I know I already did a New Year's post, but this is different because it's for the lunar new year, and there's a rooster involved, and it gives me an excuse to show you a video of a naturally-occurring cock fight street fight that I took in Kratie, Cambodia:
Kinda cool, right?
Anyhow, people born in this lunar year have, obviously, the zodiac sign of the rooster, but there is also an element pairing each year. The 2017 element-animal combo is "fire rooster" -- so if you know of any babies due to be born this year and want to know exactly what all aspects of their life will be like, check out the horoscopes for fire roosters ;)
Da Nang
After Hanoi, I ventured down to Da Nang via a 20-hour sleeper train, which was a new transportation experience for me. Definitely more comfortable than sleeping on a bus, and since sleeping is pretty much all I did that entire time, this was quite nice (it wasn't a fancy train with a old-timey train bar and cafe area where I could go and socialize with other passengers, so my activities were rather limited... plus I'm just always ready and willing to rest).
Da Nang was an important city in the Vietnam War (as it is located near the halfway point dividing North and South Vietnam), and I figured it would be an interesting place to check out for that reason. It's odd though -- sometimes I feel inclined to visit a place that was significant for one historical reason or another, but then I get there, and I think, "huh... I wonder what I was expecting from this." For example, the Da Nang of 2017 is not the Da Nang from 50 years ago (...obviously...fortunately....otherwise I wouldn't be venturing there on holiday). I guess I thought that if I could just BE in a place where some big things happened, where it is quite likely that at least one of the Vietnam Veterans I've worked with had engaged in combat at one point or another, I would be able to absorb some of the energy from that time and understand it a bit better on a more visceral level. However, that wasn't really what happened.
Fortunately, Da Nang does have a war museum, so I visited that to get my "connect to the veterans" fix. The thing is, though, the captioning in the photos are worded in a pretty rough way regarding the portrayal of American soldiers. As I see more and more of these Vietnam War museums, memorials, etc. (which I'll discuss in more length in a separate post), I have to keep reminding myself that making the enemy seem like awful people is just always, always what happens before fighting, during fighting, and after fighting (at least for a while). It's what has to happen, really, to get people motivated to kill strangers who they don't have any personal issue with. We do it too, of course; I'm sure our museums about the civil war don't depict both sides as having equally valid perspectives, nor would a museum about any international conflicts we have engaged in. So when I start feeling myself getting defensive, I just need to remember it isn't personal, in a weird way.... humans are just really bad at admitting that no one ever knows the whole picture and we very rarely, if ever, know which side has -- objectively -- the higher moral ground and/or justification for their share of the violence and fighting.
Hoi An Ancient Town
When people go to Da Nang, it's usually just as a quick stopover on their way to Hoi An, which is an UNESCO World Heritage site. It was a trading port in the 15th to 19th centuries and, because of the trade, has been heavily influenced by East Asia (China and Japan) as well as Southeast Asia. It's just one of those old, charming, quirky, beautiful places that is perfect for walking around all day, admiring the architecture and street decor (so may lanterns!!), snacking on street food, and people-watching.
Floating lanterns! (The photo doesn't do them justice...)
Ho Chi Minh City Tour
Just to make sure everyone is aware, Ho Chi Minh City and Saigon are the same city. It was called Saigon until the North Vietnamese won the war and re-named it Ho Chi Minh City, but both names are still used throughout Vietnam interchangeably. The city tour guide told us something very interesting about how the media uses these names: evidently, when news of the city is good, they'll call it Ho Chi Min City; when the news is bad, it's Saigon. For example: "Today in Ho Chi Minh City, five students were honored with international scholastic merit awards"; "The crime rate in Saigon is up 8% since last year."
I don't want to bore you with details about all the things the tour covered, but here's a quick recap: a prominent pagoda (prayer temple), a food market, the War Remnants Museum, the Reunification Palace, lunch at a pho restaurant (I eat pho about every three days now that I'm in Vietnam), a lacquerware gift shop where we learned briefly how pearl-inlay art is made, and a walk down Flower Street.
