왔어! We're back in Korea... Finally! We do both love to travel, and curiosity takes us all over the world, but our style is less vacation (relax-y) and a bit more adventure (excursion-y) so we didn't come back well rested with bright eyes. That's for sure! But we slept almost all weekend, and by Monday, J was off to school and I had a million errands to run. And it just felt so right. It felt great that our friends and co-workers were excited to see us and welcomed us home "왔어!"
It really was a bit of a surprise to both of us just how refreshing it felt to be back in Korea. It hit home for us, I think, just how at home we are here. We've built quite a little life for ourselves. There are a few things that are still a little rough, though. We both still jump and skip a breath when a motorcycle passes by, and the cold was pretty hard to readjust to. And waking up before the sun is brutal. But it's all worth it to be back to our comfortable day-to-day in our sweet little apartment.
As you can assume, there isn't much to tell in this first week back. Though there was a full moon and I did learn from my Korean friends that there are certain foods you absolutely must eat on the day of the full moon to keep away the ghosts (bad spirits). So next month keep in mind, munch on nuts, chestnuts especially, lest you be stuck with a ghost till April.
Have a great week everyone!
-K
Sunday, February 19, 2017
Tuesday, February 14, 2017
Nha Trang & Hue, Vietnam
Alrighty! Now for our last post on the vacation. We stopped for a few days in two, slightly smaller Vietnamese cities at the tail end of the trip. I (Katy) will have a few more pictures as well, as after the robbery I moved on to using my phone for photos. So you'll have to pardon the quality, but at least they add to the post.
Nha Trang was a beach town, and much like beach towns that I've been to along the east coast, it was touristy with beach-y shops and vacationers year round. Interestingly, most of the vacationers were from Russia which I hypothesize has something to do with a friendly political relationship after the American (Vietnam) war in which communism won out. Though I admittedly haven't done my homework on the subject, so it's just a guess. We were lucky enough to stay in a simple little hotel just a block from the beach with a balcony that had a great view of the sunrise on the days when the sun came out. Unfortunately for our stay in a beach town, it was mostly cloudy and a bit rainy for a few days. We were glad, however, after the exhausting experiences of Ho Chi Minh city, to sit and read and watch the rain on the ocean from our balcony for a bit.
We did get out and enjoy three places of interest, two of which revolve around food. First though, I'll tell you about the embroidery gallery. Vietnam is known for it's artisan embroidery, which is so increadibly detailed that often they look like very realistic paintings until you really get up close. The gallery was lovely, and had a courtyard in the middle where women dressed in traditional clothes would work on embroidery all day long for viewers to watch. Each finished product then went up in the gallery, and the pieces were occasionally sold off, much like an art gallery in the states. The most impressive works, in my opinion, were those that were done on a sheer silk. Silk is another craft of Vietnam, but more on that later. There was even a section of the gallery dedicated to famous figures who had visited, and were invited to tie knots in a rainbow of embroidery threads hanging from a sort of loom. The result was this sort of strange knotted, colorful weave looking piece that hung from a section of the gallery where photos were not allowed (so sorry, no pictures).
Then for the food! Our particular interest in food on this leg of the trip had something to do with it coenciding with my birthday. As much as I enjoy vietnamese food in all of it's brothy, salty deliciousness, I was thrilled to find two western restaurants in Nha Trang to celebrate. The first was a barbeque art collective run by a couple of expats out of California. They served ribs, pulled pork, sausages, mac n' cheese, coleslaw and all the fixins on the patio, while indoors they ran a studio where any local artist could come to work and sell their work. There was everything from leather goods to paintings and pottery. The whole atmosphere felt very west coast USA and the food was very southern USA and that all suited me very well. Later that day we visited a local brewery (not a common sight in Vietnam) and enjoyed a few beers, some wine, and Jamie even surprised me with chocolate cake. I went to bed blissfully happy, over-full, and 24 that night. Hooray!
On our last day in Nha Trang, we were scheduled to board a sleeper train to Hue at 7pm, but had to check out of the hotel at noon. The hotel was kind enough to hold our bags for us, so we spent the afternoon lounging on the beach with a rented umbrella and chairs, reading and talking and occasionally running down to the water to remind ourselves just how cold the South China Sea really is. It was the first completely sunny day since our arrival in the beach town, and it was a perfect day for waiting on a train.
