Category Archives: Travel

Up Country, by Nelson DeMille

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Up Country

I just finished reading Nelson DeMille’s Up Country upon the strong recommendation of my mother. She and I have both read others of DeMille’s books and enjoyed them quite a bit, so picking this one up didn’t require too much persuasion. And I’m glad I did. This is the review that I just posted on Goodreads.

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I am a member of Nelson DeMille’s generation. But when he served in Vietnam, I protested the war there. It was only much later that I developed an interest in Vietnam, not as the site of an earlier, deadly war, but as the home of a culture that went back centuries. I just visited Vietnam about a month ago, and by coincidence happened to pick up DeMille’s book Up Country after I returned. It was fascinating.

The Vietnam DeMille portrays, some twenty to twenty-five years after the end of the war, is on a kind of a cusp–recovering from the war, but still also hurting. His characters are from a generation–DeMille’s generation and mine–that is now only a tiny percentage of the country’s population. The Vietnam I visited, some twenty to twenty-five years after DeMille did, is a very young, and very different, country. That made DeMille’s slice of Vietnam history all the more fascinating. The bomb craters are still there, and the ruination of historic sites still evident, but DeMille brings these facts to life.

On top of that, he weaves a gripping and tense thriller that is hard to put down. The characters are quite enjoyable. The protagonist is hard-boiled, smart, and funny; and the sidekick is a smart, competent woman. I don’t think the romance aspect of the book is as strong as the thriller aspect, and the “love” the characters develop for one another is not entirely convincing. But Up Country never pretended to be a romance, so I don’t think it’s fair to hold that one weakness against it. Five stars for a fascinating and intense read.

View all my reviews

The Tomb of Khai Dinh

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Khai Dinh was the twelfth emperor of the Nguyen dynasty in Vietnam, reigning from 1916 until his death at age forty in 1925. He was selected by the French who then controlled Indochina to become emperor after the death of his father’s two successors. Both of these were independent-minded, and the French believed Khai Dinh would be the easiest member of the royal family to control. Indeed, it is generally understood that he was a puppet figurehead of the French. He took the name Khai Dinh upon ascending to the throne. It means “auger of peace and stability.”

In 1920, Khai Dinh began construction of his own tomb–something of a tradition among Viet rulers. It took eleven years to complete, finally finished by Khai Dinh’s son Bao Dai in 1931. The high taxes Khai Dinh imposed upon his people in order to build his tomb greatly increased his unpopularity with his people.

The tomb is built on several levels on a steep hillside, with each space building up to the lavishly decorated tomb itself on the top level.

Inside, every surface is ornamented. Columns and walls are decorated with porcelain mosaics in both Oriental and French motifs. The ceiling is painted with dragons.

The tomb itself, surmounted with a likeness of the emperor, is dramatic and impressive.

Hue’s Dong Ba Market

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Vietnam, one of our guides told us, is communist on a large scale, but on a small scale–capitalist at its heart. The people of Vietnam have embraced capitalism. You can see it in action at the Dong Ba Market.

Individual vendors have their own stalls where each sells his or her own specialty. You want food? Fresh? Dried? Dine-in? To-go? No problem . . .

But don’t think the market is limited to food. Here you can find everything from gilded buddhas to plastic bottles.

Me? I’ve been hankering after a pair of those practical plastic-and-straw flipflops you see everyone wearing around here.

Bargaining is de rigueur. I negotiate a price half of what the seller is asking. This is normal.

The shoes I try on are a bit small. The next larger size is a better fit. But now the vendor wants more because the sandals are bigger!

No way! My honor is at stake here. I hold out the amount we already agreed on. She hesitates and then . . . takes it. My market experience is complete.

Finally, here by special request, is (oh, I sincerely hope) a puzzle for you!

https://im-a-puzzle.com/#/play?ref=user/look_i_m_a_puzzle_14114&fromLink=myPuzzle

Hue Imperial City

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There is a satisfying symmetry in having visited, in the same day, a structure begun by the first emperor of the Nguyen dynasty, and a structure completed by the last emperor of that dynasty. Fitting, too, perhaps, that the last structure was a tomb (a very impressive one, to be sure) in which the penultimate emperor was buried, while the first was the Imperial City in which the initial and subsequent emperors lived.

