MY VIETNAM TRIP: PART THREE

 

Hello my dear readers! Welcome back to the last part of my Vietnam series.

Picking up where we left off last time, it was 5^th of July, which was the 4^th day of our trip.

Now let’s move to the next day, i.e. 6^th July. Today also we were going to explore a little more of Da Nang. This time, we did not skip breakfast (phew!). We had brought some theplas from our country so we had those for breakfast. And then we booked a Grab and were on our way to this place called as An Bang beach. Another beautiful and spotlessly clean beach, this time with very little visitors. And the weirdest part was that the tide was so low that the sea felt like the lake. There were absolutely no waves at all. It was just one baby wave at the shore. Which in itself was so weak that it barely made a sound. I was truly amazed because I had never seen a sea at such calm. No noise, no waves, just you and the beach, on a sunny day in Vietnam. Beautiful. We decided to walk around a little bit but unfortunately for us, it was too sunny. So we just went to a nice shack and sat there for some juice. The whole vibe was so serene. Just imagine, pearl white sand, glistening under the hot sun, the water gently swaying around the shore, the seagulls cawing, and you’re sitting in a small and cozy shack having a chilled glass of juice. This is what we paid for. Exactly the kind of relaxation I wanted after a year of doing assignments and breaking my head in exams.

After that beautiful adventure, we decided to go to a place called as the Coconut forest. It was apparently a backwater forest surrounded by coconut trees where you could get into boat rides and explore the whole area. Honestly, I was more of a beach person and did not enjoy forests and hills all that much. But what I am about to tell you, may sound like it was written by a person who loves forests.

Out of everything that we’d done in Vietnam so far, the Coconut forest experience was the most underrated, and the one that I would implore everyone to do. For just around 80,000 Dong, we got a 50 minute boat ride around the whole forest. And you may think that the whole ride might have been boring because come on, one would get bored after the 15 minutes…But trust me, we never even realised how time flew.

Our boatman couldn’t speak much English even if his life depended on it, but somehow even in his broken Vietnamese-English accent, he made the boat ride fun for us. He explained coconuts and crabs along the way and told us when to take photos and videos. He even took us fishing, where I caught 2 crabs on my own (and released them back into the river). There were many different boats around us. It wasn’t exactly the main tourist hotspot, but it was just enough people to make it lively. There were people singing, there was a DJ, someone was doing tricks on the boat, all of this in the middle of the river. And the most famous part of the show was the spinning. So, our boats were made to look like coconut shells. Completely round and hollow. As a result, with enough practice you could, with sleight of hand, spin it around in the water. My friend opted for it and the boatman spun him for a good solid minute. He was super-talented and even did it with one hand and just one oar. And of course, the environment surrounding us was so beautiful that I almost felt like settling down there.

Later on we had homecooked lunch prepared by the locals which consisted of shrimp fried noodles and vegetable fried rice. At the end, we left the coconut forest with a lot of good memories and photos. I am really disappointed that not more people know about this place. In fact, if you’re reading this and planning a trip to Vietnam anytime soon, please do go and check out this forest. It is definitely worth your money and time.

Our next stop was the Hoi An ancient town. Now, after having been to Japan, the Hoi An town did not excite me much. Adding to that, we did not see it in its full glory because we went in the late afternoon. One is advised to go in the evening when they light up entire streets with lanterns and decorative ribbons and canopies. Regardless, it was still a pretty good adventure. By around 5 PM or so, we were really exhausted so we booked a Grab and went back to the hotel. This was our last day in Da Nang.

The next day we had a flight for Ho Chi Minh City at 7 AM. As a result we checked out of the hotel at 4 AM. Since it was so early in the morning, we had already asked Novotel to arrange transport for us to the airport. We reached on time, checked-in, gave our bags and got to know that our bags would reach directly to Mumbai. Actually, we had a connecting flight from Ho Chi Minh City to Mumbai but the layover was about 11 hours. I read online that we’d have to pick up our bags at the Ho Chi Minh airport and carry it around with us the whole time. But thankfully, Vietjet allowed us to send our luggage directly to Mumbai. So now we just had our 2 backpacks with us which we would have to carry around. It wasn’t really a burden but the reason why I am telling you this will be revealed in a little while.

When we reached Ho Chi Minh City, we weren’t really sure if we’d be allowed to actually leave the airport or not. We had a connecting flight to Mumbai and essentially this was just a layover. But we landed on the domestic terminal and to get to the international terminal you anyways would be required to get out of the airport gates. That confirmed it. We went outside with a fresh mind and were ready to explore another city!

Ho Chi Minh City was a delight. Even though we did not really get enough time, we made the most out of it. First off, we decided to go to the famous War Remnants Museum. It stored all the artifacts and pieces from the American-Vietnam War. And this experience was just like the one I had at the Hiroshima Museum. As I walked around the hallways, read about the struggles and horrors, saw the pictures, I was reminded about Hiroshima. Unlike Hiroshima, when I had to get out of the museum because it was too much to handle, this time I decided to put on a brave face and go through everything.

It was harrowing. Especially the pictures of the Agent Orange section. All of it. I went through every photo, read every single line. And after a while my stomach felt sick. It was too much to handle. Too much death, too much destruction. I now realised why so many Hollywood movies made references to ‘Vietnam war vet’. So many protagonists of the 70s who said, “I’ve been to ‘Nam.” Imagine the soldiers, who inflicted so much pain on the Vietnamese people, saw so much death, that they had life-long trauma. Trauma that no amount of therapy sessions could ever fix it. They saw bodies; men, women, children alike. They killed and they killed as if the civillians were just lifeless ragdolls. To make you understand the depth of the situation, let me take an excerpt from the museum itself.

