TravelStream™ news feed for member adeleray on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/adeleray en-us Copyright ©2010 TravelPod.com Fri, 19 Jan 2007 16:45:13 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/adeleray/vietnam_2007/1169037660/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/adeleray/vietnam_2007/1169037660/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/adeleray/vietnam_2007/1169037660/tpod.html Fri, 19 Jan 2007 16:45:13 -0500 Vietnam - Lost Pictures

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

New York, New York, United States

Home sweet home. Well, it's nice and cold here but it's good to be back. Mochi, my kitty, has missed me. Thank you so much for reading my entries and I look forward to posting new adventures although that won't be for a while. Now, I have to do the hard work--editing and more fundraising. Again, thanks so much for your support and your interest. It's been fun to be able to share this with you! And thanks Teale for being such a trooper filming and being my travel buddy!!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/adeleray/vietnam_2007/1169209140/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/adeleray/vietnam_2007/1169209140/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/adeleray/vietnam_2007/1169209140/tpod.html Fri, 19 Jan 2007 16:37:18 -0500 Vietnam - Lost Pictures

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Singapore, Singapore

Well, it was a wonderful trip. If only I had more time in Vietnam. 2 weeks is just not enough. But regardless, the mission was accomplished and Teale and I got great footage. I hope to come back to VN soon. After spending time in the North, I find Hanoi to be much safer. There's nothing like a good iron fist to clamp down on crime. I'm not sure exactly where I'd want to live now if I came back to teach film courses. Both North and South are enticing. When I came to Vietnam 9 yrs ago, Hue (Central VN) was my favorite. Each part of the country is beautiful and has so much to offer. Regardless, which one I'll arrive at, I can't wait to come back.

We flew to Singapore where we had a 6hr layover. My friend Alicia Muller, who I've know for almost 8 years, is living and working there. Alicia, originally raised in Holland, Amsterdam, was a TV child actress in Holland. We met me in Appalachia in southwest Viriginia where she was a student at Viriginia Tech and where I was working nearby as a multimedia developer (before the dotcom bust) . She acted in scenes of a couple instructional interactive CD-ROMs I directed on sex education and one to help people with disabilities get jobs. Alicia has Asian descent, Malaysian and Chinese, and was partly motivated to live and work in Singapore at Lucas Arts Films to get in touch with her roots. She has a background in film production. Alicia was sweet enough to show us around town. Talk about a clean environment!

I didn't know, although diverse, how segregated and discriminatory the culture is in Singapore. The discrimination in Singapore is as follows:

Top of the chain: Whites
Honorary whites: Chinese
Lazy and pray all the time: Malaysians
Never to be trusted: Indians
House help: Indonesians

For such a financial mecca, they have a lot to learn socially.

One of the most interesting buildings was this Durien (spikey Asian stinky fruit) building that served as a big performance hall. The architecture is amazing and I only wish NYC was so clean. They have big fines for littering.

I see Alicia maybe every four years or something. It's amazing how we've kept in touch since she has moved all over the globe since we last lived in the same town back in '98. It's nice to know I have friends on this side of the world. Thanks Alicia!!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/adeleray/vietnam_2007/1168863240/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/adeleray/vietnam_2007/1168863240/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/adeleray/vietnam_2007/1168863240/tpod.html Fri, 19 Jan 2007 16:09:52 -0500 Vietnam - Lost Pictures

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Hanoi, Vietnam

On our last night in Vietnam, I met professional soccer players for the V-League, the Vietnamese Professional Soccer League. But these soccer players weren't Vietnamese! They were imported to play in Hanoi from Rwanda and Nigeria. Earlier that night I was watching the Asean Games (Southeast Asian Games). We were watching Laos against Vietnam in soccer. These two pro players, Theophilus (he goes by Teale!), and Alfonso, knew players from that game! Wow, cool! Theo invited me to play with them next time I visit. Wow! Cool! I love soccer! I wish I could've stayed a few days longer and watched them practice. That was cool.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/adeleray/vietnam_2007/1168863180/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/adeleray/vietnam_2007/1168863180/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/adeleray/vietnam_2007/1168863180/tpod.html Tue, 16 Jan 2007 00:42:54 -0500 Vietnam - Lost Pictures

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Perfume Pagoda (Ha Tay Province), Vietnam

Perfume Pagoda - Ha Tay Province
Our last full day here we took a tour to the Perfume Pagoda in the Ha Tay Province outside of Hanoi.

