| Show ' - - - - - - - - - "7 - - 1 tiV a The Salt Lake Tribune A IV It 71 011 Sunday October 14 1990 T to Vietnam by one who fought — against the war Continued from W-- 1 ducks salted eggs and raw tobacco Change from suspicious to glowing wen they discover I'm not one in the tesent line of Russian tourists Oddly enough there are few places on eatth where an American could feel more welcome as she sips a Coke on the balcony of a newly constructed hotel ateng the riverfront my eiCort removes her straw hat with a giggled admission that Vietnamese WdInell have "peur de soleil" (fear of thV sun) I feel compelled to assure tlds charming of my former anti-wa- r activities "Merci mergil" she cries kissing my hand 33ut her response is no different &pm those who presume I was a GI "La guerre est terrible" Blue Swan declares with the grin that crinkles u2 her broad cheeks "HeureuseMent c'est passe!" Yes happily the ttl7ible war has passed — and she bias put it behind her as completely ttisay a high school prom All memor1es the Vietnamese teach are Otial since all are consigned to the reolm of illusion "La guerre c'est passe!" she repeats "C'est passe!" :hough you sometimes can't tell frilm the attitude of the US State Dipartment or the latest blockbusteil from Hollywood studios obsessed wath the war the conflict in Vietnam 110 been "passe" for more than 15 yettrs Emerging from diplomatic isZdation and economic ruin Vietgrn is asking to be seen for what it is and always has been: an ancient culWO nestled in a bountiful seacoast a small vigorous stingof Southeast Asia Site 'later fair-skinn- :n reform-minde- d y exchange-hungr- government declared 1990 es"Visit Vietnam Year" And in an miated version of the old "limited eGnalation" more and more Amen-a- s are being inexorably drawn !Tack to this most trathpled yet least eq)aimercialized most hospitable yet lestst conquerable most familiar and lelst known of all possible tourist dOtinations Of course US veterans have been talking organized tours of Vietnam some years But it's only very that those who once declared !Pell no we won't go!" are showing itsat travel agents asking "Now how dowe get there?" And ironically the pepple who once resisted going to Vietnam must now find ways around IM legal barriers against free travel t:Stablished by the very US government that was once so eager to send thtm Due to the provisions of the ensoing American embargo no italeside company can directly book 4pur or hotels in Vietnam ':Accommodations are still a bit dpartan the Ifood hardly as varied or generous as one might find in the Vietnamese restaurants springing up across the United States Where a 'service sector" is as yet a new concert the inherent graciousness of the people does not seem to be found tpnany of the hotels' staff There art no Ramadas or McDonald's here dither — although a contractor was 41rpost signed tc build a Holiday Inn last year and rumors are rife of a Vietnamese Club Med Along Saigon's hotel row the Vietnamese names have been dropped frtim the Caravelle former center of the US Army press briefings the Rex whose rooftop bar was once home to the US Officers' Club and tlie Continental a resplendent French colonial affair memorialized ariar back as the '20s by Somerset gaugham and by Graham Greene in Ity11955 classic The Quiet American 4'hese hotels offer up a bizarre mix sacialist-dra- b gift shops peddling th'e sayings of Ho Chi Minh alongside the ubiquitous lacquerware fe ly Salgonese nouveau riche dining and dark discos featuring dustectoff '60s style American glamor But that's part of the slants eiteitement in seeing Vietnam poised tote-entthe world still groping to figure out what it's got to show and liCar to show it zll'or both guide and tourist alike the problem is that there are few mlist-se- e attractions no sights as ottimpelling as the sincere courageous humanity on display at all er tour's Tekota stops at the Saigon Zoo svkere the animals are hardly as filmes My as the children decked out infvarious cowboy hats visors and paper tiaras all niftily crafted from ettpty cigarette cartons A walk 1' : - 41 '1' '' ' '' q' f''' ' "4'4 4wft ' - Personally Tours Escorted For 1- 1991 4 4 A - ROSE PARADE TOUR Dec 27-Ja- 2 n SPRING TEMPLE TOUR Mar 5 26-A- MEP SOUTH TOUR ' Aix '" -- nels" My last dutiful act as a tour member is to attend the "folklore show" at the Rex Theater While a mostly Russian audience dozes off in reclining seats covered in frilly antimacasband twangs out sars an traditional Vietnamese 7-- 500-don- Hyde's Encore Tours ' June CARIBBEAN CRUISE — CROWN PRINCESS — December Ith-151990 Sept 4 4 $ CRUISE November 71h 1991 SS CONSTITUTION — December 49041h 1991 mum titulars MU illARkYN HYDE GREAT RATES OF ISCORTTO 7 0p WI:bur Webb 01 '111 StC I L7 84109 k(t 1 '''''""r"71 7! 