Flags of ASEAN
(Association of South East Asian Nations)
From right to left: ASEAN flag, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, Philippines, Myanmar, Malaysia, Laos, Indonesia, Cambodia, Burnei
A scaled down version of the Notre Dame cathedral
(one of several reminders of the strong French influence from the days of French occupation/colonization of Vietnam)
Incense is used for prayers, because because they believe the smoke helps carry the prayer energy/energy of intention up to god
(It smelled really good... I might become an incense-using person when I get home)
Main prayer area
Lanterns and incense in pagoda courtyard area
Cone hats: a real thing that Vietnamese people wear often, not just a tourist gimmick (although to be fair, I have no idea if these are Vietnamese people or tourists, because this photo was taken outside a tourist attraction: the Reunification Palace)
Re-Unification Palace (AKA "Independence Palace"): the communist flag and Vietnamese flag side by side looking pretty matchy-matchy
Fun Fact: The tour guide said Vietnam has four national leaders, but when I looked it up, I only found three (still a lot). I asked, "When it's time to meet with foreign leaders, who goes to those meetings?" and he said, "it depends on what the meeting is about." Quite interesting. I wonder how much overlap there is between duties and how disputes between the leaders get resolved. (But not enough to look it up just yet). In any case, these are the three national leadership roles:
1) The Secretary-General of the Communist Party
2) The President
3) The Prime Minister
This used to be an apartment building, but it's been re-purposed as a commercial building
where several cafes, clothing boutiques, and coffee shops now are.
View from inside one of the apartment-cafes (I'm really into it and I want to turn my next apartment into a cafe...)
View of Flower Street from the apartment-cafe deck
I met Lisa from Canada (the woman below who is not me) in the middle of the street (she was giving me advice about how to not get hit by scooters), and then we met up the next day at Starbucks. I told her about the Bonderman, she was pretty blown away, and jealous, and (semi-jokingly) said she hated me. Instant friendship. We hung out more that night, and she introduced me to these two guys, whose names I do not remember, and a couple from Poland.
We ended up at a bar called The Office, and as soon as we went inside, several women said, "hello!" which was a bit startling. After noticing how dressed up and unusually friendly the women were, we realized we'd stumbled into a brothel of sorts. But we stayed for a few drinks anyhow, because why not, really? (Somewhat related note: I watched Full Metal Jacket for the first time and finally realized that THAT is where the "me so horny, me love you long time" thing is from....)
The Tet Flower Street Festival
I think this street is only called "flower street" during the Tet celebrations, for reasons that should be clear after looking at these photos. There's not much to say about it, but a LOT to see, so here's a bunch more pictures!
Lots of people posing for formal New Year's photos in traditional and non-traditional Vietnamese formal wear (I love those dresses!)
These cuties remind me of my nieces....
And of course some people chose to express themselves with non-formal/traditional outfits...
Flower Street at night:
There were more festivities at a park near the hostel, including a lion (or dog?) dance, a dragon dance, and "underwater waterfalls" in an aquarium.... which I think is an illusion created with a sand pump? Pretty dope.
Water Puppet Show
The water puppet show was one of my very favorite things in Vietnam so far. This is the theater and the show I went to (there just happened to be a video of it on YouTube):
And now that you've seen a little bit of it, I bet your'e wondering (as I was), how the hell the puppets are controlled. Here's the deal: The puppets stand on a round wooden plate and can rotate around it horizontal. The plate is linked with a long pole and the puppeteers will use large rods to support the puppets moving. You see no puppeteers, no machines or instruments, and even no controlling poles. You only watch the puppets on a water surface. It's awesome. And it's been around since the 11th century!! Here's a video that shows a bit more about the mechanisms at work, with a man making the puppets, if case you want to learn a bit more about how it all works.
That's it for now! Next post: Notes on the Vietnam War