Eye-opener

Ho Chi Minh City was both a disappointment and an eye-opener.

It’s a big disappointment for tourists expecting good bargains and fashionable items, considering that many consumer items, including branded clothes and shoes, are made in Vietnam. Their night market, established to cater to the tourist population, is a big letdown. Don’t expect to find clothes that will fit. The Vietnamese have very small frames, so they probably expect the rest of the world to be the same. Unfortunately, they are not.

In fact, a friend of mine who is used to having her luggage filled on her first day of shopping was almost teary-eyed when she realized that she has not bought anything worth buying on her second day of her Ho Chi Minh visit.

Fortunately, Saigon’s Ben Than market has a very good selection of coffee beans, which they will grind for you for free. And the prices are very reasonable. Their Blue Mountain coffee beans sell for 30,000 Dong per 100 grams, which at the prevailing exchange rate of P1 to 377 Dong would amount to around P80 per 100 grams or P800 a kilo. That’s dirt cheap. Coffee and rice by the way are among Vietnam’s biggest agricultural exports.

It’s amazing what they can do with their rice. Name it, rice paper, rice noodles, rice flour balls for dessert, and they have it. Maybe, if our government can promote more value-added uses for our rice, instead of letting Philrice researches languish as mere researches, then we can encourage our palay farmers to plant more.

Ho Chi Minh City is also not the place for the party crowd, especially with establishments closed by 12 midnight. After all, Vietnam is still a Communist country, and predominantly Buddhist, so there are still many taboos (a man and a woman for instance cannot check into any hotel without first showing a marriage certificate). Expect though to see a lot of Filipino bands and entertainers. In our river boat cruise, the Filipino performers were dancing the tinikling and dishing out Filipino songs which of course made the Filipino crowd very proud.

Pickpockets and thieves are also prevalent in this side of the region. A Filipina journalist, who was not part of our group, lost all her belongings including her passport, her money, mobile phone, and her luggage when the taxicab she just alighted from sped off without her first collecting her things. She never recovered them. And it took her three additional days to secure the necessary papers from the Philippine Embassy in Hanoi. She cried for help via her Facebook account and fortunately, some distant relative was travelling in Vietnam at that time.

And of course, one has to be very careful not to mistake his 500,000 Dong bill for 50,000 or 5,000. They all look the same to me. But of course, it’s not everyday that you get to spend millions. Having 3.5 million Dong in your wallet (around $200) can be fun.

The biggest eye-opener was our visit to the War Remnants Museum. It’s not a visit for the faint-hearted. Our tourist guide tells us that many men have shed tears upon seeing the moving photographs of the US-Vietnam war victims (especially the ravaged bodies of victims of napalm bombings and distorted living bodies of victims of Agent Orange or dioxin; it is said that during the Vietnam War, the US used more than 70 million liters of toxic chemicals, among them 44 million liters of Agent orange, not to mention the 14 million tons of bombs and shells or 20 times as much as the quantity they used during the Korean War and seven times more than that used during World War II).

Our visit to the Cu Chi battlefield underground tunnel system reinforced our respect for the Vietnamese. It is a unique project of architecture, with numerous floors and several deviated alleys like a cobweb of over 200 km long with places for accommodation, meetings, keeping ammunition, with its own system of ventilation. Unfortunately, I won’t be persuaded into entering the small holes leading to the tunnel, for fear of a claustrophobic attack. The above-ground traps that the Vietcong built are also impressive and lethal and pure genius.  

Now back to the lighter stuff. The New World Hotel in Saigon was not the best hotel in terms of the hotel design, location, and the rooms, but the service is par excellence. Internet use is free in all rooms and everyday, you can just go to the executive lounge and the drinks are on the house. From 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., cocktails are free, and those who want to scrimp on dinner can have their fill of the appetizers.

If there’s one reason for me to go back to Ho Chi Minh, it’s the mangosteen. The fruit is being sold in every street corner for around US$1 a kilo (in Quezon City, the fruit sells for something like P500 a kilo, and there’s no way that even Davao can sell mangosteen for P100 to P150 a kilo) and even for less if you know how to haggle. And by the way, those who are planning to visit Vietnam better sharpen their haggling skills. A souvenir shirt sells for 100,000 Dong, but if you can haggle your way out, you can buy it for 25,000 Dong.

Not so hidden agenda

Here’s a quick congratulations to Team R4O (Runners for Others), for completing their individual races and crossing the finish line in last weekend’s Hong Kong Marathon. But more significantly for raising money to give dozens of kids with cleft deformities a chance to smile. 

Team R4O made it a personal mission to run the gruelling streets of Hong Kong in a bid to raise support for Operation Smile. Because of the team’s accomplishment, 21 kids are set to be operated on before the end of February. Each R4O member knows the kids by name and ran with the child’s name pinned on their jerseys. And while I am sure it was their training and heart that made them finish the race, knowing that the future of a child was at stake must have helped push them beyond the physical limits of long distance running.

Team R4O is made up of  Lance Gokongwei, Anton Huang, Manny Minana, Chris Po, Butch Jimenez, Jajo Quintos, Nina Herrera-Huang, Ana Constantino, Jayjay and Ana De Ocampo, Jael and Cookie Wenceslao, Fernando and Kit Kat Zobel De Ayala, Jun Jun Calma, Ige Lopez, Maui Sugay, Mike Bangayan, Jay Ong, Max Kienle, and Matthew Westfall.

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