Danang

Hello, hello. It’s been a while. There are some good reasons for the delay and some not so good reasons. Big news is that I am actually working and have been since April. I am an economic analyst at the U.S. Consulate. Quick answers to your (probably not) burning questions:

• Do you work in the same space as Robert? Yes, Robert and I work in the same building, same floor. No, it’s not big. We try not to spend lots of times with each other during the work week. It’s already weird.

• How do the conflicts work, since he is basically everyone’s boss? Does that mean he is your boss? It definitely could be a conflict, since almost everyone reports to Robert in the consulate. But they came up with a good workaround: I report to someone in Hanoi who eventually reports to the Ambassador, who is above Robert. So it’s the twist around. Right now my direct supervisor is a really great woman. It was going to be my friend Jim at one point (see the Ha Giang Trip post to the right, also Tet!). Unfortunately, he had to leave early. Soon, there will be someone new, who gets good reviews. The setup is going pretty well, although I generally spend most of my time working with the economic team in Ho Chi Minh City.

• What do you do? It actually fits my skill set pretty well, because I am supposed to research, interview people and report on the macroeconomic environment in Vietnam. I wrote about the Saigon Metro (long-delayed), climate finance, fintech, among others. I have been able to meet lots of interesting people through work, and it was going great…

Unfortunately, COVID is back (or actually came for the first time) to Vietnam. We are on day 60-something (or so) of lockdown, and it is getting increasingly restrictive. First they closed all barbershops and massage joints, plus karaoke! Then restaurants. Then all stores. Then takeout, which has been the biggest blow. Right now you aren’t supposed to go out without a “good reason.” For Robert and I, that means we go to the consulate (switching off days, working from home in the meantime), and going to the super market. We went to a friend’s house (they were vaccinated, as are we). And we have other consulate people over from time to time in small groups (no more than 8, usually 6 - all vaccinated).

This has meant that the job is less exciting, as you can imagine. No fun trips out to meet people. No trips to Hanoi to work with the team there. Nothing but sitting at home emailing or calling people. Plus, everyone wants to talk about COVID and lockdowns. It is tiring.

But, I am still optimistic that the government will get this under control. Vaccines are rolling in by the hundred thousands every week, and slowly more and more are getting jabbed. The estimate is that 50% of the population will be vaccinated by the end of the year and 70% by the end of March. And if they prioritize Ho Chi Minh City (which is the center of the current outbreak), then they may be able to slowly open up. Fingers crossed.

Luckily, I can think back to the months when we were able to move freely in Vietnam. One of the last trips I took before I started work was to Danang. I went up a few days before Robert because he had to work.

Danang

My Son

The main reason I wanted to go ahead of Robert was to see My Son, an ancient religious site that is also a UNESCO world heritage site. Everyone thinks of Vietnam as being Buddhist, but back in the 3rd to 14th centuries (almost 1,000 years), the middle of the country followed a type of Hinduism. My Son was the spiritual center of the Cham people and housed many temples dedicated to different Hindu gods. If you have heard of Angkor Wat, My Son is sort of like that (although also considered very different). The site is about an hour from the city, and I was able to book one of the taxis outside my hotel without any issue. I can’t remember how much it was, but maybe something like $20 for 6 hours. Don’t worry, I gave him a big tip.

The site itself is in the plains outside of the city with some rivers around it, which probably made it a bit more convenient to get there and back in olden times. There are seven groupings of temple structures, mostly built in different eras under different rulers. I bought a book (which you can borrow when you visit!), but unfortunately, it was a bit too detailed. I ended up wandering from site to site, just taking it all in. Note that there wasn’t much shade, unlike Angkor Wat, where there are a lot of trees around.

The temples are all in various stages of disarray. There has been a fair amount of preservation (helped by the Indian development agency), and it was easy to walk around and learn a little about what each building was. However, it was quite difficult to get a sense of how these were used back in the day. As with many of these ancient sites, there are waves of construction and destruction. Temples are abandoned, and then a ruler four hundred years later would decide that he needs to show how his reign connects back to the olden times, so he rebuilds a temple or builds one next to a ruin.

