Mekong Delta: Coconut Monks & Unicorns

Vietnam is a country thriving to achieve what it has been denied for centuries – prosperity. For the first millennium it was tangled in a series of battles with the Chinese and Mongols, then came the French and finally the Americans. All of these foes were invaders bent on occupying Vietnam and forcing its people into submission. All failed. For the past thirty years the country has been accelerating, making up for lost time. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the energy and optimism of its youth.


Traveling throughout the country from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi has been a blast and an eye-opening experience. In Saigon, the city felt like a more European version of Hong Kong with a dash of Mandalay’s sleepy nonchalance thrown in.


The Saigon River winds around the edge of the old town like a snake slowly uncurling itself from under the city’s simmering heart. Over its surface glides a ferry carrying motorbikes and pedestrians.


Watching the sunset from the rooftop bar of the Majestic Hotel, the lights on the large riverboats flash on and off in the image of huge fish to entice tourists for an evening of dining and drinking.


We took a day trip out to the Mekong Delta and stopped at a Vinh Trang Pagoda in My Tho before taking a boat out on river.

Maitreya Buddha

Our guide, Luc, was a very pleasant guy in his thirties from the central Vietnamese town of Hoi An. He spoke English well and made us feel right at home.


We were given the ubiquitous conical hats making us look like coneheads, and took a boat on the Mekong River over to Unicorn Island.


This part of the delta is known for the small islands named after mythical animals – Phoenix, Unicorn, Dragon, Turtle – and are inhabited by locals selling honey and tea. We were treated to a musical performance by this four-piece ensemble...


...played with a python...


...and then hopped in a smaller boat back out to the main river.


When we came to Phoenix Island we visited the home of the so-called "Coconut Monk". This was one wacky guy who got his name from living mainly on a diet of coconuts. He came from a wealthy family and was basically a charlatan bent on seeking publicity, even if his intentions were good.

Saigon: Hope & Rebirth

We arrived in Saigon (the centre of Ho Chi Minh City) to the rush of scooters and motorcycles carrying everything from cases of beer, families of four and bundles of flowers. Everyone wears personalized balaclavas along with their own choice of helmet accessories, which can range from cute ladybugs to the more patriotic variety.

The city has a wonderful buzz, still riding high on the filthy lucre of the last decade.


As our guide, Luc, said, "you can find one of everything in the world in Vietnam." Unfortunately, in the case of war and its "science of destruction" that's the truth. The country was at war with the Chinese for a millennium, then the French, the U.S. and finally Cambodia and China again from 1975-1979.

"An American soldier with the skull of a Vietnamese Patriot"

One of AP photographer Henri Huet's best known images

At the War Remnants Museum (formerly the Exhibition House of American War Crimes) we revisited some of the atrocities that occurred during the U.S. "campaign" from the perspective of the Vietnamese, such as the vast amounts of Agent Orange and other chemicals that were dumped on the country. The Vietnamese government estimates that there are over 4,000,000 victims of dioxin poisoning, but the U.S. still denies any conclusive scientific links between Agent Orange and any of the victims.


Off in a separate room is this exhibition of children's drawings completed after a visit to the museum. Bursting with colour and hope, it's such a contrast to the gun-metal gray despair of the rest of the museum and is a much needed reminder of the healing power of innocence and of the country's phenomenal rebirth.