The place is huge, a city within a city. Begun in 1804 and employing thousands of workers, the fortifications surrounding the outer city are themselves surrounded by a moat more than ten kilometers long. Water was diverted from Hue’s Perfume River to fill the moat. The inner Imperial City was the abode of the royal family. It is surrounded by its own wall (above) and itself encompasses an impressively large area.

Gia Long, the first Nguyen emperor, unified his empire across all of what we now know as Vietnam–stretching from the border with China in the north to the South China Sea in the south. He established the capital of this empire at Hue, the ancestral home of his family. Nguyen emperors continued to live here until the Nguyen dynasty was overthrown in 1945. The Imperial City at one point contained over a hundred buildings, but much of it was destroyed during the French and the American wars. It is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is being restored.

A model of the Imperial City in its fully restored state

The Imperial City is spacious, with wide plazas and gracious buildings.

Deep within the complex are more intimate structures, surrounded by gardens.

They have amazing roof lines.

Somehow, the roofs harmonize with the artful garden arrangements.

In one area, we saw delicate and impressive bonsai trees.

Within the walls are also a couple of coffee shops. We passed one on our way out a different gate from the one we entered. The coffee shop and its adjacent courtyard were entirely charming. So was the gate!

We had lunch in a restaurant that was outside the Imperial City but still within Gia Long’s old city walls. Lunch, too, had its charms.

The Marble Mountains, Da Nang, Vietnam

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The road from Hoi An to the Marble Mountains runs in the lowlands near the sea. Rice paddies abound.

Approaching the famous, and revered, source of marble, stone works and retail shops also abound. And the wares are exotic, beautiful, perhaps overly expensive, and definitely too heavy to carry home.

There’s something here for everyone.

Fascinating, but we must move on. There are, apparently, five marble mountains, each named after an element. We visit Water Mountain. The view from here, encompassing other mountains, is stunning.

On Water Mountain itself, we visit an impressive seven-story pagoda. Its entryway is flanked by dragons. (I love dragons!) Other shrines on the mountain also have entryways guarded by mythical and semi-mythical beasts.

A nest of nagas among the trees

There are dieties and buddhas in the shrines . . .

. . . and in the caves!

Here”s a particularly peaceful buddha!

Hoi An at night

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Hoi An isn’t called the City of Lanterns for nothing. This is why a walk in the old city streets at night is not to be missed.

In addition to being featured in shops, lanterns light the entryways to pagodas.

They add distinction to restaurants and bars.

And, of course, there are the streets. The magical, glorious streets.

Hoi An – the Red Bridge Cooking School

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I don’t know how I let myself get talked into signing up for Vietnamese cooking lessons, but I did. And I’m glad of it. The cooking school is run out of this charming restaurant in the old town of Hoi An.

Here, we met our guide for the evening, who (as it turns out) would also be our instructor once we arrived at the cooking school. The school was the highlight of a journey that included a guided tour of the market and a delightful boat ride up the Thu Bon River.

The market building in the old city of Hoi An is a two-block-long structure filled with small shops containing merchandise of every description, overflowing into narrow aisles and piled high above our heads. We learned how to tell good vegetable peelers and carrot-rose makers from bad ones, and how long a container of freshly grated coconut is good for (answer below).

The answer is: two days. On the first day, the liquid around the grated coconut is clear. The coconut is good. On the second day, the liquid turns milky, and the coconut is still good. On the third day, the liquid becomes yellowish. Don’t buy that one!

After the market tour — no, we did not buy a vegetable peeler, a carrot-rose maker, or any shredded coconut — we hustled to the waterfront.

The cooking school, it turned out, was not at the old-town restaurant but rather at a place significantly up river. Wonderful! A ride on our very own boat to our very own cooking lesson, followed by dinner.

The boat dropped us off at a private dock. The building and grounds of the Red Bridge Cooking School were lovely. (And yes, there was indeed a red bridge!) After a welcoming drink on the terrace and a tour of the extensive herb garden, it was off to school!

Dan and I each had our own burner, and we worked separately, but side by side. Our instructor was very encouraging and helpful. We made rice pancakes. Using them, we made vegetarian spring rolls. Later, we used the rice pancake dough, cooked thin, and cut it to make rice noodles, which became the basis of another delicious course. There was also a chicken dish somewhere in there. And something involving shrimp and squid. Then, it was off to the terrace-restaurant for a final course of fish — a surprise dish that we were too full to do more than taste a bit of.

