[Lankham Hotel in Pakse, 4/22/23] Near the end of WWII, Allied bombing destroyed cities, roads, bridges and railways in many countries, so millions were killed outright, millions starved to death and millions more were reduced to walking skeletons. (Think Holocaust, with a capitalized H.)
Very nice, Linh. Yes, "it had to be done." That describes so much of your writing. It is what makes you---and through your writing, many of the rest of us...good.
Beautiful and touching story. She and her plate husband are worth a longer one.
One of the nice aspects of living in Eastern Asia is seeing how get up and go dominates the culture rather than being an intersectional victim like in the US Jewish mandated culture and status hierarchy.
Life can be very hard for many in Eastern Asia. Wages are largely only enough to survive. However, if you have an entrepreneurial bent and are willing to work hard there can be more upward mobility than in the West.
After yesterday's piece, I didn't even have a proper dinner, so today was supposed to be relaxing, with decent meals.
Getting breakfast this morning, I took some photos that could be posted, so I hurried to my table outside Lankham, however. As I was processing an image, a woman of about 70 looked over my shoulder. I didn't even know she was the owner of the hotel.
Planting herself directly opposite me, she started to talk. Great, I thought, some eccentric, and before I even had my second cup of coffee. After getting confirmation I was a writer, she said she wanted to write about her life. Being cordial, I made vague remarks about everyone having stories to tell. Since it didn't look like she was going away any time soon, I closed my laptop.
As she talked about her life, I realized someone must write this down. Since there were so many fascinating details and turns of phrases, not to mention the poetry she kept reciting, I was actually hoping she would stop soon, so I could begin to write. My memory isn't what it used to be.
By the time she sort of winded down, I was exhausted and hungry. Plus, I was mentally fatigued from yesterday. Still, I figured I had to get to work or many details would be lost.
Hurrying, I got it out, but rereading it just now, I had to correct two or three grammatical mistakes, and tighten a few sentences. In short, I didn't write this under ideal conditions, but it had to be done.
The coincidence of meeting her is a fantastic story in itself Linh. Had you and she not been there at that particular time then her incredible story might have remained untold. (Mind you if you’d not been sitting there a woman with that amount of drive would probably have hired a writer in a year or two.)
There are an infinite number of worthwhile and uplifting life stories that remain untold because the writer and subject never met. Sadly the least worthy ‘celebrities’ afflict the world with their biographies because the writers flock to them. Their stories would probably mostly be falsehoods too as, depending on the subject’s inclination the writers would almost inevitably lie to sanitise, or lie to exaggerate, the foibles, infidelities and stupidities that made up their subject's life.
You hit just the right pitch with her story - a biography in miniature. Sudden Non Fiction as it were. Thank you.
Speaking of a holocaust, like the bombs dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively, or the bombings in Vietnam, or the bombings in Cambodia, etc. today I updated my Share WW I & II Truth for Peace channel with the top two videos:
Share WW I & II Truth for Peace
Click "MORE" below my Bitchute and Odysee videos to see the additional information.
If so, please consider clicking the above link and liking the Notes post—leave a comment or even share within your own community. Poetry lives on in the minds of hearts of writers, it breathes on the page.
Your voice can be heard among the starry illuminations, howling at the moon.
Great piece, Linh! I hope the hotel lady got a chance to read and review her story with you. I spent a couple of weeks in Vietnam about 8 years ago as a tourist on a tour. It was an odd feeling as even though I fought hard against the US war on Vietnam I had guilt feelings toward the people and what this nation had done there. I was surprised by the lack of bitterness among people there toward Americans, but of course it’s been 50 years now.
He worked on an organic farm here in Maine with two people who went to Vietnam. The young woman told him -- when he mentioned Buddhism in relation to Vietnam -- that the "young people don't care about that stuff anymore," referring to Buddhism, the American War, etc.
I'd love to hear your take on this, and then I'll tell you more about these thirty-somethings.