4 ' k4: - r':4 k ' ' ' ovi ''''' i t 1 '1' i f '' ' ' '' i s' 1' 1 N Oct ST g 23-2- czonzE I LAS - I I 7-- 9 Pr-- ft bo e - 14e 95 I 41 4 t$ ( :''' ' 1 4040 ' - ''''' w1 4f 1 ' 1 ' 1 t '''''4‘ t'' 4 - - - - ''4 : s '' ' slf:fF' 4 s"'" s s : -- 7' Y : i)46114'relk 17 - f ' :" v i 3 ' ‘3 - l' ' ' ' ' zt rtAtou- - ? 1- I N- - 4t N 11':Ntdlek' 1: N : F 1 'I f ' ' 'V4em 1 ' 4 a" : 11'k'-- ' i f11e' ''' 'h ‘ ' I Al i 1 t P N' A A Jil Y ' ' ‘ ) ‘ ) :t 1 ' ' ' ' 1 1 ' N'''''‘ :' iit : IS 1 ' ' ' ti i f ' 4 ' ' i - ' 01 I 4t 144 (— r le: t:0- - t - I 4 enimgm "111VANIIIMIIIIpor ia Uj i r I vammowilalt - 0 C'71') ic) - mum tilliUM 3 '''''''''"44-4t'4- i ' ' - 1 A t"" iLjL : 16- 1 ) " - 7 : - Spirit of New England The Whaleship "Charles W Morgan" Mys- tie CL from Willis Butler's travel film "Spirit of New England" scheduled for Kingsbury Hall on Wednesday Oct 24 at 8 pm Butler veteran travelog lecturer will be on hand for live narration of the film 1 MI IM MI MI LAKE POWELL ow 7 II a 4 October 2- Namibia' V LAS - 1 SEA PRINCESS® DAWN PRINCE-S- S ISLAND PRINCESS® ROYAL PRINCESS® SKY PRINCISS STAR PRINCESS Ten-Da- y Cruises Fares dk0 ROM 675 Roam NONA ROSE PARADE TH I or I ne el IL l'i1:4 LAS VEGAS $79 4 Dem 10121111111 S98 s aim um 11win Iletote 2 Nob 1 C14111STIAA0 :6755 CARISbAD 2 1121131616164171113 I THOMAS TMVEL 4 S8 IIMEASATTli P clakeksw TA4M A g am SOCeeleit po FA la DANCEAS 11131(1713 I i El WW1 $I I roam moms I 31819( 03 ""rer7j - DALY AlAtt L SPICA ELKO MOkilli Ti - 50 5e O'NITE 1019111111 SA1 40 " I II I I I 104 1016 els Al S240 Assam Thwa A km CAVERN Dittl 30 1114812 1 WENDOVER7 I : ty-f- JACKPOTELKO t— pp dbl pee oh added $250 pp ' 1221vosa SPECiAL I $ I 3'1 ile 1 -- Rr im 1-1 ii I I i : I- Daya--9- 500 Itinentries Available 1 g BOOK YOUR MEXICAN RIVIERA CRUISE WITH THOMAS TRAVEL WHO HAS BEEN SELLING CRUISES FOR 40 YEARS 14:N -4 LAHTI TOUR December 1Day---$- jf 1990 & WINTE21SPRING 1991 Featuring Seven CNRISTRIAS —S21500 1 R METille® And IIt 4- : IF TOUR PHONE 483-120- 0 lo Toil Eros St en na ne len DE sin fnwillimartasTs FAIR PRINCESS PACIFIC PRINCESS® "m I PRINCESS CRUISES CROWN PRINCESS MAI Days VEGAS TOUR December II Days---33- 6500 LAS November 1-2--4 --- Days- -$19900 ROOMY TOM g KAN VALLE N -- - OEM TOUR PANKOW 3-3 1 AMNIA natomr '''"" a MI MI OPEN ROM) TOURS! 11 FALL 0 ' '' ' ke :Alt' 1 1 ' ' t '' k 1 ' - - VEGAS Temples 4 2 1 1 5 -a r :-- 'ti' t " — )"' 1 74 a -ot:' - t i - ' -- i i ' '''' ''' '' : hi ''''''' ie ' ‘N r i i' - 't:elr" ow' 41 e DPoalt 3 Temples 5259 South 2200 West Salt Lake ty Utah 14118 965-424- today No - 4' mu ! 9' HOLIDAY COWL Retaftri 6 PENHemingway special citation for first novel) Music in Every Room: Around the World in a Bad Mood and El Beisbol Thoi4t ' 6 29-D- ee 225-466- 658-660- 0 educational and Offers historian-le- d cultural tours Since the rainy season in Vietnam starts in May the best time to go would be from December through April During the winter the temperature in Hanoi is in the low '60s so you would need a jacket In the south the temperature is from the '705 to the '90s year round There is no embassy to help US citizens traveling in Vietnam How ever Great Britain and Australia : have embassies in Hanoi the nation's capital US citizens cannot bring back more than $100 worth of goods from Vietnam and cannot use credit cards in Vietnam which are not generally accepted in the country anyway John Erich is the author of A Totally Free Man (a book that won the shuttle between the former capitals of North and South Ha tvitlkih IA Kauai or Oahu & Nov If PALMER 4 1400-658451- 9 " 2380 Everctroon Ave Oahu Nov 2784101 odbocL OSSITEMPLOTOURS11 EanUI St George Las Vegas f All Tours Will Enjoy A dm Aldridge Portland Ore 97236 or (800) (503) : BYU VS HAWAII CHECA AROUND 1)SEN CALL FOR ON EACtd OF TRE31 SAA10111 Ire 145 ' 149 in Laramis Nov 9-- — HAWAII SS INDEPENDENCE — ALL OF $ 628-336- : 279 BYU VS WYOLZING FIFTY YEAR ANNIVERSARY MEMORIAL Friendly Atmosphere ' In Colorado Springs Nov 2-- 4 ALASKA CRUISE CRUISE TOUR — FAIR