Bicycling through Viet Nam

We have just pulled into the port in Hong Kong - it's truly amazing here with all the massive skyscrapers and boats. It looks like Manhattan but on all sides surrounding us.

We have yet to write about our time in Viet Nam - these ports are happening so quickly right now! We had a wonderful time in our short time there. The first two days we spent in Ho Chi Minh City, eating our way through the area and exploring all the nooks and crannies. We spent some time at the War Remnants Museum which was a very powerful reminder of our presence in Southeast Asia some 30 years ago. It forced me to reflect on our current presence in the Middle East with sadness and regret. I understand that the issues and reasons for war are very complex but the physical harm to the people and landscape seems so simplistically horrific when you view the aftermath.

Our three days in the Mekong Delta were amazing. We traveled by car for a few hours before hopping onto a large boat and floating across the river to a small village factory that makes coconut candy. From there we visited a home and had fresh fruit and tea. We paddled small boats through a little outlet and came upon a half dozen men walking the river in search of shrimp. From there we were taken to our bicycles and rode for about 2 hours along a riverside path. We were greeted continuously by hordes of small children and adults who lived in the neighborhoods. So fun!!

We stayed at a guesthouse that night in Ving Thou that sat right over the river edge. The next morning we rode bikes for another 2-3 hours, stopping for tea and to visit a terracotta brick facility. We rode through rice fields and along dikes between villages. It was incredibly beautiful. We finished our ride in a monsoon downpour and, after drying off and changing clothes, stopped for a delicious lunch. That evening we stayed in a hotel in Can Tho and enjoyed the best meal at a restaurant called Nam Bo. Our guide, Hoan, took us to a dancehall where we swung ourselves across the floor for a short time - the music was very loud and we only lasted about 45 minutes.

Our final day included another boat ride through the largest floating market in the Mekong Delta and then to another home to taste snake wine and banana wine and to visit a rice paper-making facility. Our final stop took us to our bicycles and our last ride was about 10K. We drove back to the ship after lunch and ran a few errands before calling it a night.

I found the food to be incredible in Viet Nam and the local people so friendly and gracious. It was at times very stressful to walk the streets as the traffic does not stop!! But, after a few days, we were cruising about with more confidence and following the locals. Fun times!

Post U.S. election sidenote:
I am still flying high from yesterday's election in the US. Wow! We were able to watch the coverage live on the Internet. It was noon our time when the polls closed on the west coast. I have to say that I cried so much with tears of joy and relief that I took an hour and a half nap later in the day! It was a very emotional experience on the ship with many of us crammed into our Student Union to watch and listen to any news we were able to access. We all listened to McCain's concession speech and were able to watch the festivities in Grant Park. Oh I wish I could have been there in Chicago! Watching and listening to Obama's speech, I was moved by his humility, his grace and his love for our country combined with his concern for our role in the world. I am grateful that we may again act as a country that is part of a larger world picture.

Hope you are all well.
Thanks Woody, Rebecca, Jeanne and Joy/Joe for your letters! And to everyone for your emails!!
More from China in a few days.

Much love,
heather ;)

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From Bill
Vietnam on to Hong Kong

5th November 2008. It is during the play-by play election coverage that I reflect on a visit to Vietnam, once a former site of conflict and turmoil for Americans, now a place of growth and development by its own people, under its own government, for better or worse.

Heather and I were delighted to join a group of fellow shipmates taking a bicycle tour of the Mekong Delta in the south of Vietnam. This area is highly traversed by both natural and man made waterways, so getting around by little boats is a must. Although, there are big boats too, even some shallow barges carrying dredged sand and other natural resources. All the waterways are lined by mud or dirt sidewalks, for many kilometers in all directions. Peoples houses are situated in flood plains and many people are able to grow fruit trees and rice in their own little ‘yards.’ Each yard is partially under water nearly all year. At this time, the monsoon season, the rain fills up the yards. In the rest of the year, diverted canal water fills the rice patties.

We saw the makings of coconut candy, rice noodles, rice wine, banana wine, snake wine, terra cotta brick firing, and a floating fruit market, on a river. Heather aptly noted that a surreal feeling follows when you find yourself literally in a postcard…to be both present and outside of yourself watching at the same time…believing what you see and not seeing what you believe anymore.

Earlier in Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City), we visited the War Remnants Museum. This museum chronicled, from a decidedly ‘unified Vietnamese’ perspective, the “acts and crimes” of war perpetuated by French and American occupiers. Present were actual tanks, artillery guns, fighter and recon planes, all arrays of machine guns, grenade launchers, bazookas, mines, bombs and bomblets, agent orange and pieces of aB-52 bomber shot down. Accompanying the display were text in Vietnamese, French and English about the intended design and actual use and outcome of each weapon. This experience made me feel badly for a number of reasons, but upon further reflection, I feel a deep sympathy for the men and women who served in the war in Vietnam. For those who gave their lives and those whose lives were changed by their fathers and mothers experiences. I thank you for fighting hard. I now know other fights were happening, within people’s consciences and within the U.S.

This reminds me of the reason for elections and voting and knowing why. I don’t think I know all the answers, but I’m glad we’re talking about it.

It is now the 6th of November in Hong Kong and a new president elect has made U.S. history and a story in the world. Hope arises quickly as news travels fast. An unpopular and needlessly continuing war has an end in sight. The vertical landscape of Hong Kong awaits the pitter patter of U.S. feet and the shuffle of U.S. dollars as the shipboard community anxiously prepares to disembark.