Vietnamese buddhism is diluted by folk superstitions, and the Communists' suppression of independent religious bodies doesn't help. Before the Fall of Saigon, there were Catholic schools and the Buddhist run Vạn Hạnh University, which had courses in literature, philosophy, journalism, political science, economics and history. There were even courses in English language literature. After the Fall of Saigon, Communists arrested many priests and monks, including prominent ones associated with Vạn Hạnh University. By 1981, it no longer functioned as a university, but converted into Vạn Hạnh Zen Temple!
My last school in Saigon, La San Taberd, founded in 1874, was shut down as a Catholic institution in 1976. It's now a government run Tran Dai Nghia High School for the Gifted.
That said, there are many more churches now than in 1975, and Vietnamese also flock to Buddhist temples, though many go there to pray for a winning lottery ticket or success in business, etc.
It is simplistic to say young Vietnamese don't care about the Vietnam War, since they're taught about it intensively in schools. It's true, though, that they would rather talk about music, dating or something on Tik Tok.
Most Westerners who visit Vietnam stay in touristic bubbles, so in Saigon, they hang out near Bùi Viện Street, with its western styled bars, loud nightclubs, burger joints, whores and hustlers. Although it's a tiny enclave least representative of Saigon, it's what these tourists experience as Saigon.
Even long term residents can be remarkably clueless about Vietnam.
The thirty-somethings who worked on the organic farm seemed to be clueless people, adrift from everything, no knowledge of history, no desire to know anything. The wackiest of them all told my partner (born in 1952) everything about the sixties because her mother told her that she (the daughter) had lived through the 1960s and died of a drug overdose. My partner told her that everything she was saying sounded like something from a TV show. Every day he would come home with the weirdest shit that had tumbled from their mouths until I said, "No more!"
Thanks Linh. Wasn't the great post-WW2 famine in Viêt-Nam due to the French authorities forcing Vietnamese farmers to grow flax for the French military fatigues instead of rice to feed themselves?
The famine started in late 1944 and lasted through 1945, while the Japanese were still in power and the French were in jails. After the Japanese surrendered, British troops entered the south and Chinese troops entered the north to disarm the Japanese.
P.S. French soldiers and administrators were only locked up in March of 1945, after the famine had started, but Japan had been Vietnam's de facto ruler since October of 1940. The main cause of the famine was the breakdown in supply chains due to Allied bombing. In southern Vietnam, there was no famine.
P.P.S. With as least a million Vietnamese dead in a year, out of a population of just over 20 million, the famine was a major historical trauma, but it has been practically eclipsed by the First Indochina War then the Vietnam War. Most Vietnamese are barely aware it happened. Many have never heard of it.
P.P.P.S. The US started bombing northern Vietnam's main port in Hai Phong in September of 1943, 13 months before the famine started. In January of 1945, it sank nearly 20 Japanese ships docked in Saigon. Vietnam's ports, roads and railway were severely damaged by American bombs, leading directly to the famine.
In Vietnam, history is taught according to the Communist Party, so there's no mention of Ho Chi Minh's Chinese wife, the Catholic Zeng Xueming, and nothing is said of the massive boat people exodus. There are many other omissions and distortions.
Although many Vietnamese believe a recent General Secretary of the Communist Party, Nông Đức Mạnh, is the son of Hồ Chí Minh, it's strongly denied by the Party. In fact, Vietnamese children are taught Uncle Ho was entirely devoted to the nation, so had no love interests. He was a virtual saint.
In literature, most overseas writers are ignored, though some are finally allowed to be introduced to domestic readers.
A very inspiring story. This woman has a lot of grit.
The Lao attitude toward work that you described in an earlier piece seems very much at odds with that of many Vietnamese, such as the woman in this story. Perhaps that difference in outlook partially explains why Vietnamese in Laos seek out their own, rather than smoothly assimilating with Laotians.
I've met Vietnamese in Savanakhet, Vientiane, Luang Prabang and Phonsavan, but nowhere have I seen such a concentration of Vietnamese as in Pakse, but it is a relatively new city, developed mostly by the French.
Brought in by the French, Vietnamese here established their own neighborhoods, so four have Vietnamese names, Xóm Đá [Stone or Rock Neighborhood], Tân An [New Serenity], Tân Phúc [New Prosperity] and Nhà Đèn [literally Light House, but referring to the lit up post office].
