I have been fortunate in my lifetime to undertake two long haul trips, the first to Australia in 2007 and then subsequently to Vietnam over Christmas and New Year in 2014/15. We flew via Doha in Qatar and firstly had a 4 day sojourn to Singapore. We had previously visited with a quick stopover on the Oz trip but wanted a longer timespan to investigate the city more fully.
I have a fondness for Singapore as it is a very commutable city and has plenty of distractions. It also has some very fine food with the Hainanese Chicken Rice from one of the stalls on Chinatown Food Street being heaven on a plate, but with the Singapore Tea being right at the other end of the preference spectrum.
Singapore skyline. Image Credit wallpaperup.com
We then flew onto Ho Chi Min (previously Saigon). Now where I do I start with this remarkable city, maybe let’s go right back to the taxi ride from the airport to our hotel where you receive your first sight and sounds of the busiest traffic I have ever witnessed, though remarkably I did not once witness any crashes or fist waving from the road users.
Crossing the road is a science in itself with in some places no natural crossing point. Thus, we navigated across and then returned over a four lane highway by the dubious process of copying the locals and just stepping out and waiting for cars and coaches to stop, which was in equal parts both scary and exhilarating and was nothing like the Green Cross Code!
There were scooters everywhere, even on the pavement! They were multi-purpose modes of transport as we saw at different times on individual scooters a family of four, a tree trunk and even a fridge freezer! In a novel concept the shops in particular streets are allocated to certain trades, so for example you would have a book street or an electrical goods street, makes it easy I guess to know where to head if you need a new washing machine!
Quiet street in Ho Chi Minh. Image Credit blogspot.com
Vietnam’s past is well documented, so I won’t repeat here. The locals I encountered encouraged us to explore their history, but they were strictly eyes face forward regarding the future. In that respect, we attended the Independence Palace which was the site of the Fall of Saigon in 1975 and also visited the remarkable Chi-Chi tunnels.
The musical background and heritage of Vietnam is a veritable melting pot. It was initially interlinked with religious festivals and utilised devices such as flutes, harps and zithers. There was also royal court music called Nha nhac which incorporated an instrument called the Cham drum. There is always in South Asian culture the influence of colours, and this is reflected in the names of Red and Yellow music, the former the layman’s name for revolutionary music conceived during the French colonial period.
There are more recent western influences in the conception of the polished V-pop genre resulting in many previous underground artists receiving international acclaim. This has also contributed to the huge upturn of interest in hip-hop and resultant game shows.
One direct musical influence that remained after the Vietnam War was an increasing popularity of rock and heavy metal, due to American music being introduced to the country. One modern band from Ho Chi Min who owe a debt to this are Microwave, so intriguingly named I had to have a listen to them, and they sound as if they have been influenced by Metallica.
Microwave band. Image Credit youtube,com