Jane and I recently spent a wonderful and fascinating three and a half weeks in Vietnam as we made our way to Amsterdam to catch up with our middle son who works and lives there with his partner.
That first day in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) is quite a revelation, as any Kiwi who has visited will tell you.
You must see the volume of traffic to believe it.
We 5 million New Zealanders spread ourselves around 268,000 km2, whereas the 98 million Vietnamese cosy up in their 332,000 km2.
They have about 60 million scooters and motorbikes and it feels like the 10 million residents of HCMC have more than their fair share.
At some point on your first day, you can no longer just keep circumnavigating your own block but must grasp the nettle and determine to cross the road.
It is wall-to-wall scooters and cars, and they don’t stop for anything.
With your nearest and dearest gripping your arm, you step from the relative safety of the pavement into this ceaseless and relentless flow of traffic.
Drummed into your brain by every tourist that has gone before is that you walk evenly and do not falter.
I found looking into the eyes of this torrent of oncoming humanity worked well and much like the Red Sea parting for Moses, they deftly and subtly changed their bearing and magically flowed around us as we crossed.
Over those weeks, the only injuries I sustained were finger bruise marks on my right arm.
It would not be uncommon to see three and sometimes a family of four on a scooter and all manner of goods including livestock being transported.
There appeared few road rules, but it worked well.
Their death rate per capita is half that of ours, so who am I to criticise?
There is a lot of rubbish about, although as you head north towards the more communist adhered regions, there is less, and the infrastructure is better.
Is this because of a different mindset or perhaps Hanoi doesn’t fund the south as well?
We were in Vietnam on April 30, which is Reunification Day, and this year marked the 49th anniversary of the fall of Saigon in 1975 and the end of the Vietnam War.
Correction, the end of the American War, as they quite rightly refer to it; it had followed on from the French War and when the Chinese foolishly decided to have a lick in 1979, they call that, “the war against Chinese expansionism”.
The Vietnamese are polite and friendly but think twice about invading them – they are proud and tough bastards.
We were keen to see the impressive Ho Chi Minh in his funeral splendour in Hanoi but sadly that day he was not having anyone to visit.
He had requested a simple cremation, but his devoted and appreciative successors over- ruled his wishes and built him a massive mausoleum where he lies except for an annual excursion to Russia for a bit of sprucing up.
It doesn’t feel communist because rampant capitalism is everywhere you look as folk fill every niche to make a living.
The only footware I’m travelling with are an old pair of sneakers with a small hole in them, which I plan to wear out and then discard.
I was sitting at a table having a beer when before I knew it a fellow had my shoe off and was wanting to fix the hole. We had a tussle over the shoe before I got it back on, unrepaired.
After that, I always had my eyes out for the shoe repair men. They could spot the little hole from across the street and were always undoing my laces and fighting to fix the hole that I needed to get worse so that I felt my old companions had finally fulfilled their purpose and could be laid to rest. I’m still wearing them as I walk around Europe.
United States Air Force general Curtis LeMay was a great fan of bombing the hell out of other countries, hence the nickname “Bombs Away LeMay”. He threatened to bomb Vietnam back into the Stone Age and during the American War, the US dropped 5 million tons of bombs on Vietnam or more than twice the amount the US military dropped in all of World War II. As well as 400,000 tons of Napalm and 19 million gallons of herbicides for good measure.
This continues to cause suffering and deaths through unexploded ordinance and the genetic consequences flowing down the generations from the chemicals.
Recovering from this and the communist mismanagement meant that by 1990, with a per capita gross domestic product of $98, Vietnam was the third poorest country in the world.
It was receiving a lot of aid and importing rice.
It then followed China’s lead and rapidly moved to a market economy.
It’s now booming and feels like it despite the world’s recession. It is the 35th largest economy in the world by nominal GDP.
With one of the world’s highest growth rates, it could become the 10th biggest economy by 2050.
No longer importing rice, it is the third biggest exporter behind India and Thailand.
This is an example of a remarkable turnaround and why we are building improved relationships with this remarkably resilient nation.
Vietnam is a stable vibrant country that New Zealand is keen to further increase trade with and of course visit.
Yet another example of the futility and pointlessness of war.