The French bringing Vietnamese into Laos and Cambodia is no different from the British bringing Indians into Africa.
With a greater density of people, Vietnamese are forced to be more competitive. Here in Pakse, most Vietnamese come from the central, a more barren and poorer region than the north or south, and Laos is so close.
Please do not extrapolate the irrational behavior of two Vietnamese into that of "the Vietnamese." Vietnamese in Lao interact with Laos plenty, including through marriage. The first leader of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party, Kaysone Phomvihane, was a half Vietnamese whose birth name was Nguyễn Cai Song.
All the Vietnamese I've met in Laos speak Lao perfectly and, not infrequently, they even speak Lao to each other. Many Laos also learn Vietnamese, with some Lao children enrolled at the Vietnamese language school in Pakse. Many Laos have also studied in Vietnam.
At the pho restaurant at Lankham Hotel, all the workers are Laos, and most of its customers are Laos.
When France ruled Indochina, it brought many Vietnamese into Laos and Cambodia. Pakse grew during this time and was 62% Vietnamese at the start of WWII.
In Laos, buildings with verandas having pseudo greek railings are common. Many also have pediments and pseudo greek columns. These aren't remnants of colonialism but quotations. They give these relatively new buildings a western look!
What is happening? You are riding a momentum, it seems. Nice, uplifting stories. Much welcomed.
Hi Thorsten,
It's either an echo of youth, late blooming or death rattle. I'll just ride with it.
Linh
Good stuff! Enjoy the tide!
Very nice, Linh. Yes, "it had to be done." That describes so much of your writing. It is what makes you---and through your writing, many of the rest of us...good.
Thanks, Linh. Very inspiring.
Beautiful and touching story. She and her plate husband are worth a longer one.
One of the nice aspects of living in Eastern Asia is seeing how get up and go dominates the culture rather than being an intersectional victim like in the US Jewish mandated culture and status hierarchy.
Life can be very hard for many in Eastern Asia. Wages are largely only enough to survive. However, if you have an entrepreneurial bent and are willing to work hard there can be more upward mobility than in the West.
Referring to her host nation as her own was a nice touch as well.
a moving story, linh - thank you for telling it
Hi mistah charley,
After yesterday's piece, I didn't even have a proper dinner, so today was supposed to be relaxing, with decent meals.
Getting breakfast this morning, I took some photos that could be posted, so I hurried to my table outside Lankham, however. As I was processing an image, a woman of about 70 looked over my shoulder. I didn't even know she was the owner of the hotel.
Planting herself directly opposite me, she started to talk. Great, I thought, some eccentric, and before I even had my second cup of coffee. After getting confirmation I was a writer, she said she wanted to write about her life. Being cordial, I made vague remarks about everyone having stories to tell. Since it didn't look like she was going away any time soon, I closed my laptop.
As she talked about her life, I realized someone must write this down. Since there were so many fascinating details and turns of phrases, not to mention the poetry she kept reciting, I was actually hoping she would stop soon, so I could begin to write. My memory isn't what it used to be.
By the time she sort of winded down, I was exhausted and hungry. Plus, I was mentally fatigued from yesterday. Still, I figured I had to get to work or many details would be lost.
Hurrying, I got it out, but rereading it just now, I had to correct two or three grammatical mistakes, and tighten a few sentences. In short, I didn't write this under ideal conditions, but it had to be done.
Linh
The coincidence of meeting her is a fantastic story in itself Linh. Had you and she not been there at that particular time then her incredible story might have remained untold. (Mind you if you’d not been sitting there a woman with that amount of drive would probably have hired a writer in a year or two.)
There are an infinite number of worthwhile and uplifting life stories that remain untold because the writer and subject never met. Sadly the least worthy ‘celebrities’ afflict the world with their biographies because the writers flock to them. Their stories would probably mostly be falsehoods too as, depending on the subject’s inclination the writers would almost inevitably lie to sanitise, or lie to exaggerate, the foibles, infidelities and stupidities that made up their subject's life.
You hit just the right pitch with her story - a biography in miniature. Sudden Non Fiction as it were. Thank you.