The sleeper train is part of a rather extensive rail route through SE Asia, connecting Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam. It's certainly not a high speed rail line, but is probably one of the most beautiful ways to see the country. We had used the same means of transportation between Ho Chi Minh City and Nha Trang, and would again to get from Hue to the airport. During the two longest trips between cities, 9 hours between HCM and NT and 13 hours between NT and Hue, we purchased tickets in "soft beds" in sleeper cars of the train. Each compartment had four beds (two bunks) and each time we shared our compartment with a Vietnamese family and their young children. Watching the children's fascination with the train was pretty cute, but waiting for them to calm down so we could all sleep was less so. Each morning we woke up on a train, we could step outside our compartment and just watch the countryside roll by. Often enough this was a picturesque view of the ocean from the mountainside we were rounding, or a glimpse at rural Vietnamese life as we rolled through tiny little towns along the way. Just before bed, and first thing in the morning, carts would roll through the cabin selling corn on the cob and candies. I was surprised by how eagerly both of the families we traveled with snatched up the freshly boiled corn, like grabbing a corn-dog at the carnival. Apparently that's normal. Our last train trip was between Hue and the airport and for this trip we actually bought "soft seat" tickets, since the trip was during the day and only 3 hours. It was nice to sit upright, and the car we were in came equipped with outlets so that as long as you had a data plan you could listen to music indefinitely. Now just a note on "soft bed" and "soft seat". This simply means that these had a bit more cushion than their "hard" counterparts. A "hard seat" was a bench, and a "hard bed" was little more than a bunk without a mattress. We, obviously, opted for the "soft" rides.
Now on to Hue, our favorite of the Vietnamese cities we visited. Hue was the old seat of power back when Emperors ruled Vietnam (which was surprisingly recently). In this city we stayed at a home-stay, with a lovely Vietnamese family, whose son spoke English and helped them manage the air bnb. We got the upper floor to ourselves, complete with a balcony and washroom (sadly, still no hot water). The city of Hue is lovely not just for it's situation along the Perfume river, but also for it's preservation as a historic town. The buildings were a mix of french colonial and traditional Vietnamese, and the whole area was dotted with UNESCO protected "historic sites." A large portion of the city is sectioned off with an ancient wall and moat protecting the Citadel, the old palace grounds where the Emperor and his family lived as late as the American (Vietnam) war. The surrounding city is called the "old city" and there is barely more to the town than that, except for residential areas that sprawls up into the hills.
We spent an entire day of our stay in Hue exploring the expansive grounds of the Citadel. The space was beautiful and incredibly sad at the same time. Restoration is ongoing, but the entire grounds were bombed heavily during the war, destroying some of the most significant cultural artifacts and architecture of Vietnam. While we were invited to walk around anywhere on the grounds, certain buildings were off limits while they were restored, or simply because they are not structurally sound. The are enormous gaping holes in the walls where the fighting was particularly destructive, and large framed photographs of the original splendor, as well as the destruction immediately following the war. Only one of the original traditional gardens remain. I could go on and on about how beautiful the place was, but the pictures will do a better job I think.
On another day in Hue we visited a silk shop. Silk, as I mentioned is a traditional craft of Vietnam and so many people come to buy the varying weights, types, and colors of silk produced here. At the shop we stopped in, they also did tailoring, alterations, and custom work. So for the surprisingly low cost of $25 USD, I had a set of custom, handmade silk pajamas made which were completed within 24 hours of placing my order. The ladies who worked at the shop were very encouraging and incredibly talented so that we returned a few days later to get a tie made from a green silk Jamie had been eyeing. We bought almost no souvenirs on the trip that weren't gifts for friends in Korea, but the silk clothes were a pretty great takeaway to remind us of the better parts of the vacation.
