Lost innocence

Theres something about 'development' that just doesnt add up in my mind. It kills innocence and makes life a trifle more sterile. And why did I think of this in Vietnam?

Hanoi, on my recent visit, still seemed to have the simplicity and guilelessness of a small town or a city on the throes of 'globalisation', but not quite yet (thank God). So it had none of the swagger of a city that has tasted the seductive fruit of 'progress'. Maybe its poised in the best place ever in its history - emerged from years of crippling war and isolation of a closed socialist economy , but just before the raid of Big Mac.

Jayashree was right when she commented on one of my previous posts- "... Vietnam has its own rustic charm and tranquility unlike the plastic beauty of the so called 'developed' countries of the world".

So what does that mean? Elementary , my dear Blackberry toter . Hanoi's cool dudes are not yet strutting about thinking how lucky they are to be born in the Age of Choice. No Mac Donalds and Starbucks. No flashy malls, no fancy cars (mopeds are fine thank you).

Any society that tastes economic success eventually rues its lost innocence I think. Older Singaporeans reminisce about the simple life in 'kampongs' (village). In some places in the city there are exhibits of a life that was more spontaneous.The bronze sculptures of naked urchins jumping into the Singapore River for a happy dip is one of my favourites. It stands dwarfed and almost irrelevant in todays plush business district.

In some ways I find the strain of 'progress' showing through in India too. Not quite as sterile as a Singapore or a Tokyo yet (maybe never will) but there are precious things that are threatening to fade out. With the Wal Marts and Reliances coming in, conversations with 'our family bhaji wala' (vegetable seller) - whose life's ups and downs came gratis everyday with the chillies and curry leaves - may well die out. Shopping would just mean zipping around with trolleys down well signposted aisles and picking out vegetables -labelled and weighed to the milligram.Espirits' S,M,L,XL,XXL has made the lovably tardy tailor (for whom deadlines were just abstract concepts) redundant.

With 'progress'/globalisation/technology/'all those certain somethings we call development' , day to day experiences just lose out on warmth and get coldly standardised.

I am no 'jhola' toting Left leaning socialist. I enjoy my speedy Internet connection as much as anyone else. And a swig or two from my can of Cola doesnt exactly shake my moral foundation. But somewhere deep down it just doesnt gel. I am thankful I grew up when I did - when there was no TV and not much choice. It is my sons who I feel sorry for and want to tell them 'how you are missing out on LIFE'. (I know they would repartee 'you dont know what you are missing out' babe'!)

Back to the point...does Hanoi's "rustic charm" amount to anything at all then? Atleast people and life seemed real there. Ha who am I kidding with those big empty words. Afterall isnt there a thin line between 'old world charm' and hardship? No one knows it better than the Vietnamese themselves.

Vietnam is one of Asia's fast growing economies. Its people deserve their share of "progress" after years of struggle.Who am I- tapping away on my laptop- to grudge it? Uncle Mac will catch up soon. Just hope the deft fingers of Vietnam's semstresses dont go cold then.

Splashing fish and smiling faces

Hanoi's delightful Water Puppets (at the Water Puppet Theatre) stand as proof of the simple and timeless appeal of folk arts. (Spend some time watching the videos linked below. They tell you more than what you read)..

Delightful snippets from rural life are enacted through crude, colourful but efficient puppets operated from behind a screen.The whole show is played out in a pool of scum green (what looks like) water set amidst a kitschy ornate set. So there is plenty of splashing, slap stick humour (we gathered), action and drama, all accompanied by an equally charming orchestra of folk instruments.


Fish splosh around while fishermen try to trap them in their baskets, fire breathing dragons skittle on water spewing tons of smoke and firecrackers, departed sons of the village return to an emotional welcome ...its all happening here.

And for a whole hour you jive to the simple pastoral tunes of rural Vietnam,evoking visions of swaying green rice fields and straw hats, live their common tales and all the while wish from the bottom of your heart that someday a huge wave of Vietnam's economic 'success story' doesnt wash away all that innocence...