Hi Jon,
People are constantly telling me their stories. It's my calling. The trick is how to do justice to what they're telling me.
Linh
Linh,
Speaking of a holocaust, like the bombs dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively, or the bombings in Vietnam, or the bombings in Cambodia, etc. today I updated my Share WW I & II Truth for Peace channel with the top two videos:
Share WW I & II Truth for Peace
Click "MORE" below my Bitchute and Odysee videos to see the additional information.
https://www.bitchute.com/channel/NBu3vOs8kXFY/
I also updated my Share USS Liberty truth Substack post a good bit today:
Share USS Liberty truth - an attempted "false flag" scam on June 8th in 1967!
https://michaelatkinson.substack.com/p/share-uss-liberty-truth-an-attempted
Best regards,
Michael 🦕
https://linktr.ee/michaelatkinson
Fine writer and reader of Substack—we are starting a movement to get a poetry section added to the platform. Can I ask, are you with us?
https://substack.com/profile/10309929-david/note/c-15579327
If so, please consider clicking the above link and liking the Notes post—leave a comment or even share within your own community. Poetry lives on in the minds of hearts of writers, it breathes on the page.
Your voice can be heard among the starry illuminations, howling at the moon.
Thank you for your time and support.
Love and appreciation,
David
Great piece, Linh! I hope the hotel lady got a chance to read and review her story with you. I spent a couple of weeks in Vietnam about 8 years ago as a tourist on a tour. It was an odd feeling as even though I fought hard against the US war on Vietnam I had guilt feelings toward the people and what this nation had done there. I was surprised by the lack of bitterness among people there toward Americans, but of course it’s been 50 years now.
Thank you Linh!
My partner has a question for you:
He worked on an organic farm here in Maine with two people who went to Vietnam. The young woman told him -- when he mentioned Buddhism in relation to Vietnam -- that the "young people don't care about that stuff anymore," referring to Buddhism, the American War, etc.
I'd love to hear your take on this, and then I'll tell you more about these thirty-somethings.
Hi Susan,
Vietnamese buddhism is diluted by folk superstitions, and the Communists' suppression of independent religious bodies doesn't help. Before the Fall of Saigon, there were Catholic schools and the Buddhist run Vạn Hạnh University, which had courses in literature, philosophy, journalism, political science, economics and history. There were even courses in English language literature. After the Fall of Saigon, Communists arrested many priests and monks, including prominent ones associated with Vạn Hạnh University. By 1981, it no longer functioned as a university, but converted into Vạn Hạnh Zen Temple!
My last school in Saigon, La San Taberd, founded in 1874, was shut down as a Catholic institution in 1976. It's now a government run Tran Dai Nghia High School for the Gifted.
That said, there are many more churches now than in 1975, and Vietnamese also flock to Buddhist temples, though many go there to pray for a winning lottery ticket or success in business, etc.
It is simplistic to say young Vietnamese don't care about the Vietnam War, since they're taught about it intensively in schools. It's true, though, that they would rather talk about music, dating or something on Tik Tok.
Most Westerners who visit Vietnam stay in touristic bubbles, so in Saigon, they hang out near Bùi Viện Street, with its western styled bars, loud nightclubs, burger joints, whores and hustlers. Although it's a tiny enclave least representative of Saigon, it's what these tourists experience as Saigon.
Even long term residents can be remarkably clueless about Vietnam.
Linh
Thank you very much for your thoughtful reply.
The thirty-somethings who worked on the organic farm seemed to be clueless people, adrift from everything, no knowledge of history, no desire to know anything. The wackiest of them all told my partner (born in 1952) everything about the sixties because her mother told her that she (the daughter) had lived through the 1960s and died of a drug overdose. My partner told her that everything she was saying sounded like something from a TV show. Every day he would come home with the weirdest shit that had tumbled from their mouths until I said, "No more!"
Thanks Linh. Wasn't the great post-WW2 famine in Viêt-Nam due to the French authorities forcing Vietnamese farmers to grow flax for the French military fatigues instead of rice to feed themselves?
