Postcards from Vietnam 1995

The roads in Vietnam are a perfect advertisement for four-wheel drive. Communications by road are a real joke. Domestic flights are better and much safer than in China, for instance. The trains are slow. This old Renault bus dates back to before the French were defeated at Dien Bien Phu (the bookies in Macao gave General Giap really bad odds in April 1954). The bus is on its way down from the mountains to the coastal town of Nha Trang, known for its beaches and delicious shellfish.

The red flag of Vietnam with its yellow star fluttering in the wind. The boats are painted a clear blue colour, reminiscent of the hue that is so popular in Mediterranean countries, and have red bows and railings. In the fishing port of Nha Trang they are packed tightly together, with round wickerwork dinghies bobbing beside them. In the evenings the restaurant guests grill enormous prawns, crabs and lobsters on small clay grills placed on their tables. If you decide to visit Nha Trang you should stay at the Grand Hotel, which dates back to colonial times. You can fax the hotel on +84 58 253 95. And don’t miss visiting the old boatyard.

Giant logs waiting to be sawn into ribs and planking at the boatyard in Nha Trang. Work has just started on the construction of a fishing-boat, but there are no drawings. The design has remained firmly in the heads of the boat-builders for countless generations. But the diesel engines are new. The new boat could be yours for the equivalent of 35.000 US dollars, complete with engine. The yard also repairs fishing-boats from the whole of the central south coast area.
The postcard shows a fishing-boat that ran into trouble in the last gales being rebuilt. The Vietnamese call the wood they use rosewood. It is extremely hard and tough. Nowadays, some of the fishing-boats have been converted into excursion boats that take tourists out on trips to the coral reef. A day-trip including skin-diving and lunch is well worth the money. Mama Linh’s boat trips, fax +84 58 266 93, are among the most reliable. They also have a really good cook. Once back on shore a beer goes down a real treat.

This building stands in a small village in the heart of the Vietnamese countryside, 20 or 30 kilometres inland from the port of Da Nang. It is a simple structure – all building materials are taken from the nearby jungle. If you can handle an axe and a saw, you don’t need so many nails. And the only roof tiles are to be found in towns, or on pagodas. In the jungle, the builders use other materials.

The chosen people of Vietnam on an agitprop poster in Nha Trangh. Notice especially the charming nuclear power symbol on the book the blue-clad figure in the foreground is holding in his fist. For it is fists that count here. This is characteristic of “proletarian” art: people don’t have hands, they have fists. Nurses, hairdressers, and other less muscular types don’t fit so easily into this communist paradise. Wrong kind of hands, for a start.