CHINA BEACH AND THEN SOME

OMG!
Up over a high pass and then down into Da Nang where the US forces first arrived in Vietnam during that same war. What was then, a sandy beach of dunes and scrub pine, is today a thriving megatropolis and the 4th largest city in Vietnam.

On the way over the pass, we visited some remainders of that war which I barely remember.
French bunkers and american bunkers line the hillsides as this was the highest point on the Vietnamese coast from which the armed forces could defend the land and the cities further inland.

I have learned much about the Vietnamese War which somehow sounds very similar to the conflicts that our US forces are involved in today and as always, protecting US strategic alliances. I was in college when the US was fighting the Vietcong. Being in a theatre school at Carnegie Mellon, I was more concered with what was happening on Broadway than what was happenig overseas. I wonder what would have happened if we had supported Ho Chi Minh instead of the French who raped and pillaged this country for many many years before we got here? Oh well...the course of history is set and we may have lost the battle...but we have won the hearts and minds of these lovely people.

The Vietnamese want to please. Everything they do is to forget the past and their communist government and produce goods and services for the rest of the world.
Since my journey began, it seems as if we have done nothing but eat. The hospitable people of this country spend a lot of time and effort to feed everyone all the time.
Everywhere the streets are filled with little cafes with a constant flow of patrons eating soup and chicken or pork. To me it seems they eat 24/7.

The good thing is that most of their food is made up of vegatables. Today we went to Vietnamese cooking school and learned to make some of the wonderful dishes of Vietnam.
We went to the market and then cooked what we purchsed with Miss Vinh. A young woman with some very capitolistic ideas, Ms Vinh started cooking for the public when she was 8 years old. Today she has 5 restaurants, one hotel, and a cooking school in Hoi An. You can see by her photo that either she is not very old, or that her healthy cooking agrees with her good lifestyle.

I am loving every minute of this trip. Vietnam may be a communist country in name but it is a truly wonderful and yet still exotic country to visit. In the US it is not always mentioned in good terms, but Americans are very popular here with John McCain almost godlike in his popularity.

I am now feeling like a god myself as after cooking my own lunch I can retire to one of the most exotic and wonderful resorts on the face of the earth...the Nam Hai Resort.
More on this tomorrow.