T R AV E L I E T N A M I S O N E G I A N T and time-consuming back- smile. You discover track to either city, and lets V this as you traverse you travel the length of the length of this teeming at your own South-East Asian country. le i s u re . ) Circumstances and tempera- I flew into Ho Chi Minh tures that would make an City, in the south of Viet- Indian livid don't faze the nam. Its best known dis- Vietnamese at all. Every- trict, of course, is infamous wh e r e you go, even as the peo- Saigon. The erstwhile capi- ple stand and stare, they do it AV TAR SINGH tal of South Vietnam and with a smile. It makes a the seat of American influ- change from the grim visages back home. ence in the country, Saigon's recent histo- I thought so, at any rate, as I backpacked ry till 1975 was one of political intrigue ac r oss the country. Hot and dusty as it is, and the excesses of soldiers and journa l - infuriating as the language barrier is, there ists on a break from the front. The modern are no sullen Mumbaiites here. That in city is like any other in South-East Asia, itself is worth the price of the trip. animatedly trying to find its commercial Perhaps the most morose Vietnamese feet in a rapidly modernizing world. There person you will meet is at the consulate is a bustle here, a buzz in the air. The stree t office in Juhu Vile-Parle, Mumbai, no en t re p r eneurs come up to you, buoyantly Smi les & Sna ke Wıne

The amiable Treat, in Vıetnam and his signature wine

doubt infected with the malaise by his calling attention to their wares, be they stint here. He nonetheless dispenses a watches or maps or black-market curren - tourist visa with surprising ease (it does cy rates. Spanking new cars and washing take ten days though), and is a mine of machines line the showrooms along the information on Vietnam itself. Though old boulevards, while the population of tickets from India are expensive. I bought Saigon rushes by on motorcycles and a ticket to Bangkok, and went hunting for bicycles. Motorola competes for hoardi n g bargains in the backpacker haunt, space with the makers of mooncakes, an Banglamphu. (Expect to pay in the reg i o n ancient Chinese delicacy. Tra f fic is unceas- of US$ 200 for a return ticket routed ing, challenging. Horns blare, brakes Bangkok-Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)- squeal. Young girls in sheer, flowing Ao Hanoi-Bangkok. This saves an expensive Dias cut you off in the neon dusk. But they

MAN’S WORLD FEBRUARY 2000 MAN’S WORLD FEBRUARY 2000 and are worth cultivating. They will point out with great glee the one Indian temple left in Saigon, where ethnic Vietnamese come to pray to Mariamman; they will introduce you to the fascinations of the neighbouring Cholon, Ho Chi Minh City's very own ancient Chinatown. And if you're nice and look adventurous, they may well introduce you to wine. Snake wine itself belongs to a diffe re n t world. It involves a large bottle of home- Wide expanse of a Saigon boulevard made rice wine, potent in itself. You then Hi s t o r y at the Revolutionary Muesum add five to ten dead , and you let do it with a smile. them sit a while. After the mix is rea d y , say helicopters controlling it by day, and the If you have the money and like Graham in a year or so, you then garnish with a guerilla cadres of the Viet Cong holding Gr eene's strangely prescient classic, The po r tion of dead crow , and serve. Odd stuff, sway at night. Spending the night in a Quiet American, there is only one place to snake wine. Remarkably smooth, consid- local's home built on stilts above the water stay in Saigon, the grand old Continental ering the ingredients, and it does break the is an experience to remember. The stars Hotel. In the very heart of old Saigon, it enchant you with their prox i m i t y , and the pr esides over the city, and one can imagine noises of the night are only natural. The why entire generations of politicians, Mekong works its magic quietly, and the journalists and spies were weaned on its slough of the city melts away. cocktails and small talk. From there, it is a At the other end of the spectrum is the small walk or cyclo ride to any one of strange spectacle of Tay Ninh by the Cam- Saigon's fine international restaurants. bodian borde r , 90 kilometers from Saigon. Th e r e are bars as well, reputable ones and It is the site of the Holy See of the Cao Dai the less so, and bar-girls. Even in a com- sect, a peculiar melange of Buddhism, munist dispensation, Saigon lives up to its Confucianism, and mystical Christianity. rep u t a t i o n . The church itself is a dayglo oddity, and Th e r e are few better ways to see the city the shrine inside venerates Dr. Sun Yat Sen than from a cyclo. These are cycle-rick- On the river in Tam Coc and Victor Hugo, amongst others. The shaws, but the twist is you sit in front, high priests channel the spirits of dead while the operator pedals from behind. It ice. And like everything else in Vietnam, it people, Shakespeare among them, for is like being on a moving, exposed thron e , is shockingly cheap. inspiration and enlightenment. It is a sur- with buses roaring by inches from your Having had your fill of snake wine, take prisingly large group, which exercised toes. The operators themselves are com- the time to cruise around the deserted considerable military and political power plete gentlemen, in large part old South night-time streets of Saigon. Down by the under the French. For an Indian it is a Vietnamese veterans of the American war river and along the docks, through the strangely familiar place, where one can see barred from holding other jobs. They bo u l e v a r ds and past the Fren c h - c o l o n i a l the bounds of reality and fantasy mergi n g smilingly offer you advice, guided tours of villas, Saigon is history in itself, a mysteri- in the fertile field of popular rel i g i o n — t h e the city's sights, drugs and women at ous maze that invites exploration yet wr y shake of the head is accompanied by night. They know the city and its ways, gu a r ds its secrets. It exercises a powerfu l the glance over one's own shoulder. sp e l l . The Mekong Delta is close at hand. There are few more breathtaking sights than a sunset over the river. There are nu m e r ous little towns and villages where one can spend the night. You can hire little boats for the pleasure of a ride along the wa t e r ways. Indeed, the life of the region is lived on and defined by the river and its di s t r i b u t a r y streams. It is a peaceful world. It is hard to imagine that only thirty years The Japanese Covered bridge in ago, this was one of the fier cer battlefiel d s A tribal village in the highlands Hoi An of the American war, with the American

