Reading the news is generally depressing, but few things have made me so sad recently as the announcement by the World Wildlife Fund in Vietnam that the last surviving Java rhinoceros in Vietnam was killed by poachers this year. The poor thing, forced to live all alone after every last one of his sisters and brothers, aunts uncles and cousins, mom and dad were killed by poachers. Finally he too succumbed, shot not for his meat, but for his horn, which supposedly has medicinal value to Chinese consumers. He was found dead, with a bullet in his leg and his horn cut off.

All across Vietnam, the natural environment is under unrelenting attack from development, poaching, pollution and habitat loss. You can see it everywhere you go – forests that used to be havens for millions of birds eerily quiet, coral reefs with nothing left but a few clown fish and dirty seaweed, streams and rivers stripped of all their resident life.

There used to be a glorious area north of Hanoi called Tam Dao National Park. The park is still there, but the number of birds you can see has dropped dramatically. In Tam Dao, there is a wonderful old hotel called the Mela, owned by an Algerian former diplomat named Mekki Salah. Over the past few decades, he has taken tens of thousands of pictures of the birds of Tam Dao, copies of which adorn the walls of the hotel. He told me over dinner one night that he hardly bothers to take any new photographs, since the chance he will spot a bird in the field has radically diminished in recent years. Instead, he pores over his old pictures, remembering the days when the trees were full of flash and color.

You can find wildlife in Tam Dao – birds and other animals are sold openly in the local markets, and are on the menus of the local restaurants, which otherwise feature the ubiquitous “su-su,” a sort of stringy spinach, and not much else. Forest rangers say they find tens of thousands of traps every year in national parks.

In one restaurant, I ordered a plate of deer grilled with ginger once. It cost three times as much as the pork or chicken, and tasted terrible. Deer aren’t an endangered species, and neither are the local turtles, but they will be soon if something doesn’t change. And for the record, turtle tastes awful too.

I taught one of my daughters to scuba dive in Vietnam, and she eventually got her open water certification in Hoi An. We later went diving in Da Nang and Quy Nhon, two towns with lovely beaches and coral reefs. Or should I say, former coral reefs. In both places, over-fishing and dynamite fishing has wrecked the reefs. There are a few places left in the country with moderately-healthy reefs, but most are like those in Quy Nhon – no more living reefs, just muddy sea floors littered with broken coral.

I was in a bar in Ho Chi Minh City a few months ago, having one of the local beers served over ice and eating boiled peanuts, when I got into a conversation with one of my neighbors. He told me about this new treat that had been popping up in local bars all over the city – fried water dragon. The water dragon is a cute little lizard often imported in the US as a pet. They are found near streams and rivers, and used to be plentiful. No more.

Once it became known that bar owners would buy the lizards when small to fry up and serve to customers, this became all the rage, and from what this guy was telling me, giant piles arrived in the city every day from the countryside. True or not, I’m not sure, but from what he told me, water dragons have been hard to find. They have basically been wiped out by hunters.

The Vietnam Red Book is a list of all the rare and endangered species in the country. I was horrified to learn just how many animals are in the book, and how many populations (elephants, tigers, guars, etc.) are down to just a few dozen members. It’s a tragic story; once those iconic animals are gone, they are never coming back.

I feel sad for the animals, but they are just the charismatic tip of the iceberg. The truth is that Vietnam isn’t all that healthy for humans either. Rampant pollution of the air and water has made breathing in the towns and drinking from the tap anywhere in the country hazardous. There is hope, of course, and many organization working to change things, but I’m in a bad mood today, so I’ll write about those efforts another time.

Coffee and coffee culture are important in Vietnam, especially in Saigon. Vietnam grows a lot of its own coffee, and some shops specify that the coffee served there is Vietnamese grown. The local drink is interesting too; it’s made by the cup and filtered through a stainless filter. It’s concentrated like espresso and it’s mixed with condensed milk and then poured over ice. It’s delicious and sweet, but don’t drink it in the evening or you won’t get to sleep.

I’m new to Saigon, so I don’t know how long the current coffee culture has been ascendant. I think it’s relatively recent, because Gloria Jean’s, Highlands Coffee, The Coffee Bean, and Illy, the Italian brand, all have new modern spaces and wi-fi. Espresso is served in most of the bakeries and café’s as well as the coffee outlets and most have pretty good French baked goods as well. The local Vietnamese brand is Trung Nguyen Coffee. Their places look like they’ve been around a little longer than the competition and their outlets look a little more on the shabby chic side – but the coffee there is very good too.
What’s really great is that there isn’t a Starbucks in sight. In the interest of full disclosure I have to say that I don’t like Starbucks. So my heart stopped briefly yesterday when I saw a Starbucks logo in a shop at the end of my street. No, no, I said, but on closer inspection it was the authentic logo but the shop was a frozen yogurt place and they had two bags of Starbucks for retail sale.

