I met Aashika in Ho Chi Minh, a city in south Vietnam named after the leader who brought the country independence (and Communism). Aashika had arrived th night before and was eager to explore; I, beleaguered by a 1 hour wait in the immigration line, needed a shower first. After I smelled a little more respectable, we headed out to the Vietnam War Museum, aptly labeled the War of American Aggression inside. This gave us details on the Vietnam War, a piece of history I knew nothing about. What I learned made me sick - granted, the museum was from a very explicitly communist perspective, but some things were evil regardless of your political or national leanings. For instance, the brutal torture of Viet Cong prisoners (I realize their treatment of U.S. soldiers may not have been any more civilized, but that does not justify beatings, mutilations, and other horrors the prisoners faced). We also murdered countless innocent civilians, including children shot point-blank for no reason at all. There were countless photographs, but I did not have the heart to capture them. One fact that surprised me most to learn was that one of our own Senators, Bob Kerrey, admitted to torturing and murdering 13 innocent civilians, including tying two teen boys to the back of a truck and dragging them until they died. This revelation occurred while he was in office, and he even ran for re-election afterwards -what? How is he not in prison for war crimes? How does torturing innocent people not make you ineligible for public service? War may be war, but this incident was a totally different beast.
The other, perhaps more infamous, set of crimes centered around the use of Agent Orange. Agent Orange was a chemical weapon that killed foliage and undergrowth, purportedly to limit the ability of Vietnamese soldiers to hide. It has far more devastating consequences: contact caused significant respiratory issues, but more importantly, severe birth defects for generations of the offspring of those exposed, defects which are still occurring across Vietnam. The pictures of the children were unspeakably heart-wrenching: babies with no eyes, no limbs, horrific deformities, missing orgams, conjoined twins, the list goes on. This also occurred with children of exposed American soldiers; they sued and received hundreds of millions of dollars in recompense. When the affected Vietnamese citizens sued, the Supreme Court dismissed the case. What?!??? After this stupendously awful treatment, I am genuinely surprised that Vietnam allows American citizens to enter its borders at all.
After a sobering few hours at the museum, Aashika and I began what would be a common theme throughout our journey: food, or more specifically, noodles. We ate pho for the first time; if you've only had Vietnamese food once, you've probably had pho, a magical concoction of rice noodles, sliced of onions and herbs, beef, and beef broth. It was heaven. The rest of our time in Ho Chi Minh was consumed with window-shopping, more eating, and avoiding getting run over in traffic. This was a special challenge in Vietnam: all types of traffic mingled, but motorcycles abounded, and similar to bicyclists in the States, motorcyclists clearly did not feel any traffic laws applied to them. To cross the street, we learned that you must simply start crossing, buses, motorcyclists, and cars be damned. The traffic will swerve for you...even if it's at the last second. This is a far better technique than my first, which was to panic and freeze in the middle of the road. This is complicated further by the fact that while sidewalks exist, they are used almost exclusively to park motorcycles, so pedestrians are forced to use the road.
Below: food, and a typical street crossing.
Our next stop was Hoi An, a beautiful (albeit very touristy) city in mid-Vietnam. The city is a UNESCO World Heritage site, with many buildings in the historic downtown protected. The result is a charming, colorful city filled with flowers and lanterns. Boats abound on the river, hauling tourists around with floating candles to leave on the river.
Below: Hoi An
We ate more in Hoi An: cao lau, a specialty noodle of the region; fresh and fried spring rolls; rice paper pizza, rice paper with chives, shrimp powder, and spicy sauce. Much of it was street food, but to our pleasant surprise, we did not get sick. We also took a cooking class, which introduced us to the glories of Vietnamese cooking and presented us with handy vegetable-shavers for my cooking back home. We also visited multiple markets to learn about different ingredients; in the fish market, our Vietnamese tour guide was so overwhelmed that she dashed through the end, gagging. In addition to cooking several scrumptious dishes, we tried many more previously prepared. I was adventurous and tried frog and snail, but drew the line at duck embryos; I attempted further bravery with silkworm salad, but just gagged it up in front of the smirking cook. Not one of my best first impressions.
We left Hoi An for Hanoi next...
Below: we were bad backpackers and wheeled our luggage at the airport.
The other, perhaps more infamous, set of crimes centered around the use of Agent Orange. Agent Orange was a chemical weapon that killed foliage and undergrowth, purportedly to limit the ability of Vietnamese soldiers to hide. It has far more devastating consequences: contact caused significant respiratory issues, but more importantly, severe birth defects for generations of the offspring of those exposed, defects which are still occurring across Vietnam. The pictures of the children were unspeakably heart-wrenching: babies with no eyes, no limbs, horrific deformities, missing orgams, conjoined twins, the list goes on. This also occurred with children of exposed American soldiers; they sued and received hundreds of millions of dollars in recompense. When the affected Vietnamese citizens sued, the Supreme Court dismissed the case. What?!??? After this stupendously awful treatment, I am genuinely surprised that Vietnam allows American citizens to enter its borders at all.
After a sobering few hours at the museum, Aashika and I began what would be a common theme throughout our journey: food, or more specifically, noodles. We ate pho for the first time; if you've only had Vietnamese food once, you've probably had pho, a magical concoction of rice noodles, sliced of onions and herbs, beef, and beef broth. It was heaven. The rest of our time in Ho Chi Minh was consumed with window-shopping, more eating, and avoiding getting run over in traffic. This was a special challenge in Vietnam: all types of traffic mingled, but motorcycles abounded, and similar to bicyclists in the States, motorcyclists clearly did not feel any traffic laws applied to them. To cross the street, we learned that you must simply start crossing, buses, motorcyclists, and cars be damned. The traffic will swerve for you...even if it's at the last second. This is a far better technique than my first, which was to panic and freeze in the middle of the road. This is complicated further by the fact that while sidewalks exist, they are used almost exclusively to park motorcycles, so pedestrians are forced to use the road.
Below: food, and a typical street crossing.
Our next stop was Hoi An, a beautiful (albeit very touristy) city in mid-Vietnam. The city is a UNESCO World Heritage site, with many buildings in the historic downtown protected. The result is a charming, colorful city filled with flowers and lanterns. Boats abound on the river, hauling tourists around with floating candles to leave on the river.
Below: Hoi An
We ate more in Hoi An: cao lau, a specialty noodle of the region; fresh and fried spring rolls; rice paper pizza, rice paper with chives, shrimp powder, and spicy sauce. Much of it was street food, but to our pleasant surprise, we did not get sick. We also took a cooking class, which introduced us to the glories of Vietnamese cooking and presented us with handy vegetable-shavers for my cooking back home. We also visited multiple markets to learn about different ingredients; in the fish market, our Vietnamese tour guide was so overwhelmed that she dashed through the end, gagging. In addition to cooking several scrumptious dishes, we tried many more previously prepared. I was adventurous and tried frog and snail, but drew the line at duck embryos; I attempted further bravery with silkworm salad, but just gagged it up in front of the smirking cook. Not one of my best first impressions.
We left Hoi An for Hanoi next...
Below: we were bad backpackers and wheeled our luggage at the airport.
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