Ho Chi Minh: A Cultural Heritage

 Ep.54

7^th – 9^th  August 2012.

“Travel is like knowledge, the more you see, the more you know you haven’t seen.” – Mark Hertsgaard.

SGN – Saigon, Vietnam.

Ride a Cyclo

It’s time to please myself. After flights and flights, I guess there should be always a time that you reward yourself with whatever you love. In this case, another holiday trip. I just love to travel, don’t I? My flat mate and I happened to get a same period of day off. We planned to go to China at first but what to do? Due to typhoon, I can’t apply for visa *damn Indonesian passport*. So, all of sudden, we just decided to go to Vietnam, where visa is on arrival for Indonesian passport. Here come the duo of the housemate: Shella and Afree.

Cho Ben Thanh

We booked our flight and hotel in few minutes’ matter. We packed and off we go! It would be a 3 days 2 nights trip and we’re doing it backpacking style. After 3 hours flight, we set our feet in Vietnam. It is a fact that Indonesian currency is one of the lowest among others. However, Vietnam’s currency is 1 to 0.5 to Indonesian currency. So, don’t be worry USD 200 worth VND 4 million. We were rich, baby!

shopping!

We might be planned it in a short period of time, but we sure do know where to spend our VND. Our hostel was located just near the main market of Saigon which is Cho Ben Thanh *I don’t even know how to pronounce it*. We asked the lady in the reception to give us an area map, and as we wont waste our time (its around 3 pm by the way), we also asked her is there any tour that we can join from the hostel? So she gave us some alternatives and choices. We decided to join a full day tour to cover Saigon the next day and that’s leave that afternoon free. So, we asked for another activity to join and finally we decided to join a dinner on a cruise, which came altogether with the water puppet show. We booked the tour and paid and we leave for the market immediately. It’s shopping time!

coffee with or without milk?

Vietnam has been famous for its coffee. And just to let you know, we drank coffee like water here. Superb. The food and commodities were cheap of the cheapest. Even the imitation brand of clothing line seems really well refined, yet affordable. Cho Ben Thanh is one of the most interesting places in Ho Chi Minh City,  Shopping is good here but bargaining is a must. One of the major interesting thing you can find at Cho Ben Thanh is the food.  Go here for  "real Vietnamese food".  Inside the market food section there are many vendors and food stalls, most of them preparing food freshly made to order. Seafood, which is so miraculously expensive elsewhere, is so cheap here. We fill our tummy like we haven’t eat for years. What did I got from the market? Few pairs of jeans (short and trousers), few tees, souvenirs for family back there, magnets, coffee powder, traditional attire, some delicates clothing and I guess that’s all for me. As for Afree, she’s robbing the entire market.

ready for dinner?

There was something that we noticed around the market, some foreign vehicle that we’ve never seen before. So we went to check it out. It happened to be a sort of rickshaw called cyclo (read: see-klo). The cycle rickshaw is a small-scale local means of transport that carry one person. As opposed to rickshaws pulled by a person on foot, cyclo rickshaws are human-powered by pedaling. So it was kind of one-on-one rickshaw, personal service. They are a type of tricycle designed to carry passengers on a for hire basis. Anyway, this cyclo toured us around the area and even the driver *do we call them drivers?* explained a little bit  history about Ho Chi Minh that became Saigon. Such an amazing experience to ride a local vehicle. As we have to prepare ourselves for the cruise dinner, we got to get back to the hostel.

traditional attire

Ah! We did bought ourselves a traditional Vietnamese attire to match the occasion as well *such an impulsive decision*. At around 7pm, we were picked up by the tour coordinator by… *guess what?* cyclo! So, we were not as excited as the other tourist as we already experienced it once that afternoon. Our first stop is the water puppet show. I got no idea about this show, but it seems that it is quite popular among Vietnamese. Afree and I got our seat and settled after taking so many pictures *that’s important*.

Water puppetry is a tradition that dates back as far as the 11th century when it originated in the villages of the Red River Delta area of northern Vietnam. Today's Vietnamese water puppetry is a unique variation on the ancient Asian puppet tradition.

the water puppet stage

The puppets are made out of wood and then lacquered. The shows are performed in a waist-deep pool. A large rod supports the puppet under the water and is used by the puppeteers, who are normally hidden behind a screen, to control them. Thus the puppets appear to be moving over the water. When the rice fields would flood, the villagers would entertain each other using this form of puppet play. The song was sang along with the story the puppet dance, but it was all in Vietnamese and we don’t have a clue. Afree and I were just guessing the storyline based on the itinerary given and just made our own story along the performance. It was unique and one of a kind, I was quite interested of how does the puppeteers can operate such puppet in waist level deep water. Behind the screen or underwater? After the show ended, I finally know the answer as they revealed themselves from the back of the setting.