Still, it gets your attention.

At 8 o’clock I walked to my favorite neighborhood bakery, Tous Les Jours. They make great baguettes and croissants. It’s hard to tell you’re not in France as you tear the croissant apart and the buttery flakes stick to your fingers. But, it’s not France. There are many things French in Saigon. After all, the French were here for 100+ years. But the kicker is that Tous Les Jours is owned by Koreans and many of the staff are Korean-Vietnamese. I got my croissant and a very good latte and went upstairs to a pleasant open space where the other patrons were enjoying their pastries and working on their laptops. Most places in Saigon have free wi-fi, so every place is a work place.

When I finished breakfast I walked downtown and bought an International Herald Tribune from a street vendor. Last week I bought the IHT in a bookstore, but I discovered that the street vendor outside the bookstore will sell it for half of what I paid inside. Of course, you have to negotiate, but I’m learning how to do that and it’s all done with a smile.

I took the Trib over to the Rex Hotel fitness club and sat by the pool for an hour. The club could be anywhere in the world. It has the most up to date machines, wall mounted plasma TV’s tuned to CNN, and lots of mirrors. The pool is outside on the roof and ringed with cushy chaise lounges. If you want lunch or a drink there are several staff members to help you.

After the workout I walked across the street to a French day spa and had a sports massage and then walked home. I worked for couple of hours in the afternoon and then called Marilynn on Skype. Who could ever have imagined calling continent to continent 20 years ago on a hand held phone for no charge? It’s Dick Tracy’s wrist-radio on steroids.

Dinner was at The Sushi Bar, a very traditional and jumpin’ place on Le Thanh Ton Street where I had an Asahi beer and fresh yellowtail sashimi flown in from Japan. I finished the day by stopping by M52, a bar where two Scots were playing darts, the Acoustic Bar in District 3, where Blue Man Group was hammering away on their drums on a wall sized video screen, and Serenata, a delightful garden café next door where three young chamber players alternately entertained with Vietnamese, American, and French singers.

If you want to twist your mind, just remember that this is a communist country. Weren’t we locked in a deadly battle with them for control of the planet? Going global has gone viral. We’re all in the soup together.

But this post isn’t about the war – exactly. It’s about the skyline of Saigon. As I was sipping my beer last night I looked out at the tall buildings dominating the skyline. The four tallest buildings, emblazoned with logos, were Dai-Ichi Life, the Caravelle Hotel, the Sheraton Hotel, and SUNWAH Tower – a Japanese insurer, a French luxury hotel, an American hotel chain, and a diversified conglomerate based in Hong Kong. I couldn’t help but wonder what Ho Chi Minh would think if he could see the city that bears his name?

The Vietnamese fought and won wars against the Japanese, the Chinese, the French, and the Americans, and now the Saigon skyline is dominated by companies from each of these four countries. It’s not about who won or lost; it’s about the tragedy and irony for Saigon and all of Vietnam in 2009. I can’t judge whether today’s Vietnamese think the price they paid was worth it. I think they probably believe it was. 60% of today’s population was born after the end of the war. It’s history for them. I can say that it was not worth the lives and price the American people paid in that war or the damage they caused to this country.
Now Vietnam has its independence and it’s finding its footing in the world. The country is on a roll. It is definitely on its way, but the irony is that its former enemies are leading the charge. Make no mistake, there is a lot of talent and entrepreneurial drive in Vietnam, but the Dai-Ichis, Caravelles, Sheratons, and SunWahs had a head start. They didn’t have to invent and reinvent themselves after 30+ years of civil war.


I like the Rooftop Bar at the Hotel Rex in Saigon. It’s an old hotel and the open air bar is a little dated. It’s not the glitzy Caravelle or the brand new Sheraton. It has a well worn feel and it’s notorious for being the place the army brass went to drink and watch the fireworks during the “American War.” There’s a canvas canopy covering the center tables in case of rain but the edge is ringed with tall tables and high stools where you can look out over the hedge at the traffic on the divided boulevard below.