Ha Tay Province is the poorest in the country and is primarily driven by agriculture. People still do things by hand (which was similar to what all the country looked like 9 yrs ago). The Perfume Pagoda is a 2hr drive, and 1hr long row down the Yen Vi River, and a 4 kilometer hike up a mountain. Teale and I were exhausted by the time we got to the top of the stairs to the entrance of the cable car which helped us bypass the 5km hike! Ha! We also took the cable car down. What can I say, we didn't feel like sweating that much. The (Huong) Perfume Pagoda is actually several pagodas but we only went to one temple and visited the coolest part of the tour which is the Huong Thich Grotto, a cave where two monks reside. Couples come here to pray for children, lucky marriage, etc.


The Perfume Pagoda gets flooded by domestic tourists during Tet so we hit the calm before the storm---very nice and tranquil. This was a quite lovely break from the hustle and bustle of the city.







Stand by for my final entry for this trip. I had a great last night and will stop by and Singapore for couple of hours and have dinner with a friend who is working there.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/adeleray/vietnam_2007/1168862220/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/adeleray/vietnam_2007/1168862220/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/adeleray/vietnam_2007/1168862220/tpod.html Mon, 15 Jan 2007 13:04:38 -0500 Vietnam - Lost Pictures

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Hanoi, Vietnam

New York & Hanoi


The Hanoi locals are like New Yorkers, they keep to themselves, and are doing their thing. They're not trying to be extra friendly to try to sell something to us although I still use the term, "Khong mua, com on," quite often here too. It means, "No buy, thank you." I just don't have to say it as often. We wanted to visit the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum on Sunday but it closed at 10:15am so we missed it.

Instead we decided to walk around the city and look for some affordable paintings and visit the Hanoi Cinemateque. One of the reasons why I wanted to go to Hanoi on this trip was to get a feel for the art and culture here. There is a big fine arts scene here as well as a film scene. We went to one film place called Hanoi Cinemateque but it was closed until the end of the Tet holiday. It is located further away from the Old Quarter and had a nice Cine Café in a courtyard next to it along with a hotel called The Artist Hotel which had very reasonable prices. Next time I visit Hanoi, I'll stay there. There was a cool photograph near the box office of the underground cinemateque that was literally underground in the Cu Chi Tunnel! Wow. I asked some young locals about other cinema houses we could visit that showed art films (not mainstream) but they said the ones they knew were all in Vietnamese and there was no translation so we wouldn't like it. That was a bummer. I would've liked to have gone anyway but the two different people I asked didn't seem to get that I just wanted to visit a cool spot to see some film (a visual language, after all). I really need to learn Vietnamese for the next time I come here. We then strolled along a strip of galleries and I bought some small abstract pieces. Hanoi is much smaller then Saigon but the prices for food seemed to be higher for everything not that it was that much considering it's Vietnam. A lot more backpackers and tourists are up here, I guess because the weather is cooler then down south. Upon arrival I was already missing Saigon but I'm currently getting into the groove of things here. Teale and I agree, the Old Quarter in Hanoi is much like Greenwich Village.

Beef between North and South (the subtleties beyond the obvious reasons)
I was told that it is an unwritten fact that the town of Dalat is a neutral vacation spot for both Northerners and Southerners. But other than that location, if you are Vietnamese, you are viewed as being on one side or the other (the good side or the bad side). The North and South have beef with each other for obvious reasons--if you don't know why, read a history book on Vietnam. I got an inkling of this on our visit to Highway 4, cool hang out that specializes in Vietnamese brewed rice wines.

They also have rockin' catfish summer rolls that are dipped in a wasabi-hoisin sauce. Our server was a sweet younger medical student who comes from a family of music teachers and also teaches music. I asked him if he had
ever gone to Saigon and he corrected us and only referred to it as Ho Chi Minh City although everyone in the south calls it Saigon. Since I've been here, most of the people I've met have never gone to Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City even though it's only a 1 hour and 40 minute plane ride. I then mentioned I was part Vietnamese and he said, "No. Your not Vietnamese, your family is." He then started teaching us a little Vietnamese and I started teaching him a little English. The vibe was friendly but I understood his point of view of the South (where he has never traveled before) and his definition of a 'real' Vietnamese. There are some interesting characters working at Highway 4. I think they are all young artists.
So there are also distinct cultural differences. The Viets in the North seemed more cultured in the high art sort of way. The fine arts scene is much bigger here and there seem to be more high-brow types. It's very much like New York City. I always thought I'd want to move to Hanoi to teach film before I stayed in Saigon but since this trip, the south seems more at home with me. I guess because of my family. It's funny though because this conflict reminds me of when I first decided to move to NYC (the 'North') from Virginia (the 'South'). My mother resisted my desire to move and said, "No matter how much you try to deny it, you are Southern. You are from the South. The North is not for you." The cultural clashes between 'North' and 'South' seem to apply to the States as well as Vietnam. In Vietnam, the Northerners are have more of a Chinese flavor and their accent sounds different. Hanoi is also closer to more indigenous mountain people like the Sapans as well as China. I wish I could spend more time here to travel around and get the vibe. Anyway, it is interesting to observe the differences between the north and south, the Viet Kieus (I met a couple visiting the North for the first time) and domestic Viets and Americans. I guess I can't be clearly defined in any one category but can definitely be excluded from the domestic Viets.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/adeleray/vietnam_2007/1168693800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/adeleray/vietnam_2007/1168693800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/adeleray/vietnam_2007/1168693800/tpod.html Sun, 14 Jan 2007 10:54:04 -0500 Vietnam - Lost Pictures

