From "Five Star" to "Oh, Here We Are"

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Travelling with a registered nurse lends a different flavour to a trip. As Katherine taught nursing at BCIT for so many years, it is in her DNA. She commented yesterday that a woman in our tour group had doubtless once had a broken hip. She will look at children in Katmandu and know that they have a vitamin A deficiency. Green vegetables will be encouraged as a remedy. She is never intrusive, but thoughtful and caring about others well-being. When I was feeling a bit off the other night, she instructed me to wake her if things took a turn for the worse through the night. Thankfully, they did not. She has given an Australian woman with no forsight of her own an inhaler to ensure that this woman could keep breathing through her trip. (Who goes to a foreign country and doesn't take what is a foundational health item?). Katherine had an excess supply from purchasing a few at very reasonable prices in Nepal and was able to be Florence Nightingale to the very grateful Wendy. I suspect her very patient husband was even more grateful - dealing with a stressed wife cannot be fun.

Our cooking class at the exquisite La Residence Hotel in Hue provided another opportunity for Katherine to show her compassion. We had a cyclo ride to the market in the company of the sweet little Thuy. She rode alongside us on her motorcycle and then proceeded to show us around and answered any questions we had about what was before us. Buckets of writhing eels, fresh fish of all sorts, chickens splayed and bloody, vegetables and mushrooms in great array - we saw lots. It was pouring down rain and the sound on the roof of the market made us glad to be inside, albeit the result was a wet and muddy floor. We were a long way from Granville Island today.

We returned to the hotel to meet the Sous Chef, Phat. He was a delight. Excellent English helped us learn the techniques for cooking Vietnamese food all the better. Phat had been an executive chef elsewhere and had been at La Residence for the past two years. Married for three years, his wife lived a twelve hour train ride away in Nha Trang. He is only able to steal away from the hotel for three days out of every four weeks. Not surprisingly, one of his great regrets is that he and his wife do not have any children. Well, you could see the wheels turning in Katherine's head. Should she discuss the fundamentals of fertility? Might he already know? When is it interference and when is it help?

Our opening for comment arose after Phat showed us how to present the green papaya salad we had made. Katherine dolloped it on two plates and started to flatten each portion to cover the plate. Phat corrected her by saying that he once got in trouble when he was in training for such a presentation. His teacher encouraged him to make the serving look the shape of a breast. We all laughed. As we later ate what we had cooked and Phat came over to check on us, Katherine crooked her finger so that he could come closer. She quietly said that he should go home more often, or move home, if he wanted to have babies. Without getting into too much detail, she tried to explain why going home at the same time each month might mean he was never home during a fertile period for his wife. He smiled and took the advice well. We will doubtless never know the outcome of the fireside chat, but we hope for him that all will go well.

We moved on to Ho Chi Minh City that afternoon. We arrived at rush hour. There are allegedly 4 million motorcyles in HCMC and we have to believe that every one of them was on the road at that time. People have a very good spatial understanding here. The weaving back and forth, in and out belies logic. Our hotel is indeed modest, but clean. We are asked to remove our shoes at the door, something I have never had to do at the Four Seasons, but maybe a wise policy. There is a locker at the door for our footwear and an assortment of flip flops that can be worn instead. Given that there have been countless, unknown feet in the flip flops, we choose to feel at home and go in bare feet. Our bathroom reminds me of a boat. The bathroom and shower share the same space. There is a nozzle on the wall. You put away the toilet paper and anything else that you would not want to get wet and you proceed with your shower. Takes a bit of wiping down, but clean is clean and always welcome. Again, boaters would have no issue with this approach to using small spaces wisely. We are staying in an area filled with backpacker hotels and suddenly, there are lots of white folks around, many very young - well okay, in their 20's. Different from anywhere else we have been.

Given the pace around here, we decided it might be wise to book a day tour around HCMC yesterday to see the highlights. We had a full day - the War Remnants Museum (which was a very moving experience and makes one wonder why war even continues to exist), the Post Office, Notre Dame Cathedral, a famous pagoda, an embroidery store, a laquer factory that employs disabled people, and the extraordinary Reunification Palace. A very simple lunch (rice, three slices of cucumber, one and a half thin tomato slices, a bit of egg and some soup) was also included for our $9 US fee for the day.

As we continue through this country, both Katherine and I are feeling a need to do more reading on the history of Vietnam. There are a lot of moving parts and we are struggling to connect all the dots - French, American, Chinese invasions, cooperation at other times with Japan and China, Vietcong - it is all a bit of a muddle in our heads. What impresses us, if we ask locals how they feel about Americans in their midst after the war, the answer is a gracious one - "It was the government, not the people, who wanted the war."

One of the famed places in HCMC is the Rex Hotel. The rooftop deck is where the foreign journalists used to gather during the war. Katherine and I were dropped off there after our tour and we headed straight to the roof for a fancy, if strong cocktail. It was cooler and fairly peaceful up there. We decided to stay for a bit of dinner and then make our way back from the five star Rex to the Blue River Hotel in the backpacker district.

Today is starting slowly and hopefully will continue this way. Our goal is to get to the Women's Museum, maybe go to the blind massage place, see the Ben Thanh market (I may have the spelling wrong) and find a cafe where we can watch the world go by. Tomorrow, we are going to the Mekong Delta. Friday, back home for me. The time is slowly disappearing.

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Comments

[Katrina]

Nancy, I'm impressed with your Vietnamese, I'm able to understand and recognize all the places you've mentioned! If you have time, do go to the Cu Chi tunnel, that's a very interesting site if you're into the whole war and history. The war museum is very sad isn't it? I wanted to cry looking at all those pictures in there. Did you take a peak inside one of the jail cell? I looked inside one but didn't have the guts to look inside the other. Hmm, if you want a nice view of the city from up high, go to the Sheraton Saigon, they have a nice bar up on the roof, just to have a few drinks and chit chat. Anyhow, I'm looking forward to hearing all your stories!