The Timeless Charm of Vietnam
ITE HCMC 2018 PROVIDED A PLATFORM FOR THOSE IN THE TOURIST INDUSTRY TO PROMOTE THEIR DESTINATIONS. IN VIETNAM THE VARIETY AND BEAUTY OF THE PLACES TO VISIT MAKE THE COUNTRY A TRULY ENRICHING PLACE FOR VISITORS, WRITES FLOYD COWAN.
At the end of the trip I was interviewed by a Thai TV station. I was asked which of the caves we had visited was my favorite. I surprised myself with the answer. We’d been in the beautiful Thien Duong Cave (Paradise Cave). We’d taken a leisurely boat trip on the Son River to Phong Nha Cave, we stopped at Eight Ladies Cave and we’d struggled down slopes, walked through humid, sniping jungle, changed into shorts and t-shirt; were fitted out with rubber sandals, life jackets and helmets with flashlights. We struggled over a mound of aggressive boulders and then immersed ourselves in the dark cold water at the mouth of the Tra Ang Cave. Which one did I enjoy most? Tra Ang Cave.
EVOLVING HCMC
The trip had begun in Ho Chi Minh City centered on the 2018 International Travel Expo. Tourism stakeholders from around Vietnam, Asia and the world, gathered to tell their stories, show pictures, give a taste of their culture to travel agents and media in the hopes of luring more visitors to their destinations.
Every time I visit HCMC I discover new experiences. On this trip, food was a focus. The first night we enjoyed a buffet dinner on the Indochina Queen, docked on the Saigon River. Platters of fresh seafood, calamari, fresh spring rolls, sushi and skewers of prawns quickly disappeared as dignitaries welcomed their visitors to HCMC.
LUKE NGUYEN’S VIETNAM
The next night was very special as we were hosted at Vietnam House Restaurant created by Chef Luke Nguyen. Luke has lived a fusion life. The Vietnameseaustralian chef is well-known as the host of the television series, Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam. His parents were boat people who landed in Sydney. “At 10 years old I knew I wanted to be a cook. I grew up in a restaurant in Australia.” At 23 he opened the Red Lantern restaurant in Surry Hills, Sydney and it became the most awarded Vietnamese restaurant in the world.
Luke, the Vietnam Airlines Global Cuisine Ambassador, is the author of eight cook books such as The Essence of Vietnamese Cuisine. If you fly with Vietnam Airlines you may have the opportunity to enjoy his food. As Global Cuisine Ambassador Luke is contracted to create eight dishes inspired by his travels across Vietnam for all Business Class flights and he will give his input on the current offering of 50 dishes served globally.
NOTHING TYPICAL
The food was amazing. Totally Vietnamese, but unique as Luke travels to the different regions to experience the cuisine. Into the dishes he fuses his own creative approach. “We have so much more than ‘typical’ Vietnamese food,” he says. “Vietnam’s cuisine is so diverse from north to south, from the highlands to the delta.”
We enjoyed incredible plates such as ‘Soft Shell Crab and Green Mango Salad’ and Wok Tossed Thien Ly Flower with garlic and oyster sauce. These dishes were paired with excellent wine.
THE LAND OF CAVES
The people of Vietnam are as different, as diverse, and as distinct as the delicacies Luke served. In Quang Binh I met another Luc, ‘Lucky Luke,’ Le The Luc, Deputy Director of Quang Binh Tourism. He has a great product to promote. In this province, that was on the border between North and South Vietnam, there are 327 caves they know exist, and they believe there are more yet to be discovered. The plan to open more caves and make them accessible to the public.
They don’t highlight the war in their promotional material. The caves are excellent and will attract travellers, the Vietnam War would lure others. Travellers want to visit historic and cultural trails. And this, the narrowest province wedged in between the South China Sea and Laos has one of the most fascinating historical trails.
VICTORY ROAD 21
We explored those trails with Jungle Boss. Dzung Le, the founder of the adventure tour company gained the nickname ‘Jungle Boss’ by doing jungle patrols and saving the wildlife for many years in the Phong Nha-ke Bang Nature Conservation Project before changing paths to work in adventure tourism.
