HOI AN

Monday, February 8, 2010

My last day in Ho Chi Minh City was spent shopping and sight seeing.

My shopping included getting new glasses! They have lots of optometrists here with an equivalent selection of frames to anything at home at a fraction of the price. I got a brand new pair of glasses complete with eye exam and new prescription along with 5 hour service for about $40. So much more value for money here.

I went to the Reunification Palace next...this place was so trippy. It has literally been left as is since April 30, 1975 when the communist tanks crashed through the front gates in their tanks, unfurled their VC flag on the roof and took power over from the South Vietnamese government. The rooms are exactly the way they were left and so 70's! Mustard yellow carpets, awful avocado green blinds, retro furniture and even the old phone and electronic equipment. It's a little eerie wondering about. Even the maps and ancient telecommunication equipment are still on the walls of the war rooms in the basement. So much happened in this building.

My next stop was the war remnants museum. It's a huge, really impressive museum that I spent a good 2 hours at(which is a lot for me at a museum). It's extremely anti-American and is pretty much entirely dedicated to showing American war crimes and atrocity's committed during the Vietnam war(or the American war a they call it here) and the huge amounts of damage done to the Vietnam ecosystem. While, granted, it is completely and totally one-sided and littered with communist propaganda it would not be possible to walk through this museum and not be totally horrified at the atrocity's that were committed throughout the war by the USA...complete with explicit photographs( lot of the from US war photographers and journalists) along with first hand accounts from witnesses.
It was as disturbing and sad as seeing the genocide museum in Phnom Pehn. Wall after wall of pictures and stories of the US troops massacring innocent civilians and destroying towns and hamlets...the most famous being My Lai which is heartbreaking and so disturbing as it was all document by a photographer who was with Charlie company that day. Very sad graphic photos. It made your heart hurt for those scared people as they were massacred.
There are rooms dedicated to showing the horrible damage and destruction caused by the USA's chemical war on Southern Vietnam. In their supposed attempt to "save" the Vietnamese people from communist they completely destroyed everything they could to "deny the enemy cover"... 72 Million liters of agent orange, a deadly defoliant and herbicide, were dropped over 20% of Vietnam's forests over a 9 year period. It contains Dioxin which is one of the most toxic man-made substances on earth...it causes cancer, major health problems and severe birth defects. 4.8million Vietnamese civilians were exposed and their crops/land/drinking water poisoned leading to 400000 deaths and disability's and 500 000 children born with horrible birth defects. (Not to mention all the US soldiers exposed ) It still continues to cause problems...areas where it was stored on old bases have huge levels on dioxin in the soil. Although 180million has been given as aid to American veterans who suffered ill effects of agent orange exposure nothing has been paid to the Vietnamese. They also used Napalm bombs( a jellied fuel the burned trough skin and jungle) phosphorus bombs( explodes when it hits oxygen at 5000F and can burn through steel and bone) and poisonous gasses sent into the Vietcong underground tunnel system.

I was a little sad to be leaving Saigon the next day....after 5 days here (despite it's craziness) I was just starting to figure out where the best restaurants were, I found a place that bakes fresh cream puffs and injects the whip cream as you order( oh yeah... and they're the size of baseballs and 25cents..my idea of heaven) I found the best frozen yogurt place and plotted the fastest route to the lady who makes crepes in her stand on a street corner... Lots to offer me here!!!

But I must move on and I flew to Da Nang today and took a taxi into Hoi An.

I had to book a business class seat as everything else was full due to the New Years Tet Celebration here( Tet is Feb14 and the Asian version of Xmas and New Years all rolled together...it's the equivalent of the week before xmas here...decorations everywhere, flowers, gift baskets..everyone's excitement is palpable) I enjoyed the wonderfulness that is the first class lounge...I ate fruit salad and had hot Vietnamese coffee in my comfy couch while waiting to board and the plane seats were really big and cushy...they gave us fresh squeezed juice to drink during boarding and then a lovely meal enroute of fruit salad and smoked salmon(with table cloths on our trays and real cutlery). We even got our own exit door from the plane and a private van to take us into the terminal...and then my luggage came out first! I was out of that airport before the masses pulled up in their big buses! I was born to travel in business....too bad I'm poor and cheap....it was fun through!

Hoi An in in central Vietnam on the coast of the South China Sea...2km from the beach! Its a very small town and was declared a UNESCO world heritage site because it is a remarkably preserved example of a Southeast Asian trading port from the 15th to 19th century's with very old buildings displaying both local and foreign influences.

Its a lovely city and so peaceful and pretty after the chaos of Saigon...the old town is so quaint with hundreds of colourful paper lanterns covering everything...it is so beautiful. Especially right by the water with the little bridges.

The big thing to do here is to have tailors make you clothes!!! There are 100's of them. You need a couple days for fittings but they can make anything...even just bring a picture from a magazine. I ordered a bunch of clothes today! I'm always having trouble finding cute dresses, as they are always too big for me, so I ordered 6 really pretty dresses I found in a magazine. I picked my fabric and everything. I also ordered 2 coats one wool and one corduroy, a cool shirt and 2 new pair of cargo shorts to replace the ones I brought that are just way too big on me! All made to fit for under $300US! I am going to ship everything home. You can even have any shoe or boot made here with just a picture.... If I only had more money and time! So much to choose from. I got my stuff done between 3 different tailors...I didn't want to commit it all to one in case the quality isn't good and all my first fittings are tomorrow afternoon! I hope I like everything!

Tomorrow I'm going to rent a bicycle and check out the beach and the countryside...it's very peaceful and pretty here....sad it's only for 3 days.