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Saigon and Vinh Long, Vietnam

Pho & Ca phe Sua Da

So some friend back home wondered about the Pho (classic Vietnamese noodle dish) here. Well, I have to say I only had pho couple of I had fast food chain pho from a place called Pho 24 that is overpriced and is recommended to tourists for it's cleanliness and lack of MSG. We did however find a place called Pho 2000 around the corner from our hotel across the Ben Thanh Market that Bill Clinton ate at when he visited in '00. I unfortunately didn't get a chance to eat there but we dropped in to Pho 2000 for some 'caphe sua da' (Vietnamese ice coffee with milk) and the fragrance of the pho was amazing. Vietnamese were eating there so it must be good. I wish I could've eaten there and will definitely try it out next time I'm in Saigon.
The Vietnamese iced coffee, although delicious, tends to be too small in portions, and diluted with too much condensed milk. But some places made it right--strong! Caphe sua da has been my and Teale's drink of choice so far on this trip. As Teale said, coffee just won't be the same when we get back to the states, unless we do it Viet-style.

Hipsters in Saigon
We needed to shoot Saigon in the present day. Being the cosmopolitan place it is, I wanted to find some hip stylin' kids to shoot. I asked one of the front desk women at our hotel to tell me where the 'hip' kids hung out. She said, "Hip hop?" and I figured, yeah sure, "hip hop" and she gave me an address where young kids hang out. She said it was a sports club. Teale and I hopped on a couple of motorbike taxis and headed over the hang out spot. Teenagers were playing tennis, basketball, and generally hanging out. There was no membership or entrance fee. We just walked in. We came across some kids break dancing and they rocked!

I could totally see this sight in NYC. One of them was a young woman named Thuy (pronounced twee) who attends two universities (studying Natural Science at one school and humanities and sociology at another school) and is at the top of her class. She just started learning how to break dance a couple of months ago and showed much promise. Her friend Vu is a senior in high school and attends the top school in Saigon, Le Hong Phong in District 5 (where Thuy went as well). Vu told me that parents who believe education is a priority send their kids to his school. I told him my mother went to Marie Curie Girl's School back in the day. He said Marie Curie used to be the top school pre-1975 but not anymore. Vu did great head spins. I also met Loc who was a spunky guy with a lot of personality who also had great break dancing moves. They are a team that compete against other teams. I told them I want to shoot cool hip kids like them and they said that Sundays are the best time for that. Unfortunately, we'll be in Hanoi on Sunday so we'll miss it. Either way, it was such a treat to hang out with some cool cats from Saigon.

The Ancestors and local thugs - Saigon and Vinh Long
A major purpose for my visit to Vietnam was to travel to the graves of my ancestors to pay respect and thank them all they did to make it possible for me to be here today. Apparently in Vietnamese culture praying to the ancestors is a common practice.
Uncle Phan was in charge of arranging the visits to my great grandmother's grave on my grandfather's side just outside of Saigon and my great grandparent's graves in Vinh Long. Uncle Phan, who is a distant cousin of my mother on her mother's side is from Vinh Long. He wanted to take me and Teale fishing out there so we could eat freshly caught fish. That sounded like it would've been really fun but we did not have time for that. I promised him on my next trip that I'd definitely do that.
The ceremony for my grandfather's mother was less of an ordeal for we did not have to travel too far but we (Uncle Phan, my grand aunt, and myself) did offer two cooked birds along with rice and veggies (Teale was shooting). We also burned paper money, paper slippers, a paper dress, and paper jewelry to send to her. Water, tea and coca cola was also offered, three pours for each.

On our way to Vinh Long to my great grandparent's graves on my grandmother's side, we crossed newly built bridges (no ferries were taken like we had to do when I visited 9yrs ago). One bridge was quite impressive which was made in conjunction with the Australian government. It is a copy of a bridge in Sydney, Australia and it cost $75 million to build. Wow, the Vietnamese have come a long way in such a short period of time!
We arrived to the graves of my great grandparents on my grandmother's side in Vinh Long which was a 2.5 hour drive. Roads were paved and painted for the most part which was a great improvement from my last visit in '98.