Espresso personality Sarah, our Jungle Boss guide, gave us a version of the war that had a slight modern bias to it, told us we were standing on what was the Ho Chi Minh Trail – Victory Road 21 they call it. Growing up in Canada when the war was raging, the Ho Chi Minh Trail was one of the most inaccessible places on the planet. The Americans didn’t know exactly where it was, but they bombed the hell out of this area of North Vietnam. Seven million tons of bombs pummeled Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia during the war, more than twice the number of bombs dropped on Europe and Asia in World War II.
“In one day,” Sarah stated, “50,000 bombs were dropped in one week. In 1966 this road was the connection between the north and the south. It was the most important road during the Vietnam War.”
EIGHT LADIES CAVES
We visited the 8 Ladies Cave, so named despite the fact there were four men and four women sealed in the cave during ‘fire flame day’ when American bombers dropped a good portion of those 50,000 bombs. The fighters hid in caves during air raids, but on this day a stone dropped over the mouth of the cave and sealed them inside. Their comrades passed what food they could to them for nine days, but they couldn’t get them out, and so they became martyrs.
My mind goes back to Apocalypse Now and the opening scene when the Doors’ The End, plays overs scenes of napalm destroying palm tree jungle then transitions into fire on Martin Sheen’s face as he lays on a sweat drenched mattress in a cheap room in Saigon. He slowly wakes and gets up and looks out the slats of the venetian blinds and says, “Saigon… I am still only in Saigon. Every time I think I will end up in the jungle.”
MORE THAN SAIGON
Today’s travelers wouldn’t have wanted to be in Saigon or Vietnam during the war, just as many of the American soldiers didn’t want to be there. But they do want to experience the places where the war happened. Where movies implanted images into their imagination. Now they want to be there.
In HCMC there are many historic sites related to the Vietnam War. Our group did a City Tour, guided by Mr Bee, which included a visit to the War Remnants Museum.
The museum, one of the most visited museums in the city, has an A-1 Skyraider attack bomber, an A-37 Dragonfly attack bomber, Huey helicopters, an F-5A fighter, a BLU-82 “Daisy Cutter” bomb, and M48 Patton tank outside inside the walled yard. In the museum rooms are separated by themes in several buildings. There is unexploded ordnance, now disabled, displayed in the yard.
DISTURBING IMAGES
There are numerous photos from the war and some in our group found them disturbing. It is not for the queasy. The photos, plaques and displays cover the effects of Agent Orange and other chemical defoliant sprays, the use of napalm
and phosphorus bombs that were used during the war. Much space is given to American war atrocities. Another building has reproductions of the ‘tiger cages’ in which the South Vietnamese government kept political prisoners. Cramped quarters indeed.
While the accommodation was better than a Tiger Cage throughout Quang Binh, improvement is needed. On the coast at Đồng Hới City the accommodation at Bao Ninh Beach Resort is good and more international brands, such as the Pullman, are being built. I had a spacious Bungalow Garden with views out to the sea, but sadly I didn’t get to the beach. When I saw other’s pictures, I was really kicking myself. A long swath of white sand and blue sea made for great pictures.
WORLD HERITAGE
It was at Bao Ninh Beach Resort that ‘Lucky Luke’ hosted his second dinner with us and representatives from the local tourism industry. The Travel Conference introduced us to the 120,000-hectare Phong Nha-kẻ Bàng National Park that contains many of the UNESCO World Heritage caves in this region.
The night before we had been at the Sai Gon restaurant in the Phong Nha Hotel where the Deputy Director hosted us in style. He introduced us to entrepreneur Hai who owns a travel company, two restaurants and has part interest in Easy Tiger – a youth hostel with a very popular bar. Easy Tiger has a pool table, a live band and cheap draft beer. It was pulsating with a large and energetic, mostly young, crowd. As we were leaving, the band called Hai up on the stage where he sang Bob Marley’s No Woman No Cry.
