half hour motor bike ride from his home. He was going on an hour later to meet another group of tourists at the airport and was to take them to their hotel. He would get home at about 8pm if there were no delays. He had just worked a 12 hour day and would repeat the exercise today.

Ve's dream is to live in the country side on his family's land being farmed by his older brother at the moment. His two nieces live with his wife and himself and baby sit their daughter. One attends school in the morning, the other in the afternoon. His wife is a pharmacist working in a hospital. I asked if his little daughter had ever ridden on his motor bike. He grinned at me, knowing that I almost feared his answer, 'Of course' he said. He is such a gentle man and extremely knowledgeable and sensitive. A student asked him if she might question him about Vietnam for a Global Studies project and he happily obliged. George and I sitting across from him heard his replies: they were in depth and full of information and anecdotes...we all learned alot. His 'lectures' as our guide were so interesting and covered economics, living style, education, women's roles, government control (invisible but octapus like) and the tough life, economics and threat to the way of life of the fisherman in the Mekong Delta.

(The source of the Mekong river is in Tibet. It flows through Tibet, China, Cambosia and Vietnam. the Chinese have built dams which not only control water levels in Tibet but also in Vietnam. This also controls the number of fish which flow down it into Vietnam. Needless to say the numbers have dropped drastically so their earning power has of course also dropped.)

Our guide in Nah Trang also underwent an interview for Global Studies by 2 students. As we were sitting under the bamboo thatch reading our books after lunch I heard this young male voice behind me saying "So Liem, how old are you when...like when do you...um ...like how old are you when...um ...when you have...um... SEX?" I thought my God poor Liem! This was a full bodied young voice and Liem's usual stacatto was somewhat hesitating and subdued in response. He did try to answer and so was bombarded with more similarly embarrassing(to me perhaps?) questions. The interview seemed to end suddenly as the interviewer went off to swim. Another student nearby explained to Liem the purpose of the questions, talked a little about Global studies and I could hear a relieved and interested Liem giving much more considered and substantial answers to the second quieter and more sensitive student.

Back to our friend Ve. I remember being so sad to leave him after Catien last year and this time was even more depressing as I doubt we shall ever meet again. However he insisted on giving us his email address so we can at least keep in touch and hear how he is getting on. I hope he gets his wish to retire at 55 and return to the country side. He is only 40 now so has a long way to go.

Back to the beginning of this blog. We sailed out of Saigon at about 6.30 am this morning and are on our way to India. We shall soon hit the half way mark of this voyage.