http://VrienDuineN.tripod.com
http://VrienDuineN.tripod.com Family and friends -
We don't need to take drugs to get high…we just cycle on Southeast Asia's busy city streets! Here in Ho Chi Ming city, the experience of biking is indeed another thrill. Vietnamese streets are insanely busy and dominated by motorbikes. NO traffic rules apply as most intersections have no lights or stop signs - you just go through and pray that you don't get hit. Strangely enough, you don't get into accidents; perhaps even more shocking is our conclusion that we feel the most safe biking here than we have in any other big city we've biked in (and we include American cities in this as well!)
Prior to coming here, we spent four glorious days in Dalat (central Vietnam). We didn't think it was possible to have a worse bus ride than what we've previously experienced, but the trip from the coast to Dalat was the topper. Let us paint the picture: the woman in front of us throwing up into her third plastic bag (which she threw out of the window once it reached filling capacity); people around us so closely packed together that our arms and legs become a tangle of limbs and you don't know which ones are yours anymore; a driver who thinks he's an Indy 500 racer and continually passes other vehicles as we drive up mountain slopes, goats (yes goats) with their feet tied together on the floor behind our seats, breathing hot air on our ankles and bleating so loudly that we could have sworn they were humans; and the grand climax - seeing one of our bike bags fly off the roof of the bus and onto the road. It was quite the adventure to say the least…(we got the bag back but are still recovering from the goat experience)
In peaceful Dalat (in one of Vietnam's most fertile areas…the mountains are covered with fields of vegetables and flowers), food was the highlight with our discovery of some top notch noodle stands, bakeries and restaurants. Our previously negative experiences with Vietnamese foods (finding hairy chunks of something in our noodle soup - you know, the usual kind of stuff!) changed to an attitude of "we can't get enough of this stuff!"…fresh spring rolls, coffee, bakeries galore, fruit shakes, noodle salads, hot pot, sticky rice treats (so delicious!).
We did a few day trips around the city - for one, we attempted to hike to the top of a nearby mountain. Somehow, we got off the main trail and a few hours later, found ourselves completely lost in the heavily wooded mountainside. As in many other critical moments on this trip, however, God provided for us…This time it was via a charcoal worker (busily stoking his fire) who amazingly spoke enough English to understand our frantic pleas for help and who was willing to leave his work and show us the way to the road. He did get lost himself a number of times (always apologizing profusely and muttering that he'd just returned to the area and didn't remember the "army trails" as well as he once had) but eventually brought us back to the road.
Today (in Saigon) we had an emotionally draining visit to the War Remnants Museum and the Cuhci Tunnels (extensive tunnel system that the VietKong used under and around American army bases). How I would love to take my sophomore Holland Christian students there during our media bias unit…the communist/North Vietnamese propaganda is so blatant. In one section, they had an exhibition dedicated to the "American killer heroes", in another they had a documentary detailing how the "ruthless American bombers" destroyed innocent schools, Buddha statues and villages. It sure is a one sided view of the war.
Our tour guide, a former South Vietnamese soldier, did afford us a different view. He is still unable to own property and hold a salaried job because of his alliance with American troops and he believes that his children will suffer from the same discrimination. Furthermore, there are no cemeteries for South soldiers or memorial sites. Whenever we've thought about the Vietnam War (or American War as they refer to it here), we've always focused on how much Americans suffered and lost…never considered what it was like for the South Vietnamese…or the North for that matter (the number of fatalities for the North far surpasses those of the US and South).
On Monday we wrap up our travels here with a 6 day bike ride around the Mekong Delta which will take us right to the Cambodian border…we're looking forward to being in one place for a month and working with CRWRC.
Hope you all are doing well. Thanks for the emails and your prayers. May you experience God's grace in unusual ways…
Much love,
Deb and Jon.
