{"id":4109,"date":"2016-03-12T01:57:49","date_gmt":"2016-03-12T08:57:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/?p=4109"},"modified":"2016-03-12T01:57:49","modified_gmt":"2016-03-12T08:57:49","slug":"vietnam-its-tragedies-and-ours-march-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/2016\/03\/12\/vietnam-its-tragedies-and-ours-march-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"Vietnam, Its Tragedies — and Ours March 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Ho<\/a>
Ho Chi Minh – his image is omnipresent<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We’re leaving Vietnam and I’m still astonished that we\u00a0were here! \u00a0I keep remembering the history and the battles and pain and rage and guilt of those years. \u00a0We had a long discussion with our guide on our Mekong River cruise. \u00a0His father fought for the South Vietnamese, his uncle for the North. \u00a0His dad spent 8 years in a prison camp after Saigon fell; to this day he doesn’t speak to his Viet Cong brother. \u00a0So \u00a0much pain. \u00a0So much might have been. \u00a0So powerful to pass signs that say Ho Chi Minh City or Saigon, Tan Son\u00a0Nhut Airport, Mekong River, China Beach.<\/p>\n

People here are definitely not as poor as those in Cambodia – not nearly,\u00a0although the South is definitely better off than the North, and \u00a0there’s a sense of forward motion that isn’t as present in Cambodia.<\/p>\n

In both countries, it’s been important to\u00a0think beyond the history so traumatic to them – and to us – and see them for what they are moving toward today. \u00a0Just look:<\/p>\n

\"Japanese<\/a>
Japanese Covered Bridge Hoi An, Vietnam<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"IMG_5597<\/a>
Cruising on the Mekong River<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"flower<\/a>
Mekong River Floating Market<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"thumb_IMG_5712_1024\"<\/a>
Hoi An Buddhist Temple<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lots more to come; Internet troubles right now…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We’re leaving Vietnam and I’m still astonished that we\u00a0were here! \u00a0I keep remembering the history and the battles and pain and rage and guilt of those years. \u00a0We had a long discussion with our guide on our Mekong River cruise. \u00a0His father fought for the South Vietnamese, his uncle for the North. \u00a0His dad spent … Continue reading Vietnam, Its Tragedies — and Ours March 2016<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,6,9,98,78],"tags":[3731,3727,3738,3756,3736,3755,3752,3751,3754,3748,2621,3749,3753,3750,359],"class_list":["post-4109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-baby-boom","category-culture","category-politics","category-religion","category-travel","tag-seabourn-seabourncruise","tag-seabournsojourn","tag-buddhism","tag-buddhistt","tag-cambodia","tag-china-beach","tag-ho-chi-minh-city-or-saigon","tag-mekong-delta","tag-mekong-river","tag-north-vietnam","tag-seabourn","tag-south-vietnam","tag-tan-son-nhut-airport","tag-viet-cong","tag-vietnam"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4gBq8-14h","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4109"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4109\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4136,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4109\/revisions\/4136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}