It was all delicious!

My Son, Vietnam

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My husband and I visited My Son before we truly understood the full antiquity and diversity of the many ethnic groups living in Vietnam. I don’t recommend this approach. But the obvious care with which the site has been and is being restored speaks to the importance of this ancient site and the respect the Vietnamese have for it.

The sign above, located at the drop-off point where visitors must leave their cars and buses, gives some indication of the extent of the site. This drop-off area is still some distance from the actual historical site. A special electric vehicle brings the visitors along a specially built road to the actual sanctuary. Isolated towers may be seen in the distance, Piranesian ruins surrounded by jungle.

At our destination, we learn that My Son was built by the Cham people during the thousand-year heyday of the Champa kingdom (or kingdoms; apparently, scholars disagree), from the fourth to about the fourteenth century A.D. The Champa kingdom in central Vietnam, where My Son is located, was defeated by the Vietnamese from the north in 1471, and the Cham people fled south. Many still live in southern Vietnam.

My Son was only ever a temple complex, at a short remove from the capital city. The Cham were, at that time, Hindu. (Most of the ones living in the south today are Muslim.) And the magnificent red-brick temples of My Son were Hindu temples and other religious buildings.

Located deep in the jungle, the temples of My Son were allowed to fall into ruin for centuries, until the late 1800s, when the French attempted some restoration. But war put an end to that, and when the North Vietnamese used the site as one of their bases, the Americans bombed it. Bomb craters are still visible. Several of the temples were severely damaged.

Perhaps this is fitting for a site largely devoted to Shiva, the god of destruction and war. But the site is beautiful, the temples magnificent even in ruin, and the complex an important monument in the history of civilization on Earth. As visitors and citizens of a diverse and wonderful world, my husband and I are grateful that My Son is now being carefully restored as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Before leaving, we were treated to a performance of Cham music and dance. Quite a treat!

Hoi An by day

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Hoi An, Vietnam is a centuries-old trading port dating back to the Champa empire of the 15th to the 19th centuries. With the defeat of the Cham people and their relocation farther south in Vietnam in the early nineteenth century, Hoi An became less important politically and commercially, and has survived nearly intact until now. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The old city is physically delightful, its narrow streets framed by houses and shops that range from decades- to centuries-old, and no more than two or perhaps three stories high, with lots of trees and colorful lanterns adding to its charm.

One of the main points of interest is the Japanese bridge. Inside the bridge, there is a “guardian statue at either end: a monkey and a dog. Here’s the dog.

You can see that there are lots of tourists in these pictures, indeed, in the entire old city. Many, if not most, of the businesses in the old city cater to them.

You may have also noticed that there are a lot of lanterns. But more about that in another post.

Spain, a pilgrimage of sorts

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The last time we visited Spain, almost exactly two years ago, we chanced upon preparations and rehearsals for the joyous Alarde festival in Hondarribia. We must, I decided, return sometime for the event itself, and Dan kindly agreed.

Practicing for Alarde
Practicing for Alarde, 2017

But of course, it makes no sense to travel to Hondarribia for a day or two, then back to California. So we are now embarked on an entire two-week vacation partly involving wine-tasting in Bordeaux and partly an in-depth exploration of Basque country, which we passed through too quickly last time around.

Yesterday, we drove through the mountains at the heart of Basque country while traveling from Azpeitia to Tolosa. Surprisingly, the road crossed and re-crossed one of the main pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela (indicated on the map by the scallop shell, the sign of the pilgrim).

In Azpeitia
In Azpeitia
Basque countryside
Basque countryside near the pilgrimage route
In Tolosa
In Tolosa

Something moves me deeply about crossing the pilgrimage route. And so, I was reminded of our own pilgrimage to Santiago two years ago. We did not walk one of the established routes, except for the 3.5 kilometers at the end. No, we flew, drove, were driven, then drove again in order to get there. And then, at the end, we walked. And thought about what it meant to be a pilgrim. You can read that blog post here.

Today I am still thinking about being a pilgrim. The hero of my as-yet-unpublished award-winning novel Alien Son is named Mikel Pelerin. His surname, which means “pilgrim” in French, is not an accident. I chose it because he leaves Earth, the planet of his birth, to live on another planet, where he takes on a role critical to his new home’s survival. And is willing to risk his life for his beliefs.