We stopped for a few days in South Vietnam, not knowing what to expect.
The first thing that surprised us was the traffic on the streets of Ho Chi Minh City,
which is also known by the name of its river, Saigon, fondly used by the locals.
But what were we doing at night on the streets of Saigon?
Well, taking in the atmosphere of this vibrant country, full of young people on mopeds and
enjoying themselves in the cool of the evening.
We walked through a square full of activities and music, which did not quite sound like
what we expected in Saigon.
But music knows no borders, and there, that evening, they seemed to like a bit of Latino
atmosphere.
On the road, all the shops were open for business, a cobbler, a pâtisserie, a shopmaker.
And would you believe it, many of them were selling bikes.
What we really were after was the opportunity to sample street food.
But first, we had to cross the road as all the restaurants seemed to be on the other side.
But luckily, Jerry, our guide, was here to help.
He took us to three restaurants, and the highlight for me was the huge pancake you can see here.
The evening was not over.
He then took us to a cocktail bar called Ban Sonate, where we were treated to some peaceful
music played on a guitar and a violin.
Today we were going to be taken to see the sights.
But we were first welcomed by the omnipresent and ever-increasing number of mopeds in a
town of about 10 million people, who all have to get somewhere.
The Portuguese were the first to arrive in Vietnam in the 16th century, to be followed
by the Dutch and the French in the following centuries.
Many examples of French architecture can be spotted in Saigon, like the 19th century Notre
Dame Cathedral covered with ceramic tiles shipped all the way from France.
And you thought you had seen enough mopeds?
Well, this is the people carrier of all mopeds.
The Hotel Continental is another splendid piece of architecture which has survived the wars.
Close by is the Municipal Theatre, which in colonial times was known as the Opera.
Not too far away, there is also another example of French architecture.
It used to be known as the Hotel de Vie, or Town Hall, and now houses the People's Committee.
On the open roads are also spotted something typically French, a born kilométrique, the
equivalent of a milestone, which used to mark every single kilometer on French roads.
What about this?
A yellow post box?
Well, this is a bit misleading, as they used to be blue in France and have only been painted
yellow in the last few decades.
This takes us back to central Saigon and the General Post Office, which is very popular
with tourists and locals alike.
The inside of the GPO is buzzing with activity.
You can find your favorite postcards there.
And some people are absolutely delighted to have that picture taken.
And then you lift your head and let yourself admire the brilliant colors and shapes of
a 19th century building.
What is the French writing on the map?
Yes, the French might have left their mark on the country, but it was nevertheless colonialism.
And the Vietnamese were not that pleased to have lost their independence again.
They had had problems enough with their large neighbor in the North before.
You can see here a portrait of the man who led the war against the French and won.
As a young man, he toured the world and actually founded communist organizations in Paris, Moscow
and China before coming back to Vietnam, where he created the Viet Minh in 1941, to fight
for his country's independence.
We then went to visit the Ho Chi Minh City Museum housed in the residence of the French
governor-general.
This museum is mainly dedicated to retracing the story of both Vietnam wars against the
French and then the Americans.
Cells have been restored to show the atrocious conditions prisoners were kept in during those
conflicts.
I was surprised and shocked by the sight of a real guillotine exhibited in the museum.
It is one thing to see one at work in a film, but to see the real thing and realize that
it was actually used extensively by the French during the war is something completely different.
Real people died on his machine, most of them after long interrogations and torture.
The details are harrowing, like the box by the side of the guillotine used to receive
the decapitated body lined with zinc so that the blood and other bodily fluids would not
mess up the execution chamber.
The guillotine was kept in South Vietnam and used until 1960.
What is so impressive about these wars is the imbalance in the provision of equipment between
the forces in presence.
The French were well-equipped compared to the Vietnamese, they had planes, tanks, cannons
and machine guns as can be seen on numerous pictures on the walls of the museum.