Finally, our last excursion before we left Hue was a trip to the local temple, which happened to be the center of the Buddhist Association for the province. It was a beautiful, active temple, a bit different from those we have in Korea. First of all, it seemed very involved in the community, as there were numerous school children from the surrounding neighborhood playing and studying there. The temple grounds (except the dormitories, of course) were open to the public all day and there were meetings happening in a pagoda between a couple of monks and a few people dressed in plain clothes. We sat in a bonsai garden for a while, reading about Buddhism in Vietnam and the history of this particular temple. We learned that one of the largest trees on the property was said to have been grown from a sprig of the tree under which the original Buddha became enlightened. The temple had also sustained damage during the war, as well as throughout it's history when Vietnam went through a phase of trying to cast out Buddhism. They are now thriving, and have their own flag, as well as many statues and towers.
I believe that about wraps up our winter trip this year. We arrived back in Korea safe, sound, and exhausted mid-day on Friday and took the high speed rail home from Seoul. Our apartment was frigidly cold, and our lungs had to re-adjust to the winter weather. But we are glad to be back. Simply hearing Korean was such a warm welcome, that it seems we've really settled in and made ourselves a home here. I'm happy to be working and studying again, and Jamie's kids were thrilled to see him on his first day back yesterday. It's hard having to wake up before the sun again, but it's always nice to wake up in your own bed.
So more news on Korea next week. Happy Valentines Day, everyone!
-K
Nha Trang was a beach town, and much like beach towns that I've been to along the east coast, it was touristy with beach-y shops and vacationers year round. Interestingly, most of the vacationers were from Russia which I hypothesize has something to do with a friendly political relationship after the American (Vietnam) war in which communism won out. Though I admittedly haven't done my homework on the subject, so it's just a guess. We were lucky enough to stay in a simple little hotel just a block from the beach with a balcony that had a great view of the sunrise on the days when the sun came out. Unfortunately for our stay in a beach town, it was mostly cloudy and a bit rainy for a few days. We were glad, however, after the exhausting experiences of Ho Chi Minh city, to sit and read and watch the rain on the ocean from our balcony for a bit.
We did get out and enjoy three places of interest, two of which revolve around food. First though, I'll tell you about the embroidery gallery. Vietnam is known for it's artisan embroidery, which is so increadibly detailed that often they look like very realistic paintings until you really get up close. The gallery was lovely, and had a courtyard in the middle where women dressed in traditional clothes would work on embroidery all day long for viewers to watch. Each finished product then went up in the gallery, and the pieces were occasionally sold off, much like an art gallery in the states. The most impressive works, in my opinion, were those that were done on a sheer silk. Silk is another craft of Vietnam, but more on that later. There was even a section of the gallery dedicated to famous figures who had visited, and were invited to tie knots in a rainbow of embroidery threads hanging from a sort of loom. The result was this sort of strange knotted, colorful weave looking piece that hung from a section of the gallery where photos were not allowed (so sorry, no pictures).
Then for the food! Our particular interest in food on this leg of the trip had something to do with it coenciding with my birthday. As much as I enjoy vietnamese food in all of it's brothy, salty deliciousness, I was thrilled to find two western restaurants in Nha Trang to celebrate. The first was a barbeque art collective run by a couple of expats out of California. They served ribs, pulled pork, sausages, mac n' cheese, coleslaw and all the fixins on the patio, while indoors they ran a studio where any local artist could come to work and sell their work. There was everything from leather goods to paintings and pottery. The whole atmosphere felt very west coast USA and the food was very southern USA and that all suited me very well. Later that day we visited a local brewery (not a common sight in Vietnam) and enjoyed a few beers, some wine, and Jamie even surprised me with chocolate cake. I went to bed blissfully happy, over-full, and 24 that night. Hooray!
On our last day in Nha Trang, we were scheduled to board a sleeper train to Hue at 7pm, but had to check out of the hotel at noon. The hotel was kind enough to hold our bags for us, so we spent the afternoon lounging on the beach with a rented umbrella and chairs, reading and talking and occasionally running down to the water to remind ourselves just how cold the South China Sea really is. It was the first completely sunny day since our arrival in the beach town, and it was a perfect day for waiting on a train.
