| SACH Scottish Association of Chaplains in Healthcare |
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| SACH Scottish Association of Chaplains in Healthcare |
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News Sheet No 8 Congratulations to Derek Brown for successfully completing his cycle run through Vietnam (over 360 miles) raising money for Marie Curie Cancer Relief Fund. Anyone who has promised him money - get ready to pay up! (Read Derek’s own account on Page 7) Iain Macritchie |
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Derek Brown Chaplain, Inverness |
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Let’s play a word association game. What do you think of immediately when you hear the word “Vietnam”? Did the word “war” spring to mind first? If it did, then it is hardly surprising, since we have grown up with American angst about their involvement in South East Asia through films like Apocalypse Now, The Deerhunter and even Forrest Gump. There is no such navel gazing in Vietnam, so while America likes to look back, Vietnam is looking confidently forward. I was fortunate enough to visit Vietnam in November as part of a group of 25 people raising money for Marie Curie. Each participant was committed to raise a minimum of £2500 and then cycle up to 350 miles in 5 days through the Vietnamese countryside. Up close and personal There is no better way to experience Vietnam than by bike. You are travelling the way many local people do and while they think that you are mad, since as a rich Westerner you could afford something less strenuous to get you from A to B, they are too polite to say so. Cycling brought us into contact with all sorts of people. It was not uncommon for someone to come alongside you and engage you in conversation, thus: “Hello, what your name?” “My name’s Derek.” “Where you from?” “Scotland.” The many blank looks I got suggest that the Tourist Board has a lot of work to do here! Children would yell those same two questions as we passed by their houses, and the braver ones would come right up to the roadside and expect a flying high five as you hurtled past. At one point a group of us were stopped by an old man who wanted to talk and tell us how delighted he was to see us. It turned out that he had fought for the South Vietnamese Army during the war and told us that ten years ago he’d have been put in prison for talking to foreigners. Despite that meeting it was hard to remember that we were in a Communist country, dipping its toes into the turbulent waters of capitalism. Flowing with milk and honey Okay, so it may not be the promised land, but there was an abundance of produce to be savoured. Bananas, pineapples, coconuts, dragon fruit, watermelon, guava and many more made wayside stalls groan. Rice, the Vietnamese staple, grows almost everywhere, and is an essential part of any meal. Three crops per annum mean that the country is the 4th largest producer of rice in the world. Up in the hills we saw acres of tea and coffee plantations. Every home seemed to have a tarpaulin laid on the ground with coffee beans lying out to dry in the sun. If they weren’t by the house they’d be on the road, and we’d have to move over to avoid crushing them under our wheels. Having a long coastline and major rivers means that seafood is also abundant. We dined on sea bass, Hu fish, butterfish and elephant ear fish. (It really does look like one, but a trifle more tasty) And what better to wash it all down after a hard day in the saddle than a few bottles of Tiger beer. (It really doesn’t look like one, but a trifle more tasty) Vietnam: destination for the new millennium That’s what it said on the boats ferrying tourists around the Mekong Delta, and I’ve no reason to quibble with that statement. It’s got everything! Saigon with its manic traffic and endless bustle; Dalat in the relatively cool highlands a haven for honeymooners set in stunning countryside; Nha Trang with it’s wonderful beach and picturesque bay and all the expanse of land in between which was never empty of human activity. And it’s cheap! A plate of spring rolls and a coke cost me less than £1 in the centre of Saigon. It was humbling to realise just how little some people earn and how much of a difference not picking up your change of 5000 dong (25p) would make to somebody’s income. Trying to explain what this experience was like doesn’t really do justice to the people or to the country. We set out from the UK mindful of those for whom we were raising money, and we have returned also mindful of those who opened their homes to us and shared so much. |
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