PRINCESS — June 1991 864-204- 1094-mil- e GOLF TOUR BYU VS AIR FORCE Ben-Than- two-da- y liosspornsnouRSilli SOUTH PACIFIC CRUISE — PACIFIC PRINCESS — February 161b4larcli 2nd 1991 TOO 23-O- ct undoubtedly fascinating t MI 2O4on 4 Days Mesquite 0 Nov 547-111- r--- --7 111:10SEPARADE Rose Parade and Tour Disneyland I DC Rose Parade and Tour So ?California DC 174so 5 Dorsi Asia Resource Center PO Box 15275 Washington DC 20003 4 (202) h Tours 210 Fifth — Ave Suite 1120 New York NY 3 10010 (212) — Bolsa Travelmart 9521 Bolsa 92683- Ave WestminsterCalif 0 or (714) 531- 5983 (800) 3010 — Folkways Institute 14600 SE ever-raunch- IF YOU GO: Because the United States does not have diplomatic relations with the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and because you cannot book a tour directly to the country those contemplating traveling to this country should check out "The Vietnam Guidebook " by Barbara Cohen (a psychiatrist who did a tour of duty with the US Army Medical Corps during the Vietnam war) 1990 Harper & Row Publishers Inc $1695 464 pages paperback The book gives tips for travelers includ ir 8 FALL FOLIAGE rs d 27-3- Apt 26-Ju- ly I'm also having trouble tearing myself away from these people of the heart this place where after so much killing only people seem to matter a Vietnam where there are so many wounded but no casualties Seeing these gentle and guileless folks — most of whom simply did not and still don't know what hit them — has utterly altered my image of this episode in America's past tunnel-dwelled Instead of uniformly cunning and stoic good soldiers I've found a people who in the wake of cataclysmic events seem unmarked by history regret or even grief The war may have brought me here but it's a peace harbored in the soul that will keep me coming back ' tion: 10-d- new ff RIVIERA CRUISE — FAIR PRINCESS — January 1991 14-2- " Travel squeezed dry At the last gut wrenching moment of loss and gain an anointed refugee sprints past the guards to his plane with arms upraised hitting the finish line of an old life and the starting gate of a or Jim As an American I'm expected to put in a good word with my president adopt or marry a stray daughter But even if I can only leave them a calendar a cassette or a Polaroid even if it's just an opportunity to dust off their English everyone seems content I've begun to view our efforts here like so many of the South Vietnamese who with hindsight have made us underdogs instead of bullies bestowed upon our worst intentions the goofy nobility of a lost cause Everybody in the south of the country treats my presence as a rare chance to rekindle a precious partnership There seems to have been a kinship between the pragmatic styles of the South Vietnamese and the Americans that went beyond a symbiosis in dollars "You are more joy people" one young girl tells me explaining a common dislike for the Russians The main hazard for an American in Vietnam these days isn't a fragmentation bomb but too much joy and too many invitations My 10 days amid these contradictions leaves me emotionally drained And an hour's delay in my flight home affords me another lifetime's worth of drama If Thu Do with its prostitution was once known as the street without joy then Tan Son base has become the Nhut our ex-aterminal of tears At the newsstand they still stock the sayings of Uncle Ho but the most popular seller is "English for Vietnamese" and a cas onthe- Thai-Vietna- m pre-197- misty-eye- Individual rates for hotels and meals are less than half what the tours charge but Western-styl- e travel is permitted Only so -cheap traveler sticks to large the as long Vietnam cities and lets the state-ru- n flights Tourism arrange The US Treasury Department forbids US travel agents from prof iting from booking tours to Vietnam but travel agents may arrange trips through foreign travel agencies and take a commission through them The following are a few of the agen- cies to contact for travel informa- best-know- grandmothers tremble already two-face- noi and Saigon ing returning Vietnam veterans and detailed information on booking tours and obtaining visas Flights can be arranged with Air France Thai Philippine and Malaysian Airlines the three international carriers that service Hanoi and Saigon called Ho Chi Minh City solely by a handful of bureaucrats Access is possible from Manila and Kuala Lumpur but the easiest route is