MAN’S WORLD FEBRUARY 2000 of Vietnam, along the Cambodian borde r . The landscape here is fantastic. You go from virgin evergreen tropical forests to te r raced fields in minutes. Blue hills beck- on you onward, and the hospitable spice- farmers and coffee planters hand out tea as soon as you stop. You pass through eth- nic minority tribal villages, their inhabi- tants still untouched by the questionable in fl uences of the tourist trade. The facili- ties here are not as good as along the coast. The valley of Hua Lu in North Vie t n a m A cold cola or beer is impossible to find, Site of the My Lai massacre unless you mix it with the local ice. But Th r ee hundred kilometers from Saigon the beauty of the area itself and the dis- today is a magic place of narrow streets and up in the Central Highlands is Viet- tances one travels in complete solitude between gabled homes, lit by Chinese nam's coolest little hill station, Dalat. The make up for the inconveniences. And if la n t e r ns at night. Now, of course, there are home of the Vietnamese avant-garde in one has a taste for it by now, there is electric lights inside the lanterns, and this this century, it still retains its old air of qui- always snake wine. is a tourist haven. But it still retains its etude and ease. There is a lake in the cen- flavour of times past, and you can do tre of town, and a gorgeous golf-course worse than spend a few days here. Danang overlooks it. The hills around Dalat make and the infamous Beach are close at for great hiking, and its many cafes serve hand, and so is My Son, or Amravati, the great beverages, ideal for the chilly site of the capital of the Indianized Cham evenings. The locals discourse languidly empire. A visit here is like travelling in on art and politics in English and Fren c h . time, to an India that was fossilised 1500 Dalat encourages benign eccentricity. years ago. There are bomb craters arou n d Ar ound Dalat, one can meet the painting the sites, and warning signs not to wander monk, who portrays his Zen meditations too far from the track for fear of undiscov- on canvas and sells the results to visiting er ed landmines. tourists. There is Madame Nga's guest- Back in Hoi An, make a beeline for house, where one can live in a concrete War devasted church, South of Pleiku Treat's Bar and Café, the most genial pur- tree or in its neighbouring steel giraffe, veyor of snake wine and fine liquors in complete with mirrors and curving beds. The road from Dalat to Pleiku and Kon- Vietnam. Treat, himself, is a gentleman Or you can have a drink at Saigon Nite, tum goes through areas that have seen with fine taste in music. He has created a wh e r e the owner will murder you at pool, heavy fighting during the wars. One can bar out of his own home. At once funky while his daughters best you at Jenga and still see hills where nothing grows, inheri- and atmospheric, one can play pool, eat at various board games; then they kill you at tors of the grim legacy of Agent Orange. the bar, and trade tales with other wander- po o l . There are graveyards everywhere, the ers through this fairyland, while the rain Fr om Dalat, most tourists get on the bus gravestones marching silently up the hills. pelts down in the open courtyard and in to the coastal resort of Nha Trang. I pre- Up by the Ben Hai river, which marked the the street only inches away. fe r red to hire a motorcycle and go furth e r division of North and South Vietnam and If you can tear yourself away from the up the highlands, up into the very interior se r ved as the centre of the De-Militarized ri v e r , Treat, and the Chinese lanterns, the Zone, or DMZ, there are hills that are blackened by war. Bomb craters still line the roads and fields, something you find th r oughout the north. The Vietnamese, in a testament to their own grit and humour, called the B-52's 'fishing pond-makers'. The history of Vietnam in this century is the history of its titanic and ultimately successful struggle against the French and later the Americans. Down again in the plains and thirsty for Cottage industry, on the road north modern conveniences, you can head to A stone carving at My Son of Sa Huynh Hoi An. An ancient trading port, Hoi An