 

I don’t remember the exact story, so if any Vietnamese audience are reading this, please pardon my memory. But this was a boy who was attacked by an American soldier. And this photo was taken because the boy was not completely dead. His body, especially his legs were twitching. And as I read that and saw the photo, all hairs on my neck stood up. I pictured myself as the photographer. Seeing a young child’s body twitch, as the life goes out of him slowly, knowing he can’t scream, he can’t control anything, no matter how much he tries. You can only ease his pain by killing him completely. I understand now, why so many American soldiers who came back home, were never the same.

And now imagine the condition of the victims. The people who had to suffer it all. And I am not even going to describe the Agent Orange victims to you. That was probably the most harrowing amount of stuff I’d ever seen in my entire life.

I am not taking sides, neither am I going to rant about “war sucks” or anything. But truly, as a human being, when I saw all of that, an intense fear took over my body. We are the most dangerous species alive, because we’re a threat to our own selves. In that moment, I was afraid of myself.

Later on, we sat down a bit and had some water. After seeing so much death and destruction, we needed a moment to recalibrate ourselves.

A while later, we decided it was time for some shopping. But before that, I wanted to see Ho Chi Minh City from above. So we booked a Grab to the Bitexco Financial Tower. That tower had a viewing gallery on one of its top floors. Of course the entry fees was a bomb, but the view was worth it. And after going up there, I was reminded of the Tokyo Sky Tree. Coincidentally I was wearing the same top that I had worn in Tokyo that day. A mesmerizing view from the top for sure.

After that, we decided to go to the famous Ben Thanh Market. To all the Mumbaikars reading this, Ben Thanh was just like Crawford market. It had almost everything there. And the best part was that you could negotiate the price and get it almost halved at some places.

Now, the funny part of the story starts. While we were walking around the place, my friend (who doesn’t even smoke), saw a very cool lighter. It only costed about a thousand rupees so he decided to buy it. It had a green coloured flame and an ace of spades on the front, which spun like a compass. A great lighter for sure. But there was one teensy thing we were forgetting: lighters are not allowed in the cabin. Especially not a lighter with filled gas.

We walked out the market merrily, went and had lunch in the famous café building. But on the way, the thought suddenly hit us. My friend was distraught. A 1000 rupees lighter, gone to waste. I implored him to throw it then and there in the dustbin, but he decided to keep it. He clang some hope that maybe the airport security would allow it. He called his mom and she gave a brilliant idea that we should go back to Ben Thanh market and get the gas removed. Thankfully we hadn’t walked too far. So we took a u-turn and were back inside the Vietnam version of Crawford market. We found ourselves roaming around trying to find the exact shop we bought it from. Thankfully, the shop owner saw us and said hello in an ecstatic voice. We instantly recognized her face and went with our tails between our legs. We first asked her if she’d take the lighter and give us our money back. But obviously no vendor would do that. So instead she took out the gas and said, “Don’t worry, many people do this” in her broken accent.

Then, it was time to go to the airport. My friend’s heart was beating fast. I was laughing at him non stop. I told him that he’d have to stay back and that the customs officers were super strict. We inquired at the check-in lounge whether the lighter would be allowed or not. Moment of truth: the attendant did not know. So she suggested that we put it in one of the backpacks and give it off as extra luggage. We still had a capacity of few kilograms left to our names. So my friend put the lighter in his backpack and gave it off. Problem solved, moving on. But wait!

We were standing in the immigration line and saw the tv in front of us. In there was written in bold caps lock: “BAGGAGE INSPECTION. PLEASE REPORT TO CHECK IN COUNTER” with my friend’s name written below. I laughed even harder at that. As my friend went out of the line I sarcastically waved goodbye to him.

Thankfully, the customs officers were not very troublesome. They just told my friend to take his lighter with him inside the cabin. So, thinking that the issue was solved, my friend came back into the line. Problem solved, moving on. But wait!

We saw the tv and my friend’s name was still written there in bold caps lock, for everyone to see. Now my laughter echoed around the entire airport. He was freaking out and I was milking it all the way through. He went back to the customs officer and they clarified that the tv takes a few minutes to refresh.

Again he came back in the line. We finally reached the most dangerous part, Security check. I stepped ahead of my mate and said that I’d get myself cleared before him so that if the authorities detain him, at least I will be safe. All of this was just in jest, but he was still in panic mode. With great difficulty he got ahead of me and said, “If I go down you go down.” At this point I was half expecting the security guy to stop me instead because I was laughing too much.

Thankfully nothing happened. No one noticed anything and we were free to go. We celebrated that proud moment. We had finally cleared the most dangerous obstacle. Now, it was time to go back home! Problem solved, moving on. But wait!

When we finally landed back in Mumbai (home sweet home), my friend was again stopped by the Indian Customs Officer. This was a never ending cycle and by this time we had tired ourselves out for buying this cursed lighter. Thankfully, the officer did not probe much and quickly realised that we were, in fact, not terrorists and just 2 idiot tourists. So finally, Problem solved, moving on.

All in all, Vietnam was a blast. The 2 best things were:

1.  Cost: Very cheap, very effective. Good ROI. You get to do a whole lot of stuff for very little money

2.  People: The Vietnamese people are extremely friendly. They may not be able to speak English but you’ll still understand them. We were never scammed, we never felt unsafe, we never were frustrated.

The only bad thing was the transport. There is no concept of public transport. All you can do is book a Grab.

In the end I leave you all with this: Vietnam is a great country with a lot of things to do, eat, and experience. Definitely do plan a trip there. Be nice to the locals, respect their culture, and don’t forget to have fun!