Stuck in Vietnam in ‘the nicest way’
Thanks to the pandemic, New Zealanders scattered across the globe are celebrating Christmas in differentways. As we count down to the big day, Kiwis on each continent share what the festive season will look like for them. In part 4 of 7, KatarinaWilliams speaks to Dave Cole in Hoi An, Vietnam.
New Zealander Dave Cole has been travelling abroad with his wife Christie for five years, but ‘‘when the faeces hit the fan’’ and Covid-19 appeared, the pair was forced to hunker down in Vietnam.
With balmy temperatures, great food and a welcoming culture, adding Christmas to the nine months he’s already spent in Hoi An is an exciting proposition.
‘‘We’re stuck here in the nicest possible way,’’ Cole said.
Recently stumbling across aman from Whanganui in a local cafe, Cole compared notes about their experiences with the Vietnamese people and agreed both nationalities ‘‘ had a lot in common’’.
‘‘They [the Vietnamese] are very pragmatic people. They do what needs to be done – not whinge about it too much – and just get on with things,’’ Cole said.
Like New Zealand, Vietnam observed lockdowns as part of its pandemic response, and benefited from strict quarantine and tracking measures.
The communist nation was praised for crushing its first wave of Covid-19 in April, then going almost 100 days without community transmission before the virus eventually re-emerged in July.
It went another 89 days without recording a case in the community until late November, when aman in Ho Chi Minh picked up the virus after visiting a self-isolating flight attendant who had recently returned from Japan.
Having previously experienced Sars and bird flu, Vietnamese authorities acted swiftly when the threat of Covid-19 emerged, Cole said. An established maskwearing culture has also helped.
‘‘This isn’t really their first rodeo,’’ Cole said. They decided very early to deal with it quickly and effectively, ‘‘and that’s generally been their response’’.
‘‘I wouldn’t characterise it as severe, although it’s a socialist country, and they have a very defined control structure, it’s been generally pretty good for us.
‘‘They’re able to make decisions at the top level and send them right down to neighbourhood level very quickly.
‘‘They communicate through social media, and they’ve done that very effectively. They even had a song and a video.
‘‘They used the language of war. They define Covid as the enemy and an enemy that can be defeated.’’
While Vietnam, with a population of 95 million, has recorded fewer cases than New Zealand (1411 compared to New Zealand’s 2100), the death toll has been higher in the developing nation – 35 compared to 25 here. Travel around Vietnam isn’t restricted, but getting in can be challenging.
Vietnam essentially locked its borders down to combat the virus and, as a result of a new local transmission case, it has temporarily suspended all inbound international commercial flights except for repatriation flights.
However, in an agreement expected to take effect nextmonth, Vietnam will allow South Korean business people to travel between the two nations without completing the mandatory 14-day quarantine.
The loss of international tourists has had a deep financial impact, Cole said.
Vietnam’s tourism sector was expected to lose up to US$23 billion (NZ$32b) this year as a result of the pandemic – about 75 per cent of the industry’s revenue last year – according to Nguyen Ngoc Thien from Vietnam’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
‘‘The tourism here is on a bit of a low,’’ Cole said. ‘‘They’ve been hit pretty rough here with Covid reducing tourist numbers dramatically, and then in October we had a series of storms that came through and caused a lot of flooding.
‘‘But one thing I have noticed about the Vietnamese people is that they are hugely resilient.
‘‘I mean they can be hit five or six times badly, and go: ‘ OK, well let’s just clean up everything and carry on’. It’s quite remarkable.’’
He described Christmas in Vietnam as ‘‘generally an expat activity’’, with Christmas brunches and Christmas Eve dinners held in hotels and restaurants.
As well as hanging up the few Christmas decorations the Coles took with them when leaving New Zealand, they also plan to attend a neighbourhood barbecue with about a dozen others.