Long Sơn island

Writing the entries about Đà lạt suddenly reminded me of a day trip at the beginning of April on the Hùng Kings (plural intended!) holiday. The weekend is also memorable because Vũng Tàu and much of the area inland was lashed by a typhoon on Sunday, and our trip on Saturday was almost cancelled because we had had such heavy rain early in the morning.

Long Sơn island is a large island in the waterways between Vũng Tàu and Bà Rịa, located in one corner of Vĩnh Gành Hào, the bay that you cross if you take the ferry between Saigon and Vũng Tàu. The island, or at least the floating seafood restaurants near it, were the chosen destination for the ILA outing on liberation day national holiday in September 2009. At the time Stuart from ILA told us teachers that Long Sơn is famous for monks with long beards but as we didn't go anywhere near them, I totally forgot about it.

This time on Hùng Kings holiday, Bảo's colleagues decided on a trip to the island (I think partly because I had suggested it as a day trip destination to him some time before). To get there we hired a taxi. This sounds expensive but because it dropped us off for lunch, returned to Vũng Tàu and then agreed to return when called, it was probably the most cost-effective means of transport we could use.

As a result of this visit I discovered Nhà Lớn - Long Sơn's Big House. Briefly, because I haven't found much information about it,  Long Son big house was established in the early of 20th century by Le Van Muu, a follower of Tu An Hieu Nghia religion. The religion actually comes from An Giang province in the Mekong delta. Following a Google translation of a Wikipedia entry in Vietnamese, it seems that the religion is an off-shoot of Buddhism and had the aim of using simple ideas and words to bring Buddhism to ordinary people such as farmers and fishermen. It also seems to combine ideas from Taoism and Confucianism and, in Long Sơn to revere or at least memorialise the founder of the house and his family.

Remarkably I have discovered an academic paper on Nhà Lớn Long Sơn, so I am posting a link to it here (and hoping to get time to read it thoroughly!).

The followers of Ông Tran in Long Son still follow a basic habit of wearing black áo bà ba costume (the shirt and trousers traditionally worn by South Vietnamese people), walking on bare feet and keeping their hair in buns. This habit with hair applies to both men and women, which explains Stuart's reference to long-haired monks. They also follow a strict daily routine to cook and offer food to worship and clean in the temple. They consider Nhà Lớn to be their sacred common house and live in rooms spread out in the few hectares of land that the Nhà Lớn is located on.

One of the websites I have based this information on records that
 "The locals still preserve the traditional positive characters of honesty and hospitality of the Southern people, for they always invite visitors to Nha Lon for free meals. Those meals are used first to worship and are simple, but still delicious. Visitors also have a chance to taste other specialties at Long Son."
To be honest, I felt that it was a bit of a pain for the residents to have to meet with so many visitors (due to the holiday) and we found that the guides who took us around either didn't have anything to say (I am relaying the report by the Vietnamese speakers of our party when I say this) or didn't want to talk about the house. We were not allowed to take any photos of the interior, but it was a veritable museum in parts and interesting to explore. The pictures  give an idea of the architecture.

Long Sơn is also well-known for gà ta, which in Australian English would be known as free-range chicken. Just why the meat of this chicken is so desirable is a mystery to me. It is some of the toughest meat on earth! However, in terms of animal welfare the lifestyle of the gà ta is much preferable to its cousin gà đông nghiệp (literally industrial chicken), and many people do not want to eat the meat of the latter. For example, Bảo's mother only buys gà ta.

So, although we were headed to a seafood restaurant and in Australia it is just "not on" to bring in food from outside, we purchased a number of grilled chickens then headed off to meet the boat that would transport across the channel to one of the floating restaurants off-shore from Long Sơn island. Actually, as it turns out we did have to pay for bringing in our own food, but we also indulged in prawns and oysters, too.

Đà Lạt Trip: Part 4 (last part!)

(by the way, if you think I have a good memory for the itinerary of this trip it's not true. I would be totally lost without the photographic record - and Bảo who took on the responsibility of pooling and sharing out the photos that each person on the trip took!)

Our last evening concluded with some over-zealous members of the group taking xe vịt (pedal duck/swan boats) out on Xuân Hương lake. Just like swans these vessels look like easy-sailing but to actually pedal them through the water is a rigorous and exhausting activity, and most definitely takes two people to achieve it. My pedalling partner, Dũng, is a competitive person as well so we kept having to race the other swans to imaginary finish lines.

In the morning most people wanted to go to the market and buy fruit, jam, sweaters, etc. Bảo, Bi, Thuận and I opted for coffee and ice cream instead.