The sleeper train is part of a rather extensive rail route through SE Asia, connecting Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam. It's certainly not a high speed rail line, but is probably one of the most beautiful ways to see the country. We had used the same means of transportation between Ho Chi Minh City and Nha Trang, and would again to get from Hue to the airport. During the two longest trips between cities, 9 hours between HCM and NT and 13 hours between NT and Hue, we purchased tickets in "soft beds" in sleeper cars of the train. Each compartment had four beds (two bunks) and each time we shared our compartment with a Vietnamese family and their young children. Watching the children's fascination with the train was pretty cute, but waiting for them to calm down so we could all sleep was less so. Each morning we woke up on a train, we could step outside our compartment and just watch the countryside roll by. Often enough this was a picturesque view of the ocean from the mountainside we were rounding, or a glimpse at rural Vietnamese life as we rolled through tiny little towns along the way. Just before bed, and first thing in the morning, carts would roll through the cabin selling corn on the cob and candies. I was surprised by how eagerly both of the families we traveled with snatched up the freshly boiled corn, like grabbing a corn-dog at the carnival. Apparently that's normal. Our last train trip was between Hue and the airport and for this trip we actually bought "soft seat" tickets, since the trip was during the day and only 3 hours. It was nice to sit upright, and the car we were in came equipped with outlets so that as long as you had a data plan you could listen to music indefinitely. Now just a note on "soft bed" and "soft seat". This simply means that these had a bit more cushion than their "hard" counterparts. A "hard seat" was a bench, and a "hard bed" was little more than a bunk without a mattress. We, obviously, opted for the "soft" rides.
 |
| Wearing masks to keep from getting sicker or infecting anyone |
Now on to Hue, our favorite of the Vietnamese cities we visited. Hue was the old seat of power back when Emperors ruled Vietnam (which was surprisingly recently). In this city we stayed at a home-stay, with a lovely Vietnamese family, whose son spoke English and helped them manage the air bnb. We got the upper floor to ourselves, complete with a balcony and washroom (sadly, still no hot water). The city of Hue is lovely not just for it's situation along the Perfume river, but also for it's preservation as a historic town. The buildings were a mix of french colonial and traditional Vietnamese, and the whole area was dotted with UNESCO protected "historic sites." A large portion of the city is sectioned off with an ancient wall and moat protecting the Citadel, the old palace grounds where the Emperor and his family lived as late as the American (Vietnam) war. The surrounding city is called the "old city" and there is barely more to the town than that, except for residential areas that sprawls up into the hills.
We spent an entire day of our stay in Hue exploring the expansive grounds of the Citadel. The space was beautiful and incredibly sad at the same time. Restoration is ongoing, but the entire grounds were bombed heavily during the war, destroying some of the most significant cultural artifacts and architecture of Vietnam. While we were invited to walk around anywhere on the grounds, certain buildings were off limits while they were restored, or simply because they are not structurally sound. The are enormous gaping holes in the walls where the fighting was particularly destructive, and large framed photographs of the original splendor, as well as the destruction immediately following the war. Only one of the original traditional gardens remain. I could go on and on about how beautiful the place was, but the pictures will do a better job I think.
Finally, our last excursion before we left Hue was a trip to the local temple, which happened to be the center of the Buddhist Association for the province. It was a beautiful, active temple, a bit different from those we have in Korea. First of all, it seemed very involved in the community, as there were numerous school children from the surrounding neighborhood playing and studying there. The temple grounds (except the dormitories, of course) were open to the public all day and there were meetings happening in a pagoda between a couple of monks and a few people dressed in plain clothes. We sat in a bonsai garden for a while, reading about Buddhism in Vietnam and the history of this particular temple. We learned that one of the largest trees on the property was said to have been grown from a sprig of the tree under which the original Buddha became enlightened. The temple had also sustained damage during the war, as well as throughout it's history when Vietnam went through a phase of trying to cast out Buddhism. They are now thriving, and have their own flag, as well as many statues and towers.
I believe that about wraps up our winter trip this year. We arrived back in Korea safe, sound, and exhausted mid-day on Friday and took the high speed rail home from Seoul. Our apartment was frigidly cold, and our lungs had to re-adjust to the winter weather. But we are glad to be back. Simply hearing Korean was such a warm welcome, that it seems we've really settled in and made ourselves a home here. I'm happy to be working and studying again, and Jamie's kids were thrilled to see him on his first day back yesterday. It's hard having to wake up before the sun again, but it's always nice to wake up in your own bed.
So more news on Korea next week. Happy Valentines Day, everyone!
