Oriental originals: exotic discoveries in southeast Asia

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), Sept, 1995 by Laurel F. Lehrer

At a roadside stall, featuring a Donald Duck sign, I first glimpsed cobras and other serpents coiled within liquor-filled bottles. These were intended to remedy such ailments as arthritis. As a westerner unfamiliar with oriental medicine, I could not comprehend anyone drinking from a brew containing a snake. Not all these preparations were intended for drinking, however; some maladies required topical applications, as in the case of inflammation and swellings.

Arriving in Ho Chi Minh City, I was overwhelmed by the intense noise and congestion. The streets were choked with thousands of pedestrians. Traffic w as thick with roaring scooters, cars, buses, and bicycles. The bus station was tightly jammed with vehicles. The outdoor market in Cholon (Chinatown) was a sea of busy shoppers. Some stores were poorly lit or dark--not very inviting--but filled with merchandise.

The once stately French colonial buildings of old Saigon were deteriorating badly. Faded yellow and white facades were in need of repainting. Only a mass infusion of money ultimately could rebuild and renovate this historic city.

Most heartbreaking was the sight of the former American embassy, now in deplorable disrepair. This tall, white modern structure was the site from which, on April 30, 1975, the last Americans were evacuated from the rooftop by helicopters as South Vietnam fell to the communists. Standing in front of the locked embassy gate, it was difficult to imagine hordes of people pushing and shoving to gain admission to the compound in the hopes of escaping from the soon-to-be conquered city.

The former Presidential Palace, now the Reunification Hall, is a museum. The building features marble floors, fine upholstered furniture, spacious lawns, and spraying fountains. Not to be missed is the large, beautifully decorated office of the deposed president of South Vietnam. Although the average tourist was not shown the subterranean area of this structure, I was privileged, as a journalist, to observe such rooms as a kitchen and a bedroom several levels below the main floor where, during the conflict, the South Vietnamese president and his staff sought safety while the city was under siege.

At the Historical Museum of Vietnam, which contained a collection of ancient oriental artifacts, I attended a unique performance of Vietnamese water puppetry, featuring traditional music. While some marionettes entered a pool from the interior of a pagoda-style stage, the majority mysteriously emerged from the water. Colorfully clothed in ancient Vietnamese costumes, each small puppet moved and twirled about on the surface of the water and raised and lowered arms--all without any visible control. During a mock battle, puppet warriors engaged in combat with tiny handheld swords as they rode above the water seated on puppet horses. Also entertaining was the fight between two dragons, who appeared from the watery depths, spitting a stream of water at each other. During the entire show, the puppeteers remained submerged. At the conclusion of the performance, they suddenly poked their heads above the water, removed snorkel masks, and smiled for well-deserved applause.