Our actual departure from Đà Lạt was in stages, as we visited the Crazy House before leaving the city, and then stopped off at Datanla falls for several hours, including lunch. As a result our final departure time and commencement of the descent from the highlands only came around at about 3pm.

Crazy House - Hằng Nga

(It is a bit lazy of me, but you can take a look at my teaching website for information about this one!)

The Crazy House is a bit of a miniature Disney-land, so it is especially suited to kids who get to do all manner of dangerous things such as walk along narrow, low-sided elevated walkways joining buildings in the complex 10 metres above the ground. I do think the free-form architecture is appealing, but I still feel that actually staying in the rooms of this guesthouse is too much like living in a cement shell. The intention in the design of all the rooms is that they be cosy and inviting, but I really have no desire to stay here.

But it is always fun to visit, to see what has changed and what is still the same from last time, and what is still unfinished!

Datanla Falls

My last visit here was with Michelle, Chaska and Killki, and like that visit we took the toboggan down the steep slope to the waterfall. Bi and Thuận went on a sled of their own but managed fine, which is a bit of a relief now because there were a lot of people, and most disregarded the warning signs to keep 25 metres distance between each sled. The immediate result of this behaviour was that Dũng and Tiệp got smashed into from behind by some other group, and Dũng broke a tooth.

We had a picnic lunch at the falls, and then took a cable car that travels further down a gorge to a second set of waterfalls - quite a new attraction and it seems not yet well-known. The cable car brings you to the head of the next waterfall. From there there is an elevator(!) to take you to the base where you can wander along the stream before it reaches another cascade. We had an enjoyable time down here relaxing in the pleasant air and cool water, but ... Vũng Tàu was still a long way away.

in the background you can see the elevator

Homeward bound

We finally made it home to Phan Chu Trinh Street just before midnight, and put two very tired boys to bed. Along the way Đạt and Dương decided that they needed to buy two cumquat trees, which of course had to join the passengers in the van. We also stopped for dinner at the big Tâm Châu tea and coffee showroom and restaurant near Bảo Lộc, where Đạt and I both invested in a kilogram of delicious coffee each.

one final photo: I took this when Đạt bought the trees but I still don't know what it is!

Phnom Penh again

National Day in Vietnam falls on 2 September and commemorates the day in 1945 when Uncle Ho declared Vietnam to be independent of French rule. This year it fell on Thursday with many companies giving employees Friday off as well to make a long weekend. So ... I also took advantage of it by accompanying Bao and An on a 4-day trip to Phnom Penh.

The border crossing at Moc Bai-Ba Vet was very busy, and as there were a number of foreigners on our bus it also took some time to get Cambodian visas issued. Unfortunately it was so busy that the leader on our bus forgot to submit my passport and fee to the visa office! I thought something was different from the previous experience but it took 20+minutes of queuing to get to the immigration counter before I found out what it was. Luckily I found him straightaway and was in possession of the visa and entry stamp in about 10 minutes!

Expecting Phnom Penh to be very busy with Vietnamese holiday makers we had already booked a hotel, which turned out to be within walking distance of most points of attraction. So essentially we spent a weekend alternating between walking a lot and doing very little. As with my previous visit to Phnom Penh the heavens absolutely bucketed down on two occasions for several hours.

We spent some time on Friday morning at the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda. Both are inside a large compound that includes the Throne Room and various other buildings. The actual royal residence is off-limits behind high walls, although visible. This is a peaceful sp0t to go and there are a number of exhibits detailing Cambodian culture and the political career of the King Father Sihanouk.

We also visited the Killing Fields at Choueng Ek which provide the counterpart to Tuol Sleng in commemmorating the terrible impacts of the Pol Pot era on Cambodia's people. While the classic image of Choueng Ek in the past was the wooden structures housing skulls and other bones of the people slaughtered here, they were actually replaced some years ago by a tall, elegant but sombre stupa. To date approximately half of the mass graves of more than 20,000 people have been excavated.

The graves were not dug deeply. With Cambodia's heavy rains bone fragments, teeth and even pieces of cloth continually emerge in the surface of the soil. In the small museum I was surprised to discover that at least one Australian had been killed and buried here - David Lloyd Scott. You can visit a couple of other blogs to learn something more about him: http://informationandaccess.blogspot.com/2007/07/week-6-in-phnom-penh-milestones.html and http://blog.andybrouwer.co.uk/2009/08/aussies-at-s-21.html. The records are a bit hazy on whether he and Ronald Keith Dean died at Tuol Sleng or at Choueng Ek, but they appear to have been at both infamous sites.

The legendary birthplace of Phnom Penh is Wat Phnom perched on the only hill in the city. This is the place to which Madame Penh brought some Buddha images she found floating in the river. There are a lot of cats here!