-K
Monday, February 6, 2017
Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam
Hello, all. Katy here again. This week I want to tell you all about Ho Chi Minh City, and Tet, which is the Vietnamese celebration of the Lunar New Year. This post is going to have a lot of good, and unfortunately, some really bad in it. It was a complicated week to say the least.
First of all, some of you might know that Ho Chi Minh isn't the only name the city holds. Many also call it Saigon. So let's clarify. Ho Chi Minh has been the official name of the city since the American War ended (the Vietnam War from our perspective) and the city was renamed to reflect the name of a beloved communist revolutionary leader. Vietnam's relationship with Ho Chi Minh the man is an interesting one. There are statues of him everywhere, and student read about him from a very young age in school. He is said to have never married, and this is very important to many people, for he was married to the revolution. He is purported to have had no other attachments but the communist revolution, and is loved for it. Of course, not everyone was on the side of the revolution, and many were out of country, so there are still those who call the city Saigon. But it does seem pretty widely accepted that the name is now Ho Chi Minh (HCM), and boy do these folks love that guy. It is good to know, whenever you may visit, however, that HCM and Saigon are used interchangeably in conversation, as names of hotels and restaurants, and the like. This is all still pretty recent in history, remember.
Traveling to Ho Chi Minh this time of year was deliberate on our part, as I especially really wanted to celebrate the lunar new year somewhere where it was a big deal, and there were lots of public events to show. Tet is the name of the holiday here, and much like New Years in the states, the eve before is a big deal as well. Jamie and I spent Tet eve at a flower festival that, if you remember our pictures of the festival in Busan for Christmas, rivaled Korean's enthusiasm for crowding and selfies. Keep in mind that it is quite warm here. Not as close to the equator as we were in Indonesia, but just as warm minus the humidity. So we went to the festival at night to beat the heat, and wound up sitting by a lily pond watching a magnificently detailed light show of flowers blooming and butterflies projected onto one of the facades of a huge white city building. The whole show was set to music, big booming Tet music with a heavy drum beat, and took full advantage of the shape of the building. Often the projected images were made to look as if they were coming out of the windows, or contained by the shape of the building. I was thoroughly impressed!
On the day of Tet, once again at night, we celebrated by going to a Tet fair in a nearby city park. The set-up was enormous, and involved every inch of the park which took up multiple square city blocks (much like the park blocks in Portland, OR if you happen to have been there). There were some rides for the children, mostly including small circular rollercoasters and play trains, but mostly the fair was for people more interested in cultural displays. For example, bonsai tree competitions. We saw more bonsai trees in more shapes and sizes than I knew possible. The largest ones grew in what looked like porous boulders, and I'm very curious to know what kind of rock forms like that - like swiss cheese. The were decorated with small porcelain figurines, ponds with little boats on them, lights, and flowers. The whole display was incredibly impressive. But back to those rocks... Whatever they were, they were a work of art all to themselves, as there was a separate judging platform just for the rocks. People seemed to be cultivating? growing? these stones into strange shapes with holes and protrusions. I didn't understand the judging, as from my perspective, awards often went to some of the most boring looking rocks, but I can only assume I simply don't understand the art of manipulating stone. Being a fair, there was also food. Food everywhere! Street vendors set up their own streets within the park with lights and music, all fighting for your attention as you walked by. Street food in Vietnam often involves meat on sticks, bao (though a bit different from Chinese bao), and bahn mi which is a sandwich on a simple Vietnamese roll with meat, vegetables (not lettuce) and something pickled (maybe radish?). Oh and there were dragon dances! I've never seen a dragon dance before, but these were two to three people under a classic dragon costume, hopping from platform to platform, about 5 feet in the air, and preforming all sorts of jumps and movements I wouldn't have thought possible. And then there was the pagoda. There was one pagoda in the park, and several around the city... but pagoda's deserve their own paragraph...