lunchie

Next on, we were transferred to the riverside area. The tour leader showed us the way to our cruise. Dinner time! It was an antique design kind of boat that has a restaurant inside, double deckers plus deck. Afree and I took this opportunity to show off our new Vietnamese attire and we do look like overdress in some ways. We sat on our table along with other tourist and dine as the cruise sailed circling the river. The food were as delicious as you could hope. I don’t mind gaining few pounds after this trip as the foods really indulged my taste buds. Along our dinner, the performance of traditional dance and music performance were carried out. As soon as it finished, we grabbed the performers and asked for a picture together *such a tourist*. We even grabbed the captain of the cruise to asked the permission to take a picture at the steering wheel. Well, we were room mates after all, nothing to be shamed of, we were just some psycho tourist that is so much into memory making (read: picture taking).

try to read the banner, can u?

We were back to the hostel by abut 11 pm and directly rest our body and soul *hyperbolic* as the next day would be a very long day.

Few hours later…

We woke by some noise. For God’s sake, it was just 5.30 am. I deliberately identify the source of the noise and it was from the room next door. It seems that a family occupied that room and this morning wishy washy is about a mom getting her children ready to face the day. It was just to much that I couldn’t hold it anymore. I opened my door and “shhh!” them. It was getting better a bit and started again momentarily. This time I really couldn’t help it. I banged their door and as the mom came out I asked her *not nicely* to keep quiet! It was such a bad idea to wake me up when I was still in my deep sleep. When I climbed back to the bed, Afree was laughing at me as she never saw me that aggravated before.

Cao Dai Temple

We went down for breakfast at about 8 am, thanks to that family next door. The tour would pick us up around 10 am so we could just enjoy killing our breakfast slowly. The itinerary of the day was to cover the oldest tradition of Vietnamese traditional religion which is the mixture of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism. (We would get a chance to attend their praying session). And the climax of the tour was to visit the most famous place of the world war in Vietnam, the Chu Chi Tunnel, where Vietnam fought American from underground tunnels.

As soon as we board the bus, we could recognize that we were the only Asian of the pack. We settled onto our seats and the tour leader, with a very strong Vietnamese accent, start to explain this and that. 30 minutes into the ride, he said that the ride would be approximately take 2 hours to our destination, so we could sit back and relax. To pay off our disturbed sleep that morning, Afree and I directly knocked out for the next 2 hours. The next time we know, we arrived at some awesome building with some intricate design on its pillars. It was so colorful and took our attention in instance.

grazzing

The place was called Cao Dai Temple. I got no idea where is that about as I missed the 2 hours trip down here from the town. The great majority of Vietnamese people regard themselves as Buddhists but not all of them actively participate in Buddhist rituals at the pagoda. For centuries, the Buddhist clergy has not been organized into a hierarchical system. Each pagoda was completely autonomous of others and was entirely administered by local individuals or communities.

sunny day in Vietnam

Confucianism is more of a religious and social philosophy than a religion in the accepted meaning of the word. It has no church, no clergy, and no Bible. It advocates a code of social behavior that man ought to observe so as to live in harmony with society and attain happiness in his individual life. There is little concern about death, the world beyond, and spiritual feelings in this religion. The other religion, which has a deep imprint on the way of life of the Vietnamese is Taoism. It’s a philosophy of harmony between man and man and between man and nature. To achieve this state of harmony, all forms of confrontation should be avoided. The virtues of simplicity, patience, and self-contentment must be observed. By non-action and keeping away from human strife and cravings, man can reach harmony with himself, other people, and the universe. Reason and knowledge cannot lead man to the right path (Tao), which can be reached only by inward probing and quiet meditation. In essence, Taoism is a religious philosophy. However, the followers of Lao Tse transformed it into a religion with church and a clergy involved in the communication with deities, spirits, and the dead. Taoist clergymen claimed they could cure illness, alleviate misfortune, and predict the future. So in the mixture of between this three influences, is what Vietnamese people beliefs.

intricate pillars

We were allowed to see the procession of the ritual from the second floor of the temple. It was a very interesting thing for me to know and to witness such a culture, but honestly, the ritual is very loooongggg and soon it became boring. All this ladies and gentlemen lining up, bowing, praying, singing the prayers, bowing again, sit down, on and on and on. After what it seems like a millennia, it finally done. We were gave a chance to take picture around the vicinity and of course our faithful cameras will be always busy at a time like this.

on the top of the world!

Finished with one itinerary, we moved to the second one. But before that happened, our tummy needs to be fulfilled. We stopped at a restaurant not far from the temple and well, it seems that Afree and I were the only group that paid for lunch included as we found our table already full of prepared food while the other need to order. Yummy!

To be Continued…

“Culture is priceless.” – Me.