I have just had two sunny weeks in Vietnam, the freezing winter of Beijing feels like a distant memory and not a reality that I will be returning to in just over a week. I'm getting very used to my only concern being which activity would be the most fun to do next, and feeling very spoiled. I'm pretty stunned that I've actually reached the half way point of my year, definitely so far SO GOOD! :)
Vietnam has a lot of cultural similarities with china because china occupied it for almost a thousand years, and the whole communist government aspect as well, but even the things that are the same definitely have their own distinct flavour. The communist government is actually more obviously present here, but it doesn't feel anywhere near as threatening. There are hammer and sickle flags everywhere, banners on all the lampposts and modern propaganda posters that look almost exactly the same as the old style ones that you can buy in souvenir shops, they just don't talk about killing Nixon and the American devils anymore. There are pictures of Ho Chi Minh and Lenin in the houses and shops (Uncle Ho as he is labelled in museums always has a very irritatingly lopsided beard I have noticed), the people here really love him still and he hasn't been reassessed or criticised like Mao so the personality cult remains. Seeing these things just doesn't feel threatening here at all compared to China, in Beijing it's not in your face but it's lurking and much more sinister feeling in its subtlety.
Vietnamese people also seem a lot happier than the Chinese, to make a broad unjustifiable generalisation. I think it'a clearest with the families you see and the children in particular, they all seem so much more free than the Chinese ones who are being tutored from the age of three and studying incessantly from then until graduation. There are siblings playing together, the children are cycling round by themselves or with friends, playing in the streets. I didn't realise how rare that is in China consciously until I got here and saw the healthy trouble free behaviour of the kids here.
We travelled from north to the south of vietnam and stayed in quite a lot of different places, but the one we stopped at for the longest was Hoian which is in the middle of Vietnam by the sea, beautiful and old. All across Vietnam everyone preparing for Tet festival which is the Vietnamese version of Chinese new year, and it's amazing. Ever since we arrived in Vietnam people have been transporting flowers, orange trees and bouquets around the cities on motorbikes to adorn the streets and houses. The pavements of most major roads now are no longer for walking on but full of blossoms. There are banners and lanterns strung across every street light, multicoloured Chinese lanterns and bunting wishing happy new year are abundant. At night by the river in hoian children were selling paper lanterns which are lit and drift off in the water, and there is incense lit in every nook I see. I mean this pretty literally, the cracks in the road and gaps in the tree bark are filled with incense as well as in the shrines and by temple offerings. There is a Buddhist shrine in every household near the entrance which is always pretty gaudy (some of them have neon lights) and they have been celebrating the hungry ghosts festival or something like that where you burn paper money and objects for your ancestors and leave out tables full of food for them to eat, almost exactly the same as what I saw happening in Taiwan last summer.
The lunar new years eve was on Saturday and in Ho chi Minh where we were staying there was a massive fireworks display at midnight just like how we celebrate the normal new year.before the fireworks we wandered around the city centre which was beautifully decorated and full of families out celebrating, the flower displays were complete and people got dressed up and had photos taken next to them (this is exactly the same as in china). There were some big shows on in the park with stages set up and singers but the ones we saw were pretty baffling to a culturally unaware foreigner like myself. Since then the roads have been quite dead, but walking around we have seen a lot of seemingly spontaneous dragon dances, it seems like a van of teenage dragon dancers turn up on a street, do a dragon dance and attract a crowd, then drive away. Maybe it's more structured than it appears but to the untrained eye they come from nowhere and aren't advertised, they are really impressive though.
The Vietnam war sites such as the war museum and the cu chi tunnels made a far bigger impression on me than I had anticipated, and I had been warned beforehand about them plenty times so I thought I was mentally prepared. Seeing this country in the context of the suffering it has been through it is really incredible how far it has come and how welcoming they are to westerners despite their experiences. In some ways the museums were very sensitive even if they were very propaganda fuelled, but I was pretty shocked that you can do paint balling as a tourist in the same place that fighting was so intense the locals were driven literally underground for over a decade.
There is a lot more I could write about Vietnam but I'm leaving for Malaysia in just under an hour and no doubt you are bored by now, so I will leave it there! Happy year of the snake everyone :)
Places I have been in Vietnam:
Hanoi
Ha long bay
Hue
Hoian
Ho chi Minh city
No comments:
Post a Comment