Islands in the sea, and a resort town

 Washington,  Tuesday, January 28, 2025--Our last few days in Southeast Asia were spent on the beautiful island of Phuket in Thailand and nearby waters where we spent a day at sea.

First, we were visiting dear friends, Patricia and Teddy.  John has known Patricia since university days and we met Teddy a few years ago after both of their spouses passed away.  They were all four very good friends.  Patricia and Teddy have since married, with great memories of their late lost spouses.

Phuket is growing.  It is a huge resort island, with beautiful beaches, fashionable gated communities, excellent restaurants and a history of mining that brought in various immigrant groups.  It suffers from crowded roads, backed-up traffic and the sense of strip mall along its main 402 Highway.  But, it does have beautiful sunsets overlooking the Andaman Sea, excellent food, particularly the fruits and vegetables.  Pineapple here is magnificent.  Papayas grow on trees everywhere.  The province is a garden!  It doesn't even grow rice.

That said, the island's history is unique.  Tin mining took over about 150 years ago leaving the main town of Phuket with mansions built by tin barons.  We visited one such mansion, a local Sino-Portuguese style building still owned by its original family built in 1902.  It's now used as a museum and wedding site,  It is a quiet oasis from the traffic the nearby town and very beautiful.  The Sino-Portuguese moniker is given to most buildings that date from the era before World War I, even though they are barely of Portuguese design.

The other magnificent trip was a day long venture to the karst islands that abound near Phuket.  These are covered with vegetation and the rock formations are magnificent,  more impressive than our visit to the equivalent islands in Halong Bay off Vietnam.  We had the boat to ourselves, and sat watching the islands as we ventured on to a local beach.  The yacht provided a zodiac rubber boat for us to get ashore, walk the beach and find coral for John's bathroom collection--a tiny piece found among shore shells.

We ate astoundingly good food.  Thai food is truly more interesting than Vietnamese.  Thai food, though, does not have to be red chili pepper hot.  Most of what we had was spicy, but not mouth-burning.  It ranged from coconut milk curries to appetizers served in lotus leaves.  

Sunset at the Pavilions Resort overlooking the Andaman Sea

 

  

We ate several luscious dinners at home with Patricia and Teddy.  One night they invited Patricia's friend from her NYC days, Tara.   Tara is mostly retired from a high finance positions to Phuket after working much of her career in Singapore. Tara brought a friend, Louise, who was visiting after a trip to Singapore on her way back with her husband (who was in Bangkok) to their home in Vancouver.  We had a rousing good time, each of us talking about our lives, loves and careers surrounded by excellent food and wine.

Our last meal in Phuket was lunch at a fine Italian restaurant, Napolitana, serving pizza with bufola mozzarella and various rich pasta dishes, with guidance from the chef himself.

Tunnels, Puppets and Goodbyes

Phuket, Thailand, Wednesday, January 22, 2025--Vietnam was an interesting, positive and negative experience.   The country is moving quickly into the advanced world, car, scooters, electricity, commerce, and fashion.  At the same time, it is still visibly a communist country with very evident government buildings and police.  We understand there are approximately 1,200,000 police in a country of 100,000,000.  At the same time, too, the people are friendly, there is no evidence of beggars, homeless, or unemployed, though many are underemployed selling small goods.  The food is fine, though not the most interesting cuisine in the world.  And history from the last hundred years is everywhere--celebrating the 95th anniversary of the founding of the communist party to museums painting the histories of war against occupying Chinese and French, and the Americans from 1950 to 1975--from when we began supporting the French in their reoccupation of their colony when the Japanese left in defeat from the republic nominally established by Ho Chi Minh in 1945.

Our last full day in Vietnam was very full.  We ventured out to the Cu Chi tunnels, a  two and a half hour bus ride through typically traffic-clogged streets and highways northwest of Saigon, in part of the 100s of kilometers of underground tunnels built by the Viet Cong to destroy the South Vietnamese government and drive the French out.  They are magnificent in their horror and their effectiveness. 

Traps that mutilated opposing individual soldiers, tunnel entrances perhaps 15 inches square, and the tunnels themselves, often so tight that visitors are not recommended inside if they are over the age of 60.  John ventured into an entrance and did not proceeed.

What is quite fascinating is the presentations in museums are accurate in what they say.  What they don't explain is the American view of what was considered a dangerous country likely to fall under the control of China.  This of course was not what was really happening but certainly that was a reason given by the American government for its deep involvement.  Sad.

The tunnels are frightening in their extent and how they were virtually invisible to American and ARVN soldiers.  Their entrances are tiny.  Their air supply comes from false termite mounds that have air holes in them leading down.  They existed even under American bases.

Later in the afternoon on our return to Ho Chi Minh City, we dressed for dinner and for a show.  The show was by a troupe of water puppeteers who presented Vietnamese live with water puppets active in a huge pool of water.  