Hi Arthur,
The famine started in late 1944 and lasted through 1945, while the Japanese were still in power and the French were in jails. After the Japanese surrendered, British troops entered the south and Chinese troops entered the north to disarm the Japanese.
Linh
P.S. French soldiers and administrators were only locked up in March of 1945, after the famine had started, but Japan had been Vietnam's de facto ruler since October of 1940. The main cause of the famine was the breakdown in supply chains due to Allied bombing. In southern Vietnam, there was no famine.
P.P.S. With as least a million Vietnamese dead in a year, out of a population of just over 20 million, the famine was a major historical trauma, but it has been practically eclipsed by the First Indochina War then the Vietnam War. Most Vietnamese are barely aware it happened. Many have never heard of it.
P.P.P.S. The US started bombing northern Vietnam's main port in Hai Phong in September of 1943, 13 months before the famine started. In January of 1945, it sank nearly 20 Japanese ships docked in Saigon. Vietnam's ports, roads and railway were severely damaged by American bombs, leading directly to the famine.
Thank you, Linh, for the history. How do people live with no sense of history? It's a sort of limbo, with no connection to the past.
Hi Susan,
In Vietnam, history is taught according to the Communist Party, so there's no mention of Ho Chi Minh's Chinese wife, the Catholic Zeng Xueming, and nothing is said of the massive boat people exodus. There are many other omissions and distortions.
Although many Vietnamese believe a recent General Secretary of the Communist Party, Nông Đức Mạnh, is the son of Hồ Chí Minh, it's strongly denied by the Party. In fact, Vietnamese children are taught Uncle Ho was entirely devoted to the nation, so had no love interests. He was a virtual saint.
In literature, most overseas writers are ignored, though some are finally allowed to be introduced to domestic readers.
Linh
A very inspiring story. This woman has a lot of grit.
The Lao attitude toward work that you described in an earlier piece seems very much at odds with that of many Vietnamese, such as the woman in this story. Perhaps that difference in outlook partially explains why Vietnamese in Laos seek out their own, rather than smoothly assimilating with Laotians.
Hi JustPlainBill,
I've met Vietnamese in Savanakhet, Vientiane, Luang Prabang and Phonsavan, but nowhere have I seen such a concentration of Vietnamese as in Pakse, but it is a relatively new city, developed mostly by the French.
Brought in by the French, Vietnamese here established their own neighborhoods, so four have Vietnamese names, Xóm Đá [Stone or Rock Neighborhood], Tân An [New Serenity], Tân Phúc [New Prosperity] and Nhà Đèn [literally Light House, but referring to the lit up post office].
The French bringing Vietnamese into Laos and Cambodia is no different from the British bringing Indians into Africa.
With a greater density of people, Vietnamese are forced to be more competitive. Here in Pakse, most Vietnamese come from the central, a more barren and poorer region than the north or south, and Laos is so close.
Linh
If the Vietnamese don't like interacting with Lao, why are they there?
Hi marantz820dc,
Please do not extrapolate the irrational behavior of two Vietnamese into that of "the Vietnamese." Vietnamese in Lao interact with Laos plenty, including through marriage. The first leader of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party, Kaysone Phomvihane, was a half Vietnamese whose birth name was Nguyễn Cai Song.
All the Vietnamese I've met in Laos speak Lao perfectly and, not infrequently, they even speak Lao to each other. Many Laos also learn Vietnamese, with some Lao children enrolled at the Vietnamese language school in Pakse. Many Laos have also studied in Vietnam.
At the pho restaurant at Lankham Hotel, all the workers are Laos, and most of its customers are Laos.
When France ruled Indochina, it brought many Vietnamese into Laos and Cambodia. Pakse grew during this time and was 62% Vietnamese at the start of WWII.
Linh
Good to learn new things, thank you.
a wonderful read
I wonder which hotel they based theirs off of
Hi samoan62,
In Laos, buildings with verandas having pseudo greek railings are common. Many also have pediments and pseudo greek columns. These aren't remnants of colonialism but quotations. They give these relatively new buildings a western look!
Linh
Could've been Aggie Grey's ;-)
Fuck work. Fuck Laos.