We had a roasted pig to offer along with all the sides, and paper money, paper clothes, and paper shoes to burn. The pair of paper shoes for my great grandfather were Gucci!! And the paper money was in U.S. dollars! Some local thugs sort of busted up the flow of our ceremony when I was trying to pray. They were haggling my uncle for more money for setting up the ceremony (cleaning the tomb stones, I guess) and they were laughing and making fun of me behind my back. They said that I couldn't understand what they were saying and all I could do was just smile and nod and it didn't matter if I could hear. I sensed their trash talk and I made my translator, whom I hired specifically for this trip to translate. She told them I could understand what they were saying even if I didn't speak Vietnamese. I started to get angry and I told Teale to use the video camera like a gun and shoot them with it. Teale said, "Are you serious?" And I told her, "Yes! Do it!" We both turned our backs to the graves to stare at the local thugs. The camera was pointed at them and shut them up pretty quick (or at least they lowered their voices when they were talking trash) and I told the translator to tell them to not disrespect us when I'm trying to have a private moment. The translator refrained from saying this for she didn't want to add fuel to the fire. My uncle chimed in and said they were just kidding around but I was furious. I tried to let it go and continued the rest of the ceremony. I really couldn't get into the moment with the distraction. They weren't family and I didn't like them. They had no self-respect or class, whatsoever. My translator pointed at the paper money that we were burning said that's the closest to money they were going to get and my grand aunt told them they'd get roasted pig and that was all. Next time I come back to Vinh Long to visit my ancestors' graves, I'm going to ask Uncle Phan to not invite anyone who isn't family. I just want family there--no outside local yokels. They were such a drag and depressing result of the poverty still residing in the countryside.
Hidden among mango groves along a Mekong offshoot was the graves of my great great grandparents (along with other ancestors) on my grandmother's side. The area felt untouched and timeless. My grand aunt told me that this land used to belong to my family but because of all the wars, they lost everything except the graves. It was like walking back in time. It was quite peaceful, and green. Uncle Phan gave me a sheet with the family tree that dated pretty far back---maybe to the mid to early 19th Century if not further. It was quite impressive. I didn't know we were able to trace our roots that far back! We ate some pig in an old hut on the land with the people who lived there. Another Aunt who told me that my mother loved her so much was there and seemed disgusted with me for not speaking Vietnamese. She said in Vietnamese that I was bad for not speaking the language. She is a cute old lady so I asked the translator to tell her that I promised to come back next year and speak Vietnamese to her. She seemed pleased and we shook on it.
We then went to visit other distant relatives and the home that my grand aunt, grandmother and her children (my mother, aunt and uncle) fled from during WWII when the French were bombing the area. They had to cross the Mekong Delta in the middle of the night and were pirated on their boat. They lost are their gold and jewelry (everything they owned) and my grand aunt was smacked by a pirate and they threatened to drown Chau, my mother's sister, who was an infant. They sought refuge at the home of their Chinese uncle who owned a brick factory on the other side of the river. Back then, the Chinese were never touched so the place was safe. We visited that brick factory where my grand aunt re-told the story on camera. It's no longer a brick factory but is now a mango farm and the owner is half-Chinese and half-Vietnamese and is probably some really distant cousin of ours. He's such a nice guy and I recall meeting him the first time we visited in 1998.



]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/adeleray/vietnam_2007/1168782000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/adeleray/vietnam_2007/1168782000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/adeleray/vietnam_2007/1168782000/tpod.html Sun, 14 Jan 2007 08:47:59 -0500 Vietnam - Lost Pictures