Much better. So, pagodas. Tet here is a very unique holiday, and pagodas take a central role. If you've followed this blog since we moved to Korea, you may remember a post about Chusok, the Korean ancestor and harvest festival. Well Tet has a similar tune, with the harvest consisting of flowers only, and the ancestor worship happening in public, rather than in family plots. To understand a Vietnamese Pagoda, and the ancestor rituals there, and Tet as a holiday, it is going to be important to understand a bit about Vietnamese religion. Vietnam is the only country I've ever been to where the predominate religion is a folk religion. And it's not easy to explain. J did a bit of research while we sat observing rituals on a park bench outside a pagoda one afternoon and found a bit of clarifying information. Vietnamese folk religion often looks like a combination of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. Many variations on the religion exist, much like in most religions, that give some sections a heavier emphasis on the values and ideals of one of the three above mentioned larger religions. Vietnamese folk religion recognizes many gods or spirits, and these spirits vary from nature gods of mountains and rivers, to immortal figures in the heavens. Often, a beloved family ancestor is said to have ascended to such god-hood or spirit-hood. There are also some prominent mother goddesses in the ideology to the best of our understanding. It is thought that the religious practices of Vietnam are very similar and perhaps related to those folk religions of Southern China. This makes sense given the long history between China and Vietnam. I wish I could go into more detail, as I did a good deal of reading about the history of Vietnam while in HCM, but I'm afraid this post would become very long. If you are interested though, the history, religion, and culture of Vietnam are well worth some time and research. They are certainly very unique from a western perspective.
So Vietnamese people's celebration of Tet, and particularly their visits to pagoda's are colored by this underlying folk religion. People gather at ornately decorated pagodas (think gold and red and jewels and carvings everywhere), which look like small temples with incense sticks, and jars of an unidentified thick, yellowish liquid. The ritual is done by the young and old, and from a foreign, observing perspective, looked something like this. At the entrance to the pagoda vendors sell incense sticks and old glass soda bottles filled with our mystery liquid. Every person gets as many incense sticks as there are rooms in the pagoda, and each family gets one jar. Everyone moves through the pagoda from room to room and stops at each icon (usually a large and golden statue, surrounded with flowers, and central to the room), raises the incense to their forehead and bows repeatedly while holding the incense at head level. Then an incense stick is left in a prepared pot at the foot of the icon to continue burning while the person moves on the next room. The jar of liquid is reserved for the main room, the largest, usually in the center of the pagoda, where it is poured around a large candle, by an attendant whose job it is to speak a certain phrase as the liquid as it is poured. I don't know what the liquid represents, or who it was for, but each family that visits would tell the attendant something different when they handed over the jar. The attendant however, always said the same thing in response, giving me the impression that you offered the jar in honor of an ancestor, and the attendant said something like a blessing. Again, it was all very difficult to understand, and J and I stood quietly in the corner, not wanting to interfere or gawk at something so clearly significant. The process was ritualized and meaningful, and with the candles and the drums and the incense the whole placed smelled sweet and smoky and had your heart pounding in rhythm.
And now, to address the question as to the lack of photos in this post. With so many beautiful, significant events attended, why so few pictures? Well, as we left the Jade Pagoda on our last day in Ho Chi Minh City, we had a bit of an experience that I've never quite had before in the last 7 or so years of globetrotting. I got my purse snatched walking down the sidewalk. As in, a motorcycle wheeled around on the road and came up onto the side walk to rip off of me the purse that I had slung across my body and was carrying in front of me. The encounter was incredibly startling, scared me in the moment (as I was pulled forcefully until the strap gave way) and utterly miserable. Fortunately I had my phone in hand, and our passports were in a safer location. But the thief made off with my wallet, money, camera, and a few other sentimental trinkets I keep on me at all times (think wallet photos, and such). We were very shaken, and are still recuperating as it has made it a bit hard to fall asleep for a number of nights now. But neither of us were hurt physically, and vital travel documents were all safely stored elsewhere. So there's a travel lesson well learned: make sure the straps on your bags are strong, and short enough to be able to carry them closer to your chest than your hip.
Additionally, J and I were recovering during our stay in HCM from a virus that had us bedridden for a few days of the trip, with fevers and a cough that took our breath away, and though we were on the mend, after the robbery, we plummeted for a few days again. Fortunately, as I mentioned, it was our last day in HCM, and boy were we ready to leave. The festivals were beautiful and the holiday was fascinating, but the city is absolutely enormous, and it left us a bit exhausted and defeated. So we moved on. We hopped on a sleeper train headed north that night. And the rest, is for another post :)
Cheers!
