A luxury hotel on the site of the US army base in Vietnam

A luxury hotel on the site of the US army base in Danang Vietnam.

Good Russian vs. bad Russian

"Travel changes you. As you move through this life and this world you change things slightly, you leave marks behind, however small. And in return, life — and travel — leaves marks on you." Anthony Bourdain

I would like to talk about an uncomfortable truth regarding some of our Russian adversaries. But before I can write about that, let me fill in some details.

There is something to travel writing I suppose although it has to get to be a bit more than simply creating word postcards. People who travel for more than checking off places on their bucket list do tend to change and increase their breadth of knowledge and experience. They are certainly more open minded.

We lost the war in Vietnam which we never should have fought to begin with. We were also sold a bill of goods about the reasons for our involvement, which cost lives. I have no real idea what would have become of Vietnam without western interference, both the French and American. I was very involved in the Catholic peace movement which I’ve talked about, so going to Vietnam was an experience.


Night train to Ho Chi Min.

We were taking the night train from Hanoi to Ho Chi Min. We landed in the old capital of North Vietnam and took the train up to Sa Pa in the most northern western corner and then began a slow journey south.

We went to meet Duc! (Nguyen Qui Duc), who had a radio show, Pacific Time on KQED in San Francisco. He had returned to Hanoi to care for his aging mother. He told us that he’d been welcomed home even after fleeing during the revolution. Tadioto is the name of his bar. It exists to this day, I suppose that Duc is still involved.


The Metropole

We did the almost obligatory tour of the prison where John McCain was held. the Hanoi Hilton, and gazed at a snapshot of him playing table tennis, smiling.

In a luxurious hotel, a well dressed older Vietnamese woman orchestrated a parade of young prostitutes, some barely teenagers, before the sloppy Russians at 7 AM. They were exchanged all throughout the day on the fancy chairs of the hotel lobby.

Finish up with a visit to the Nha Tho Cha Tam (Cha Tam Church) Catholic Church dedicated to Francis Xavier where the last President of Vietnam, a Catholic, Ngô Đình Diệm and his brother Nhu were assassinated in 1963, as part of a military coup orchestrated by Henry Cabot Lodge. They say that the military hauled them out of the Church on the pretext of safe passage and then they were shot in the van. There is a plaque on a pew, the last one in back of the church on the right hand


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Changing the course of history, or at least a marriage

Image
Driving Sue Banducci to divorce. I started driving for Veterans Cab just after I moved to San Francisco in 1975, or it might have been 76. I soon discovered some regular rides were very lucrative, but you had to beat out the older drivers who would sit at an intersection at a specific time for one of the really good tippers. I was at Broadway and Columbus about 12:15 one night when the dispatcher called out “Broadway and Kearny.” I shouted “Bingo.” Tommy said “Pick up Enrico at Banducci’s.”  He rolled into the cab, very jovial. He said “oh, you’ve never driven me before, Swing out through the tunnel and cut over to Lake on Anza.” I drove him out to 14th Avenue. It was a fun trip, lots of fun banter, and he did tip something like 25 bucks.   Well, I said, let's try Broadway and Columbus tomorrow at 12:15, I get how this works. 12:20 Tommy said over the radio, "Broadway and Kearny." I yelled “Bingo.” 25 bucks in those days was real money. Tommy said, “Take Sue home. Be care
Read more

Lord Krishna comes to tea

I knew that Allen was in town when there was a knock at the front door at 3:30 exactly. A young man, 21 but not a month more, clean shaven, holding a book, asked, “Is this the Philip Whalen Zendo?” I invited him into the living room where he sat down and quietly continued his reading.  Allen would be at the door shortly; I could hear Phil beginning to make his way up the stairs. He and Allen shared years of friendship. They were punctual. I began to prepare tea. I loved when Phil’s friends came to visit. Phil was on his best behavior. Not that he was normally badly behaved though in private moments he could be angry, even insulting. Despite being one of the foremost leaders of a movement that questioned the very roots of believing and behaving what my parents taught me, when he was proper, he was extremely proper. But there was another quality to the conversations with his poet friends. Their language was careful and measured. It was literate. I was always looking for any innuendos, an
Read more

Sister Jacinta was our priest

They are a blessing and a light. I say if the Church doesn’t ordain them, so what? We’ve all known women priests. I am not talking about priests who attend to mysterious rites, holdovers from the ancient Roman cults that Christians adopted as they went mainstream, tripping over the anachronistic relics of a medieval culture of monarchy, lapdog aristocrats, retainers and hangers-on, making decisions from a privileged position. I am thinking more of women who’ve always done the holy work of following Jesus, holding congregations together, and performing the simple ceremonies that remind all of us about the obligations of faith. When Sister Jacinta got off the bus, we knew the day’s difficult work had begun. She was always prompt, and I think it was the 55 that dropped her a half a block from “The Center,” formerly “The Center for Spiritual Services.” It was originally founded by two of the first Brothers of Charity in the US, a congregation for men founded by Mother Theresa of Calcutta.
Read more