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 Vietnam 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 snake 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 snakes, 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 China 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.