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Saigon, Vietnam

KEEP YOURSELF PROTECTED
The morning we left Saigon, we had breakfast with Allison and Laura. Apparently shocking and scary events took place with Laura on her way home the previous night. Allison and Laura are roommates but they came home separately our last night in Saigon. While Allison was still out, Laura brought a guy friend home from out of town and they were followed by some thugs! Laura said all she remembered was a guy with a machete chasing after her down the street and trying to take her purse from her. Her guy friend fought back and got the machete away from the thug and chased him down the street. The thug had another thug in a getaway motorbike waiting for him at the end of the alley where she lived. When recalling the event, Laura was shaken up and repeatedly said, "I got f*$!ing chased by a guy with a machete!" The scary part was, all her neighbors witnessed the event and did nothing. It sounded like something that would happen in NYC. Also, the guy who attacked them came back the next day to scope out the place according to one of their neighbors. One neighbor did call the police when the thug came back but he had already left by the time the police showed up. Saigon still has a rough nature to it---even if they are commercializing and more fruitful. Especially when you think how overpopulated it is. It holds 8.5 million and many are jobless and the rice season is over in the delta so there isn't much work when everyone is flocking to the city. Foreigners like Allison and Laura are prime targets. The main lesson learned from this event was to never go home alone late at night. Luckily nothing happened to her. Street smarts are essential to living in Saigon, let alone anywhere else. When we left Laura and Allison they were making plans to take the machete to the police for fingerprints and file a report. Hopefully the police will take notice of this for they want to keep the city safe, especially for outsiders. Last I recall, the penalty for killing a foreigner in Saigon, was death. Watch your back if you ever go to Saigon. Don't feel too open for you never know who would want to prey after you. That goes for anywhere, New York, Paris, wherever. You got to be aware always. I gave Laura and Allison my "protector knot" that I was wearing around my neck to hang above their entrance door. It was blessed by a Kagyu Tibetan lama (my teacher Lama Ole) for the very purpose of protection against bad energies. I think they will be fine. They'll just need to go home together and watch out for each other. Hopefully the police will patrol the area to keep a look out.

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/adeleray/vietnam_2007/1168694580/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/adeleray/vietnam_2007/1168694580/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/adeleray/vietnam_2007/1168694580/tpod.html Sun, 14 Jan 2007 00:43:18 -0500 Vietnam - Lost Pictures

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Sam Mountain, Vietnam

Sam Mountain along the Vietnamese-Cambodian border

Two days before splitting from the South, we had a driver take across the Mekong Delta (went on a couple ferries) and had some great views of the countryside so that we would end up at the Sam Mountain along the Vietnamese-Cambodian border. The trip took us about 6 hours including some stops for the bathroom and local food along the way.
After checking into this cool looking hotel with an open air dining room, massage service, located along a nice water way along a waterway, we
took motorbikes to the top of Sam Mountain and got a great view of the countryside although it's been pretty hazy since we've been here. During Tet (Vietnamese New Year in February) Sam Mountain is the spot where many Vietnamese take their pilgrimage to pray. The mountain has a lot of spiritual significance and there are several pagodas strewn on and around it. Several years ago, my eldest sister was reading in a book about places where miracles had taken place and came across one in Vietnam-Sam Mountain. She asked my grandparents if they were familiar with it and my grandfather nonchalantly said yes and told her about a miracle that occurred to him on the mountain. Back in the day, when my grandfather was a very young man, he prayed to this lady Buddha statue and prayed for my grandmother to marry him. He promised that he would come back to the mountain with his wife and family if he got his wish. Well, my grandmother did marry him but he never went back because of WWII and all the chaos going on at the time. He then fell deathly ill in his intestines to the point where he couldn't walk. He was dying. My grandfather decided to go back to the mountain for he believed his illness was a result of never going back to give thanks for his wife and family. He was so sick that he needed a driver to help him get up the mountain. When he reached the lady Buddha statue which was located half-way up the mountain, he prayed and on his way back down the mountain, and miraculously got better and insisted that the driver let him drive. That trip to Sam Mountain saved his life. So I decided I should go there and pray and find the lady statue that my grandfather once prayed at. Well, finding her wasn't as simple as I thought.
First we traveled to the top of mountain and saw a great view. Then we decided to walk down and find this female statue but we were not having
luck. Finally, we asked some people and they told us she was at the bottom of the mountain! In a guidebook, a history of this female Buddha statue states that it has been around since the 19th Century. It originally resided at the top of the mountain but some Thai soldiers tried to carry it down to take it back to Thailand with them but gave up half-way down the mountain and left it there. Then years later a woman was possessed by the spirit of the statue and ordered that 40 virgins from the village carry the statue down the mountain. The villagers got the 40 virgins and they carried it down to the spot where
it now resides at the bottom. A pagoda now surrounds it. Now this is where things got tricky for us. My grandfather described it as a black statue and she looked like the Buddha Quan Am (aka Quan Yin). Quan Am is usually in a standing position. I pictured here to be black stone and standing. When we arrived at the pagoda where she stood, we were
not allowed to take pictures but Teale got a couple of shots on video. The thing was, she was not like I pictured at all. First of all, her entire body was covered in this weird yellow gown so all you could see is her head and she appeared to be sitting. Her face was painted skin color and eyes were painted and I couldn't see the black stone. But as soon as Teale saw it she said, "Oh, this is it. She's black!"

"What do you mean she's black? How can you tell? All you see is her face and she's covered in a gown."

"Look at her skin! It's black."

I looked again at the face of the Buddha. Her skin had the color of a light skinned African. "Nooo, Teale - it's supposed to black stone, not African!"

