There is an old chinese saying "Heavens above, Paradise in SuHang" – For the Chinese, Hangzhou is China’s tourist capital. Marco Polo described it as "the finest and most beautiful city" when he passed through Hangzhou back in 13th century.

 

Many friends have been asking me to go Hangzhou. (Even my old mum and dad have been there). In fact, Feli and I were planning to visit Hangzhou on 1st day of 2007. Due to the bad weather and Feli’s backache, we called off the trip.

 

Last week, I received my 7th Visitor, Joanne. It was a very last minute trip…and before I knew it, Joanne was unloading her luggage in my new place. I am such a lucky bastard…7 visitors in my 10-month stay in Shanghai. Man, I can consider opening up a hotel for my friends. (Yes, like Hotel 25!)

And speaking about luck, you can’t imagine how lucky can I get. After a 2-hour train ride from Shanghai, we finally arrived at this 1922 Hotel. Just when we were to check in into our room, the staff asked for our travel documents. She was unable to let us check in unless we produce a passport. Shit, both of us left our passports at my Shanghai house!

 

I was given 2 options – Go back to Shanghai and come back with a passport or get someone to check in for us with his passport.  Coincidentally, my primary school buddy, Jinwei, was in town that weekend on a business trip. So, I ranged his number and asked him for help. In less than 30 minutes, Jinwei arrived with his Singapore Passport and checked us in. It was just a matter of "right place, right time". Amazing!

 

Hangzhou is very clean and beautiful (but beware of those greedy taxi-drivers and tour guide). I would call it a mini "Chinese Disney World" where you come face to face with these famous Chinese icons – Wu Song, White Snake Lady, General Yue Fei, Qin Hui, Ji Gong etc.. I have read about these characters when I was young…and they were kinda unreal…But in close proximity, I can feel their legend and live-ness.

We spent 8 hours, walking more than 10km around Lake West. We also had lunch at the famous "Lou Wai Lou" (er..food not so fantastic). We also visit the world famous + expensive "Long Jing Green Tea" plantation at the hill top. And we drank from the 1000-year old "Dragon Well" – named by QianLong.

A short 2-day stay. But it was a very beautiful and meaningful journey. Yes, I will come back again.  

Last weekend, I visited the Vietnam War Museum. It was an emotional visit. 5 minutes into the photo gallery, my heart sank and drown in grief. The feeling was unbearable. 

It was more like attending a war funeral. The historic journey – the untold version of Vietnam War ~ painted through the eyes of the Vietnamese. The pictures are very raw and graphic. It doesn’t show you the glory of their soldiers or the unity of their nation. It shows you the ugly sight of war. War is stupid, no matter how you look at it. Only Uncle Sam illustrate that war has its purpose and it is cool to be an American GI.

 

That day, there were a lot of American tourists. They too, felt remorseful of their past deeds. There was this particular showcase where I saw a lot of hand-written letters. Reading through the translated content of those letters, I felt so moved and touched by their words. The familiarity and empathy set in…painful separations, longing to be in each others arms again…Yet, many of these addressees never make it back to home.

 

War happens when the leadership of two individuals failed. War happens when press succeeded illustrating the need of war. War happens when the ego of a nation surpassed the love of its people. War happens with one agenda and ends with another. War unites a nation but separates its families.

The Mekong River is the world’s 13th longest river (7th in Asia), at the length of 4,000km long. Crossing 6 countries, it ended its flow in Vietnam, creating a massive delta at My Tho. Each year, the river flooded and took hundreds of lives (especially children) and thousands of natives were being displaced. Yet, millions of people still stay close to it. It is their major source of life – tourism, agriculture etc.

I have heard so much about the Mekong River and I really need to make a trip down. Enduring more than 6 hours of coach-&-boat ride (to and fro), I spent the whole Sunday exploring the river inlets, paddling on a sampan. Along the mangroves, there are many village farms (coconut candy factory, honeybee farm, handicraft workshops). I had close encounters with snakes and honeybees. (Trust me, it is very close! See my macro on the bees!)

The sampan experience is probably the main highlight of today’s tour. Cruising along the narrow inlets (below dense canopy of mangroves) on a 4-man sampan, the boat rocked left and right. It was so rocky that I was so afraid that the boat may just overturn. (I am more worried about wetting my P990 and Canon 950). I was also looking out for those deadly swamp crocodiles cos our boat was just 10cm above water level. A 2m crocodile may just capsize our boat with its tail.
 

Okay, it wasn’t that scary. But it is a good experience for a city-dweller like me.

HCMC is a great city to visit. Food is good, great historical architectural, friendly locals and best of all, shopping is fair and cheap (unlike in China or Bangkok, you have to bargain down at least 70% to get a fair deal). It is worth coming back again. Vietnam has indeed lots to offer.

1 week in Vietnam – The past 1 week has been really fruitful in terms of work and relationship building. In fact, it was a very successful and mind-blowing team-building conference at Hanoi. There were tears, hugs and lots of heart-to-heart chats. I was very moved by the bonding of 46 individuals who come from different corners of Asia. Amazing!

It is weekend again. I packed my bags and headed for my Ho Chi Minh leg – a smaller group this round, just 7 of us. Finally, some quiet and personal time for myself this 2 free-&-easy days. 




HCMC (Ho Chi Minh City) is such a beautiful city. I am still in time to enjoy their "Tet Festival" (aka Chinese New Year) and the festive mood is very strong here. The city center is decorated with red lanterns and banners. Yes, lots of pigs statues around.

Yesterday (Sat), I "signed up" for their army and their army gave me for an orientation course – showing me their secret-of-success of Vietnam War. I went to visit their war sites, underground tunnels (can you imagine they dug 400km of tunnels with bare hands!) and "live" firing range. It was really physically challenging to crawl through these 1m x 1m tunnel. Man, look at the size of the tunnel entrance – only the fit and slim can enter. I tried and I passed their "hole" test.

Just 5 minutes crawling through the tunnel, I had to shout "wait, wait!". I had a bad cramp in my left leg. It was very difficult to retreat and I have to endure the sickening pain until the next nearest exit. I was sweating and crawling like hell! It was surely worse than my Australian caving experience. Man, this is the real thing – war tunnels – and I had such great respect for the Vietnamese soldiers. These tunnels were built to shelter the soldiers from the American air-bombing and it was a great network for them to travel around – visually undetectable.  

The war may have ended in 1975 but the wounds of war are still visible today. There are so many bomb craters around the site. Guess it may take another generation to cover these wounds.

I decided not to join their army – I had enough of crawling and all the backaches. Next, the famous Mekong River.