A little bit of shopping in the Russian Market rounded off our visit. Bao was keen to see the Independence Monument at night and also go to the Nagaland Casino/Hotel to help him recapture memories and photos from his tour in Cambodia last year. Unfortunately he had lost all the photos he took on that tour to Siem Reap, Angkor Wat and Phnom Penh. Gambling wasn't on anyone's list of things to do, but the casino decor is quite impressive. One large room is decorated as though it is actually outdoors, with a 3-storey ceiling painted with sky and clouds and brightly lit. Quite the opposite to the experience of Sydney's Star City or indeed most gambling dens in the average Australian club.

Museums: Hue and the DMZ

My visit to Hue was sort of a last-ditch decision when I found I couldn't get a plane to Pleiku at the time I had intended to travel there. I took the overnight train again - Reunification Express - but found it to be a bit less plush (relative terms here!) than the train to Lao Cai/Sapa. Still comfortable enough, though I don't think I would like to go end to end of the country without a break.

The Citadel
My objective in Hue was to visit the Citadel and Imperial Palace, as these were the main "unseen" sites from my previous visit here. During the trip south bad weather from China caught up with us and I arrived in Hue to almost constant rain. I also discovered that I had left my cap somewhere (Ninh Binh? Hanoi?). The very friendly and helpful hotel staff (I do recommend this place: Tran Ly Hotel on Le Loi Street) told me it had been raining for a few days already!

Eventually (after breakfast and a walk around the nearby streets) I decided I would just have to get out there anyway. So I bought a lightweight poncho and set off walking across the Trang Tien bridge over the Perfume River. First stop was the market for lunch and a cap!

The Citadel covers a very large area. Inside it are the Imperial Enclosure (comparable to the Forbidden City in Beijing) which contained the emperor's residence and the main imperial government buildings, and then inside that is the Forbidden Purple City, which was for the personal use of the emperor. At that point most comparisons with Beijing's Forbidden City complex have to end. Firstly, because the whole Citadel complex suffered drastic damage during the French and American Wars. Secondly, the complex in Hue has much more of a park feel to it. There are models which show the extent to which the Citadel and its enclosures were actually built up, but the use of the moat around the Citadel, the relative space that seems apparent between buildings, and the lakes and parks inside the Imperial Enclosure make a lighter atmosphere. Maybe it's really just a consequence of the first point ...

Much of my afternoon here was spent trudging around in the rain, with the camera getting progressively damper and damper to the point it almost stopped working altogether! Because I was a shutterbug yet again!

The main features of the outer perimeter of the Citadel are the 10km long walls, the outer moat, and the Flag Tower, seen here from the Ngo Mon Gate, which is the principal entrance to the Imperial Enclosure. The walls of the Imperial Enclosure are surrounded by an inner moat.

Walking through the Ngo Mon Gate you approach Thai Hoa Palace across a large pond. Behind this are the Halls of the Mandarins which have been restored, and beyond them (behind a broken down wall) was the Forbidden Purple City, now almost entirely destroyed.

From here I went on to the To Mieu Temple complex, which has also been restored. Here there are statues or pictures of the Nguyen Dynasty Emperors as well as a set of heavy, decorated bronze urns, intended to symbolise the power and stability of the Nguyen throne (although this was effectively distintegrated after 1883 and the death of Tu Duc). The buildings here were peaceful, beautifully decorated and restored, and only a few visitors. This generally is the situation in the whole Citadel because the tours make very cursory and rushed visits. So if you come to Hue - take your time!

Dien Tho Residence is one of the few other largely intact buildings (also under restoration). Around now the rain was falling again but the pavilions and walkways offered shelter as well as a close-up view of where the Queen Mothers lived and received visitors.

From here I skirted around the walls and along the streets of the Imperial Enclosure to make my way past Truong San Residence (in ruins but praised in 1844 by Emperor Thieu Tri for its gardens as one of the top 20 beautiful spots in Hue). Then past some administrative buildings from Bao Dai's era, and the Thai To Mieu temple complex which provides a counterpoint to To Mieu.

The next day I revisited the outside of the Imperial Enclosure making my way from a gate on the eastern side, around to the five cannons near Quang Duc gate, representing the five elements: metal, wood, water, fire and earth. From here I made the 7km trek to Thien Mu Pagoda (yes, on foot!)


Thien Mu
David and I came here in 1999. It is an iconic site for the Vietnamese, and features in many idyllic paintings, poetry and songs. It also has political significance for demonstrations against the South Vietnamese government of Ngo Dinh Diem. From here the Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc set out in 1963 on his journey to Saigon and his death by self-immolation in protest against the treatment of Buddhists by the government.