One whole dimension of travel - food - normally shows up as a big gaping hole for vegetarians like us. Food, an organic part of the local culture and milieu is sadly lost on us, but we hope that our eager curiosity about everything else somehow makes up for it. So the Vietnamese pho and bun ca was just something we read about but never tasted. And the Vietnamese love for dog meat will always come in the way of my total embracing of the Vietnamese and their way of life. Having said that, Hanoi to our surprise, was a huge delight when it came to vegetarian food. Hanoi's Old Quarter is abound with a surprising number of cafes that proudly highlight a vegetarian menu or some all-vegetarian cafes.



Of all the eateries we ate in KOTO got to be my favourite. Run by an Australian NGO (Know One Teach One) it trains street kids or kids from underpriveleged backgrounds and runs the eatery with the help of their vocational skills. From the kitchen to waiting tables its all done by these children. Conceptually powerful. And the final outcome we were happy to note was utterly fantastic. Delicious food , pleasant smiling faces and that warm fuzzy feeling.

Say hello to Uncle Ho

Uncle Ho lies cold and embalmed in a freezing dark room in the 'Ho Chi Minh' Mausoleum in Hanoi. Clearly he commands a lot of respect from the proletariat , going by the long line of local Vietnamese and the seriousness with which you are led into the chamber. Leave your cameras,caps and humour behind. You ought to be quiet, in single file,in the right respectful attire and hands out of your pocket.

Ho Chin Minh , Bapu-ji of Vietnam, founder father of Vietnam's Communist movement and friend-father-philosopher during its turbulent years against the French, is greatly revered by his people. He stands even now, as a symbol of the dynamic country and has a city named after him - Ho Chi Minh, the erstwhile Saigon.



You are first led,single file, by stern patrol officers. Any noise is shushed immediately, like dissent quashed by a Communist regime. So you enter the stark monument, like obedient school kids. As you get closer to the 'altar' you shiver (its cold). Inside the dark chamber you shuffle past the glass case in which Uncle Ho lies at rest, oblivious of all the ups and downs his people have seen in recent decades. You might even feel (and some guide books warn you) that Madame Tussaud had a hand in it but I prefer the more romantic version of an embalmed body lying there,like an immortal chunk of history. Every few years his body is taken to Moscow for a tune up.




Giving him company in that cold dark room, are four strapping young guards in uniform , matching Uncle Ho's stillness.Their resume must have read under 'strengths' - ' ability to stand still for hours without blinking'. Dont envy their jobs. But more power to what they do...





In the same compound is Uncle Ho's house where it seems he did all the ideation one does while leading a country against determined colonialists. Peaceful green gardens, a pond and the quintesentially ochre building with green windows - French architecture? A far cry from the mood outside the gates where chaos and energy rules....

Random notes on Hanoi

Hanoi is one of those places that works infallibly on the Divine Laws of Traffic Intersections. The law ensures that when a body (you) steps into a fast stream of vehicles (mostly 2 wheelers) nothing happens to it - like liquids, the 'stream' finds its own path and swerves artistically around you (the body). The rush of mopeds interlace and create their own merry pattern like a weavers weave.

Crossing the road can be traumatic in India. Its like a combat zone where you multitask - cross the road and stay alive. But in Hanoi despite the chaos, crossing a busy street is easily done with the tranquility of a Buddhist monk walking on water. You just have to surrender to its beliefs and step on a busy street. While the Non Believers shift and shuffle, you have already - calmly- made it to the other side.

In short, alls well and pleasantly chaotic on the streets of Hanoi. That quaint city in N.Vietnam. Our brief retreat this summer.

In all our 5 years in Singapore we loved our holidays to these wonderful parts of SE Asia....Indonesia/Bali,Malaysia, Cambodia,Thailand....all fabulous worlds packed with sights,sounds,food,culture.Strains of the Indonesian 'gamelan' (musical orchestra), the lilting Javanese ballet of Ramayana and Mahabharata, Cambodia's awesome monuments, Bali's arts, Malaysia's beaches..... all make for aching nostalgia for me. Theres so much to see yet, I doubt I'll ever make it to other places down my list.

Hanoi city to the North of Vietnam was not the centre of the Vietnam War. For a sense of the turbulent years Ho Chin Minh (or Saigon) in the South is probably the place to be in. Hanoi - part Asian, part residual French and all Communist - is fuelled by merry chaos and for a second you might even think you are in an Indian city in all that din of honking- except scaled down 20 times and the presence of straw hats.

