Tortuous Histories in Vietnam & Cambodia

A visit to Cambodia of 14 million people is a down-size after the hustle and bustle of Vietnam. While I could have spent longer in Ho Chi Minh City, a modern commercial city by any standards, heavily influenced by the French and American presence during war and imperialist years gone by, it was a welcomed relief to arrive in Phnom Penh, Cambodia’’s capitol, with its seemingly gentler atmosphere. Our speed boat took us from Chau Doc on the Saigon River of Vietnam into the Cambodian side, docking temporarily as we went through a pleasantly serene riverine customs and immigration, arriving at the docks of Phnom Penh some 3 hours later. That was a first for me – a river border crossing, mosquitos and all!

These last few days were very moving – witnessing remnants from the tortures of war. On the Vietnamese side, a visit to the Cu Chi tunnels revealed Viet Cong ingenuity in defeating US Army forces (by 1975) directed in alliance with the southern Vietnam government.  About 70 kms northwest of Ho Chi Minh (Saigon) in Ben Duoc, locals had built the first tunnel in 1944 to protect villagers from French Army invasions.  After some 100 years of struggle, these tunnels became some 200 kms long, commemorating the struggle history of the Cu Chi people against French and American forces. Luxurious agricultural fields were bombed out by American B-52s causing the resistance to flee and literally go underground between 1960-1975. Visiting these tunnels bordering the Saigon River on the west convinced any visitor of the superb superiority and strategically intelligent capacity the Communist Viet Cong had in fighting ‘’high tech’’ forces of their day – with only night traps, knives, and stolen weapons.....  Bombers couldn’t ‘’see’’ these tunnels; nor could the day forces of the very vulnerable and exposed American troops.  When the US withdrew its forces from Vietnam (by President Nixon in 1975), Cambodia’s Killing Fields started.  A visit to the HCHC "War Remnants Museum" displays awesome photographs and pictorial histories of this unfortunate period of contemporary history.

The enigmatic and historically contradictory nature of Cambodia''s Pol Pot regime came next, with a visit to ‘’Killing Fields” northeast of Phnom Penh. These killings of some 2 million innocents in the country, between 19076-79, is still hard to believe, given the objectives of the Khmer Communists, led by Pol Pot and his cronies, to ‘’liberate’’ Cambodia once and for all from outside (and inside) óppressive’ influences. These burial grounds still contain uninterred bodies. “”Brother No 1”” as PP was called, somehow defied the International Criminal Court’’s procedures, and remains a mystery to historians who look for motive. One can look upon genocides of the past - of Hitler’’s or Rwanda’s – hatred for certain ethnic peoples, but the Cambodian experience defies all logic.  Was Pol Pot perhaps mentally deranged during his 1976-79 genocide instructions, even having his colleagues killed? And if so, why would his supporters engage in such mass genocide of women and children??

Emotionally, I was left drained from these two torture periods in SE Asian history. I welcomed a return to the ancient worlds of Angkor Wat outside of Siem Reap with its multitude of temples.

Tran Manh Tuan, Sax n'Art Jazz Club, HCMC

I have yet to meet a professional jazz muso who did not have a passion for 'working with kids', to develop musical tlents and spread the jazz idiom. Multi-talented, multi-instrumentlist Tran Manh Tuan expressed just that as he and I poured over his numerous concert repertoire on his YouTube page. That was during the gig break - no "interviews" or even discussions necessary. Just his open laptop, itself becoming as engaging as was his accommodation of my interests. His sets, performed in his upmarket Sax n'Art Jazz Club in a fashionable part of Ho Chi Minh City, fused hard bop, a sassy R&B, ballads, and improvised takes on traditional Vietnamese songs. Tuan grew up playing the bamboo reeds, 6-string zephyr, and skin percussion instruments.

