For the most recent decades of my 87 years, Vietnam’s position on my vacation bucket list mirrored the rank of casinos on my list of steps to ensure a comfortable retirement. I have friends who vacationed there and loved it, and I had friends who got sent there and came back in a box. Other friends returned damaged, and a disturbing number of them died young. My own years of military service during the 1960s took me nowhere near Vietnam; even so, I wasn’t interested in seeing the place. That changed last October.
Forces beyond my control—wife Susan’s choice of a vacation destination—sent me to Vietnam for three weeks. She had long wanted to see Angkor Wat, a vast Buddhist temple complex in Cambodia, which borders Vietnam. My reluctant participation resulted in three things: visiting Vietnam and Cambodia for the first time; seeing Angkor Wat and the Khmer Rouge Killing Fields in Cambodia; and seeing the Viet Cong tunnel complex at Cu Chi. Included in the trip were three nights on Ha Long Bay and a seven-day cruise on the Mekong River. Here's some of what we did, seasoned by a few observations.
We flew to Chicago and overnighted, taking a morning flight at O’Hare. The trip aboard All Nippon Airways (ANA) was of the best kind, uneventful. After a short layover in Tokyo, we touched down in Hanoi around ten p.m. The airport was our first surprise—large, modern, clean, and bright, even at ten p.m. A Scenic Tours representative met us and escorted us to the Hotel Metropole, built in 1901 and still sought-after lodging. The secretary-general of the United Nations checked in not long after us, underscoring the Metropole’s standing.
We had the same guide for our 21 days, supplemented by Cambodian guides. Our tour group numbered 11: a retired UK widower, three couples from Australia, and one other US couple. I was the oldest person there, the senior geezer. From day one, our gang displayed a compatibility and congeniality that ensured great good humor for the duration of the tour. Our down-under contingent convinced me that a few Australians of legal drinking age could turn a funeral into a fraternity party.
In Hanoi, we visited Ben Hoa prison, a relic of French colonization known to my generation as the Hanoi Hilton. Later, near Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), we saw a park that commemorates the tunnel warfare waged by the Viet Cong for nine long years. Five or six thousand people visit the tunnel complex daily, yet the Vietnamese people don’t exhibit an unhealthy preoccupation with the war, nor do they seem in any way unhospitable toward Americans. They will mention Agent Orange, the US defoliant that disfigured civilians as well as trees. Lingering effects on both exist, though the human damage is dying out. US participation in the Vietnam War action ceased in 1974, more than a half-century ago. A fair observer would say that Vietnam has moved on and with a healthy memory. Resilience is a good word for it.
Vietnam’s population numbers 104 million and its per capita income is $4,000 compared with the US’s 340 million and $73,000. But ours is an established economy and theirs is emerging and headed upward. Among the reasons for optimism, Vietnam is the world’s second largest exporter of coffee and its fourth largest exporter of rubber. Unemployment rates for the US and Vietnam are just over 4 percent and just over 2 percent, respectively, and . Perhaps the Vietnamese labor force is 53 million, more than half its population. The numbers are probably accurate, but totalitarian nations harbor a historic dislike of unfavorable data.
More to the point for me are things such as how late and how crowded are cafes; how happy persons on the street look; how enthusiastically, or perfunctorily, do shopkeepers and service personnel go about their tasks. Are they neatly dressed? Are there a lot of small businesses? I’m fascinated by such socio-cultural indicators. Which means that my research, if you can call it that (which you shouldn’t) is anecdotal. But over the years, I have not been wildly off the mark (an anecdotal opinion).
Angkor Wat, in Cambodia, is the largest religious site on earth and well worth seeing. Sunrise there is recommended, but on the day our crowd went, we suffered clouds. I was interested in the Killing Fields, dictator Pol Pot’s lethal debate forum for anti-communists. That tortured real estate and the Genocide Museum in the capital city of Phnom Penh remind one that the evil souls that find their way to a dictator’s chair are capable of unspeakable inhumanity.
Ho Chi Minh City has a population estimated at ten million, and its citizens are proud that 60 percent of them own a Vespa or similar scooter; the same is true of Hanoi. The two-wheeled avalanche pouring through the cities looks more like a moving organism than traffic. Taxes put cars out of reach for most Vietnamese, but scooters are accessible—as are most essentials; the cost of living is low. It requires 24,000 Vietnamese dong to buy one US dollar, indicating that the government has some fiscal adjustments in its future. Ho Chi Minh City also hosts many luxury cars, including Maybachs and Rolls-Royces—exercises in excess beloved of party bigwigs and oligarchs.
Our guide repeatedly called the Vietnamese government “flexible communism,” and it indeed seemed apt; the government appears more enamored with business than bullying. We saw no overbearing military presence during our stay but did see an overwhelming number of small businesses. And a heartwarming supply of smiles. Those are hopeful signs.
William Jeanes is a former Northsider who has visited 109 countries.
