The First Seventy Years: 134 - The Summer Palace
World traveller Eric Biddulph continues an account of a tour of Vietnam.
Eric’s book The First Seventy Years can be obtained for £10 by contacting http://mary@bike2.wanadoo.co.uk or telephoning 01484-658175.
All the cash raised by the book goes to a water aid project in Malawi.
I managed to get a decent night's sleep. A breakfast of orange juice; bread; omelette and coffee put me back on the path to normality. I began to feel confident enough to book a tour for the following day. Now that my appetite was returning I went to a restaurant serving Vietnamese food. Yet again I was visited upon by another male student who wanted to talk to me in English. Two hours later we parted company and I made my way back to the hotel.
Arriving at the designated departure point the following morning I thought I had missed the bus. Eventually a guy drives up in a Jeep and reads out two names one of which is mine. A young woman is to be my companion. We are to be the only two on the trip. We chat in the back of the Jeep whilst making our way to the first location. Inevitably, I ask her where she was from, expecting her to say Bristol or Cambridge or somewhere in-between. "Oslo" she replies. You could have knocked me down with a feather.
It was a reminder of the extent to which English is the main medium of communication around the world. Citizens of small and not so small non-English speaking nations are required to learn English if they want to travel. I have the highest admiration for their fortitude in facing a world in which their native tongue is generally conspicuous by its absence.
There were two main locations visited. The first was the Summer Palace of the Emperor Bao Dai built in 1933. Needless to say, it is no longer his residence. It is, nevertheless, a reminder of what life was like for the very privileged in pre-liberation times. Removing our shoes we wandered around the many rooms covered with the finest carpets, admiring the elaborate fittings which adorn this twenty five room villa. The upstairs rooms provided the royal living quarters.
In one room could be seen the yellow chairs used by the Emperor's daughters and pink ones for his sons. The second attraction was the Hang Nga Guesthouse and Art Gallery. I was surprised to discover such an avant-garde attraction being given licence to exist in modern Vietnam. Designed by Mars Dong Viet Nga, who holds a PhD in architecture from Moscow University. She is reported to wear 1960s hippie garb, burn incense and retains a sense a mystery about here. An Alice in Wonderland appearance transcends the site. Giant spiders webs made of wire; a concrete giraffe built in such a way as to accommodate a tearoom; bedrooms containing models of kangaroos; a nude female statute.
It is viewed by some Vietnamese as an aberration. If they ever get the chance to witness this phenomena there is no telling what effect it will have upon them. The Dalat People's Committee has been less than impressed with her innovative designs, having had some of her buildings demolished because they were considered to be' anti-socialist' . In recent times however, she has encountered few problems getting her building designs accepted since her father became Vietnam's deputy president to 'Uncle Ho' between 1981 and 1988.