They bombed from the air and could parachute their men in strategic places.
And the Vietnamese had bicycles and rifles.
The war lasted eight years and ended with the defeat of the French at the Battle of
Dien Bien Phu.
Part of the French strategy was to have huge bases in the middle of the jungle that could
be supplied by air and control large parts of the country.
Colonel de Castries, behind the wheel, was put in charge of this camp.
He resisted the Vietnamese attacks for over 50 days.
But General Chiap had close to three times more Vietnamese liberation fighters than there
were French soldiers.
The battle and the war were lost for the French.
The French withdrew from Indochina after a general agreement was signed in Geneva on
the 24th of July 1954.
Vietnam was divided into the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, north of the 17th parallel, with
Ho Chi Minh as its leader.
And the state of Vietnam in the South, with Emperor Bao Dai at its head, and Go Dinh Diem
as Prime Minister.
By 1955, the power struggle between the two men was won by the Prime Minister, who declared
himself President of the Republic of South Vietnam after winning a rigged referendum.
As early as 1954, the US had started to give close to 30 million dollars in aid to Diem.
By 1959, presidential rule had become dictatorial and the repression became ruthless.
The fuse was primed for the Second Vietnam War to start.
The special warfare strategy was launched in 1961.
The Vietnam War escalated.
The US and more advisers, huge amounts of equipment were used.
The intensification of the war led to tragedies and massacres.
Then in 1965, the first US boats landed on the ground.
This was the beginning of an important escalation of the war.
To be less vulnerable to aerial bombardments, the Viet Cong revived a century-old tradition
of digging tunnels.
They had been supplying the South via the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
The Viet Cong was now supported by part of the population in the South, and the use of
long and narrow tunnels proved very effective.
The tunnels are very small to make life extremely difficult, if not impossible, for the much
larger American soldiers.
Even the Viet Namese had to bend down to move swiftly through the galleries.
There were sometimes three levels, with the deepest designed to accommodate bomb shelters,
hospitals and ammunition dams.
They also had rooms where the commanding officers could meet.
We went to visit some of these tunnels in Khu Chi, which is only 40 km away from Saigon.
The area is run by the armed forces as a tourist attraction.
It was all very clean, dry and not too hot.
But one can imagine how it must have been when the rain was pouring down and the ground
was a bed of mud.
Lifesize reproductions are on display.
It shows up the rudimentary uniforms and equipment available to fight the most powerful forces
in the world.
Anything that was not brought from the north had to be made on site.
This is illustrated by some soldiers who show their skills, as cobblers for example.
These sandals seem quite innocuous, but they are designed to make the trackers believe
the wearer is going in the opposite direction.
The sandals are also made here.
Any piece of metal that could be taken from the enemy was used and recycled as new weapons.
They also adapted captured weapons to turn them into deadly booby traps.
But if no metal was available, bamboos were used with similar devastating effects.
They used their imagination to fight against daunting odds.
It was also prepared and made here.
The kitchens were highly sophisticated, the smoke had to be channelled away from the underground
chamber through the soil, where most of it was absorbed, and whatever was left came out
as very heavy smoke that stayed on the ground.
That made detection much more difficult.
You've heard gunfire on the soundtrack.
Well, this is because civilians get a chance to fire an AK-47 here.
Such a small submachine gun against the weapons of mass destruction that were dropped on Vietnam
and still they won.
The US Air Force had been carpet bombing from the air.
They had used chemicals, but the worst one of them was the defoliant Agent Orange, supposed
to destroy the forest and therefore stop the Viet Cong hiding under the jungle's canopy.
But the dioxin it contained had devastating effects on humans as well.
This policy annihilated the remaining support the population gave to the South Vietnamese
government and the US.
And back in Saigon's museum, there are numerous pictures showing the effects of Agent Orange
on the civilian population.
To this day, children are born deformed because of it.