There was much more to the pagoda than I remembered. Perhaps that is an accident of having visited the first time as part of a tour on the Perfume River to visit the Royal Tombs. I elected to return to Hue by boat, but the hotel staff were still amazed that I had walked so far!


De-Militarised Zone (DMZ)
On my last full day in Hue, I took a tour to the de-militarised zone. The itinerary promised a huge number of sites, but given that we also had long distances to cover from Hue up to Dong Ha then further north to Vinh Moc, then back to Dong Ha and up the Truong Son mountains to Khe Sanh combat base, I knew not to expect too much. The main thing for me was to visit the Vinh Moc tunnels. These are different to the tunnels at Cu Chi because their use was as much civilian as military.

Vinh Moc village came under constant and heavy bombardment from the Americans and the south from 1966. Many villagers left, but some remained with the encouragement of the Viet Cong. For about 4 years daily life moved underground. 17 babies were born in the delivery room in the tunnels, and families lived, cooked, ate, washed and slept here.

The other main visit of the tour was to Khe Sanh Combat Base. One of the other Australians on the tour joked that many visitors must come because of the Cold Chisel song, maybe expecting to see some links to the band or Jimmy Barnes. Here we were given an excellent commentary about the base and its history by the director of the base museum. This is the principal feature - evidence of the massive air field that was built here is almost extinguished, except for one thing. The outline remains distinct because nothing will grow on it.

Museums: Hanoi

I arrived back in Vietnam (Ha Noi) in the evening of 10 November. The next morning I met up with Ellyn and Elsbeth (former colleagues at ILA Vietnam in Vung Tau) for brunch. Then Elsbeth and I went to the Ha Noi Museum of Fine Arts, conveniently located just across the road! Elsbeth's mission was to visit as many museums and cultural places in Ha Noi as possible before she left Vietnam to return to Minnesota later in the month. This museum was also part history, because it charted art, ceramics and sculpture in Vietnam from the earliest times. Some of the most impressive works I saw were modern, socialist-era pieces using traditional lacquer-ware techniques. The colours were used brilliantly to give life to the pictures.

Museums were really the recurring theme of my visit to Ha Noi, apart from walking many times around Ho Hoan Kiem (Returned Sword Lake). I tried mainly to visit places that I hadn't seen before, but in this time I revisited Van Mieu (Temple of Literature) as well as Ngoc Son Temple on the island in Ho Hoan Kiem. Van Mieu seemed very different to the first time I visited with David in 1999. This is partly because of a new, though traditional-looking, complex added behind the main Khue Van Pavilion, to record the contributions made by some of the most significant kings to the creation of the university.

At the Museum of the Vietnamese Revolution and again at Hoa Lo Prison museum I got some great insights into the long nationalistic struggle of the Vietnamese to gain independence. This journey started almost at the same time that France gained it's stranglehold in Indochina, and so (at the Museum of the Vietnamese Revolution) includes the resistance of some of the nationalist emperors, as well as the long list of revolutionary heroes throughout the 20th century. I ran out of time (because Hanoian museums have very early closing times and shoo everyone out at least 15 minutes prior to that!) so was still only part way through the struggle for reunification.

At Hoa Lo Prison the focus is three-fold: firstly, on the demolition and up-rooting of the community that lived here at the time the French decided this was the perfect location for the prison; secondly, on its use as a political prison; and thirdly, on its history as the Hanoi Hilton, housing American prisoners of war. Through visiting both these museums I started to recognise how many streets are named after revolutionary heroes - men and women.

One afternoon, I walked from the old quarter across to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum area. It was too late and the wrong day to go and pay my respects to Uncle Ho, but I did get the chance to look through the Ho Chi Minh Museum which has a great mix of exhibits combining Ho Chi Minh's personal/political history with the development of socialist Vietnam. Again, the closing-time wardens pounced just as I got through all the exhibits. Supposedly no cameras are allowed here (s0 I checked mine in) but I saw it happening all the time so took a couple of surreptitious shots on the phone-cam . Walking back I took a quick geek at the One Pillar Pagoda (I remember David's extreme disappointment the first time we visited - he expected so much more, and found an oversized bird-box!), and the Flag Tower in the old Ha Noi Citadel.

The other museum I visited was the Vietnamese Museum of Ethnology. This required a taxi ride because it's some distance away from the city. It was very interesting to come here after going to Sa Pa and it helped me to get a much more expansive idea of the different minority groups in the Vietnamese population. The museum has good indoor and outdoor exhibits. For once I agree with LP - it shouldn't be missed.