For the second time this week my evening was spoiled by a table of 8 or 10 grown men in white shirts standing across the table from each other trying to shout each other down. It’s not as if you can ignore 10 grown men shouting at the top of their lungs. I didn’t. I finished my beer and left, but I left a gorgeous cool evening in great surroundings because I couldn’t stand the doltish behavior of grown men who should know better. I’ve seen the same thing in all of the places I mentioned but there is something especially annoying about the behavior when it starts to become the norm in a place. This was my third similar experience in less than a month. I’m not perfect. I committed the same sin a few times years ago, but I wasn’t a grown man in business attire. Still, it does serve as a reminder that we can all do better.

Just when I was feeling truly sorry for myself it all came into perspective. This week the blue sky in Danang turned ugly as the Ketsana Typhoon hit central Vietnam and took down almost everything in its path leaving that part of the country under water and without power. This is not an area where building codes address things like the 100 year flood or construction is ever much more than some piled bricks and a galvanized tin roof. Over 100 people died during the storm, and a school for ethnic minority kids in Kon Tum province built by East Meets West was cut off by a raging river where there was once a trickle of a stream. Those kids and their teachers are still marooned. They had enough food to hold out for a couple of days, but we are going to have to mount some kind of rescue mission to get them connected to the world again.

I’m very proud of the people of EMW this week. Everyone has a very full plate, but once the storm passed Danang and long before the power went back on they were mounting a full scale disaster relief effort and letting everything else go to the back burner. People and businesses are pitching in with money, food, and strong backs to deal with the devastation. My co-worker, Van Ly, canvassed everyone in her Rolodex to see if she could find help – and she did. The effort is ongoing. It will be a long time before the region recovers. Many of the people here are subsistence farmers in the rice growing areas and live day to day. The rice paddies are out of business with the flooding and the farmers have nothing to fall back on. It’s a true tragedy.

Life goes on and while the center of the country deals with Ketsana thousands of people crowded downtown Saigon last night to celebrate the Moon Festival, a mid-autumn celebration for children. With one of the highest birthrates in the world Vietnam is teeming with kids and they were all downtown last night sporting balloons and sandwiched between their parents on motorbikes – sometimes 5 to a bike. It was noisy, chaotic, fun and friendly. It was really just an amped up version of Saigon daily life.

I am traveling to attend a staff meeting and talk about our work in Vietnam including some mitigation of the devastation wrought by Agent Orange/dioxin. The Florida family is taking a year off to travel around the world before their kids push back because they are don’t want to leave their friends.

After checking into a modern hotel on the street bordering the river I met another East Meets West staffer at a Danang coffee house. The purpose of our meeting was to have him brief me on the work we are doing with disabled people in three provinces–through the Support Network for People with Disabilities (SN-PWD) program–including a number of third generation birth defects caused by AO. Where does that end? The work EMW does with the disabled isn’t limited to casualties of AO. The beneficiaries can also be accident victims, hearing and visually impaired, mentally ill or other forms of disability. The young man I met with is a real star, living away from his wife and two kids except on weekends, traveling between programs and provinces, supervising a staff of 10, and delivering services to a population largely hidden in Vietnam.

She proved it last night. She picked the place for dinner, and it was a local place whose name roughly translated is “broken pot.” That’s what they do there; they cook rice in a ceramic pot and when it’s ready they crack the pot, throw the shards into a bigger ceramic pot and toss the finished product across the room like a frisbee. The catcher on the other end tosses it in the air before plating it and taking it to the table. The end product is a saucer-like hunk of rice that is dry and crispy with a little browned crust. It’s what I call performance food – like throwing fish at Pike’s Place Market. It may be touristy, but it’s really fun and interesting.

The meal was as good as the performance – stuffed, fried squash blossoms, stir fried chunks of beef with sauteed onion and red pepper, soup, sauteed greens and finished off with mango and banana flambe. Everything was delicious.

After dinner “Rosemary,” as she is known to her Western friends, had us all jump in a cab and drive to a small little alley somewhere nearby. It was pouring rain when we got there, and we scampered down this darkish, dead-end alley until we arrived at the entrance to Serenata, a combination coffee house and bar. It was an amazing place. I felt like I was in a time warp – SE Asia in colonial times, Grahame Green’s Vietnam, Malraux’s beat, definitely some other time and place. It was an indoor/outdoor space- all open to the air – without walls although the central area was covered. In that central area they were playing live music. At first it was a Vietnamese woman singer backed by a trio of violin, piano, and classical guitar. She was followed by a man singing French pop chez Johnny Hallyday, and then the trio took over without the singer and played like the Julliard String Trio. I could have stayed forever.

What a great introduction to the offbeat Saigon nightlife.