After a very early start on a Monday morning, and plenty of queuing at Suvarnabhumi, my mum and I eventually found ourselves in the centre of Ho Chi Minh City. It was lovely to get away from the noise and smell of Bangkok’s oppressive streets, and to promenade through Saigon just as the French ladies did many years ago. We were certainly very glad to not be wearing all those underclothes though, which must have been unbearable in the heat. The city centre, still named Saigon, has lots of architecturally interesting buildings, and it was a relief to not be towered over by skyscrapers and building sites. The roads were very wide and tree-lined, and most of the traffic only motorbikes. It was surprising how French it felt; it reminded us of Bordeaux in the summer, with all its street side cafes spilling out on to the pavement, and patrons being served baguettes and pastries.
We visited the Emerald Pagoda, which is a little sanctuary away from the hustle and bustle of Ho Chi Minh City After our eyes adjusted to the thick haze of incense, we saw that this wonderful little temple was very different to anything we had ever seen before, and it was humbling to see Buddhists, Hindus, Taoists and Confucionists worshipping their deities side by side. This was our first time in another Asian city, and we were expecting it to be not dissimilar to Bangkok, but found the contrasts astonishing.
Vietnam, having suffered two catastrophic wars in recent history, and only just emerging from strict communist economic policy, was understandably poor. However, we were not faced with the beggars you see in Bangkok and London. As expected of a communist country, there seemed to be greater care taken of those less fortunate in society. Men and women, who were missing limbs, were the proud owners of road-worthy wheel chairs and everybody was earning a living. Extended families all lived together within their communities, so the elderly were well taken care of by their children and grandchildren. This is an element within Asian societies that I greatly admire; a stark contrast to my own family, which is split all over the world. For a communist country we were surprised to find how much the market economy was thriving, but not so much so that we were faced with a McDonalds or Starbucks on every corner – this was certainly very refreshing. Vietnam was largely how I had imagined Asia before I came to Thailand, as many communities were living just as they had for generations. As tourists, it was great to see women cycling to work wearing traditional dress, and the famous conical hats keeping the sun off their faces.
After exploring Ho Chi Minh’s beautiful city centre, we made our way to the airport to fly on to Danang and arrived in Hoi An in late evening. Our hotel was lovely. It wasn’t conventionally luxurious, but carried a strong Indochinese flavour. This was delightful after the monotony of the big hotel chains we had previously experienced.
Hoi An is a small town which for centuries has been an important trading place on the central Vietnamese coast, and because of this, has a very unique charm. Generations of Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese have all lived together, and this was reflected most strikingly in the architecture. There were a few very distinctive Chinese buildings – wooden fronts with intricate oriental carvings, and in the evenings, lit by red paper lanterns. The Covered Bridge was quite stunning in its antiquity, and its beautifully designed simplicity highlighted the strong Japanese influence within that part of town. The local people have inherited their ancestors’ entrepreneurial skills, and were very good at persuading us into buying all sorts. Hoi An is renowned for its tailoring industry, so of course, we had to try them out. The women who ran their businesses were extremely hardworking, and made us beautiful items within hours. They were obviously very used to European visitors, as they had plenty of thick materials ready to make winter coats and boots, but I decided I didn’t have enough room in my suitcase to bring one home. I’m sure I shall regret that when back in Leeds for university this winter! We were overjoyed to see the new Next catalogue everywhere, and were able to pick out some designs we liked to have copied. All in all, we decided on a summer dress for each of us, a few pairs of linen trousers, a skirt, a shirt and a top for me, and a few little cotton tops for my mum. This was just on the clothes front, and we went on to design a leather handbag for my mum and some dolly shoes for me. We were very pleased with the quality of everything, and definitely satisfied with the prices. My favourite items were my skirt, which was made exactly to my design, and cost only £2, and my beautifully soft leather blue shoes. These were also my own design, and handed over to me the next day for only £10. It was indeed a shopper’s paradise and I definitely want to go back again
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Vietnamese women are praised for their embroidery skills, so it was impossible to not buy a souvenir of this. We both bought two adorable little handbags, that had pretty designs embroidered on silk, and a few more were brought home as presents. It was great to see the women making their wares, and made buying them even more special. From what I have seen in many Asian countries, it seems that women work extremely hard all day at physically demanding jobs, both in their traditional roles within their home, but also running the family business and in the fields, tending to crops and animals. We wondered where the men were, and soon discovered they were hanging around touting for cyclo business, but not trying too hard as they preferred to sit under the shade chatting with their mates or dozing off, oblivious to the work their wives and daughters were doing. Because of this, my mum and I had a huge appreciation for the girls running the stalls, and allowed ourselves to be tempted into buying all sorts of lacquer ware and pretty jewellery. We know we paid over the odds for our goods, but we found it very difficult to bargain while it was so obvious that we had money, and these women had very little.
On one of the days, we visited the temples of My Son. Having recently visited the temples of Angkor, My Son was a bit of a comedown, but we were keen to see it because we wanted to gather a wider picture of Vietnam My Son is on a series of hills, surrounded by huge mountains with tops above the clouds. It was a lovely experience to trek through the thick forest, occasionally catching a glimpse of a tower rising above the trees, and then, all of a sudden, you were in one of the sites.
Nature has taken control of the site, indeed, it was only rediscovered a little more than a century ago, and our time exploring My Son was like a journey through unspoiled Asia Sadly, the Americans bombed most of the temples, so it takes a lot of imagination to picture how My Son once was. This is an example of how Vietnam has suffered in recent years, as this important part of their history and cultural heritage has also fallen victim to war. Even so, it was a very enjoyable day, particularly as we travelled by boat back to Hoi An and saw locals out fishing in their sampans. We would thoroughly recommend Hoi An as a holiday destination for any lady who likes shopping, and for those who have a little interest in broadening their cultural horizons. We saw a few husbands looking thoroughly bored by all the tailors, bags, shoes and jewellery, and it seemed most visitors brought along the girl friends or daughters. Therefore, it was an ideal minibreak for the pair of us. If you do decide to go, I would definitely advise bringing an empty suitcase, as you’re sure to buy a lot more than expected.
