Ha Long Bay, in Winter

About 6 hours bus East of Hanoi is the mystical Ha Long Bay.

 Climbing up to a limestone cave on one of the islands, I looked back.

My room on the 'Elizabeth Sails'.

Phallic? Or is it just me...

Squid fisher.

Ngoc Son (Jade Mountain) Temple

                   

On an island in the beautiful Hoan Kiem Lake in

central Hanoi, this temple is dedicated to Tran Hung Dao.

Wildlife on chilly Hanoi Lake.

Tran was a 13th C. war hero who lead the Vietnamese in defeating  Mongul Emporer Kubla Khan's invading army of 300,000.  He wrote some treatises on warfare that may well have helped tiny Vietnam later defeat the US.

The lake also is home to these giant water tortoises.

... to Hanoi, with Optimism

'Sleeper' bus from Hue to Hanoi, 16 hours - well it was an experience.
The Vietnamese are the most optimistic in the world (of 53 nations surveyed by the BVA Gallup poll recently)  and it is no surprise to me. It might be related to Doi Moi, and 35 years of peace after nearly 100 years of warfare, against the Barbarian Siamese (Thai), French colonialist and the US (with others).
Optimism might account for fixing 10,000 power lines to one post (but that is common in Asia), fitting 4 people or more on one motor bike (dito), not having (needing?) household heating in this cold north, and that V. jumped 16 places in the world prosperity index in one year to 2010 (77 to 61, Australia is 4th behind Norway, Denmark and Finland).

Speaking of motor bikes, in Hanoi there are 4.5 million people

 and 3.4 million motor bikes. They speak of Bike River at rush hour.

Another reason for optimism is Tet - Chinese / Vietnamese New Year -  everyone gives gifts and no-one works. My association of Tet is violent, going back to 31 January 1968, the Tet Offensive which marked the turning of the 

war against the US (with others). But now, people are happy, and give orange trees to loved ones:

often home delivered.

The Citadel of Hue

Dragon Boats on the Perfume River in Hue, central Vietnam.

Trinh took Daniel and me to the Citadel, former seat of the Emperor of Vietnam. It is a complex covering over 500 hectares inside a moat. It once housed a city itself.

Trinh and Daniel at the Hue Citadel

Trinh with some dude

It was auspicious that our visit coincided with the anniversary of the death of the first emperor, Gia Long.

Fying North to Hue

At Hue I caught up with Bruce Lasky from BABSEA and helped with two days CLE (Community Legal Ed.) training at Hue University Law School.

Bruce in action, with Trinh, law lecturer, on the left next to Daniel and Michael, legal interns from Australia..

Traum and Phuong - great facilitators

It was an action packed training session.

Luckily the Dean was impressed and shouted us to lunch.

Saigon Again

Bussed back from Phnom Penh direct to Ho Chi Minh City in 8 hours, in time to meet Dung (Mr Dong Tat Dung) at the HCMC Law University.

Reading Leon Uris 'QBVII'.

Many Saigon cafes and bars play Dylan, Led Zep and Beatles from 60s and 70s; maybe targeting guys my gen, who did their time in 'Nam and have returned to quell some demons.

Siem Reap; back to Phnom Penh

Siem Reap (which ungraciously means 'Thailand Defeated') is the city that services the tourists who come to see Angkor Wat. It is a chaotic, fun and trendy place; a bit like Bali without the beaches. I had to return to Phnom Penh, and then to Ho Chi Minh to meet some people from the Law University of HCMC. I was tired of buses, so I took a banana boat for 6 hours South on the Tonle Sap Lake (200km long) into the Mekong River to PP.

Sitting on the roof was fun

We passed many fisher-folk. It must have been a 'jet' boat as the propellor didn't get tangled in the hundreds of nets we zoomed over.

Angkor Wat III with tourists

Waiting for the tourists

Waiting for the Sunset

Angkor Wat II

Sayam, my driver and his limo. He was great.

Taken from inside Angkor Wat, which is only one of the sites in the Angkor region

Many sites are still in use as Buddhist pagodas

At its height, AW was a city - temple.

The reliefs are countless, beautiful, sometimes shocking, and all unique.

Some sites have not been 'renovated'.
Best left as is.

Angkor Wat

Monks can be tourists too.

I spent a huge day at Angkor Wat, walked a marthon, climbed a thousand steps and read a history. The place is amazing, and deserves much more time than I gave it. I love the spiritual progression, from animism around BC, Hinduism from visiting Indians in about 700 AD, gradual conversion to Mahayana Buddhism around 1000 AD, then to Theravadan Buddhism around 1400 AD.  All very logical, except that last step seems in the wrong directon. I could be biased.

Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Not quite a Buddhist Image.

A figure designed by monks to encourage witnesses to remember the Karma of lying before giving evidence in the Killing Fields Trials.


Case 001 found the infamous Duch guilty but he received only 35 years. Both sides are appealing.

Case 002 involves four defendants aged from 78 to 85, and has just passed pre-trial. I was lucky to meet Lars Olsen on the ECCC team, and Judge Rowen Downing.

A Mock-trial at Can Tho University Law School, Vietnam

A murmer went through the packed auditorium, and some nervous giggles. My translator whispered the law student in the role of prosecutor had just announced the first accused should be executed .

After three hours of evidence and argument the panel retired to consider its verdict. It returned in only 10 minutes to find the two men Guilty, and sentenced them to 20 years and 16 years, a bit less than what the real offenders got last year for the rape and murder.

Touring Ho Chi Minh City

Debbie W. escaped Cambodia as a child refugee. She now lives with her family in Canada.  Debbie helped me pronuonce Vietnamese during our bus tour.


I liked the sleeping baby shaded by the rehabilitated angel of death.

As an army medic I used to fly in these at Pukapunyal, Healsville and JTC Canungra Qld.

Flying into Ho Chi Minh

Sunset,  South China Sea - 3/1/2011

Today I visited the War Crimes Museum in Saigon. The official name was changed to the War Remnants Museum after lobbying and cash from the US. The original name fits best. I had flash-backs to 1972, as a Natio at the Jungle Training Camp at Canungra. I'd been telling myself for 40 years those stories can't be true, they were trying to shock us. The returned Regs were traumatised alright, not just from what they'd seen but from what they'd done in 'Nam. They needed to share their demons. Now I think their stories were tame; maybe censored to protect us young Natios.

Thomas Cromwell

Up too late last night finishing Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. An excellent novel in the 1st person of Thomas Cromwell, son of a blacksmith in class-bound 16th century London, who became the trusted advisor to Henry VIII in the lead-up to the Reformation.

As an editor from way back, there is too much detail for me (600 pages), but for those who enjoy intricacies of plot and character, it's great. At times it is brilliant and intense. Historically, the story is just a few early years in Henry's reign, and we sort of know what happens next and how that transforms the history of western civilization. There may be a sequel, and I hope a movie - but the script-writer will need to do acrobatics to retain the brutal character and feeling the detail in the novel provides.