Vietnam
For many of us, images of Vietnam are frozen in a time 40-plus years ago.
Images include burning villages, Agent Orange, soldiers slogging through jungles and the last handful of Americans leaving by helicopter from an embassy rooftop.
In this week’s show, Mike O’Neil shares impressions of a rapidly-changing country after spending over two weeks in Vietnam, including Hanoi, Halong Bay, Hue, Hoi An, Da Nang, Ho Chi Mihn City (Saigon), boating up the Mekong Delta and crawling through the Cu Chi Tunnels.
One illustrative snippet: He drove through Da Nang, site of a massive U.S. airbase during the war. Looking to your right, you see the abandoned remains of that airbase, unused and largely frozen in time. Da Nang is Vietnam’s third-largest city and has a substantial international airport. Mike falsely assumed they used the previous airbase as its nucleus.
After noting the former airbase, turn your head to the left and observe what is now next door to this remnant — a massive Chinese casino.
And just beyond that, along a long stretch of beach, a whole string of high-end timeshare resorts.
This is not your father’s Vietnam.
But while Vietnam is clearly developing, it is a work in process. Walk or bike down side streets and paths and see the contrasts. Homes lacking indoor plumbing are a few doors down from a business where teenagers are playing high-speed Internet games on a bank of computers; Wi-Fi and smart phones everywhere.
Saigon/HCMC has a fifty story skyscraper. But there are also rural agrarian sites largely untouched by this century. The contrasts are staggering.
These comments are the tip of the iceberg. Tune in and hear the rest and you will never think of Vietnam quite the same.
