In an around Buon Ma Thout - Central Highlands

We left Nha Trang, stopping at a fishing village where the wind was too strong for the fleet to go out, but the women had managed to catch a few fish in their nets close to shore. They spread them out on the sidewalk for the other women to haggle over who got what. It was from tiny ports like this that the boat people left in 1975; the boats are tiny and it's 600 km. to the Philippines. It is estimated that about 1,000,000 made it to safety, though rarely all the way that far (they got to Thailand or were picked up by other boats like the one from Medecins sans Frontière). It is also estimated that at least as many died trying. This is a beautiful site and will probably disappear fairly soon in the name of tourist development. You can see vast spreads of land along the coast that have been cleared for hotel resorts.

We drove through some very interesting countryside as we entered the mountains: bananas, sugar cane, corn, rubber trees, teak, and coffee. There were more and more traditional houses. This is where many of the ethnic minorities live. We picked up a local guide, an obligation, but a nice one, and proceeded to a M'nong village for lunch, an elephant ride through the Lak lake (an unnecessary attraction as far as I am concerned, especially when our elephant ducked in the deeper water and our seat was not high enough). The ride ended with a walk through the village. This is enlightening; the people still live in their long houses on stilts. The houses have one window if there is a woman and then a window for each girl. Closed windows mean "unavailable", open windows mean "ready to marry"; most windows are shut. There are animals all over: hens with their chicks close behind; sows with their piglets; cows, sometimes with a calf; dogs all over the place. The disturbing thing is that, although the kids go to school, like all Vietnamese children, they are expected to continue to live in their villages. They have satellite TV and school, so they can see modern living standards, but are expected to remain where they are, with a hose outside for a shower and toilet in the woods behind the village. It seemed to me like walking through an exhibit in a national park.

Buon Ma Thout is a nice town, with clean, wide streets. On waking up we had another surprise -- sunshine! The museum of ethnic music and crafts was closed but we stopped to look at the new building, and admire the big camphor trees in the garden in front of the Bao Dai's house. He was the last king of Vietnam, who lived in exile in France and died in the late 1990s. It was so wonderful to stroll through this park in the sun and warmth.

We then headed for the waterfalls at Dray Sap and that was a short hike, but it was so good to be out of the bus and walking, no one complained. 

We returned to the city for lunch and a visit to a modern pagoda. There's a public school next to the pagoda and the kids were out on recess, so we stopped to say hello. They wanted our autographs. It was amusing. They were all screaming "hello", but you can't go any further in a discussion. We ended with a visit to the local market. I felt very confined and not comfortable at all. Once we got through the poultry section, I had to leave fast.

We are now in Saigon, on route to the Mekong delta.

Photos up to date

Here is the photo album, up to date to yesterday. It's the same as the one currently showing on the menu on the side, but since that will change, I'm posting it here.

Warm but stormy in Nha Trang

I've got internet access in the room and I've got time before dinner! I just read an article in the Washington Post, "Spring Travel: Old war wounds give way to a new Vietnam". Can't be the same country. This article was written from the perspective of high-class hotel accommodations, no mention of the constant pressure to buy. The pressure to buy is not the same as the vendors coming up to you and asking (pleading with) you to buy; that kind of begging you have everywhere, it seems. Here it is a matter of the guide saying you're going to have a stop to pee and then have you spend 45 minutes in the adjacent shop. Yesterday, in Hoi An, I skipped the morning visit of the city because I've caught a cold. I stayed at the hotel and rested. Our guide had been called away for something urgent, so we had a substitute, a nice girl who sped the group through the museum in 10 minutes, whereas Paul and Alain would have liked to spend a little more time, to drop them all at another shop/factory for 45. They finished the tour by 10!

