Labor of necessity: A basket weaver slices bamboo with a sharp machete, and then weaves the pieces to create a basket he will sell for about $1. He lives in a village entirely devoted to, and reliant on basket weaving. Dave Pattison
A typical rural hut near the town of Delat. This was off the tourist track, so these children had probably seen very few tourists in their lives. Dave Pattison
A girl, probably not much older than 10, sells home-made bread out on a street. Dave Pattison
It's a timeless scene, but this one is Vietnam, 2009, as workers toil in a rice paddy. They work 12 hours a day, seven days a week. Dave PattisonBy QUENTIN ROUX (Contact)
Friday, April 24, 2009
Vietnam and Cambodia are mysterious, magical and still very primitive countries. These are the overriding impressions gleaned by veteran traveler David J. Pattison, who just returned from an Overseas Adventure Travel trip, conducted by Grand Circle Travel, to both countries.
He was struck by the friendliness of the people and their spartan lifestyle in their villages and hamlets. “The people are very industrious and extremely pleasant, and they live a quite challenging life in an oppressively hot tropical environment that makes every day a struggle,” Pattison said.
He visited a small basket-weaving village in Vietnam, were people live in homemade bamboo huts and work all day making large, bamboo fishing baskets, which they sell for a dollar. He observed floating fishing villages in both Vietnam and Cambodia, where families live on raft-style homes, make their own nets and fish for their meager living.
One village even had a floating church and grocery store. Pattison took an oxcart ride in a Cambodian village and then visited the driver’s family in their one room straw hut. Two adults and four children live in this one room, with only bamboo mats on their floor. A tiny, 12-inch television served as their only other furniture, yet the family seemed quite happy and content with their meager living conditions.
Pattison said that at his small hotel in Hanoi, a woman remained all day on the front step with a bag of T-shirts to sell to anyone who ventured out. Many women spend all day walking the crowded streets with baskets of fruit or vegetables, held by a bar across their shoulders. Others sit on the sidewalk and sell their goods, from unshelled peanuts to berries, to any passer-by. He saw one such girl, about 10 years old, sitting there all day, selling bread. Others cooked food or soup in large tin pots and served their fare to people sitting on tiny plastic stools on the sidewalk.
Pattison said that his 15 companions on the trip ate some meals in local homes. “I had the opportunity to sample snake, crickets, beetles and ants, but won’t admit that I swallowed each of these items, nor would I willingly repeat that experience,” he said. “I had the impression that everybody was nourished on anything that moved in these countries. But I must assure that the food was excellent, with rice always available.” Both countries depend on their rice crops, and rice farms are tended daily in nearly every village.
Colorful produce and flower markets exist in every village, because most people shop daily for fresh food. Most of the towns and cities have few automobiles, so most ride motorbikes, which make a street crossing a life-threatening experience, because there are no observed crosswalks. There are more than three million motorbikes registered in Saigon alone.
While he did not serve in the Vietnam war, Pattison was captivated by the lingering evidence of that brutal conflict. “We saw the remains of many pillboxes throughout the country, and saw huge bomb craters, including some in historical sanctuary sites,” he noted. The tour visited the infamous “Hanoi Hilton” prison site, where U.S. Senator John McCain and other pilots were imprisoned, including cells similar to the one in which McCain was held. His Hanoi hotel was close to the lake in which he landed and was captured.
The most emotional experience, he said, was a trip to the Cu Chi underground tunnels, outside of Saigon, that the Viet Cong had dug with hand trowels within an area covering 125 miles. This was a nightmare for our forces, who could not locate these hidden passages. They contained hospitals, dormitories, conference rooms and kitchens. “I went into one of the open tunnels and found it very difficult to move or breathe. It is impossible to imagine anyone living underground in these conditions,” he said.
Another moving experience was a visit to the Killing Fields Memorial, in Cambodia, which contains skulls of victims of the notorious Pol Pot regime, which killed a third of the country’s population. The skulls were found in the rice fields.
Other highlights of the journey included an exploration of the famous Angkor Wat temple, a UNESCO World Heritage site and one of the seven ancient wonders of the world; a visit to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and Presidential Palace in Hanoi; an overnight stay on a floating “junk,” in picturesque Halong Bay; and a sampan ride on the Mekong Delta.
There was also a stop at China Beach, near Da Nang, used by U.S. troops for R&R during the war; a visit to the 4th-century temple ruins of the Champa Kingdom; an exploration of the citadel of Hue, a wartime Tet offensive site; and cyclo-rickshaw rides in Hanoi and Seim Reap. The tour included visits to schools in both countries and an orphanage.
While all these sights and experiences were worth the arduous trip halfway around the globe, Pattison said it was the local people in these villages and their well-preserved cultural lifestyle that will linger most in his recollections of the journey. Pattison summed up his impressions: “They are a simple, courteous people, who often work hard, 10-12 hour days and survive with minimal comforts, yet maintain a calm dignity and positive outlook in the face of these challenges.”
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