Two wheelers are the hottest accesories this side of the Mekong. As if by Communist decree - 'one moped- to every Hanoiian'. Or 2 or 3 or maybe 4 Hanoiians if they so wish. These 2 wheeled wonders are zipping around the city's streets, all day, like worker ants. Carrying human cargo - Vietnamese beauties hiding those well chiselled cheek bones behind face masks that are also patches of creative expressions - Hello Kitty motifs, florals,wild colours...or carrying men, families, entire family trees. These wondrous machines - collectively a moving Silk Route for Hanoi - also carry - vegetables, chicken, porcelain vases,chairs tables....its the Hanoiian's prerogative to chose.

To get a full rush of the adventure just hop onto a 'cyclo' ( manually pedalled rickshaws) and leave everything to God and the Will of the cyclo man who (you pray) has your good at heart. The circles/roundabouts are the scariest. Its like hurling full speed into a whirlpool of two wheelers that are pouring in blithely from all directions (the cyclo man hides behind you - the coward) and not knowing how its all going to end. I am alive to tell the story. And thats enough of the end you need to know!

Hanoiians seemed a hardy lot.Especially the women who could be seen in all kinds of trades by the roadside, in shops, on the roads heaving those heavy poles on their shoulders. A fiery bargain now and then was quite normal. After the severe politeness of Japan it was a relief to let off some steam!

Hanoi's crowded 'Old Quarters' overflowed with people and enterprise. Gravestones, fake money (for the dead), silk, paintings...all vying to get the tourist's attention. Hanoi's architecture is clue to its French connections in the narrow old world buildings tucked away in the lanes of the Old Quarter. Some of them were home to interesting cafes that beckoned you with all that charecter and atmosphere.

Hanoi definitely teased our senses and we revelled in its energy for the days we spent there.More about Uncle Ho,the delightful Water Puppets and divine vegetarian food in my next posts....

Ja Mata.

North of the Sea, West of the Sun

Tadaima!

(roughly - 'I'm back'- in Japanese)

Back from a wonderful break in my favourite part of the world - S.E.Asia!

It is that happy time of the year when getting the right money out of your wallet can be a challenge. Back in Tokyo now, it takes me several accidental encounters with Singapore dollars, cents and Vietnamese Dongs before I can dish out the exact amount of Yen at the cash counter.Mildly disorienting but hey - it comes with the wonderfully light headed feeling of a holiday hangover! So why complain.

Curled up contently with the tan back in my cheeks, a tipsy holiday grin on my face and all that Vietnamese baguette on my hip, I know the break has worked well for all of us.

'Singapura' welcomed us in her arms with a gush of warm tropical air on our faces as we stepped out of Changi Airport (Singapore) close to midnight. This felt normal.Cruising down the East Coast highway - on the drive from Changi airport to the city - I felt all the challenges in my life disappear slowly, one by one. My brain was going into snooze mode - no more 'figuring out' things, no more trying to make sense of the world around...just being...like slipping into my skin...when was the last time I had understood everything around me! The feeling was almost weird.And the cabbies familiar trill of 'Singlish' worked like a soothing lullaby...

So a heady one week was spent just reconnecting with old senses and friends. Lost pleasures regained - to be able to talk English,be talked to - a normal human interaction in every sense, having able to pick a shop at will (a lot to be said about those one- stop- shop malls) and shop for what you want,when you want and even turn them into intellectual experiences by asking clever questions to the shop assistant.Just loved the feeling of so many words rolling out of my tongue at a shop! While in Tokyo my 'shopping words' generally fit into one breath with more air to spare!

The spit and polish of Singapore assailed me. Pleasantly. It actually felt like home. Never thought I'd say this.



The lush tropical trees , well laid out grassy kerbs, colourfully restored Perankan (Chinese-Malay) and Colonial buildings - were just the balm our eyes - sore from the cheerless, rough edged Tokyo landscape- needed.

Were these the exact same 'antiseptic' things we had sneered at when we lived here a year ago? It must be relative.

Did I ever mention what a great base Singapore makes to travel from. A travellers paradise. Just a short flight away from any of the delightful SE Asian countries around. Crammed with unique cultures,people and places.All warm welcoming and utterly fascinating..

So it was tic tac toe and our fingers landed on Hanoi, N.Vietnam. One of the parts in the region we hadnt set foot on before...