Le Vietnam Experience: 2006

Once a war zone, the quiet Pacific Rim country has become an alternative tropical getaway.

While standing on a steaming street corner in Hanoi, Vietnam recently, I realized that the battle raging here between communist ideology and Western-style capitalism is most likely to be won by the side with greater access to cold towels.

This ubiquitous symbol of welcome was proffered at every moist, scorching turn - in airplanes and restaurants and hotel lobbies, on buses and boats and inside shops. The iced white cloths stand as a sign not only that foreign travelers are dropping in faster than American bombs once did (tourism is up 100 percent so far this year over last), but also that business is on the march. And that tourists and business people are treated as honored guests.

Major investment from Intel and Microsoft and a visit by Bill Gates only hint at what's to come. Seattle is also the sister city of Haiphong and is further linked by the Haiphong Seattle Partnership, a pact initiated by the World Bank in 2001 to get developed cities to help less-developed cities build their economies. Seattle has been helping Haiphong improve public health services, attract tourism, build Internet capabilities and develop urban planning. Since then, the region has been visited by Washington leaders including, Mason Sizemore, former chief operating officer of The Seattle Times, Jan Drago, Seattle city councilor; and Dave Dean, former general manager of the Port of Seattle.

A report published recently by Merrill Lynch states, "GDP growth has exceeded 7 percent for each of the last four years and consumption is becoming very conspicuous. Vietnam should not be dismissed as more interesting than investable. It is one of the last frontier emerging economies in the region -an economy that is Communist in name only."

A NEW ERA
When my wife, and I told friends of our impending journey to the Land of Ascending Dragons, many wondered why a couple from the Northwest would travel to a communist country that we were at war with not very long ago. But we were charmed by the gracious welcome we received.

"When I expressed my own surprise at the warm, friendly attitude of the people not that long after the fall of Saigon, a Vietnamese acquaintance explained that 1) Vietnam won the war; 2) their country has been occupied for centuries, and Americans were only there for 20 years; and 3) Americans are much friendlier, more curious and respectful, and happier than the Russians and Chinese who came after us. All of that combines to make the Vietnamese smile and welcome us back."

The Vietnamese may have even more reason to smile: the country is awaiting imminent acceptance into the WTO, which will expand markets for its increasing production of everything from rice to raincoats. And as hosts of the 2006 APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) Summit, it's clear that this long-ignored Pacific Rim powerhouse is, in fact, ascending.

While the business climate is hot (and the climate in general downright tropical), tourists - including a large influx of Americans from Washington to Florida - are discovering that Vietnam offers a refreshing cocktail of ancient and modern influences, from Eastern temples and pagodas to French-accented food and architecture, all blended amid the fast maturing culture of a third-world agricultural nation joining the high-tech market economy, mostly on whizzing motorbikes.

Boasting a panoply of sights and sounds, five-star infrastructure such as hotels and restaurants, and the kind of shake-your-head contrasts that make for stirring photography (a skyscraper rising out of a rice paddy; a young couple and two pigs riding a scooter; a street-side noodle shop fronting a couture dressmaker's showroom), Vietnam is worth a closer look to those with business interests or a traveler's curiosity.

WHERE TO BEGIN
Most travelers start in the north or south end of the country and work their way in the opposite direction. We began our own tour in the southern city of Saigon (also known as Ho Chi Minh City), a frenetic metropolis poised between the first and third worlds. We used Saigon as a convenient entry point but spent our limited time there on a long day trip aboard a boat through the Mekong Delta a couple of hours away. We left Saigon's coffee shops and department stores, its hidden temples and incense-smoky pagodas, for another time.

Known as the River of Nine Dragons because it enters the sea at nine separate locations, the Mekong River wanders lazily through the Delta, creating a topography that's part land, part water.
Mazes of canals branch off the main channels, leading to bright green rice fields and thatched huts perched on stilts.

Aboard a junk, Cai Be Princess, we first drifted through the floating market, where a tangle of boats advertised their wares - bananas, mangoes, pineapples - by hanging samples from tall wooden poles. On a quieter, more remote stretch of the muddy river, we glimpsed a small village through bamboo and other prolific jungle flora. Then, suddenly, a motorbike burst out along a dirt path beside the water: two girls in school uniforms on their way home from class.

We floated past young boys swimming, a woman washing her hair, and two men working on a boat engine. In places where channels braided back together, we looked upon the high, narrow architecture of modern Vietnamese homes (owners are taxed on the width of their street-or river-frontage), railings twisting like rearing dragons. In early afternoon we stopped for lunch at Ahn Kiet Mandarin House, a private home open to visitation. While the matriarch described the history of the 200-year-old structure and showed off intricate altars to Buddha and her own ancestors, her granddaughter served us crisp spring rolls and hot minced pork.

From Saigon, we made our way north to the beach resorts of Nha Trang. After a day of indulgence there, we flew to Hoi An, an ancient trading port that during the 15th through 19th centuries drew ships from as far away as Holland. The quiet, eminently walkable town (cars are banned from the center) unfurls beside the Thu Bon River close to where it pours into the South China Sea.