"Are you sure, Adele?"

"Well...no."

Was this the right one? When my grandfather told me this story, he said a black Buddha - I just assumed he meant it was made from black stone. I wasn't sure this was it but we saw no other black female Buddha. I was comforted by the fact that Teale seemed so sure as soon as she saw it, although I was doubtful.

Over the years she must have been painted, and damaged, hence the yellow cloth covering. Her spiritual power remains although her garb has changed for I could feel it when I was there. I prayed and donated some cash. The next morning, I went back again and prayed and witnessed the early morning goers offering roasted pigs and praying. I was able to steal a few snapshots before security told me it wasn't allowed. Sam Mountain was very nice and I wish I could've stayed an extra day to do a 3 hour boat tour along the Mekong delta to visit an old Cham site. The Cham's were the original indigenous people that inhabited the land before the Vietnamese came along and took over. The artifacts left behind look very similar to cultural artifacts from India. I enjoyed this brief trip from the big city and the peaceful nature of the mountain. It's nice to know that if it weren't for this place and the Lady Buddha statue, I wouldn't be here today.

Maxim's Restaurant - Final Dinner in Saigon
On my last night here in Saigon, I took my family out to what once was an old high end theatre pre-1975 called Maxim's and is now a fine-dining restaurant with the same name that has live performances with classical instrument musicians playing western music. All the locals who know the old Saigon history know this place. The artists who ran the performances there pre-1975 fled to France when there was a change of ownership. The stage still remains and the interior design is well preserved or reconstructed (not sure which one).

It's really nice to have family here and I expressed to them my gratitude for their warm reception and my hope to come back soon with a better ability to speak fluent Vietnamese. I also shared with them my hope to live and work in Saigon for a period of time. Then I could really learn the language. It's not a far-fetched option. Ba Ngoai Di (grand aunt), said she was going to be sad to see me go. She's so sweet and was so beautiful in her aoi dai she wore for dinner. I will miss her the most in the family. I have several messages from various family members to pass on in the US and France. All in Saigon want to know when the other's of our clan will go back to visit. I expressed that I wasn't sure but will pass it along that all should really comeback to Vietnam. My family abroad (France and USA) would be blown away at the changes and progress that has occurred since we last visited in 1998 (9 yrs ago, I with my parents, grandmother and brother traveled here from the States and had a reunion with the French Vietnamese side of the family: my Aunt and her husband, and my Uncle and his family). No matter have far we are from one another, family ties run strong. I guess it's a Vietnamese thing.

Beware of Aussie tourists getting out of cars

The highlight of my last evening in Saigon occurred after dinner when Teale and I took motorbike taxis to Pham Ngu Lao (the strip where all the young tourists and backpackers hang out) to meet Allison and friends for drinks. On the way, my motorbike driver turned a corner into an alley that cars should not be allowed on and an unaware Aussie opened his taxi cab car door right into our motorbike, hitting my left knee, causing us to crash. Luckily, I've received harder blows playing field hockey and soccer and no skin was broken. It appeared to be a nice spectacle to the tourists sitting around at the cafes and the Vietnamese around as well. A young Vietnamese man sat me down on a nearby stool and grabbed this green liquid that smelled like Ben-gay (similar to tiger balm) labeled "Eagle Brand" and rubbed it on my knee and tried to help the swelling go down. It's for aches and pains and is a cure-all here. (You can get it in Chinatown in NYC or any Asian market in the States.) I don't know what happened to the Aussies and the car but they split once they saw no one was really hurt. I asked Teale to take pictures and she got an awesome photo that caught the essence of the moment.

I thought, "Should I give this guy money for helping me?" And I looked to the other Vietnamese surrounding us and I asked, "Should I pay for his help?" One Vietnamese said, "It's up to you." I turned to Teale to see if she could give him money since I was so flustered. The young Vietnamese man refused the money. In Vietnamese he told those around him that I was too pretty for me to have to pay. I smiled and said okay. Another Vietnamese asked if I understood what he said and I said yes. Surprisingly, I know more Vietnamese then I thought I did. From there I limped to our meeting spot with Allison, Laura, and Tuan. We took a taxicab car home after a couple ibuprofen (thanks Allison) and some rum and coconut and fine conversation with good company. No more motor biking for now, especially on a crazy Friday night in the city. The Vietnamese in Saigon know how to maneuver through the chaos of all the motorbikes and cars. It's the damn tourists you should be aware of when commuting around. The tourists will side swipe you and run. Thanks to some a really nice Vietnamese man, I felt comforted. I now have a knot on my knee as a souvenir to remind me that 'We're not in Kansas anymore...'

