To Vinh and Back

Well, we've just returned from our last Fulbright-related trip, up to the dreadful city of Vinh, between Hanoi and Hue. It was a horrid town reached after an equally horrid start to our trip. We had to sit in the minibus at the ferry terminal for 2 1/2 hours in Cantho waiting to get across, making the 4 hour trip to Saigon last 6 1/2 hours. We spent the night, then had a two hour flight to Vinh, which was leveled in the war and rebuilt in Eastern European style. Not much to do in Vinh except wait to get back out. Here's a photo of the apartment building across the street from our hotel:

Some of the rebuilding was done nicely, though, such as this scene from the campus of Vinh University, where I had a Fulbright "Enrichment Seminar" in which the Fulbright scholars and students recounted their various successes and frustrations over the past year. It looks kind of Mediterranean from this view, but the photo above is more common sight in Vinh.The final session of the two day seminar was an open forum between the Fulbright Scholars and faculty from Vinh University, most of whom wanted advice for how to get their own Fulbrights to study in the U.S. You can see two of my colleagues, Adrian Wurr (ESL specialist) and Maile Ornellas (Film Studies specialist) along with Dr. Thao, the director of the Fulbright program in Vietnam. Notice the bust of Uncle Ho beneath the hammer-and-sickle.
Speaking of Uncle Ho, the big tourist spot around Vinh is Ho Chi Minh's birthplace, in a village about 8 miles out of town. It is sort of pilgrimage spot for Vietnamese tourists, but for us there wasn't much to see, expect a couple of small houses that are reconstructions of where he lived at the start of his life. Here's Anne and Hudson peaking out of one of the houses.
Anne and Lily chilling under a jackfruit tree with a guard and tour guide at Uncle Ho's birthplace.
You know, the only saving grace for traveling up to Vinh was that we were able to spend some more time in Saigon, a city that we just love. This is a view from the top of our favorite Saigon hotel, The Elios. There is a rooftop restaurant where we can eat delicious breakfasts of fresh fruit, eggs, baguettes, coffee, and juice. It doesn't look much like a city in the U.S. does it? All the crannies and allies are called "hems" where most people live, like our hem in


We're in the early days of the rainy season, which breaks the heat some but presents a bunch of other challenges. I was standing in a doorway of a shop waiting for the rain to end and decided to snap some photos. Eventually, I just had to dive out into the rain to get to the end of a block where I could hail a taxi back home.

A new development for life in Cantho is high speed boat that makes the three hour run back and forth to Saigon. It plies the rivers and canals that snake through the delta, verging near the coastline in places (where the river gets so wide you can barely see the other side). I thought it was a blast--infinitely better than the minibus we always ride. Hudson and I spent a lot of time sitting at the back of the boat in the open air, watching the river scenes slide by.Too bad we won't get to ride the boat again, as we leave for good next week and Cantho University will give us a ride back to Saigon in a university van that will get to bypass the waiting line at the ferry terminal.