A stroll between low-slung colonial buildings in faded pastels will take you past historic structures such as merchants' houses and Chinese meeting halls. The iconic Japanese Bridge, first erected in the 16th century to link Japanese and Chinese neighborhoods, features stone dogs and monkeys and a Buddhist pagoda that provides brief respite from the cruel sun.

Hoi An is most famous for more than 140 talented, fast-working tailors. Visit a shop with a garment or even a magazine photo of a garment, choose a fabric, get measured and pick up your finished piece the next morning for a fraction of what it would cost in the states. While waiting for our new wardrobes, we stayed overnight at the charming Life Resort, a shady retreat tucked between city bustle and flowing river. In the morning, we wrestled through the labyrinthine vegetable market and enjoyed the local coffee, good enough to put a certain Seattle-based chain out of our minds. Hoi An is the perfect town for slow lingering, for finding a favorite internet cafe and reading the paper, for strolling to the beach in late afternoon, shopping for silk lanterns, or indulging in a massage in the leafy garden back at the Life Resort.

HUE WITH A VIEW
From Hoi An, hire a private car to drive you over Hai Van Cloudy Pass for steep coastal views from military pillboxes left behind from the "American" war. Descending northward you'll reach Hue, a UNESCO World Heritage site with wide boulevards running down and beside the Perfume River. We took a short boat ride to visit the seven-story Thien Mu Pagoda, an ancient Chinese monument perched atop a hill beside the water. Home to a memorable bronze laughing Buddha, the Pagoda once also housed Thich Quang Duc, the monk who lit himself on fire to protest what we call the "Vietnam" War.

Hue is best known for large-scale monuments such as The Citadel, location of the Forbidden Purple City, where only the king, his concubines, and the palace eunuchs were allowed to set foot. Built according to principles of Feng Shui, the grounds and buildings rival Versailles in scale and design, though they're more subdued and accessible. It was easy to imagine myself walking between the harem and one of the 10 mammoth gates on a warm evening just before it rained. The citadel encompasses several sets of massive stone walls separated by moats blooming with lotus flowers.

Not far from the Citadel lie the equally grand tomb complexes of two late Nguyen Dynasty kings (the dynasty ruled from 1802-1945). Tu Doc's tomb, set amid pines and frangipani, contains the requisite temples, pavilions, gardens, stele and 50 monuments, many of which express elements of harmony and pay tribute to the king's poetic side. Khai Dinh's impressive tomb took 11 years to build. It combines Vietnamese and European styles and is the perfect artifact to describe the influence of French colonialism on Vietnamese culture.

HANOI MYSTIQUE
But if any one place captures the mystery and beauty of Vietnam, it's Hanoi - the early and current capital - with its varied neighborhoods clustering around several lakes and along the Red River. We bedded down at the grand Sofitel Metropole in the Old Quarter, a warren of cobblestone streets lined with shops that have also served as social centers for the city's inhabitants for centuries. Each street in the Old Quarter bears the name of the wares available there - for example Knife Street and Flower Street - and the names change without warning. The surrounding architecture is a mix of fading French colonial and both modern and classical Vietnamese. Don't forget to look up from the street and its mobile food sellers in conical hats. Three stories above hovers another city of shady plants, laundry hung on balconies and the carved wooden terrace doors of upscale guesthouses.

Hanoi boasts myriad sites, from museums such as the Army Museum with its displays from the French occupation and the American war, to the Temple of Literature, which honors doctorate candidates centuries dead. National liberator Ho Chi Minh is on display in one of the oddest attractions, a tomb run with cold communist efficiency by heavily armed guards. You can also do time at the Hoa Loa Prison, known by American POWs as the Hanoi Hilton, temporary quarters of John McCain and others held during the war.

For a more entertaining afternoon, stop by the Hanoi Water Puppet Theatre, where traditional rural folktales are acted out by puppets suspended above a pool of water. Most of all, though, Hanoi is a city to discover by walking, by getting lost in the streets until you realize you haven't seen another tourist for hours. Crouch on a stool with locals for "bia hoi" (fresh beer) or walk around one of the lakes and past gated embassies housed in old French mansions. Dinner at the lively, elegant Hanoi Press Club is the perfect end to any long day of touring.

DECENDING DRAGON
A couple of hours from Hanoi lies Halong Bay, where in Vietnamese myth the dragon descends into the sea. Some of the 3,000 limestone islands floating in the Gulf of Tonkin may look familiar to you from screen prints you've seen hanging in countless Asian restaurants back home.

This World Heritage Site is best visited aboard an overnight boat such as the classy Emeraude, a replica French paddlewheel steamer from the 19th century. During the day the Emeraude motors past floating villages and rocky islands with pagodas clinging to the summits and stops long enough for passengers to explore massive caves nearby. In the evening, the boat docks in time for a sunset kayak trip before dinner in the formal dining room and an overnight stay. We ended our day - and our Vietnam journey - sipping a citroen presse on the canopied top deck of the Emeraude, imagining that the rocky spine of islands off the port side was the tail of a dragon, disappearing back into the sea.

Vietnam Links:
Philanthropic Travel Vietnam
Halong Bay World Heritage Site
Old Quarter Hanoi
Investing in Vietnam

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My First Philanthropic Travel Experience
Teaching your Children Philanthropy
Understanding Philanthropic Travel
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