PARADISE IN A CAVE
It was that morning that we had visited Thiên Đường Cave (Paradise Cave). This UNESCO’S World Heritage Site, 60 km northwest of Đồng Hới City, is 31 km long, longer than Phong Nha Cave which had been considered the longest cave in the park until Paradise Cave was discovered. The limestone formations are quite spectacular and more interesting than that of Phong Nha Cave.
Phong Nha Cave has its allures. In the afternoon we boarded a long narrow boat and chugged down the Son River, which turns red during the rainy season. Now the water is green as there are many green stones in the river. The roof of the boat is drawn back and we are able to get unobstructed views. At 44k in length it is the longest river cave in the world.
Of course we didn’t see all 44ks, only about 1.2ks. We disembarked inside the cave and took a short walk back to the entrance, passing spectacular formations. This was less strenuous than exploring Tra Ang Cave.
ON THE HO CHI MINH TRAIL
We started early in the day, driving into the National Park. After visiting the Eight Ladies Cave and the adjacent temple built in honour of the heroes, we walked down the road to the trail that would take us to Tra Ang Cave. The trail drops into the jungle, almost straight down, with a rope to cling to to keep from sliding in the mud to the bottom. I got a great sense of what it must have been like to be here during the war – except no one was dropping bombs on my head and I wasn’t carrying loads of materiel for the war.
The jungle looked like an impregnable carpet of green and it was difficult to image what it would have looked like after being despoiled by the bombs and chemicals that were dropped here.
What was waiting for us at the staging area were lifejackets, helmets and a place to change. I couldn’t take my camera in. A swift cold stream separated us from the cooking area where Jungle Boss staff were preparing a meal for us. The chilling stream also separated us from Tra Ang Cave. We followed the Jungle Boss guides on a short but challenging walk to the cave entrance.
CAUTION OVER CONFIDENCE
There is a mound of boulders leading up to the cave. Crossing those boulders took on added difficulty as my footwear was a half size too large and my foot slipped in them. I wasn’t confident that when I put my foot on the sharp edge of a boulder that it would stay where it was put. We had to step from ragged boulder to boulder. Caution got me safely, slowly, across and down to the entrance. We all gathered there and listened to the instructions before slipping into the water.
It was a good swim, 600m into the current, to the back of the cave, high curving roof and rough walls. I scanned the top of the cave and saw an opening high above us. An escape hatch should the waters rise quickly, as I was told they do at times during the rainy season. It was the rainy season and it was just a few months since the 12 students and their coach had been rescued from a flooded cave in Thailand.
DARKER THAN NIGHT
Our large group was scattered through the dark. We were told to swim on the right side going in and the left side coming out. Robert Revesz was ahead of me and when he banged his knee on a rock, I decided it was a good thing to have him lead. Robert put a lot of effort into his swimming and went to the end and was on the way back when I reached the end of the cave. The rest
of the group had stopped on a shelf and then they all turned off their headlamps It was pitch black, darker than night. My anemic beam was swallowed into nothingness.
By the time I’d made it back to the cave entrance I was tired and happy to get out of the water. Lunch was waiting. We enjoyed the barbequed meat, served with greens and veggies to go into the rice paper wrap.
DEPARTURE DAY
Early in the morning we returned to Đồng Hới Airport for the one and half hour flight to HCMC. Sarah went with us to the airport and didn’t want to leave the group that she had become attached to. In Vietnam this is more common than not. Informa, Global Exhibtions Asia and the ITE HCMC 2019 Organising Committee had recruited young volunteers to help us get to our events. I mentioned to a young lady that I wanted to buy coffee. The next day she showed up with a list of places where I could buy coffee and directions from the elegant Grand Hotel Saigon to the closest shops.
Returning to HCMC many of us had half a day or more before our evening flights. The organizers had it well in hand. A bus was organized through Vietnam
Travel Group took us into the city where we had lunch at Pho Hoa Pasture, one of the best bowels of Pho I’ve ever had. They serve 12 different types along with Banh Quay – fried dough sticks. Highly recommended.
We had time to browse in the city before being returned to the airport for the flight home. This story is just a skeleton of the trip that was filled with many tastes, experiences, visions of incredible landscape, new ideas and wonderful people.