version without pictures printable pdf single page March 20 • March 22
Slept well and found Phil up reading in the bathroom when the alarm went off at 7:30 a.m. Turns out he’d only been up 8 minutes! Tried the closest restaurant, the Beaulieu in our hotel. Only one step and we found it terrific! We breakfasted with a woman archeologist that we had met earlier on the ship. Her work was done in China Town LA which she found very fascinating and could set her own hours while her children were young. She is traveling with two daughters and we met them as we were leaving breakfast.
After breakfast I figured we might connect with Peter on video cam and we did on our second try. They had just finished dinner and we were able to have a quick chat with them all including a bark from Bixie! They were so clear and it was so great to chat with them!! They were just as clear as if they were home. Ain’t technology grand!
This morning at 9:00 A.M. we headed off to the Ethnological Museum and an explanation by Mark Rappaport who turned out to be terrific. He is an ex-pat that has lived here for 7 years and has become a collector of items. He talked a mile a minute and I tried to keep up in the note taking and looking and taking pictures all at the same time. The patter, of course, follows what we were seeing. Phil has written up a short summary on this but I may add a bit more here. Many of the exhibits were about minority arts, crafts, and living styles. There are 53 minority groups living in Vietnam making up 14% of the population or about 10 million people. They have had their own holocaust losing 5-7 million people. The southern part of the country doesn’t have minorities. The central highlands up to Da Nang have totally different minorities coming from pre-Islamic Indonesia. They are animistic.
We saw exhibits of different kind of fish traps. There was one unusual exhibit of some breasts showing while planting in the fields. We were told Vietnamese people are very conservative like our Amish people. They burn incense every day and visit the temple twice a month. The women wear high necked long dresses with slits in the side and pants underneath. Next we saw an exhibit of people chewing beetle nuts. He said that it is a little bit like chewing on dial soap! He’s a child of the ’60’s and tries everything. It makes the lips red and the teeth dark and gives you a buzz. He learned that it isn’t the beetle nut that makes the women’s teeth dark but actually resin applied when they are very young because they think dark teeth are a thing of beauty. Men end up having six white teeth and women have twenty black teeth. This practice must help preserve the teeth. We saw a bronze making exhibit and how to make iron with bellows as well as pottery. Vietnamese are famous for their ceramics. We saw traps and snares and looms and crossbows from the past. We learned that the government won’t let people have rifles but they can have muskets.
We also learned that between 1975-1985 were the hungry years when 200,000 people died of starvation. Another interesting fact was that women aren’t allowed to attend funerals because they bring life into the world and shouldn’t be associated with death in any way. Saw some beautiful, bright colored minority costumes that were Tibetan Burmese clothing. Mark was a fabulous fund of information.
We went on a two minute or perhaps five minute shopping binge at the Museum Gift Shop and for less than $30 got 16 book marks, a weaving and a little red purse. That will probably do us for Vietnam!
We had lunch at an artistic and charming restaurant and we shared a table for four with two Episcopalian Priests of the female persuasion. They share a house together in San Diego and once they saw Phil was a vegetarian commented that it is difficult to feed all their own children and grandchildren because of their various eating habits! Upon returning to the hotel we were given about 10 minutes to dump our large bags and walked about a half a block to catch a Pedi cab which they call cyclers for an unbelievable hour riding around the narrow streets of the French Quarter! I took over 100 pictures which I later edited down a bit. We saw haircuts, workers of all kinds, women carrying all kinds of goods balanced on poles, bikers, buses, cars, motor scooters and motorcycles all just inches away! Absolutely marvelous hour!
Came back home and started writing up the day. I took a break and planned to nap when Phil did but was actually virtuous and went to the pool instead. I lasted 45 minutes. Actually I shared it with a one year old little girl who kept waving and didn’t seem to care it all that it was freezing. Her mother wasn’t flinching either. Wish I had my camera to take her picture. An Indian man dove in and came up with “Jesus it is cold!” Another young woman with a bikini sat with her legs in the water for a minute or two but she was a pro and obviously was swimming to keep fit. She lasted for 15 minutes. Every time I go in a pool I naturally think of Andrew and Michael and all their devotion to this sport. Miss you both as well as Matt and hope his baseball games are going well! I must report that I am a greater mess than usual. Flying here I had, I thought, the brilliant idea of taping up my compression stockings to my legs with Phil’s electrical tape. On the flight over they kept falling down. This didn’t work well either but they didn’t fall down so it was partly successful. Consequently now I have black tape marks about three per leg that I can’t get off! When I get out of the pool I put on the all too small bathrobe and cover myself with a towel. Today I stayed on watching the others swim or dunk while I enjoyed a gin and tonic! When I returned to the room Phil was typing away after his nap.
I wore my long African dress tonight to a cocktail party at the Green Palm Art Gallery. We really enjoyed the art gallery. It showed us a variety of painters which represented Vietnam. We were told by an art critic and painter that they all painted about their own experiences while living here. We priced a few and the cheapest we asked about was $2,100 so we settled for a $10 catalogue plus I took several pictures. I have winnowed down my pictures for the day to 300!
While we were waiting in the lobby to gather for the gallery tour, Phil asked our fine leader Hwang which restaurant he would recommend to us for dinner. It was called Club Opera and is across the street from the other side of our hotel. We walked there after leaving the gallery. It seemed safer to push myself across the busy street with Phil flanking me. We lived to tell the tale and had a marvelous dinner in this tasteful restaurant. Perhaps the most exotic serving was Phil’s spring rolls that were served with the bottom cut out of a pineapple with the spring rolls attached by toothpicks with additional open holes to show off the glowing candle. Reminded us of Halloween! We also enjoyed chatting with a younger couple from Melbourne. Thought of Chris and Garry. We really enjoyed our time there.
I got my legs up for awhile while Phil spell checked a number of his lectures. I read the local paper and found it so very much more informative than the China News. Will bring a copy of both home.
We are both so glad we came on this extension trip. Phil has been snoring for some time so I’ll turn in too. We have an 8:30 a.m. lecture in the hotel in the morning. Another fantastic day!