KSV News: Short Round 045

Modern Vietnam- 6

Into the North

For reasons I can’t fully justify, my plan was not to spend any of my travel dollars in the north portion of Vietnam. The memories of the regime there still piss me off. That said, Danielle very much wanted to visit the Phong Na Cave system, which is a UNESCO site.

So, over the Ben Hi River we went on a brand new four lane divided highway, parallel to the old Route 1, but about 2 miles further inland. It is fully the equivalent of Route 95, but hardly any traffic. The first thing you notice is that all of the empty hillsides have been newly and heavily replanted. Our guide tells me that these are Gum trees, which have been planted in enormous masses in all of the open areas that used to be coastal flats. It is an absolutely massive, mostly manual undertaking to plant many tens of thousands of these trees. Somehow, the government allowed community sector organizations to do this. The government owns the land, but allows organizations and local governments to plant on it. The Gum trees are called locally the “Five-Year” tree because they grow enough to be commercially harvested during that period of time. And when cut, they regrow to harvest size five years later. No idea how this could ever happen in the US without some mega corporations being involved. But the effort has turned empty, hillsides into a long-term investment with guaranteed returns.

The Phong Na Caves are a huge tourist draw and support the economy in this area. They caves themselves are accessed by water. We arrive to see hundreds of identical blue metal motor boats that are owned by some sort of local community organization. A driver and a helper, ours a mother and daughter, rent these for the day, and then fill them up with maybe a dozen tourists to take the half mile boat ride into the caves. Once at the cave entrance, the motors go off, and we get rowed into and out of the cavern by the mother/daughter team. We got there early, VERY fortunately. After spending 30 minutes in the cave system, we return to daylight and encounter an arriving armada of at least a hundred boats full of tourists motoring at us. It looks like the assault on Iwo Jima.

But what really impressed me in the North were the young people working at our hotel. One young man, maybe 18 years old, who was working as a waiter, spoke pretty darned good English. I asked him how he had learned. Watching Internet television and videos was the answer. He had sufficient command of the English language to get by any place in the US. And all self educated. It turns out that professional basketball was his hobby and that he had played basketball for seven years while in school. This started me asking every working person that I encountered if they spoke English, and if so, how they learned.

Well, I’ll be damned, I have yet to come across a single Vietnamese person in our trip so far, and that is hundreds of them, who has not been overtly happy to greet us and talk with us. This included conversation with workers, vendors and complete strangers. There is absolutely zero anger that we can detect left from the American war

Reversing our trip up the new Route 1, we start our trip south, headed to Saigon along the east coast of the country.

Today, our destination is Danang. But once over the Ben Hi, we want to stay on the smaller roads and as close to the coast as possible. This leads us to the sleepy old port at Cua Viet. And there, as a complete surprise, we encounter a new resort on the beach with a huge white modern façade. It has, absolutely unbelievably, the statues of two gigantic camels in the front. Intrigued, we stopped and walk into the three-story marble lobby. On one side of the immense lobby, we find displays of many hundreds of cans of a dozen types of Camel beer. Never heard of it, but apparently it is made in Hanoi. We have stumbled on their brand spanking new corporate beach resort that they have just opened to promote their beer. It is just too off-the-wall to not stay there.

In a repeat of every place else we have stopped so far, the staff falls all over themselves to be helpful and kind to us. The room that we will use is not quite ready, so the manager herself runs down there, literally, with several staff members to make it just perfect for our arrival. Even rounding up staff and opening the kitchen for a late lunch for us only, so that we have something to do while we are waiting. The hospitality, warmth and friendliness are genuine.

The beach just across the small road on the South China Sea is clean and pretty much empty for our use. To top everything off, there is a karaoke contest at the facility next-door to serenade us that evening. On departure the next morning, I am presented with a gift of a one gallon can of Camel beer, with a built in handle that makes it into a huge mug,: camelbeer.com/en/

Continuing south along the coastal road, we drive through the coastal flats where Operation Ford took place, chasing the NVA after the battle for Hue. Lots of crappy memories for 1/1 there. On the way, we encounter the construction of a massive new port complex. It appears that it will accommodate large ocean going freighters able to unload their cargo and use trucks or maybe even rail for distribution. This place is booming!!!

Our destination is Hue City and the lovely La Residence hotel. Talk about places that have changed, Hue City is now a blooming modern metropolis. We spend two days there, including tours of the tombs and temples of the first and second emperors, which are quite impressive. So much history of Vietnam that we never understood.

Headed south to Da Nang, we choose the Hai Van Pass over the mountain, rather than the tunnel which runs underneath. Again, we have incredibly friendly and non-commercial interactions with the vendors at the top. Several have stories they genuinely want to tell about their parents who worked for the Americans. They seek us out just to have a friendly chat. A smiling Vietnamese stranger walks past and reaches over to rub my belly as a Buddha blessing. And the view…….

The first sighting of Da Nang from the top of the Pass is simply astounding! How can these hundreds of high-rise buildings possibly not sink directly back into the South China Sea? Cruise ships are visible in the port, along with a fleet of merchant vessels Along the way down the Pass, there are two major new seaport construction projects underway where the old Esso tanks used to be. Again, this place is absolutely booming!

Hoping that the close-to-100° Da Nang temperatures will be cooler at the top, we make a reservation at the French themed hotel at Ba Na Hills. At the top, they have basically constructed a huge Disney World like complex, which is accessed only by cable car. The ride on the cable car is spectacular with a wild jungle underneath. I feel guilty, knowing that marines had to hump up and down this mountain side to man a radio relay station at the top.

Were are not in Kansas any more Dorothy!!

Bob Koury: Website & Digital Manager