Home | Contact | Travel Tips | Epilogue | Terms of Use
Flight | Saigon | Mekong Delta | Dalat | Nha Trang | Hoi An | Hue | Hanoi | Halong Bay
Epilogue
My return trip to Vietnam was truly a transforming experience. I would encourage other Vietnamese who have immigrated or even consider themselves entirely American to go back. There were so many things that I learned about myself and my heritage. Small things that I thought were unique to me, like my wavy Asian hair, I found I shared with other Vietnamese. Even though I left as small child and have been away for nearly three decades, I found that I was typically Vietnamese. I was somehow still a part of these people and this culture and was still fluent in my native tongue.
A Diverse Country
Vietnam, a country about the size of California, is tremendously diverse. Dalat, the home town of my biological father, was my favorite place and great surprise along the journey. Dalat and environs is like a small Swiss village nestled in the mountains, nothing like the sultry, hot tropical climate that Americans normally associate with Vietnam.
Slow and Bustling
The Vietnamese people themselves are a study in contrast and dynamism. Some have applied the old fashioned, handmade ways to serve new needs while others have dived head first into a modern way of life. Life is at once slow and still and fast-paced and bustling. The pace of life in Saigon seems light years away from the pace of life in the Mekong.
To understand what I mean by this, watch the two videos on this page. They portray two common modes of traveling in Vietnam:
- Click image to video of paddling
down the Mekong River in a canoe.
(MPEG created by CBC Radio for "As it Happens" Website April 2000, permission for use requested.)
- Riding on a motorbike through Hanoi
(Created by Andrew Elias in January 2004.
Used with permission.)
The Young Vietnamese
Still the most beautiful thing about the country for me, was the young generation of Vietnamese born after the American war. Our Handspan tour guide, Thao, was a good example of this. She so obviously loved her country and wanted to teach others about it. She was actively concerned about the environment and hoped that somehow tourism could motivate the Vietnamese to be better stewards of their land. She was openly welcoming of Viet Kieu and Americans. This new generation gives me some hope that Vietnam will not by its own ambitions descend into a morass of toxic pollution.