We finished the day with a big dinner to celebrate the end of the tour and much in the way of goodbyes among a group that got on very well.  A good trip.  Odyssey and Chung did a good job for us.

A Couple of Busy Days in Ho Chi Minh City

Saigon, Sunday, January 19, 2025--We arrived in Ho Chi Minh City by bus yesterday, with a fairly lengthy barge trip visiting an agricultural island along the way.  Ho Chi Minh City is also called Saigon regularly, though Uncle Ho is widely seen.

The boat trip broke up the three-hour trip north from Can Tho (pronounced Gan-taw), getting us out of the bus as it was likely to be stuck in the country's horrendous traffic.  We joined the low-slung barge in Vinh Long, stopped at an agricultural island and then debarked at My Tho to continue the bus ride into the city.

The tourist barges stop at islands along the Mekong to introduce the passengers to Vietnamese rural life.  The island we visited is famous for pythons, which are used to make various alternative medicine balms, and rice crackers, among other products.  We were warned that the islands are home to several types of venomous snakes but the only one we saw was a caged python asleep--much smaller than a Floridian Burmese.  There are cobras.

We did, however, have snake brandy, made from de-venomed and eviscerated snakes.  We'd had snake brandy before in France.  This batch, without the snake in the serving bottle, but visible in jars of product, was reminiscent of cheap whiskey.

Better was the coconut candy and the rice crackers, made by cooking rice grains in hot oil and then combining with other fruits and nuts like peanuts, to make the crackers.  They all tasted fine.  

We walked around the island seeing home-stay facilities for tourists, most of which are closed due to Covid.  The atmosphere was pleasant, if very warm and very, very humid.

Back on the boat it was lunch time:  Elephant fish in rice wrappers, spring rolls, pho, rice, huge shrimp though they had minimal meat, and coconut ice cream. The elephant fish was delectable, very soft and very much like a filet of branzino in consistency, though a bit more piquant in taste.

To Saigon, and the traffic.  Though we made good time, getting across the city can take hours.  No stop signs other than a few lights, constantly merging cars, trucks and millions of ubiquitous scooters buzzing about like flies, make for a driving experience John has no desire to try.

Saigon, just the second largest city in the country (Hanoi expanded its geographical boundaries because, after unification, Saigon seemed to be taking over the demographic top spot), is vibrant, cosmopolitan, bustling and surprisingly clean.  Very little trash compared to the capital.  The folk are much better dressed, though many of the younger ones were dressed in their best ao-dais for Tet photography.

Last night we attended an early evening acrobatic performance at the Opera House, with much jumping, posing, body contortions, ball and pole tossing, Asian-movie style, but beautifully done in a charming balletic fashion with men and women presenting, in acrobatics the lifestyles in the city and country.  Very pleasant way to spend an evening.  The A-O Show.  Dinner: a couple of banh-mihs--baguette sandwiches.

Today we ventured out to the national monuments.  Mobbed with tourists either from cruises or individuals and locals celebrating Tet.  The Presidential Palace is a standard 1960s Brutalist block with a little style variation save some indication of bamboo columns in concrete, and a huge bunker and bedroom for the president.  The palace was bombed in the war, by a spy posing as a South Vietnamese airman.

The second visit, to the War Remnant Museum, was heavy.  Lots of pictures on the history of the war, including John Foster Dulles and other 1950s style anti-Communists who feared another Korea or China, a domino, so to speak.  The information presented was mostly fair, the pictures awful but not disputable, and the US does not come across at all well.  As youth in that generation, Ben and John tended to accept the verdict.  Sorrowful of its happening and the damage it did to the countries.  Many suffered.  We both rang the bell for peace.

Finally for the day, we visited a local pagoda, where the prayerful were present and many candles lighted.  Pictures were not permitted inside the formerly Taoist, now Buddhist, temple.  In accordance with Taoist doctrine, one of the deities was in heaven and the other was in hell.  There were fine carvings above the altars, however.

Tomorrow our last full day in Vietnam and a visit to the VC tunnels.

Can Tho on Foot and Water

Saigon, Sunday, January 19, 2025--On Friday morning in Can Tho along the Mekong, Ben started with a walking tour across the pedestrian bridge to downtown Can Tho.  The bridge has huge lotus leaf sculptures where one can get shade from the heat in the parks.  The city is well decorated for Tet, the Lunar New Year which starts this year on January 22nd.  

The signature flower here for the New Year is the apricot blossom which are just starting to bloom.  We learned that you need to remove all the leaves to make it flower in time for the celebration.  

We walked to the Khmer Buddhist monastery where we were greeted and given a tour by the abbot.  He is fluent in English (as well as three or four other languages.)  Aside from the monks, the monastery provides housing for a small number of male out-of- town students registered in the various post-secondary schools around Can Tho.  The competition for this accommodation is great, but the abbot said that the students who are given free will had to comply with the monastical rules including curfew at 10pm.  In line with this free will, the students are not pressured to become monks.