Things I'd like to comment on later:
Tet and the 8.9 million people in Saigon and migration of workers
Vietnamese abroad culture vs. the domestic Vietnamese culture - different approaches to the past, present, and future.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/adeleray/vietnam_2007/1168186740/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/adeleray/vietnam_2007/1168186740/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/adeleray/vietnam_2007/1168186740/tpod.html Sun, 07 Jan 2007 12:23:20 -0500 Vietnam - Lost Pictures

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Saigon and Cu Chi Village, Vietnam

Due to equipment issues that are being resolved (thanks Esther for you help) the trip to Vinh Long and Sam Mountain in Chau Duc is postponed until next week.


We went to the village of Cu Chi, where the underground tunnel network is located. The usage of the tunnel for guerilla warfare can be traced back to 1934. During the Vietnam-American War, the tunnel was expanded and now runs from the outskirts of Saigon to the borders of Cambodia. The resourcefulness and man-woman-child power of the people of Cu Chi is admirable. Teale and I crawled through a new variation of the tunnels made for big westerners. One of the disturbing parts of the tour in Cu Chi was near the end, where you could opt to shoot a rifle, machine gun, or handgun on a shooting range.
I declined that option of the tour. The sound of the guns shook me up too much so while Teale got a chance to shoot, I saw how rice paper was produced at an exhibit situated next to the shooting range and cafe where I purchased a little rice wine after getting a sample (tasty!). I also got an interesting propaganda DVD made in (I believe) the 60's with very poor production values (which we watched at the beginning of the tour). The DVD was worth the extra thousands of Dongs (a couple bucks) since it is an interesting historical artifact. In addition, B-52 bomb craters were spread out throughout the area. Again, the resilience and sheer ingenuity of the people of Cu Chi is admirable. The tour was fascinating, strangely laid out, and disturbing. These simple rice paper making villagers of Cu Chi are not so simple and definitely know how to kick ass!


Local North Americans/Viet Kieus in Saigon
Thanks to my friend Candice in Brooklyn, I met Alison (Candice's childhood friend) who is living in Saigon and teaching English. She is twenty-five years old and an avid globe-trotter. She's been all over Asia and says India has her heart. She also taught English in Korea. After visiting Vietnam for a couple weeks she picked up and moved here to teach English (found a job in two weeks of deciding to move here).

Alison's fellow teacher friend and housemate, Laura from Canada, introduced me to their fellow teacher and friend, Tuan, from San Jose, CA. Tuan is a Viet Kieu (pronounced "Q") which means Vietnamese abroad. He was introduced to me as "Tony" since the school he teaches at wanted him to have a western name for marketing reasons. No Vietnamese parents wants a Vietnamese teacher teaching their child English even though Tuan speaks flawless English since he grew up in the States. Tuan is living in Saigon with his mother who stayed here. He expressed that he is trying to get in touch with his roots (as many young Viet Kieus do who go back to Vietnam). Tuan introduced me to Thatch, another Viet Kieu, who is in Saigon to take advantage of business opportunities. Both were around my age and seem to be impressed with my film project/personal journey/pilgrimage. We really could identify with one another although they are more Vietnamese then me-they look it, they speak it, they are it. I told Tuan how I was inspired to live here and find work so I could learn the language and he said that I'd be surprised how much opportunity there is right now. I believe it. I can feel it. The tides are changing here and even remnants of the war will be forgotten soon. This is a special time for Vietnam and the Vietnamese people and I want to be a witness to it all and capture this changing of the tide. So who knows, maybe I'll move here for a couple of months. I feel very at home in Saigon. I dig it. And since I've been here, real local Vietnamese knew and saw the Vietnamese in me! That is a first for me. Oh, yeah, and I now eat the round ice (which is clean) and I'm eating the fresh veggies. I have to have my Viet ice coffee and fresh veggies. When in Rome...



Other things we've done but I don't have time to elaborate on regarding shooting for my film:
-Visited my mom's home in 1963 which was near a GI bar where terror activity went down. Will go back to again.
-Had coffee on top of the Hotel Majestic with a great view of the Saigon Harbor and cargo ships. The hotel has been there since 1925.
-Had drinks on top of the Rex Hotel and scoped out aeriel shots to be taken of that area where there is some nice iconic shots of Saigon.
-Visted Le Cong Kieu St. that has old antiques, war leftovers: sun glasses, film cameras, dog tags, and PHOTOGRAPHS!!! Will rummage through to see if I can find anything worth using for the film.


Tomorrow, we visit the grave of my great grandmother on my grandfather's located on the outskirts of Saigon. I'll be making an offering and then will visit my grandmother's sister for an interview on the pirating on the boat along the Mekong during WWII which will be incorporated into the film.

To be continued...




