When my husband was with Emirates Airline in the United Arab Emirates, I was able to fly to just about every country on the airline’s routes – some more easily than others, as it turned out. It seemed like quite a simple matter, for example, to get to Vietnam from Dubai: the flight left at about 3 a.m. (Dubai Airport’s busiest time) and arrived in Vietnam in lots of time to spend all afternoon and evening exploring Ho Chi Minh City. However, this was not as easy as it sounded. Just getting a visa was the first adventure.
To obtain a visa for travel to Vietnam, you must deal directly with a Vietnamese Embassy; the closest one to Dubai was in Cairo. So I contacted them, they faxed me an application form, and I returned the completed form, photos, money, and my passport, via courier. Nothing happened. I delayed my hotel and flight reservations (twice). Still nothing, so I phoned everyone I could think of in Dubai and Cairo. Each time I phoned the Vietnamese Embassy, they would find someone with progressively less information to give me. Just when I thought all was lost, the Canadian Embassy in Cairo sorted everything out and I was on my way.
Ho Chi Minh, formerly Saigon, is architecturally fascinating. The beautifully restored pastel rococo government buildings, soaring pagodas and Christian churches cannot possibly all be found together in any other city in the world! Equally intriguing were the unique four- and five-storied over-the-shop residences – parapeted, terraced and landscaped, and all of about ten feet wide.
Undoubtedly, the most paintable parts of Vietnam are in and around Hanoi, so I arranged to see the spectacular northern part of the country as soon as I could. I use the term ‘arranged’ loosely. When I inquired at some of the tour companies, I discovered that arranging anything for an independent visitor rather than an incoming tour group was a brand new concept.
My objective was to see the sights in three basic categories: the lakes of Hanoi and seascapes of the Gulf of Tonkin; mountains (of course); and finally, contemporary Vietnamese paintings.
Our first stop was Ho Hoan Kiem, The Lake of the Restored Sword. Its intricate temple, footbridge and Tortoise Tower are situated on tiny islands, and their shimmering reflections are exquisite from any point around the perimeter of this lake in downtown Hanoi.
Next stops were the Ho Chi Minh Museum and Mausoleum, two impressive structures, quite striking in appearance. But much more appealing were the many elegant smaller buildings also located in their vast park-like setting. The One-Pillar Pagoda was particularly paintable. Passing other museums, parks and monuments, including a huge statue of still-revered Lenin, we left the city and headed east toward the sea.
Another picture-perfect setting is located further down the coast, almost directly south of Hanoi. It is the ancient Thai Vi Temple beneath the mountains of Ninh Binh.
After this tour (all done at top bicycle-equivalent speed), we returned to Hanoi to search out some artwork. Contemporary Vietnamese painting is the unique result of the diverse, but never subtle, incursions on the country’s history and culture. In this century alone, there have been several revolutionary changes.
The Asian roots of both formal and folk art gave way to a strong Impressionist tradition introduced in 1925 by the French colonialists at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts de l’Indochine in Hanoi. During the 1930s and 40s, this predominantly French influence fell into disrepute, first edged aside by the anti-colonialist movement and then, in the north, almost physically marched out of the country by ranks of Socialist-Realist soldiers, peasants and workers. Then somehow, within the last two decades, styles lacking in social comment and formerly ‘too European’ regained respectability.
I once met a lady at the Dubai International Arts Centre who told me about the spectacular Tien Shen Mountains on the China-Kyrghyzstan border, and suggested I plan a painting trip there. She mentioned that, like many of the former Soviet Republics, it lacked the infrastructure of a place like Dubai and wasn’t really “ready for tourists”. But she thought it would be “okay for artists.” I wondered at the time just what that might mean. I am now starting to figure it out. Vietnam is a little like that, and it’s more than okay for artists. It’s terrific.
Born in the heart of Canada’s Rocky Mountains, Charlene Brown goes home to the mountains as often as possible. She spent most of her career writing research program evaluation reports in Canada’s capital city before moving to the Middle East in the 1990s. There she wrote a monthly art column for the Khaleej Times and a series of travel articles for the Gulf News. She and her husband now live in Victoria, British Columbia.
Charlene’s website is: charlenebrownpainting.blogspot.ca/