Later came a boat for a tour of the floating fruit market.  The vendors in smaller boats pulled up to ours to sell coconuts, pineapple, melon, and rambutan.  Although Chung, our guide, noted that fewer vendors have been coming in the last decade or so, our group drank coconut juice out of the coconut which was artfully opened by the vendor.

John, who was not feeling well, was not part of this afternoon.  We had traveled by plane first from Hué to Saigon and by bus to Can Tho, the largest city in the delta region.

To Hué and then Away

Can Tho, Thursday, January 16, 2025--We hadn't had good weather till now, mostly cloudy, but we left on Tuesday morning for Hué, the old imperial capital, and the weather decided to turn quite nasty.  It got colder and began to mist and then on Wednesday the heavens decided to open.  Ben had come down with a norovirus that kept him slow and inactive--John caught it yesterday and is over it too.  But though it was raining most of the time, the visit to Hué was fascinating.

The town of about 1,000,000 was the capital from about 1800 to 1945 during the Nguyen (pron:  Win) dynasty.  The last emperor to live there in his French chateau style palace was Bao Dai.  He abdicated in 1955, after the capital had moved to Hanoi.  The city is a bastian of forts and palaces with extensive walls.  Hué also has French style grand boulevards and has a more sophisticated air than Hanoi or Danang.

We walked extensively through the old Imperial citadel, palaces and walls, moats and dragons.  By then it was misting.  We both had our own rickshaws back to the hotel.

Wednesday, the heavens opened and it poured during the time we had to visit a huge pagoda and then the tomb of Minh Mang.  This is a magnificent set of structures, with his mausoleum.  No one has found his body, though; much like a pharaoh it is hidden.

John took a boat ride down the Perfume River before heading back into the city.  He passed on visits to other tombs.  Part of the evening was a music concert with traditional instruments which the small chamber group used to play Happy Birthday!

This morning we got up very early (5 AM) to catch a plane to Saigon and then a three hour bus ride to Can Tho, in the Mekong delta.  It's an old French hotel from colonial days, very pretty.  

Hoi An's new Farmer

 Hoi An, Vietnam, January 13, 2025--Who would believe that Benjamin Diamond, JD, would find a new career!  Well, looks like he did:

Ben was fortunate to be taken under the care of excellent 62-year-old farmer at a Farmers Village in Hoi An, in central Vietnam, not far from our hotel.  His new job probably won't require his presence at the farm often, probably no more than today, but John wonders if the enjoyment he had today will extend to doing remote work in the Washington, DC garden.

The Farmers Village included a lovely reflexology massage, lunch, and an exploration of the farm's herbs garden, suitably be-hatted and smocked.   John learned that chrysanthemum leaves and morning glory leaves can be used in a variety of dishes.  Chrysants go into vegetable dishes like mint or basil, while morning glory leaves can be boiled like spinach or stir-fried with garlic-like sprouts or other Asian veggies.  Looking forward to trying them come Spring when they grow on the fences.

John, on the other hand enjoyed the company of tradition in Vietnam.  Hostesses.

Hoi An, and some occasional sun

Da Nang, January 12, 2025--A morning and afternoon of sight-seeing, and a lunch- time lesson, where, amazingly, John actually learned a new cooking technique!

We bussed into Hoi An, a really cute, but quite touristy town, with an historic center where you even have to pay to enter ON FOOT!  Once in, there are streets of shops, but temples and antique homes, and a really attractive riverfront.  Our guide, Chung, walked us through the town explaining very well the historic value of Hoi An, a major port, even before French times when it was named Touraine.   We had the pleasure of visiting an old home, about three hundred years old, a temple which had an interesting boat lined with tea pots, and a silk factory with its own silk worms. Then we went shopping.

Ben acquired an attractive pair of pull on pants, while John invested in two custom-made cotton sports shirts.  They will all arrive tomorrow at lunch time, measured to fit.  John also bought a water buffalo belt with a very attractive simple buckle and stitched sides.

The main event, though, was the cooking class.  Taught by Miss Vy at a huge restaurant in the old town section, we learned how to make cold spring rolls--a technique John had never mastered, marinate chicken thighs in a variety of spices--omewhat different from Thai and Chinese techniques, and, then make a green mango salad.

John never used green mangoes in a salad before.  The technique is the peel the mango and then slice the somewhat hard fruit into slivers about two inchese long (5 cm) and a quarter-inch (40 mm) across.  Mixed with a variety of spices this gives a crunchy body to the salad.  That would be lost if the mango were ripe.  Miss Vy, about 30, I would think, has been teaching this technique with a fine sense of the theatrical apparently for quite some time.  

Now we are resting.  Nothing going on till about 10:30 tomorrow morning.  Books to read, waves to hear in the background for John and sand for Ben to kick around on the beach.  It's too cold to swim 68F, 20C, and the ocean currents are too strong to swim out in the South China Sea.