]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/adeleray/vietnam_2007/1167882600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/adeleray/vietnam_2007/1167882600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/adeleray/vietnam_2007/1167882600/tpod.html Fri, 05 Jan 2007 18:48:39 -0500 Vietnam - Lost Pictures

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Ho Chi Minh City a.k.a. Saigon, Vietnam


HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!
Well, I'm in Saigon now. Arrived yesterday Jan. 2nd at 11am (which was Jan 1st 11pm US Eastern coast time, I believe). The Nguyne Retreat was such a challenging experience and going from fasting, meditating, and taking a vow of silence for a couple of days and then getting on a plane for over 20 hours and stopping in Frankfurt, Singapore, and finally my destination, Saigon, has been a mental, physical, and spiritual challenge. Just so you know from my own experience, be very careful what you eat after you fast. I unfortunately wasn't careful and ate a chocolate truffle, from a batch I whipped up myself, which made me sick on the plane. Teale and I counted down to NYC New Year's time. It wasn't much of a party blast as I was expecting for I could barely stand or ingest anything, let alone stay conscious. The awesome Singapore Airlines flight attendant said, at least I was getting out the bad stuff (purifying) for the New Year. I loved the way he looked at it.

Well, knock on wood, I'm in Saigon now and I feel great. Unfortunately, my DP, Teale got sick the day we arrived. No worries, she's feeling much better today.


FAMILY & LANGUAGE
My lovely extended family Uncle Phan, and Ba Yi Tuyet (my grandmother's sister) who looks just like my grandmother (Ba Ngoai) who I plan on interviewing, and cousin Mr. Khoa (her son-in-law), received us with loving embraces. I love how Ba Yi's kisses on the cheeks, like my grandmother, who grabs my cheeks and sniffs them, I love it! Language was a big barrier for us to communicate but the love is felt greatly. I also met Uncle Phan's daughter, Ms. Hanh and her little sixteen year old niece who looked as hip as any of my New Yorker college students. I was actually surprised how modern Vietnam is now since I last visited in '98. The Vietnamese have progressed in such a short time. I dig Saigon and could live here for a few months to learn the language and teach film courses (I will apply for Fulbright Scholarships to work here and teach next year). I want to learn the Southern tongue as opposed to the Northern, for obvious reasons, since my family is Southern. I know basics like, 'yes', 'no', 'thank you', 'go eat', 'sit down', 'go to sleep', 'wash your face', all those things that your mom tells you to do in Vietnamese when you are child. But I need to get a better handle on the language. People are really cool and it doesn't seem to matter that we don't share the same language, there is always a way to communicate. I heard somewhere a long time ago, that something like 70% or so of communication is non-verbal. You can really understand this when immersed in Saigon. It also doesn't hurt that the young Viets are taught English in school.


VIETNAM BOOM
Vietnam is not the same Vietnam I recall from 1998. It resembles something more like Bangkok with much more commercialism and fruitful businesses everywhere, and a lot technology too. I'm happy to see the country growing and the people prospering.



There's two sides to the prosperity as globalization and economic growth in developing countries have clear dark sides (for example, Christmas consumerism is at its' finest here - Christmas trees, pine branch garnishing, jingles, and advertisements everywhere, just like in the States) but I'm happy to see the growth since I understand the hardships the country has endured in the past---it's the lesser of the two evils or extremes, I'd say. This is definitely up for a longer intellectual/academic conversation which I don't wish to delve into right now and need more time to reflect on the topic but that is my initial impression.



New York vs. Saigon
I feel very much at home here. It reminds me of New York except it's not a foot culture or public transportation culture or a car culture. It's a motorbike culture and I love it although a bit toxic (I need to buy a mask to cover my mouth and nose). The weather is in the 80's and the people seem pretty chill. 1 USD = 16,000 VN Dongs. I can be fed all day on one dollar. Being anywhere else in the world aside from NY (and maybe London) is soooo much more affordable. I can really appreciate that, living on a low budget.


THE JOURNEY HAS JUST BEGUN...
Okay, well, I have to do some production planning and shopping around for extra gear. Gonna catch a ride on a motorbike ($1 can get you anywhere you want to go!). Next week we trek to Vinh Long (along the Mekong Delta) where my grandmother and her children and sister were pirated on a boat when she was fleeing from an area that was being bombed by the French during WWII, will visit my ancestor's graves to do an offering, and then to Chau Duc along the Vietnamese-Cambodian border to a very spiritual and miraculous place, Sam Mountain, where a Quan Am (Quan Yin) statue is located that saved my grandfather's life after WWII. There are many other places to visit on this journey in South Vietnam since so much of my family's history took place here.





The journey has just begun...
]]>