Finally, the war came to an end when two Viet Cong tanks crashed through the gates of the
presidential palace in Saigon in 1975.
This is a replica of one of the two tanks.
It is now standing in the gardens of the reunification palace.
This palace is a government building, but part of it can be visited.
They must have known we were coming.
So we thought, alas, no, we had to go to the side entrance.
We first went into the National Security Council chamber.
Which one of these is the hotline?
This gallery has been designed with climate change in mind so that ventilation can keep
the temperature down without resorting to air conditioning.
Just like in China, the dragon symbolizes strength and power.
We were greeted by a very colorful one here.
Every room was more beautiful than the last.
This one is totally un-PC by displaying superb elephant tusks.
The sobriety of this dining room offers a rare contrast in this palace where vibrant
colors seem to dominate.
That would do nicely for my study.
I then went down a corridor and an unexpected sight greeted me.
I must admit that I did not expect to discover a firing range in the middle of the palace.
And Sylvia was delighted and quite envious to discover a kitchen with so much space.
It might be time for a quick snack.
Let's rather go for a little walk through the streets of Saigon, trying to spot some
ordinary activities.
Here we have some girls wearing the traditional Haodai suit as their school uniform and their
rucksacks left in a pile on the side.
Numerous bookshops and cafes give this little street a very contemporary atmosphere.
And if you needed more to be convinced that Saigon is a very modern city, you'd only
need to see this advert for Zumba lessons.
The country is modernizing in a big way.
Just one example, Japan and Vietnam are working together in a spirit of friendship and cooperation
to build the new underground system for Saigon.
Here you can see workmen and women taking a short break.
After this marathon through Saigon, we took to the road to taste the exoticism of the
Mekong Delta.
We stopped on the way for a cup of tea.
Mekong Dean Cafe Gardens is a little paradise tucked away by the side of the main road.
We also had a glimpse of a rubber plantation.
The trees are not very old, as the vegetation had been totally destroyed during the war.
We finally made it to Kaibé, where our overnight cruise was going to start.
A small barge took us to the main ship's landing.
But before boarding, we went on a small tour of the craft market.
I was especially fascinated by the way coconuts are processed by hand and foot here.
The Delta is producing vast amounts of rice.
Not only is Vietnam now able to feed its people, but it is also the second largest exporter
of rice in the world after India.
I was expecting to see paddy fields, but we went during the dry season, so you can see
here rice fields as they are rarely shown.
Our guide wore a traditional hat, just to make sure we remembered we were in Vietnam.
This is now harvested three times a year, and is also processed locally by skilled craftsmen
and women.
After threshing and winnowing, the separated grain from the sheaves and the shaft is laid
to dry, and then ready to be made into a number of edible products.
Life and work here are still very much organised around the family unit.
Families learn very early the art of sleeping in a hammock.
We also went to visit another village where rice, like in the rest of the Delta, plays
a most important role.
I was keen to watch how rice noodles are made and packaged to be sent all over Vietnam,
and exported around the world as well.
We were now getting ready to explore a tiny part of the mighty Mekong, or to be more precise
a minute part of the gigantic Delta, which covers over 50,000 acres and is expanding
thanks to the thousands tons of silt deposited every year.
The Mekong is known in Vietnamese as the Song Khu Long, that is the river of the Nine Dragons.
After 4,700 km through six countries, the mainstream divides into smaller waterways
in the low-lying part of South Vietnam.
The best way of communication here is through the 2,800 km of distributaries and canals
that meander through the Delta.
We were now at last on board the Basac II and were treated to some drinks and food.
From our privileged location, we could have a look at life on the Mekong, where so many
work and live on a multitude of vessels of different types and sizes.
And on the banks of the waterways, all sorts of surprising buildings and activities appear,
whether it is a Catholic church, a temple or some commercial activities.
Anything you can imagine is being transported on the waterways, in small or very large quantities.
The more you can put on board, the more economical it becomes.
