Vietnam visit

[gdingee]

My daughter, teaching school in China will be touring Vietanm during hernew year holidays. so far she has stops in Hue, Ho Chi Minh City, Hoi An and the Yok Don national park.

Any tips, suggestions, warnings?

Thanks

Her Dad

[Ironwood]

Went to HCMC to adopt a few years ago, and ended up finishing in Hanoi. Loved Hanoi. Cooler, french influence, ie architecture. Next time when I get there I want to see some great beaches, and NW of Hanoi near the Tibetan border. Perhaps the islands off the north coast (dont remeber the name, but common toursist destination)  I did view the War Museum in HCMC, sobering,..............worst was French occupation years (same in Hanoi at the "hilton"), tenacious people, makes me laugh little guy upstairs is a handful at bedtime (tenacious when they want something). Motor bikes flow like water in the streets (no redlights, just a yielding culture). THey are being thrown headlong into a modern manufacturing mecca, stable politically, cheap workforce, good enviromentally (generally).









         Ironwood

[Chuck White]

Never been to Viet Nam, but it does sound interesting!

I pulled my Viet Nam duty (1969-1970) at NKP in Thailand, servicing/maintaining the planes (A-26's & A1E's & A1H's) that flew missions in Viet Nam.
I'd kind of like to to back to Thailand some day, just to see..............

[Ironwood]

Halong Bay. Those are the islands.

Ironwood

[Yoopersaw]

1969, 70, and 71.  I guess that was enough for me.

[timerover51]

My daughter, teaching school in China will be touring Vietanm during hernew year holidays. so far she has stops in Hue, Ho Chi Minh City, Hoi An and the Yok Don national park.

Any tips, suggestions, warnings?

Thanks

Her Dad

If either my son or daughter went to Vietnam, I would disown them.  You are Canadian, hopefully not one of the draft dodgers who ran to hide there, so I guess you could not care less about it.  Nixon should have used some nukes on Hanoi in 1972.

[Texas Ranger]

A little sensitive are we?  A little rough, as well.

[Raider Bill]

[/quote]

If either my son or daughter went to Vietnam, I would disown them.  You are Canadian, hopefully not one of the draft dodgers who ran to hide there, so I guess you could not care less about it.  Nixon should have used some nukes on Hanoi in 1972.
[/quote]

At ease there Timerover51.

[Jeff]

timerover51, I really do not appreciate posts like that. In fact not one little bit. If you want to be bitter, intolerant, prejudiced and narrow-minded and wallow in your past don't do it on my website.

[fuzzybear]

1969, 70, and 71.  I guess that was enough for me.

Welcome home and thank you. We were there at the same time.

If either my son or daughter went to Vietnam, I would disown them.  You are Canadian, hopefully not one of the draft dodgers who ran to hide there, so I guess you could not care less about it.  Nixon should have used some nukes on Hanoi in 1972.

1972 was a totally different time. I never liked the war or what I did there but it was not the fault of the people of Vietnam, just their government.
   AND I was one of those Canadian who volunteered to go there. Don't forget there were about 30,000 of us Canadians who served in Vietnam.


   Now back to the original question.  To truelly understand Vietnam and it's people you have to stay out of the big cities. I always recomend people to go outside the city and visit the villages and temples.
   I also highly recomend trying the food. Some takes getting used to, some you have to pinch your nose to get it past your lips.
   Vietnam is a beautiful country that got a bad rap because of the war.  Tell her to just take the time to stop and smell the flowers. She will not be disapointed.
FB

[Ron Scott]

The book, "A Well Worn Path", by Jay H. Cravens is a good read about a forester's experiences in Vietnam during 1967-68.

[Tom]

You can't let it bother you for the rest of your life. I still go to Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin now and again.  Some of the people are downright hospitable.   I went to New York one time too.

[Kansas]

I love Thai cooking. I never have had an opportunity to eat real Vietnam cooking. Seen some recipes and they sound really intriguing. I would like to explore trying to cook foods from that area but the problem is getting authentic ingredients. Just not much around this part of the country for that.

[whiskers]

The Phu Bai airport a few clicks South of Hue had cyclo venders. One lady with black teeth (betel nut stain) sold scrambled egg and peppers on french bread. There was a mystery meat available for those who dared. Kinda stringy and tough but it was right tasty. The peppers were great. She might not be there now, it was only 45 years ago... 

[SwampDonkey]

Did you know that 40,000 Canadians, between 1959 and 1975, went and signed up and served in Vietnam? It was not a war our government supported directly with hardware and financing, but many of our own signed up on their own accord and darn toot'n served. ;)

http://www.canadiansinvietnam.ca

Weren't the French in their first?

But anyway, don't paint Graydon and family with no draft dodger brush because it's a made up lie.

When I was a kid, we took in a lot of "boat people" in this province. Most did move on to the cities because that's the way of life they were used to.

[isawlogs]

timerover51

   Sir, I have way too many friends that went there and one too many that never came back for you to saye bullshitt like that, I resent that you saye we don't care or that he don't care, it ain't right man , just aint.   :-\   I care a great deal and I am proud of those that did go, also I am really happy that you had nothing to do with the 'nuke' button, that my friend is not a way of doing things in, never was, never will be.