The temple above to the left was one of the ones that really helped demonstrate a bit of how these were used. There were stairs up and a center chamber of offerings and such. All of them were built in bricks that are still in surprising good repair today, especially since they are almost 2,000 years old. What was most amazing was the carvings and engravings that are still well-preserved (below, left). And it appears that people still light incense and pray here, even if they probably aren’t praying to these Hindu gods.

There were two temples that had been taken over as storage, and you can see some of the beautiful carvings. There are even more of these in the Cham museum in Danang (more on that later). Also, no comments about the picture bottom left - that’s how I smile these days.

My Son is the largest site of Cham temples, but it is not the only one. On a separate work trip, Robert was able to visit another site. The temples are almost exactly the same, although it is a much smaller site with fewer structures. Robert had fun! (And his shirt is not neon - this picture was “color corrected” by someone before I got it).

The Cham people were mostly Hindu and worshiped gods of the HIndu pantheon. But they seemed to also worship something else, which you can see in the pictures below. Just a small subset, more to come.

And the museum in the city does not shy away from these other. It is a perfectly nice museum with very beautiful sculptures and statues but not much in way of information or education. There are placards around, but unless you know what you are looking at and why it existed, it is a bit hard to get too much out of it. I would still recommend it because of how beautiful so many of the sculptures are.

Plus, there are a lot of linga.

The Cham were no prudes. There are a lot of dancing girls. But also gods - that’s probably a sculpture of the Hindu god, Garuda (below right).

Plus dragons!

And my favorite, elephants. These below on the left and right are probably renderings of Ganesha, the elephant god of beginnings.

Marble Mountains

On the way back from My Son, I still had a few hours left on my time with the taxi driver, so we stopped by the marble mountains. These are a cluster of five hills that are shown in the second picture at the top. They are made of marble and limestone and have a number of Buddhist and Hindu grottoes. All over are marble statues depicting all sorts of gods, buddhas and animals (both real and unreal). Luckily, you can take the elevator up to the top and then walk around and down the mountain. Totally worth it, especially for the views over the town.

Dragons and lions, oh my!

There were a number of monks selling water, candles and other offerings. Plus lots of statues that looked like they were growing organically out of the hillside.

The caves were quite large and had other offering placed inside.

Biking trip to the giant buddha

When I got back to the hotel, I had a nice lunch of shrimp and crab fried rice and then rested a bit. That night I wandered around, went back to 7 bridges for more beer (I tell you, it’s really good), and then went to an Italian restaurant that the Italian consul general in Ho Chi Minh City said was the best in all of Vietnam. Couldn’t pass that recommendation by. Turns out, it was amazing! Highly recommend.

The next day, I borrowed a bike from the hotel (which turned out to be a bit old, a bit rusty, the gears didn’t work that well, and the brakes were worse…) and rode up the beach. Like Rio with its Christ the Redeemer statue overlooking the city, Danang has its own giant religious statue. It is a lady buddha over 200 feet tall - equivalent, they say, to 30 stories. I had to check it out, even though it was at the top of a hill.

The Linh Ung pagoda is quite large, with a number of buildings and statues. But the centerpiece is the Lady Buddha, who watches over the city and the sea.

I had thoughts of riding over the hill to the Intercontinental, but after one hill too many, I decided to turn back. I was able to stop at a beautiful restaurant on the water, which had some excellent seafood. That night Robert got in, and we were able to explore more of the city, eat at some fun restaurants and even return to the Italian place (it was that good). We also borrowed bikes from the hotel and went riding around. It was a fun, relaxed time. Danang doesn’t have a great reputation, because it doesn’t have the beauty of Hoi An (only about an hour away) or the history of Hue (a few hours north), but it is a nice destination nonetheless. Hope that you will be able to visit us and enjoy all that Vietnam has to offer.