Staying at the historic Metropol – a 100 year old hotel built during the French Colonial period. Stunning, beautiful and with impeccable service – but also some stuffiness.
Our guide Quyen (“Q”) met us today and walked us through a bit of history over egg coffee. Egg coffee is a miraculous, super sweet riff on a cappuccino it stems from a dairy shortage when the Japanese (and later the Communists) killed all the cattle to force dairy farmers into rice production to supply their Armies.
Vietnam’s modern story is a running, 150 year war of occupation. The French colonialists held cruel sway for a hundred years, driven out by the WWII Japanese invasion force. The Russian and Chinese communist overlords dominated for 30 years after the Paris treaty. Our brief involvement, monetary and military is what they call the “American War” (1955-75), and it is way more important to us than it is to them.
Today Vietnam is Communist in political form and law but with no social safety nets. But it is Capitalist in daily practice and slowly growing in wealth and world influence
Q’s father is a member of the Party (~4% of the population). His job is to occupy an office, drink tea and read the paper. He’s not a fan of the system.
Lessons completed and the weeks itinerary agreed, we were on our own. We started the night with a hair raising one hour cyclo (a bicycle driven rickshaw) ride around the Old French quarter. Apparently there are no speed limits, crossing lanes, or even general rules of right and left. Order is kept through eye contact, beeping and the general idea that if you’re bigger you win. Only two low speed collisions so that’s good I guess. There’s remarkably little yelling and a lot of smiling through the mayhem
The tour was followed by a freshwater crab, clam and abalone hotpot in an open street restaurant.
The proprietor noticed our western incompetence and helped us to dismember the fresh water crab. But we passed on the seahorse and rice liquor cocktail.
Exhausted. 8pm – time for bed…
Mac and Juju explore Southeast Asia 
First thought is that the driving must have had Justines blood pressure sky rocketing!!
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Yup. She likes her rules and they ain’t none here!
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