MAN’S WORLD FEBRUARY 2000 the Mekong to the Red River Delta in the no rt h . Further north, past the devastation of the DMZ, is the erstwhile North Vie t n a m , where poverty is a way of life. Bomb craters are a feature of the landscape, and families without sons, husbands and fathers. The war here, in contrast to the guerilla war of the South, was one of anonymous bombing raids, and death falling out of the sky. But even here, peo- The Ben Hai River crossing, the ple have persevered and built new lives An old temple in Hoi An old border between North and amidst the craters. As you row silently South Vietnam past the awesome natural rock ramparts of selves; if they hold the key to the future, Hua Lu and Tam Coc, and gaze in wonder only time will tell. But take the time to imperial city of Hue is close at hand. Hue at the Sino-Vietnamese Cathedral of Phat wander through the country between combines its old grandeur with a com- Diem with the sun setting behind you, them. It is infinitely rew a r ding, if only to pelling modern history. The com- gauge the strength of the human munist forces took the city in the spirit. And of course, the authentici- Tet Offensive of 1968, and held it ty of the Vietnamese smile, and the for almost four weeks, while their potency of snake wine. flag flew from the Imperial flag p o l e The r e is a strength Vietnamese food is an exhilarating over the Citadel. The Royal sanc- adventure in itself. From , the tums of the Citadel were complete- noodles, to Com, its flav o u r ful rice, ly destroyed, and now are used for at the core of the and all the mystery meats that top ag r i c u l t u r e. Imagine the Red Fort in them, the food here is a feast of Delhi being used as a wheat field. Vıetnamese that is colour and flav o u r . French baguettes Close to Hue is an abandoned ar e everyw h e r e, and the spiced pun- ch u r ch, an empty shell literally cov- in fin i t e ly hard to fat h o m, gency of fish paste is ubiquitous. er ed in bullet holes. There are bullet Ga r den fresh vegetables go into every and rocket marks everyw h e r e, even me a l . inside in the ceiling. Walking much less understand The way to see the country is either around, it is hard to suppress a on foot, or from a two-wheeler. You sh u d d e r , because it is apparent that miss too much looking through the no one inside this church walked plate-glass of an AC bus. Bicycles out alive. A pockmarked cross still and motorbikes are readily available hangs desolately from the ceiling. It is a you feel that you are in the presence of a all over the country, for short and long reminder that, for all its smiles and the spirit that is larger than you, and even this te r m rentals, at very reasonable rates. happiness of its people, tragedy and the ce n t u r y. There is a strength at the core of Bring your adventurous spirit, don't ask knowledge of a gross waste of human lives the Vietnamese that is infinitely hard to questions, and enjoy the ride. lies just beneath the surface of Vietnam. It fathom, much less understand. hangs over everything here, a fog of mem- Fi n a l l y , in a state of simultaneous exal- ory that denies the sun, all the way from tation and confusion, one arrives in Hanoi. It is a gorgeous city, at once a living museum to the French period, and a bustling Asian city. Its twisty Old Quarte r has stood the test of time, as have the pagodas around and on its lakes. One can only conjecture if its new metal and glass towers will do the same. Hanoi and Saigon are the testing grounds of communist Vietnam's experiment with res t ru c t u r i n g . Like bookends, they mark the boundaries of this great country, and keep it standing. An Imperial tomb in Hue They contain all its history within them- Fellow travellers hard at work

MAN’S WORLD FEBRUARY 2000