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When I had the opportunity to use frequent flyer miles for an overseas trip, I decided to use them to go over a different sea than usual for a trip to Asia in November 2002. Here is a report on that trip to Hong Kong, Macau, Vietnam, and Cambodia.
TRIP TO ASIA, NOVEMBER 2002
Amc2004-09-13 14:42:34
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lack of outside light.
I normally wouldn’t bring politics into travel writing, but I feel that I should at least touch on the topic, since it’s so wrapped up in my reasons for wanting to go to Vietnam, and the top sights in Saigon relate to the war. I wasn’t yet of draft age during the Vietnam War, but I think one reason my family moved to Europe was to make it harder for me to be drafted if the war were still going on when I was of age. I was in circles in Italy that rejoiced at the outcome of the war. It’s difficult to look at that time from today’s perspective; in the south, it looks like one dictatorship was replaced by another, and U.S. conduct did a lot to preclude the chance of multi-party rule which was the original ideal of the National Liberation Front. (I know that “what if” questions about past history especially are subject to debate, but I’d like to hold onto this thought.) Hearing occasionally of the difficulties in unifying two very different economies and societies, and knowing of Vietnam’s history of fighting back so many invaders over the centuries, I had great interest in going. One of few countries still under Communist rule, it has moved to an economy with considerable private ownership. I saw red signs with slogans I couldn’t read, and warnings against taking pictures of government buildings. From my limited perspective, I can’t say how people were doing economically. Prices were low; as in most market economies, one could see the range from beggars (the sad case of a 4-year-old girl latching onto me knowing to say tearfully in English “Give me 4000 dong” or 25 cents) to people doing well. There were signs of international investment; after I left the country I read that many Vietnamese were building up holdings in gold. It seemed that everyone could afford a motorbike, since hardly anyone else was walking; not to be too flippant in concluding the topic, I think that a government with the general good in mind
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See photographs from:
Vietnam Gallery
,
Macau Gallery
,
Hong Kong Gallery
,
Cambodia Gallery