But what happens if there is a storm?
As you might have gathered, most of the vessels are based on traditional design, even when
oars have been replaced or supplemented by engines.
We went up a small tributary on board a champagne to have a closer look at the luxuriant vegetation.
We were going to meet some of the people we had glimpsed from our wooden boats.
We walked along the towpath.
The bank has now been reclaimed by nature as the vessels travelling along the river have
got their own power and do not need to be pulled by humans or animals.
The towpath is the only way for people to access their home.
At around five in the afternoon, children were coming back from school on their modern
pushbikes.
We carried on walking and so well kept building with what looked like a massalic symbol on
the front.
It is an example of a caudite temple, a relatively new religion, as it was founded in 1926 in
South Vietnam by a civil servant, who had the revelation of the all-seeing divine eye
during a vision.
This religion, now tolerated by the state, has about three million members.
As previously mentioned, the Catholic Church is still very much present in Vietnam.
Confucianism is also seriously practiced, as witnessed by the number of tombs which
can be seen near houses and in paddy fields.
Faced by the looming onslaught of multinationals trying to buy their land, the cult of the
ancestors is helping Vietnamese farmers stand fast to keep their land and preserve their
way of life.
The temptation is great when what seems like large amounts of money is offered to them.
Will they resist the lieu of the large cities?
Maybe a bit longer, but the signs are not very good.
And who are we to blame them?
We started leaving the countryside in droves about 200 years ago.
We also spotted farm animals on the way, from very small ones to much larger ones.
And of course a hammock.
Our little group of visitors was taken to a house and we had a superb afternoon tea,
including some fruit freshly picked in the garden around the house.
And then we were shown around the house.
In pride of place was the altar, where the family worshiped the ancestors.
On the wall hung a wedding picture.
The main room was almost empty and we glimpsed the bedroom containing a double bed with a
colorful spread.
But modern technology is also present here and these large bags hanging from the kitchen
ceiling contain methane that comes out of the ground.
No wonder, as these people live on marshland.
A few more million years to wait and they will be sitting on a huge amount of petrol.
Sylvia and some of the group went back to the basac, while some of us waited a bit longer
to catch the next handpan.
By the time it arrived it was night, it reminded me of those movies about smugglers and fighters
which were made about the Vietnam War.
All sorts of vessels were used to cross the borders from Cambodia into South Vietnam, but
the sampans were omnipresent as they were ideal to navigate through the shallow delta.
They would use engines if ever possible, but oars and sheer muscles would also play their
part if silence was necessary.
After this little trip back in time, let's now look at industrialized Vietnam.
Parts of the delta are now being developed for industry, as witnessed by the number of
Petro Mekong tanks on the banks, with of course a refinery as well.
Petrol brings in much needed hot currency.
Roles are being built, as well as some spectacular bridges, like this one at Can Tho, which has
been modeled on the Elbe Bridge in Hamburg, also known as the Kohl-Prain-Brucke.
However, rapid industrialization came with a price, when the Can Tho bridge collapsed,
killing 50 people in 2007.
After the bridge, we reached Can Tho.
With over a million inhabitants, it is the largest city in the delta.
Modern buildings and international trade names appear alongside traditional developments.
But Can Tho also has an expanding tourist industry, thanks to its floating markets.
Tourists are easily spotted as they are the only ones wearing black jackets.
I love markets, but this trading place on the water is something out of the ordinary.
It seems like a balancing act and it is interesting that two-legged humans managed to do it so
well.
For me, it was almost like a show, with the actors having to perform acrobatics all day
long to sell and buy.
I found it fascinating and exhausting only to look at it.
We were now coming to the end of our short stay in Vietnam, but on the way back to Ho Chi
Minh, we stopped for a refreshment in a little oasis.
I had to finish on this picture, which, for me, is the most beautiful thing in Vietnam.
I had to finish on this picture, which, for me, epitomizes today's Vietnam.