through Thailand Within one to three days of arrival in Bangkok Vietnamese tourist visas can be obtained from a number of tour agenn cies — the being Diethelm Tour East and the Travel Service The process is further streamlined if you sign on for a tour sponsored by the Vietnamese government Itineraries range from a few days to a month with the standard package providing a quick survey of the country's points of interest: deHanoi misty crepit French-colonijunk-fille- d Ha long Bay the battlefield of Dien Bien Phu site of the French army's defeat in 1954 the gutted treasures of Hue ancient seat of Vietnamese royalty the former US Marine headquarters at Danang's Marble Mountain the popular mountain retreat of Dalat and the US command's former "R and R" beach resort of Nha Trang plus y newly renights in the awakened Saigon The Vietnamese government is also doing its best to hamper unrestricted access I had signed on for an guided prointroductory three-da- y gram in Saigon then hoped to spend another week wandering the countryside on my own But the local tourism bureau discourages any thoughts of independent expeditions warning that they strictly enforce a requirement that tourists be accompanied by a driverguide at all times Even if I hired one of the increasing number of private chauffeurs who charge half the govern ment rate that meant a cost of $300 just for an overnight ride to the former Marine "R and R" resort of Nha Wang Nor could I book a seat on the country's only train a grueling yet sette drones on sorting out useful can of phrases: "Garbage can what can you do?" beans I'm leaving on one of the designated days when the US Orderly Departure Program allows a lucky few to set out for the States The whole front of the building is packed with families waiting to meet returning relatives or in most cases to say farewells to those finally off to the land of chewing gum and lottery millionaires Children about to lose their fathers circle in a daze great fat aunts huddle to weep in unison into hand towels the saffron color of Buddhist monks' robes wizened Dove! CUMORAH PAGEANT TOURS 9 July 4 & SPECIAL CRUISE SAILINGS PEARL HARBOR CANADIAN ROCKIES TEMPLE TOUR & STAMPEDE - Throughout my visit adoring teenage girls haggard fruit vendors and dapper bureaucrats alike keep dragging me off the street and into their nearest concrete sweatbox abodes for bowls of noodles with crab and fresh mint as well as supplies of "cha gio" the spring rolls that are the Vietnamese staple "Make yourself at home!" they all urge "Please give regards to your father and mother!" Then these Vietnamese Moms and Pops unearth shreds of paper proving their former loyalty to some office of the US military the report from some US Embassy interview completed a decade back which constitutes their only hope of ever leaving the country and being accepted as refugees by the United States Every family it seems hoards precious snapshop ev5 idence of their selves at a party with some US Lieutenant Bill bric-a-bra- SPECIAL ALASKAN CRUISE TOUR 6 May 1 arms" just-matur- 25-Ju- - country-wester- n — could this be country-eastern- ? — on ivory instruments that vaguely resemble zithers and xylophones I slip around the corner to sample a stifling hot Vietnamese cinema packed with kids enjoying a kung fu flick with simultaneous translation read live through a microphone Saigon's night life is hardly back to its orgiastic wartime status but there's much out there that my guide might not wish me to see At the aptly named "Night Bar" a group of transvestites fight off the advances of a burly Algerian While prostitution is strictly barred from the major tourist venues the disco of the Australian-built Floating Hotel Saigon's one incongruously deluxe facility is but a showcase for teen-ager- s Amer-Asi- a They show their lineage with blue eyes and blond curls an appetite for chewing gum and adventure plus a propensity for any gentleman with dollars But Thu Do Street where Saigon's sin industry flourished is now a neonless abyss where the go-g- o bars have been replaced with struggling c shops and candlelit ice cream parlors Whatever the condition of Saigon's hearts and minds there are few visible remnants of past American influence There's more evidence of the previous decades of French colonization and the quest for passable "cuisine francaise" is as popular in Saigon as the world's oldest profession