-K
First of all, some of you might know that Ho Chi Minh isn't the only name the city holds. Many also call it Saigon. So let's clarify. Ho Chi Minh has been the official name of the city since the American War ended (the Vietnam War from our perspective) and the city was renamed to reflect the name of a beloved communist revolutionary leader. Vietnam's relationship with Ho Chi Minh the man is an interesting one. There are statues of him everywhere, and student read about him from a very young age in school. He is said to have never married, and this is very important to many people, for he was married to the revolution. He is purported to have had no other attachments but the communist revolution, and is loved for it. Of course, not everyone was on the side of the revolution, and many were out of country, so there are still those who call the city Saigon. But it does seem pretty widely accepted that the name is now Ho Chi Minh (HCM), and boy do these folks love that guy. It is good to know, whenever you may visit, however, that HCM and Saigon are used interchangeably in conversation, as names of hotels and restaurants, and the like. This is all still pretty recent in history, remember.
 |
| The view from our hotel's rooftop bar |
Traveling to Ho Chi Minh this time of year was deliberate on our part, as I especially really wanted to celebrate the lunar new year somewhere where it was a big deal, and there were lots of public events to show. Tet is the name of the holiday here, and much like New Years in the states, the eve before is a big deal as well. Jamie and I spent Tet eve at a flower festival that, if you remember our pictures of the festival in Busan for Christmas, rivaled Korean's enthusiasm for crowding and selfies. Keep in mind that it is quite warm here. Not as close to the equator as we were in Indonesia, but just as warm minus the humidity. So we went to the festival at night to beat the heat, and wound up sitting by a lily pond watching a magnificently detailed light show of flowers blooming and butterflies projected onto one of the facades of a huge white city building. The whole show was set to music, big booming Tet music with a heavy drum beat, and took full advantage of the shape of the building. Often the projected images were made to look as if they were coming out of the windows, or contained by the shape of the building. I was thoroughly impressed!
On the day of Tet, once again at night, we celebrated by going to a Tet fair in a nearby city park. The set-up was enormous, and involved every inch of the park which took up multiple square city blocks (much like the park blocks in Portland, OR if you happen to have been there). There were some rides for the children, mostly including small circular rollercoasters and play trains, but mostly the fair was for people more interested in cultural displays. For example, bonsai tree competitions. We saw more bonsai trees in more shapes and sizes than I knew possible. The largest ones grew in what looked like porous boulders, and I'm very curious to know what kind of rock forms like that - like swiss cheese. The were decorated with small porcelain figurines, ponds with little boats on them, lights, and flowers. The whole display was incredibly impressive. But back to those rocks... Whatever they were, they were a work of art all to themselves, as there was a separate judging platform just for the rocks. People seemed to be cultivating? growing? these stones into strange shapes with holes and protrusions. I didn't understand the judging, as from my perspective, awards often went to some of the most boring looking rocks, but I can only assume I simply don't understand the art of manipulating stone. Being a fair, there was also food. Food everywhere! Street vendors set up their own streets within the park with lights and music, all fighting for your attention as you walked by. Street food in Vietnam often involves meat on sticks, bao (though a bit different from Chinese bao), and bahn mi which is a sandwich on a simple Vietnamese roll with meat, vegetables (not lettuce) and something pickled (maybe radish?). Oh and there were dragon dances! I've never seen a dragon dance before, but these were two to three people under a classic dragon costume, hopping from platform to platform, about 5 feet in the air, and preforming all sorts of jumps and movements I wouldn't have thought possible. And then there was the pagoda. There was one pagoda in the park, and several around the city... but pagoda's deserve their own paragraph...
