Yes, procrastination! I visited East Asian countries more than 3 years ago and promised placements for each country we visited. It took me this long to first find a place to carry out my intentions for this Vietnam hide, then to create and place all the desired parts for the hide, and finally write the cache text.
Vietnam was the last of the countries I, and my friend Olivia, visited on our trip to East Asia in January and February of 2020. The others were Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia. Like Cambodia, Vietnam is a country of contrasts. Glitz alongside sad remembrances of the strife of war.
Things to know before you start;
- this hide involves a walk with multiple stops along the way to the final container and log.
- you may encounter bombs, traps, tunnel entrances, and secret stashes.
- you will not have to crawl through underground tunnels; instead you will walk through a tree tunnel.
- no internet research is required - all answers will be found in the text and/or photos on the cache page.
Thursday, February 13, was an active day in Cambodia that concluded with an evening flight to Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, Vietnam. We were amazed at all of the hanging lights and decorations along the main streets as we drove to our hotel. Upon arrival, we did little other than finding our assigned rooms and settling in for the night.
Street decorations and hanging tree lights
Friday, February 14, was a day spent on the Mekong Delta. We were bussed to a dock and boarded a sampan. On the sampan we were treated to samples of a variety of "fruits" - dragon fruit, coconut, custard apple, and the very smelly durian. Most of us bravely ate just one small bite of the durian.
Sampling durian fruit
Those who were willing were asked to pose on the front of the sampan, copying the captain's pose. This seemed to be very important to him, and most of us complied.
At the front of the sampan
We stopped at the home of a family of six - mother, father, grandfather and three children. They made rice paper and we were given samples to eat. From there we boarded small wooden boats to cruise to our lunch location. These boats each only held a few people, and we given woven hats to wear as protection from things that might fall out of trees.
Olivia and I with the provided woven hats
After a delicious lunch we visited a place where they made and wrapped coconut candy. They sold the candy and also alcoholic beverages. Their pride was that the alcohol was fermented with snakes in it. They took great pleasure in pulling the snakes out for us to see.
Alcohol, a.k.a. snake juice
After being bussed back to our hotel, we were given a walking tour of the downtown area, after which the evening was "on our own." We wandered through some local shops and grocery stores before deciding where to eat our dinner. As we ate, all of the street lights began turning on for the night.
Saturday, February 15, began with a visit to a cathedral and the post office. We couldn't go inside the cathedral, although we enjoyed watching photos being taken outside of newlyweds and their families. The post office is only a little section of what is actually a small shopping center. It was pleasant to see the emphasis on books and teaching children to read.
Book stores found on both sides
We next went to Independence Palace where we were immersed in displays of relics of the Vietnamese war. They have a lot of pride in all the old tanks, jeeps, related paraphernalia and communication devices - all in secret bunker areas on the lower level. We were also shown the palatial meeting rooms on the upper level.
Communications before the days of computers
After lunch at a local restaurant serving Phở, we went to an open air market, followed by visiting a little store where a small section of the floor could be unlocked and lifted up. There was a bunker underneath, and at dangerous times, many people at a time squeezed into this, and similar, underground areas where they locked themselves in for safety. It reminded me of stories at the end of the war told to us by those who escaped and found refuge in our Seattle home in the mid 1970s. We had a family of four and two single men living with us, of which only one spoke English. In spite of our house being very crowded, it was a good learning experience for all of us.
Our evening was on our own. Olivia, I, and many others in our group selected the tour option to go to a water puppet show with dinner afterwards. Before the show began, we were challenged to figure out how certain unique actions could visually deceive us. After the performance, our group met a few staff people who showed us some of the workings of the production. We discovered that our group had been successful in determining the methods of deception.
Fire spitting water dragon
Our tour guide had arranged "cyclo" rides for us from the show to where we had our late dinner. My cyclo driver had great fun racing with Olivia's cycler, and when we gave them tips, we all laughed when they said they liked taking us because we were "skinny!"
My cyclo driver and I
Sunday, February 16, our last full day in Vietnam, we were taken by bus to the Cu Chi Tunnels. At first it was completely interesting to crawl through the tunnels, discover the secret ways of entering them, and see the underground cooking and hospital areas. Then sobering reality set in when we were shown the various booby traps and hidden bomb types meant to maim or kill those against whom they were fighting to prevent them from infiltrating the tunnels.
At the conclusion of the tour we were honored by a veteran who explained some things and answered our questions. He, with his two brothers, had tried to fight off a US tank. His brothers lost their lives and he lost his right arm. He was cared for in the tunnels, where he met a nurse who became his wife once she convinced him that she could love a man with only one arm. Sadness tempered by happiness.
Meeting a war victim
Back at our hotel, we discovered that all of our flights had been changed due to the start of Covid in Asia. Our farewell dinner was a very quiet gathering. We said out goodbyes as we would all be leaving for the airport at different times during the next day.
Monday, February 17, my last day in Vietnam, was a day on our own. The group didn't gather. We may have seen a few others at breakfast, and I saw one couple in the airport. After finishing my packing, I put on a mask which I wore for my flights home. Once off the plane and with phone reception, I learned that my daughter had dropped my car at the airport, brought my car keys to a kiosk for me to pick up, and then taken the Link to get back to her home. She had filled my car with bags of groceries so that I could begin a few weeks of self-quarantine. The first case in our state didn't show up until three weeks later, meaning that I started isolating myself weeks before the general population.
The first stage of this cache will be found at:
N 47° 0A.BCD' W 122° 4W.XYZ'
.
A = ______ = the total number of people in the family we met who made rice paper.
B = ______ = the number of kinds of boats I boarded on the Mekong Delta.
C = ______ = the number of "fruits" we sampled on the sampan PLUS 3.
D = ______ = an emergency radio transmitter was installed in the Palace in 196D (see photo)
W = ______ = the number of organized group activities the last morning in Ho Chi Minh City.
X = ______ = the number of countries Olivia and I visited during this trip during January and February.
Y = ______ = the number of refugees living in my home in the 1970s.
Z = ______ = the number of dates on which I spent some time in Vietnam.