Tuan answered my request for Vietnamese songs by playing on several enhanced reed flutes (for amplification). But it was his wailing soprano and alto saxes that revealed his improvised talents, honed also from Berkelee School of Music where he graduated in 1999. But it was when he slipped on his electric guitar and rocked into a heavy R&B song that I was convinced this hot Asian bull rates among some of the best in the improvised world. Well, he did play in Bob Dillon's performance a few nights ago. This may explain why his Club has received yearly excellence awards since 2003 from Australia's The Guide. Oh, yes; Tuan also has HCMC's largest production studio - check his facebook page, too. I had to choose a CD from his stock of 10 productions. Upon his recommendation, his favorite is a fusion of Viet traditional instruments with sax improvisation!  Tuan is high in demand, his credentials widely known and cyberspaced.  I wish he could make it to the International Cape Town Jazz Festival stages as one of Asia's supreme jazz maestros. ESP.......check him out!!

Halong Bay, Hue & Hoi An, Vietnam (April 7-12)

What is it about small ship cruises on still waters with eccentric hill outcroppings, hazy skies, and floating villages? Halong Bay in north Vietnam’s Gulf of Tonkin is hard to describe, better seen, but this limestone archeological mystery with its ‘island’ peoples who have nothing but a two-room house on a carriage of oil drums, a fishing boat (sometimes motorized), children and dogs hopping about on their floats, is quite a sight to digest. The 5:30am misty sunrise found me prancing onto my tiny balcony of my comfortable cabin to do a 25-minute Chi Kong meditation followed by another sitdown session. Such quietude, from the loud rumblings of honking hooters on terra firma. Finally, a swim off the boat in cold waters refreshed this early morn rise before engaging a large brunch, and disembarking for other shores. Then there were the open cave tunnels in the limestone rock, called karsts, which one floats through with women rowing 4 seater boats with their feet!  Both were memorable sights!

An evening overnight train with four comfortable bunk beds in our first class compartment brought us to Hue, the longest reigning capital of the Viet peoples for some 1500 years. Hue is known for its gardens, particularly flowers and bonsai trees, which dot the many pagoda landscapes and rivers. These give Hue city an elegant, poetic, and aristocratic charm mixed with the Buddhist respect for nature.  There is also a poetry in Hue’s folk cuisine which boasts some 1300 dishes designed in past years for commoners, royalty, and the Buddhist vegetarian population. When Ho Cing Minh defeated the French in 1945, and took power, he moved the capital from this lovely (albeit colonially-vested) city to Hanoi. With all its elegant gardens and quiet nature, I could have spent longer in Hue for sure.

After a 4 hour drive through Danang, an airforce base of the Americans during the Vietnam War, we arrive in a charming coastal old town of Hoi An with mixed generations of trade, marriage, and architecture. First the Chinese, then the Japanese, blended power and prestige with Viet culture. River trade in this coastal city brought plenty of wares…..and headaches as occasional floods, some up to 2 metres, would overflow into these architectural marvels. At night, the old city lit up colorful lights and water floats of animal figures – for a major festival holiday to honor one of Vietnam’s past leaders. Over tea, I chatted with two high school teachers on school break – students pay about US$75 a year for high school, half that for elementary school.  The food market in Hoi An was the best I’ve experienced with lots to see, a myriad of fish types and greens. Heaven’s cuisine!  In a cooking class, I learned to make 4 dishes, so will feast and fest my South African friends when home. Look out!

A note about Danang, an otherwise uninteresting place but for some impressively beautiful and gigantic marble sculptures: An area which is protected from the high winds is under development on its coastline. Apparently, land is still quite cheap, relatively, so one sees expansive resorts, retirement villas, spas, and condos being built. In the next 5 years, the place will also be covered with expensive golf courses, rich French and Thai folk, and whoever knows who else!

Vietnam, April 1 – 5, 2011

Looking down on cotton ball skies, whispy and white, my plane entered smog-ridden Hanoi space. Its streets resemble slow bike races, riders masked to protect their lungs. Jet-lagged, I walked dreamily around the city’s central Lake Hoan Kiem, itself dirty and dusty from air streams of people-stamping erosion, and ate delectable noodle soups and multitudes of green veggies for several days. Mainly, I took up people watching, amazed at sizes (ultra-petite) and shapes (pretty straight) of both men and women who hauled cartloads along the streets, or peddled their wares or people. Staying in Hanoi’s Old Quarter, one passes through streets with each block specializing in the same commodity, making competition inevitable, but shopping more convenient. If you want shoes, you just go to the shoe block! My ears registered the songs of cycles, horns, and other odd motors as I carefully dodged the two-wheelers bustling along the narrow streets.