This morning our bus took us back to Da Nang to get the plane to Nha Trang and the guide suggested we stop on the way to see the marble sculptors. I think there was a unanimous groan of "NO!" from us and she got the message, so we did not stop. The Nha Trang airport is Cam Rahn. These place names are so familiar to me. They've turned the old US air base into a sparkling new international airport. After the Americans left in 1975, the Soviets rented the naval base until their regime change and they decided it was too expensive. The Vietnamese finally said "enough" and have decided to make the bay the luxury vacation destination of the future. It's just beginning, but you can see the lay of the land: intersections and streets in the middle of nowhere, some buildings going up, golf courses being laid, the beach, the beautiful sand.... It really could be pleasant.

One of the problems is that this is such a quick-paced tour. We are seeing a lot, and really, it is a beautiful country, but we can't seem to do more than scratch the surface.

Hué to Hoi An

Hué
Early rise, 3 a.m. In order to leave the hotel with our box lunches at four to get to the airport a little before five for our flight at 6:10. Looked like only western tourists are so crazy; the flight was full, though.
We arrived in Hué – not just gray; it was raining. This, apparently, is normal Hué weather. All the scooters were covered with multi-colored ponchos. Sometimes there was a second person sharing the back seat and the poncho. That is the only color on the streets. Hué is already the south. The houses are wider and not so high. They also look better built and more colorful.
We had a 45 minute boat ride on the Perfume River. Why call it a boat; it was a floating shop and we were a captive audience. It was unpleasant in spite of the adorable little girl who must be about 3, no more. The family lives on the boat. We visited the citadel and forbidden city – just like the Chinese one, in miniature and much simpler originally. Very few of the original buildings exist and have been restored. The citadel was destroyed during the the Vietnam War , the Tet Offensive in 1968. As the symbolic center of power, dating back to the nineteenth century and until 1945, each side wanted it. It had no military significance whatsoever. The North won. After the war, the Communists were not particularly interested in restoring vestiges of the kingdom and western (French) domination. Furniture disappeared; what buildings hadn't been destroyed by artillery fire just collapsed from neglect. The empty spaces became parks. Now that tourism is the big money maker, they are busy trying to restore, but the work is shoddy and the new roofs leak; the lacquer paint is fading. Such a shame.
After a very, very nice lunch, we headed to the kings' tombs in Hoa Lu. We only made it to the first one,  and it is set in a beautiful site, with a lake and gardens. We were wet and cold and not very energetic. We had to walk to and from the tomb through a gauntlet of vendors. Even the babies were chanting “buy banananeus”. (that's not a typo; that's the local pronunciation.) Cute babies, younger than Aurelia, chanting in English! We speculated that these were their first words. We got to our hotel and, for once, we were able to walk to the restaurant for dinner. This was the first day we've done any walking in Vietnam. We've been in the bus too much.
This morning we headed out at 8:00, a late start! It was raining, but Mr. Dung promised that we were heading to warmer weather and clearer skies. It was a long drive that took all morning through the mountains, but once through the tunnel, on the other side, the sky was light gray, no rain. Da Nang was a short distance. It's a relatively clean city, the third largest in the country. It's still a major port. They are clearing the waterfront to make room for resort hotels and casinos. The old US airbase is currently a lot of forest with the old airplane hangars, but all that is going to be turned into golf courses and more resorts. We visited the Cham museum (vestiges of the Hindu period, 7th to 13th centuries) and then had lunch at a Chinese restaurant. We passed by a lot of marble sculptors, mostly of funeral monuments and tombs, on the way to Hoi An. When we arrived, we stopped at a silk factory. They don't really weave the silk there; it's too noisy, but they do the standard demonstration. Then you get to visit the shop. You can see the embroiders, the seamstresses and so on. They even have wood-carving and lamp-making. Again, a prisoner. We stayed and stayed. Eventually people buy, so when everyone had finally made our purchases, ordered our custom clothes (I escaped that), we were taken to the hotel. Now, I'm going down to the lobby to send these last few posts.
I don't want to complain. I'm having a good time and the visits are interesting. It's just this constant pressure to buy is irritating. I'd probably be much more inclined to buy if there wasn't so much pushing. My instinct is to say “no”. There's no way you can admire anything without the immediate price. And many of the things are too expensive for the shoddy work.