Vietnam - Same, Same, But Different!

InterContinential Hotel Westlake - Hanoi
Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum
Water puppet show

Chocolate Buffet at the Metropole in Hanoi
Hoan Kiem Lake
Prison camp in Hanoi

Nam Hai - China Beach - Hoi An
Nam Hai - the three pools
Nam Hai - our room but you can't see the outdoor garden shower or the porch lounge area!
Hoi An - Chef Thanh teaching John to cook Egg Plant Clay Pot
Da Nang - China Beach is now a tourist beach destination
Hue - Emperor John

"Same, same but different" is a common saying in Vietnam. Ten years ago John and I were in Vietnam and he ordered spinach. The waitress said, "We don’t have." Pointing to another item on the menu she suggested. "Try this. Same, same but different." The phrase stuck with us. After ten years we have discovered that Hanoi is, "same, same but different."

The changes are dramatic. This time we opted for the newest hotel in Hanoi, the InterContinental Westlake. It breaks the molds of city-style hotels. The hotel is made up of a main building and several two-story pavilions built on pillars in the water making it seem more like a resort than a city hotel. Ten years ago there were only a few name-brand hotels. The Hanoi Hilton was nearly completed. At that time we wondered how a hotel named "The Hanoi Hilton" would do considering that for Americans "The Hanoi Hilton" meant a POW prison camp. Not to worry. The Hilton is doing fine and so is everything else. As one person told John when we asked about the "American War" as it is called in Vietnam, "That was then, this is now, let’s go forward." Most of the Vietnamese people were born after the war.

The sea of bikes that quietly traveled the tree-lined street, sounding their bells, has been replaced by motor scooters and new cars trying to maneuver the streets not designed for motorized vehicles. The ting-ting of the bike bell has been replaced with a cacophony of horns.
On of the InterContinental’s offerings is an Insider Tour, which is especially designed to meet the needs of the guests, so we asked to return to the places that we visited ten years ago. The mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh, the One-Pillar Pagoda, and Temple of Literature were the same except for the tourists. On our last visit there were very few tourists.

We visited the Hao Lo Prison where presidential hopeful, Sen. John McCain and the other American POWs were held. It was not open when we were in Hanoi previously. Maybe more than any other place we visited we came to understand a little bit of Vietnam’s long and difficult history. America’s involvement in Vietnam was just one page. The American POW section is at the end of the tour.

Today, young ladies seldom wear their long, silk traditional outfits, which we thought were so beautiful and genteel. Now it is jeans and t-shirts, cell phones, and sitting in cafes sipping coffee and chatting with friends.

From Hanoi we flew to Da Nang and China Beach, which is on the way to becoming the Cancun of Vietnam. The long, sweeping beach has several upscale hotels including Nam Hai, which is setting the standard for luxury stays in Vietnam. Hard to imagine but the hotel has three pool and 100 villas, of which 40 have their own private pool, and they are not plunge pools but of a size suitable for a villa. Locals are quick to mention that many big names resorts are building in the area.

Good times seem to have finally arrived in Vietnam but the people are still the same welcoming and friendly people we met on our first trip. We plan to return next year to visit the south of Vietnam where we were told the changes are even more dramatic.