The first stop for most foreigners is usually Madame Dai's one of those Asian oddities whose reputation far exceeds the re"bibality In her home's book-line- d liotheque" the petite bespectacled Madame personally rewards the stream of pilgrims with a greasy rendition of chicken marengo The menu is more extensive at the venerable Maxim's found just up from the Majestic back on Thu Do Except for the telltale confluence of beggars and cigarette girls the place looks abandoned Yet a stroll through the swinging doors is just like entering a movie set recreation of a smoky Forties' night spot At Maxim's are many prosperous emigrant Vietnamese who make frequent return visits home gorging themselves on crab and asparagus soup Trilingual torch singers trot out old chestnuts to the accompaniment of three squeaky cellists The latest recycled version of Gallic elegance can be found at Le Mekong although the details are all wrong I pay for lobster ravioli and a g bifteck with 82 notes or $4 Waiters pour Cokes like champagne and whisk away half-eate-n meals the candle on my table is set a little too close to the fresh flowers which quickly catch fire For a moment I think I'm being served sizzling carnation soup Where all attempts at Western sophistication are still charmingly approximate everything goes One evening I'm invited on a cruise of SO PACIFIC TEMPLE TOUR In B MEXICAN HAWAIIAN CRUISE TOUR In Feb 3 '" the Saigon River past the rusting hulks of docked Russian tankers by an earnest English teacher and fan of Mark Main who has enlisted my help in translating a Grade-- British spy thriller On a Walkman I listen to the movie soundtrack's stream of cockney colloquialisms — trying to explain the meaning of "chatting up" to a girly who's never been chatted up in her life — while a Vietnamese rock band entertains the rest of the ship and an occasional harbor rat waltzes across the deck to yang Tau beach in a A day-tri- p vintage DeSoto tourist bus is an inexpensive way out of town for me but a splurge for the Vietnamese families who're given their money's worth starting at 6:30 am with a running travelogue as well as blaring tapes of ride American rock The two-hoIncludes an hour stop at a muddy roadside market where I'm tempted buns steamed over by Chinese-styl- e charcoal fires until the passenger next to me says this truckstop has been the site of a recent typhoid outbreak Further on through rice paddies a flash flood surges to reach the top of our wheels Perhaps the tour guides are right to warn me of the dangers of traveling on my own I wish I could get more alone on this magnificent beach overpacked with rented umbrellas folding chairs and inner tubes But I stumble on one sage beach attendant who wants to discuss the significance of events in Eastern Europe that he's been following on the Voice of America "I pity those who have only their daily concerns" he relasays of the tives from the North he's enlisted to help him set out umbrellas "Everything new is a source of astonishment to them!" including the instant portraits that flow from my Polaroid setting off a near riot on the beach "In Vietnam" the worldly attendant speaks from experience "you must have open hands but very long through the natural history museum on the zoo grounds displays evidence of Vietnam as a country with its own stone age the very one that Gen Curtis Le May wanted to bomb them back into Ten minutes drive across town is the War Museum where the captured tanks and shells look like more relics out of the Pleistocene It's hard to believe the whole history of the war in which more than a million South and North Vietnamese lost their lives has been entrusted to a couple of snoozing girls who guard a musty schoolhouse exhibit mixing faded newspaper clippings with stomach-turning proof of various atrocities such as pictures of US Marines with decapitated Vietcong soldiers Outside town even the famed Vietcong underground tunnel network once more than 200 miles long has been reduced to a makeshift visitor center that runs a propaganda videotape in garbled Vietnamese emblaand offers racks of zoned with heroic girl gunners and khaki army hats bearing the dubious boast "I've Been to the Cu Chi Tun- Jackie :— -- Wirtyl I Melt ENe "1- RENOLAKE TAHOE $83 4 Om 1611161211 I Dim 1112 8124 I2 Pis6MISREND MGM LAO ta EAwcitaira 2A102 DIEGO $338 cuereixe NAAN00 MAE WIER DISNEYLAND $235 omen at ' - |
