Paradise, 5-Star Hotel, No Guilt

August 24, 2001- China Beach

(photos:

Rest stop/bunker &

One of several pools at hotel)

Can you believe it? The timing of this stop was perfect after the hotel in Hue. We got tired of sweating into our breakfast on the scenic patio. None of the lobbies of the hotels we saw in the South had air conditioning. The lobby in this 5-star hotel, the Furama Resort, opens at the rear to the pool, ocean, and mountains. It’s like living in a TV commercial.

My computer is running on battery now. There’s quite a storm outside and I didn’t want to chance an unprotected surge. The lights just dimmed.

Getting Hai

We had a long ride through Danang and Hoi An to China Beach and were able to chat with Hai. We noted all the new construction. Hai said it’s easy to destroy but hard to build. He said Russians tear down before they build. Vietnamese people leave the old house and live in it, build the new one, and always build the kitchen first.

When he was a lieutenant in the American War he ordered troops into battle. If he lost five men he was commended for doing a good job. Now, if the economy loses one dollar it’s considered very bad. We passed American bunkers and airplane hangers. They’re now used for storage and warehouses. Nothing is wasted.

We talked about Bill Clinton whom he admires. He said we should forget about "Lewinsky" and that Bill Clinton is only a man underneath. He admires his intellect and the way he spoke directly to the Vietnamese people when he was here. He spoke without notes, unlike the Vietnamese president.

Hai told us that the best thing to do with currency is spend it now. Get it? Current/Currency? His brother just hoards money. Hai says it’s better to buy (invest) something that will make more money when you sell it. We talked about how we felt about spending for this trip and he agreed. If he knew “carpe diem” he would have quoted it. We said that by us spending money to go to Vietnam, he made money at his job. He could use his money to buy a Coca Cola and then someone in the U.S. made money from him. We told him about “global capitalism.” He loved it.

We spoke of religion. I asked if he thought man created God or God created man. He said it was a good question and we’d probably never know the answer. He told a story about a factory that built a car that wouldn’t start. They went to heaven to ask Uncle Ho what to do. He said he was a liberator not a builder. They then asked the spirit of Li Loi, a former king, and he told them to speak to the capitalists.

Hai sees the positive in all things. He appreciates the French for changing the Vietnamese alphabet from Chinese to Latin characters. Now they can use computers more easily than the Chinese, Japanese, or Koreans. When he answers the phone he always says “hello” a common greeting here.

Another sign of U.S. influence is that the dollar is valued more than the dong for tips. Hai dreams of going to the U.S. and loves the song, “I Left My Heart in San Francisco.” Hai is grateful for our help and for sacrifices our country made both human and political.

Back On Tour

One stop included being mobbed by a crowd of child-vendors selling fake U.S. dollars Kids here are so friendly and don’t know any strangers. Not only those selling, but all children. They’d be vulnerable in the U.S. In order to escape from them, I paid 1000 dong to use a toilet. It was at least quiet in there. At another site, a cave at the top of 150 steps, we came upon a young group of Israelis. We chatted for a while and found that they too haven’t been following the news.

We went to a small museum about the Cham people who inhabited the center of Vietnam for hundreds of years . They were Hindus who wrote in Sanskrit. That’s also the basis for Thai writing. I always wondered why Thai writing was so unlike other Asian alphabets. Now I know it is like another Asian alphabet…an Indian one. At the museum the reason for the civil wars became clearer. The North was Vietnamese, the South was Khmer, and the center was Cham. Between being conquered by foreigners and trying to unite diverse cultures, things always seemed to go awry. The Vietnamese finally extended themselves all the way to the South destroying the other cultures or forcing them to leave.

As we headed for lunch, we realized that a slogan for their road department could be ”there’s always room for one more.” Even in sleepy hamlets roads were bumper to bike tire. Trucks enjoy playing chicken with tourist cars because we have air conditioning and they resent it.

Language Barriers

Lunch was a study in non-communication. Before leaving us at the restaurant, Hai told them we didn’t eat pork or shellfish. The server suggested a fixed price menu from soup to nuts at 60,000 dong. She said she’d substitute for pork/shrimp. We asked about ordering a la carte and she brought a menu. We questioned her about some of the dishes. We thought we’d ordered one dish from the menu and one fixed price meal to share. We ended up with one from the menu and others we’d merely pointed at and inquired about. Oh well. The menu was fun to read. One dish was described as “dismembered chicken” while another was “chicken chopped in bits.”

Another miscommunication occurred at he hotel. There was a group of IGA food store managers from Australia at a meeting here. The hotel provided people to watch the children during sessions. One of the Australian boys went up to the Vietnamese “babysitter” and said, “Rice?” There was a blank look on the Vietnamese man’s face. The boy repeated the word to no avail. Then the boy said, “Do you want to rice?” Then we understood as did the Vietnamese man. The kid wanted to race. The pool was lovely, but warmer than bath water. The South China Sea was no better.

How Hot Is It?

I can now explain just how hot it is. It’s almost 100. Today, for the first time in my life, I was so sweaty the bottom of my buttocks stuck to the tops of my thighs. This is more information than you need, but those are the facts. This might be what the Australian Town “Barrumbuttock” refers to. David said if it didn’t cool down there would be no “Tittibong.” That’s the name of another Australian town.

Tomorrow we fly to Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City. The people still call it Saigon.

Toby