After visits to the Ho Chi Ming Mauseleum with a real life presentation (he was cremated in 1969) and the Ethnography Museum portrayal of the many ethnic groups of northern Vietnam, I was left humbled by the intent and purpose of Ho Chi Ming himself, a committed socialist who had his people’s needs always in mind. Exiled for 30 years while the French ‘ran’ his country, his leadership starting in 1945 met with constant incursions while foreign forces tried to inhibit his ‘communist’ north from moving southwards.  We know the history of the Vietnam war……..

Seeing how the White Thai and the H’mong peoples of north Vietnam live, tirelessly tending to (and bending in) their rice paddies, was also a humbling experience. How women can bend down for so long, weeding and caring for plants, is beyond me, while the menfolk made furniture. Everyone had a job to do. Our homestay, though very touristy, in Poom Cong village, sleeping on thin mattresses on the floor, but eating fantastic assortments of healthy foods, was a highlight! And watching the women weave intricate patterns.  Then there were the dogs, seen during a two-hour trek through the Mai Chau paddy fields. At least 8 dogs per household!  And the children – who looked like dolls – playing with nothing, one playing ‘dolls’ with her live (pet??) frog.  Memorable sights!

Binh Minh Jazz Club, Hanoi

Above Hot Life Café, at

65 Quan Su Street

in a swanky neighborhood west of Hanoi’s otherwise tree-limited Hoan Kiem Lake, sits a softly lit jazz club on the 3^rd floor, a welcome relief from other horns … of the street. Its owner, Quyen van Minh, is a well preserved goateed 60 year old saxophonist who also teaches at Hanoi’s Conservatory of Music.  I spoke with tenor sax-man Nguyen Bao Long during breaks, about jazz in Vietnam in general. Not much happening, he says. Most (practically all) musicians are firstly trained in the classical tradition, then branch off (on their own) into improvised music, since the Conservatories in both Hanoi and HoChi Ming (Saigon) do not have a jazz curriculum.  “I am studying at the local conservatory, and teach music at the International School here,” says Long, who also explained that the three year exchange program between the conservatory and Sweden’s Malmo music conservatory is ending.  Owner van Minh’s son, also a saxophonist, is studying in Malmo for his Masters degree, after receiving his four year study degree at Berkelee School of Music in Boston, USA.

This father and son duo have recorded together, both live and in the studio. Long is part of Minh’s band and mentors other young student members.  Recently at Hanoi’s Opera House, Minh et al gave a concert in which Long’s jazz arrangement of Argentinian Astor Piazzolla’s “Four Seasons” was performed.  Now that would have been a nice show, compared with the otherwise standard jazz songs played at the club on Friday night.

On the walls are the usual pictures of jazzmen of the ages. But two caught my eye, in bright colors, of Herbie Hancock with saxman elder Minh. As I left the club Friday night, it was Herbie’s “Watermelon Man” that lingered as the last tune, with the funky piano syncopation readying me for the now-quiet, sleepy streets of this part of Hanoi at midnight!

Returning back to the club on Sunday night, I witnessed Minh elder and his alto sax soulfully belting out several melodic soft Vietnamese ballads in a clear crisp tone. Minh broke into a Glenn Miller tune, his hand flapping that I should get up and dance! Uuhh,  did my graying hair suggest I would appreciate the ‘time’ of Miller? (whom I really don’t particularly like as I prefer ‘contemporary’ jazz.) Other musicians took to the stage in, I guess, a regular Club jam session, with Minh giving tribute to a visiting Vietnamese diplomat.  Which meant, between their bottle of whiskey half drunk, and Minh’s preoccupation as a host, I didn’t have a chance to break rank and chat. Oh well, next time…..  Check him out at http://www.minhjazzvietnam.com/