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| Just outside a pagoda, after having just seen a dragon dance |
Much better. So, pagodas. Tet here is a very unique holiday, and pagodas take a central role. If you've followed this blog since we moved to Korea, you may remember a post about Chusok, the Korean ancestor and harvest festival. Well Tet has a similar tune, with the harvest consisting of flowers only, and the ancestor worship happening in public, rather than in family plots. To understand a Vietnamese Pagoda, and the ancestor rituals there, and Tet as a holiday, it is going to be important to understand a bit about Vietnamese religion. Vietnam is the only country I've ever been to where the predominate religion is a folk religion. And it's not easy to explain. J did a bit of research while we sat observing rituals on a park bench outside a pagoda one afternoon and found a bit of clarifying information. Vietnamese folk religion often looks like a combination of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. Many variations on the religion exist, much like in most religions, that give some sections a heavier emphasis on the values and ideals of one of the three above mentioned larger religions. Vietnamese folk religion recognizes many gods or spirits, and these spirits vary from nature gods of mountains and rivers, to immortal figures in the heavens. Often, a beloved family ancestor is said to have ascended to such god-hood or spirit-hood. There are also some prominent mother goddesses in the ideology to the best of our understanding. It is thought that the religious practices of Vietnam are very similar and perhaps related to those folk religions of Southern China. This makes sense given the long history between China and Vietnam. I wish I could go into more detail, as I did a good deal of reading about the history of Vietnam while in HCM, but I'm afraid this post would become very long. If you are interested though, the history, religion, and culture of Vietnam are well worth some time and research. They are certainly very unique from a western perspective.
So Vietnamese people's celebration of Tet, and particularly their visits to pagoda's are colored by this underlying folk religion. People gather at ornately decorated pagodas (think gold and red and jewels and carvings everywhere), which look like small temples with incense sticks, and jars of an unidentified thick, yellowish liquid. The ritual is done by the young and old, and from a foreign, observing perspective, looked something like this. At the entrance to the pagoda vendors sell incense sticks and old glass soda bottles filled with our mystery liquid. Every person gets as many incense sticks as there are rooms in the pagoda, and each family gets one jar. Everyone moves through the pagoda from room to room and stops at each icon (usually a large and golden statue, surrounded with flowers, and central to the room), raises the incense to their forehead and bows repeatedly while holding the incense at head level. Then an incense stick is left in a prepared pot at the foot of the icon to continue burning while the person moves on the next room. The jar of liquid is reserved for the main room, the largest, usually in the center of the pagoda, where it is poured around a large candle, by an attendant whose job it is to speak a certain phrase as the liquid as it is poured. I don't know what the liquid represents, or who it was for, but each family that visits would tell the attendant something different when they handed over the jar. The attendant however, always said the same thing in response, giving me the impression that you offered the jar in honor of an ancestor, and the attendant said something like a blessing. Again, it was all very difficult to understand, and J and I stood quietly in the corner, not wanting to interfere or gawk at something so clearly significant. The process was ritualized and meaningful, and with the candles and the drums and the incense the whole placed smelled sweet and smoky and had your heart pounding in rhythm.
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| Tet decorations at a nearby cafe |
And now, to address the question as to the lack of photos in this post. With so many beautiful, significant events attended, why so few pictures? Well, as we left the Jade Pagoda on our last day in Ho Chi Minh City, we had a bit of an experience that I've never quite had before in the last 7 or so years of globetrotting. I got my purse snatched walking down the sidewalk. As in, a motorcycle wheeled around on the road and came up onto the side walk to rip off of me the purse that I had slung across my body and was carrying in front of me. The encounter was incredibly startling, scared me in the moment (as I was pulled forcefully until the strap gave way) and utterly miserable. Fortunately I had my phone in hand, and our passports were in a safer location. But the thief made off with my wallet, money, camera, and a few other sentimental trinkets I keep on me at all times (think wallet photos, and such). We were very shaken, and are still recuperating as it has made it a bit hard to fall asleep for a number of nights now. But neither of us were hurt physically, and vital travel documents were all safely stored elsewhere. So there's a travel lesson well learned: make sure the straps on your bags are strong, and short enough to be able to carry them closer to your chest than your hip.
Additionally, J and I were recovering during our stay in HCM from a virus that had us bedridden for a few days of the trip, with fevers and a cough that took our breath away, and though we were on the mend, after the robbery, we plummeted for a few days again. Fortunately, as I mentioned, it was our last day in HCM, and boy were we ready to leave. The festivals were beautiful and the holiday was fascinating, but the city is absolutely enormous, and it left us a bit exhausted and defeated. So we moved on. We hopped on a sleeper train headed north that night. And the rest, is for another post :)
Cheers!
-K
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