This trip started out as "Vietnam or Chile". It then moved to "Vietnam
and Chile" before we decided to fit as much as we can between UK and Chile and Vietnam. So here we are at the end of a lovely month in one of the countries that got this ball rolling and with the actual end of this trip in sight (boo hiss).
Our last stop in Vietnam was the capital, Hanoi. A place with little connection to a Brit: we weren't involved in the Vietnam war after all and we weren't a colonial power here, but it’s a place with frequent mention in the various media we were exposed to, especially in our childhood (You will recall the crime the A-Team did not commit ). It is therefore a place which remains associated with the "baddies" and I wonder if it it because of this it isn't as easy to accept the difficulties in the country as it is in, for example. Laos
Hanoi is heaving with mopeds and motorbikes, and although there are fewer instances of pavement driving than Saigon, in Saigon people will at least drive around you, whereas in Hanoi they will beep their horn and keep on driving. One of the T-shirts being sold has traffic lights with the words "go" next to all colours, which is completely accurate. It's all quite amusing until you look at the statistics. Vietnam has one of the highest rates of road deaths in the world. 22,000 a year. In fact more children die in Vietnam then all road deaths in the UK.
The law says that adults wear helmets and children over 6 so I winced everytime I saw a cute little kid standing on the moped with no helmet. We saw a few road accidents in Vietnam ourselves. One of our guides told us of witnessing an accident with a parent holding a baby. He was clearly still traumatised by it. There are safety campaigns but no enforcement of anything. Police, when they are around, are in general self serving and we saw no evidence of them doing anything useful.
We did not meet a single Vietnamese person who had anything positive to say about the government or felt that they were supported in their lives by it. But you won't find many people saying it openly due to the harsh response of the government to criticism. The judiciary is not independent in Vietnam and those exercising freedom of expression to comment on issues (in the same vein as this) often find themselves incarcerated or under house arrest, their families harassed and suffering from abuse, torture or death.
Although it is a communist state, I found little evidence of any benefit to the people of this: no healthcare, no benefits for sick, no maternity pay, no subsidised nursery, and no food handouts. In effect nothing to help everyone to be equal. Despite the role of women in the wars (there were whole detachments of female commandos fighting the Americans and South Vietnamese) sexism is still rife: women do the cooking, cleaning etc. and they were absolutely amazed that I don't do the cooking. Women are often the ones doing the extra jobs to bring in the money on top of their caring responsibilities.
We visited the excellent Women's Museum in Hanoi which was nicely laid out, but just starkly brought home some the hard lot of your average Vietnamese woman, many of whom have sacrificed their home life or own ambitions in order to ensure their children have a better lot.
There was an interesting exhibit concerning marriage and birth which said that some ethnic groups give their child a temporary "ugly name" to stop the spirits coming to take him. In one naming ceremony, if the child cries when the name is announced this is deemed inauspicious so another name has to be selected. A couple of spoonful's of Calpol should sort that.
We went to the Hanoi Opera House where we watched their summer concert. One half was classical music; the other half was ballet. The orchestra and choir of the first half was really good; but the ballet was a bit pedestrian. The Vietnamese also have different ideas about audience decorum: the tourist half of the audience was hushing and shushing the local half. We heard chatter behind us and, when we turned to glare, we saw a lady having a chat on her phone. Gareth found a new trigger point for apoplexy and hissed at her in his very best ambassadorial English to “Turn that f**king thing off now!”. She looked rather taken aback though still didn't immediately stop talking!
We visited the infamous Hỏa Lò prison, which was originally built by the French to deal with revolutionaries. They didn't have a great time there. It was also where the American P.O.Ws were kept. They didn't have a great time there either and as a result gave it the ironic nickname "the Hanoi Hilton". Of course the exhibition would have us believe that the nickname came about because their experience was almost as good as at a hotel.
One room is filled with propaganda detailing how well the American's were treated. Poor senator John McCain' picture is frequently trotted out to add credence to their claims (Though he has repeatedly talked about the abuse sustained there and still hasn't recovered full mobility in his arms).
The people in Vietnam have gone out of their way to be welcoming to us and are keen for us to enjoy their country, which itself has only really been open for business for two decades and tourism is a key source of revenue for the Vietnamese. However, there was a video being played in that room of the American P.O.Ws and a group of middle-aged Vietnamese visitors watching it made inappropriate gestures and words throughout, which made me question the face of tourism; what
is really going through the minds of a lot of the older population as we turn up in their country and trek around their cities. New friends? or just walking ATM's?
The Ho Chi Minh museum is an interesting place. Ostensibly it details the life and times of the kindly-faced 'Uncle Ho' - which is does with surprisingly little embellishment- but it also features some rather abstract local and international art installations, representing the international socialist revolutionary struggle. Apparently.
It was nicely presented, quite accessible and one or the more museum-like of the various excuses for propaganda we'd visited in the country.
We also visited the Museum of Fine Art. It was an interesting insight into the people. However, the art work displayed from the Vietnam war period was, not unexpectedly, only dealing with the bad experiences of those in the North and the atrocities of the Americans.
We were continually told that Vietnam remains a divided country and we did witness the North/ South divide. But there was no art from those in the South who also suffered loss. We have read that when the North occupied Hué about 2000 people were killed within a few days, but there is no mention of anything like that anywhere in Vietnam. The missing part of the story within the art gallery brings home to me the ongoing wound of this country: the wrongs that were done by and to both sides but without acknowledgement and apology such that there can't possibly be any reconciliation or feeling of being one people. It is sufficient time since the war that the government could shift a little in it's stance, even if they did this by way of scapegoating a couple of people which might in itself allow the government to be more responsive to its people.
Many in the country earn less than $1000 per year. We spent way over that during our stay, and the majority was spent with locally-based companies. It is correct that the lot of your average Vietnamese citizen is better now than it was in the years following the revolution, but we still saw little evidence that state-raised money from tourism is being channelled into improving the welfare of citizens.
Vietnam is a vibrant and beautiful country, and Hanoi was an energetic city with lots to see and do, but I left Vietnam frustrated by the peoples' circumstances, but also with the hope that maybe the population will one day have the government or at least the way of life that they deserve.
