VIETNAM AND SINGAPORE

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This skinny strip of land called Vietnam is home to more than 85 million people, making it more densely populated than China. They are the world’s second biggest exporter of rice and coffee. The Vietnamese are the smallest of all of the Asian and the government is looking into ways to change this. Since KFC has thousands of outlets in Vietnam, it probably won’t take long to see some additional girth on many residents. There is a high literacy rate of 94% and there is supposed to be freedom of religion. The country is still tightly controlled from Communist Hanoi but home and business ownership is now allowed. Like China, the government wants to have a capitalistic economy and a communist society. This is a cash and carry society. There are no such things as mortgages or car loans. A house is always paid for in full, in cash. This is a very young population and most of them were born after the American War, as that conflict is referred to here. There seems to be no ill feeling towards Americans—we have found it to be quite the contrary. The people we have encountered are extremely warm and welcoming especially in the southern part of the country.

Our first stop was in Chan May, the port city for Hue, Hoi An and DaNang. We have recently been to all three of these major tourist attractions so we decided to explore the area closer to the port. It was a beautiful warm day upon our arrival. We went with Joe and Nancy in their private car. About ten minutes out of the port we were waved over by some military men with big guns. We still aren’t sure what the problem was but we guess they wanted a monetary kickback. I was of the opinion that since they had the guns, we might consider paying them a small amount to appease them. Our guide and driver spent 15 minutes arguing and shouting and gesturing. Fortunately they reached an agreement and I didn’t see any money change hands. Like many poor totalitarian societies, there is a lot of corruption as people strive to survive by whatever means are available. This usually takes the form of baksheesh or protection payments and bribes.

We drove past rice paddies and water buffalo and miles of trucks waiting to take their cut logs to the port. We visited two resorts and the small village of Chan May. The Nirvana Resort is a unique place with about 20 individual homes where the bottom floor is the living/dining areas and the upstairs is the bedrooms/spa areas. They had western prices for the spa facilities and the place was deserted. They had finished construction and opened for sales several months ago, just in time for the economic downturn. I can’t imagine that the developers will recoup their investment anytime soon.

We had monsoon winds as we cruised off the Vietnam coast. With the winds behind us, it creates conditions where the following seas resemble galloping white horses as the waves curl up and crest with white foam. The wind pushed us down the coast in a hurry.

We entered the mouth of the Saigon River at dawn and cruised up to Ho Chi Minh City. This river forms part of the Mekong River Delta and it is filled with fishing boats, ferries, dredges and every sort of ocean going craft imaginable. It is one busy river with a strong current and it demands skilled seamanship to navigate through the obstacle course of maritime traffic.

Fortunately it was a Sunday, so the ride from the pier to downtown just took 20 minutes. In past years this same trip has taken up to two hours due to gridlock. I could write a book about the traffic situation in Saigon from the point of view of a pedestrian but I’ll save the gory details for another time. All I can say is that the simple task of crossing a street is the most death defying act of our cruise. I think that all 85 million residents of Vietnam have motorbikes and they are all on the streets of Ho Chi Minh City at the same time. You have to take a deep breath, close your eyes, start walking in a straight line and hope for the best when you step off a curb. Actually even the sidewalks aren’t a safe haven as the scooters will drive on them to get around the hordes of bikers. Dr Tinkle was trying to cross a street by the Rex Hotel and he waited for 15 minutes hoping for a break in the traffic. Finally a young Vietnamese boy came up and took his arm and propelled Lloyd safely through the melee. We have gotten into the habit of taking cabs just to get across the big boulevards. One ray of hope is that we saw two intersections that now have traffic lights. But for most motorbikers a red light is merely a suggestion and is almost always ignored.

In spite of that one problem, we love Saigon and her people and enjoy wandering the neighborhoods just for the lively street scenes. We hired a guide and car to take us around suburban Saigon. I prefer to use the name Saigon because that is what the locals call Ho Chi Minh City. They feel that the rulers in Hanoi are trying to force the name change and they don’t want any part of it. When we drove past an official looking building Kevin asked our guide, Nguyen, what it was used for. He said, “that is the school where people are taught Communism, and Marxism, and Leninism, and f**kism. We thought we misunderstood what he was saying so we asked him to repeat it. He said after the bureaucrats learn all these isms that is what they do to the people. He told us about his father-in-law who worked as an adviser to the Americans during the Vietnam conflict. As soon as the U.S left, his house was confiscated and he was arrested and taken to the countryside to be re-educated. Nguyen has little respect for the system he is forced to live and work in.

We visited Chinatown and the fabric district as well as the pottery and flower districts. In the fabric neighborhood we climbed a rickety old fire escape just to get an overview of the thousands of bolts of colorful fabrics which line the streets and alleys. Nguyen then took us to his favorite pho house. This is the national noodle dish of Vietnam. He told us that when ordering pho, we must end the word with a question mark. Without that intonation we would be asking not for soup but for a prostitute.

Back at the pier a small market had been set up where the merchants sold tourist trinkets and ceramic elephants. The colorful pottery pieces stand about two feet high and make great end tables and lamp stands. We bought our first ones forty years ago for $5 each. Now the price has skyrocketed to $10! So we couldn’t resist picking up a pair of pachyderms. There was also a restaurant set up on the pier and most of the crew was enjoying the Asian food. We did wonder how the dishes were cleaned and then we saw that the workers were hauling water out of the brown river and filling their wash buckets. We didn’t hear of anyone getting sick, but if you could see the river, you would have second thoughts about it being used as dishwater.

We cruised back down the Saigon River dodging ships and lightening all the way to the South China Sea.

In Singapore we went with Dr Tinkle in search of a good set of hearing aids. Our guide took us to a nice doctor who tested and outfitted Dr Tinkle within an hour. After some shopping in Chinatown we went to the famous Raffles Hotel. This beautiful colonial edifice is like a time warp oasis in the middle of a modern city filled with skyscrapers. We saw the “long bar” famous for Singapore Slings and visited the hotel’s museum which harkened back to a more genteel era. There were pictures of Elizabeth Taylor looking regal in a tiara and flowing gown. We also saw a poster advertisement for a world cruise in 1910. It lasted four months and cost $650—per person. The prices have increased a tad since then.

The Crystal Serenity was docked next to us and we had gotten permission to go aboard to visit our friends and fellow hosts, Bob and Kathy Wallace. They took us around the ship and we drooled at the beautiful tennis courts. The public rooms are really nice and quite spacious. The Serenity is also on a world cruise. Kathy and Bob gave us a Balinese umbrella which they have gotten while visiting that lovely island. The ship had developed a problem with one of their pod engines which slowed them down considerably. They had to bypass several ports much to the chagrin of some passengers.

We were getting ready to go back to our ship when we ran into our friends from Tiburon, Rick and Kathy Rose. Rick is a guest speaker on board ships. We first met them on the 2001 Seabourn Sun world cruise and have been good friends ever since. So the six of us sat around for an hour chatting about the joys of world cruising and how lucky we all are to be able to experience this wonderful way of life.

As much as we enjoy the teeming metropolises of Manila, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Saigon, Singapore is a nice respite from the tumult of those mega- cities. The air is mostly smog-free, the streets are crossable, there is a great subway system, the groomed parks are lovely and the hawker food stalls are a favorite of ours. Singapore is a melting pot of religions, races and cultures and it all seems to work in a very orderly and peaceful fashion. We wish we had more time to enjoy this fine island state.

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Photos

RAFFLES
Time for a Singapore Sling!