        Lest we forget.                                  

[timerover51]

timerover51, I really do not appreciate posts like that. In fact not one little bit. If you want to be bitter, intolerant, prejudiced and narrow-minded and wallow in your past don't do it on my website.

You have your wish.  I will read but never post again.

[Jeff]

Well, let me tell you, if that is the way you choose to be rather than listening to the voices of the members and understanding that you need to respect fellow member's views and perspectives as well as your own, you won't be reading either. I'll give you a day to consider your choice in your last post, and if it remains the same then I'll remove that right. Your choice.

[timerover51]

Well, let me tell you, if that is the way you choose to be rather than listening to the voices of the members and understanding that you need to respect fellow member's views and perspectives as well as your own, you won't be reading either. I'll give you a day to consider your choice in your last post, and if it remains the same then I'll remove that right. Your choice.

Kindly remove me then.

[jdtuttle]

Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.
George Washington

Too often the people of a nation are blamed for the actions of their governments. There were no winners in this war. I lost my brother there Nov. 14, 1967. I do not blame the people of Vietnam.
Jim

Sorry Jeff, This type of topic always upsets me >:(

[Jeff]

It upsets me too. The person that started this decided that he was above being part of our group and our wish to conduct ourselves wisely and not to post in a manor as to offend or upset each other. He has the right to think and believe whatever he wants, but he does not have the right to come on here and think he can inflame even a potion of our membership and guests with a posting and not be returned some sort of repercussion for doing so.

I told him what I thought, and he decided we would pay a price for that by withholding his infinite wisdom from us but continue to take what little we had to give him. I gave him a chance to just put this behind us and continue, but he made the choice not to do that. 

Even after banning him by his choice I get this email message:

I need some information off of the forum for my business.  I assure you that I will never post anything ever again, nor will I register.  I do need the information however.

I've declined his generous offer to let me help him.

[Mooseherder]

There sure is a lot of "I" in his message. :

[Raider Bill]

His loss for not playing nice with a friendly bunch of people.

One might say don't mistake kindness for weakness

[mometal77]

If you look on google or bing.  The worlds biggest cave in Vietnam on the images quite awesome.  I almost went with a man who is in his 80s i purchased my 134k 3 phase gen set.  Money I gave him for the generator went to bind bibles in Surigao,Phillippines.  Every year in April John takes a group of men over there.  I am saving money for a house already have a loan just looking why I didn't go with him this year.  This state is expensive to live.  Just interesting who you meet in life.  An engineer I worked with at a rock crushing quarry a few yrs ago spoke fluent Vietnamese neat guy to be around what made me stay so long at that rink a dink job. 

[isawlogs]

 
He will miss this place, will this place miss him, I think it will. Too bad he did not want to play. They are not that hard to go by  :-\

  You gave him more then a fair chance to give it a shot !

[Phorester]

I just stumbled onto this thread.

JEFF, I fully support your decision with Timerover51.  You handled it the right way and gave him more respect than he gave the rest of us.

I served in Vietnam, and have no desire to go back for a visit.  But that doesn't mean that others should not go now.  That war was 40 years ago.  Time to get over hard feelings about it.  War has different rules than peace, and they are not humane rules. It took me many years and lots of thought to realize that.   

[LeeB]

I work and visit lots of places around the world. Viet Nam has not been one of them yet. I hope to visit some time. I really want to say that you should not judge peoples by thier governments. Most people around the world are good and want the same things as you and I. Just like I don't want anyone to hate me because of where I am from, I ask that all of us not hate someone because of national origin.

[LeeB]

Looks like I might be geting to visit Viet Nam real soon, like next time I come back to work. Things look pretty sure that the rig is moving to there. All this leads to a question to those that have visited recently. What route did you travel and how long where the flights? Looks like a long haul. I'm making a 15 1/2 hour flight to the middle east now. Doesn't look like it will be any better going the other way. It will be nice to work somewhere else for a while though. Maybe I'll get a chance to meet one of the members from there, like I got to meet Alsayeed here in Qatar.

[pigman]

Lee, it has been over forty years since I made the trip to Viet Nam, but I don't think the distance has gotten much shorter. It is a long flight. We had to stop once for fuel, but the newer planes may make the flight without stopping. If I remember correctly, the flying time was about eighteen hours from Oakland. 

[submarinesailor]

Back in 72 when I was making submarine petrels out of Guam, it was 10 hours from Chicago to Hawaii and another 7 hours to Guam.  Vietnam was several more hours beyond that.

Bruce

[Ironwood]

From the East, LaGuardia to Bangkok is the best route, goes right over the North Pole some get to see the blue polar ice cap, and if we're still on good terms with Russia then it is all downhill from there. I made the mistake of Pitt-Chicago-LAX(arm pit)-Hong-Kong (WAY COOL)-Siagon (HOT).

Ironwood

[cgk60]

Last time I was there was 1968-69 11th ACR  army.Never thought of going back.

[clww]

In 2007, we pulled into a port visit in Vietnam in a US Navy ship. Something I never thought I'd get to do during my career. Hustle and bustle there for sure.