Made famous because its spiritual, mystical importance in the movie Avatar, the banyan tree is also important to Asian countries, including Vietnam, because of its beauty and shade. While both Hinduism and Buddhism attribute religious importance to the banyan, at heart it is a fig tree with particular interest in putting down roots.

Once a banyan tree becomes established and reaches a comfortable width, its limbs start growing roots toward the earth. Eventually, these additional roots become trunks which provide support for even more expansion.

Banyan trees can live for several hundred years and grow to large diameters, on occasion to thousands of feet. They can reach 200 feet or more in height. The downward grow conforms to the shape of any obstacles they encounter, permitting the banyan to take on the likeness of a gate or a house. Long after the obstacle is returned to the earth, the banyan continue to show its form, making for some interesting looking trees.

This type of expandability, flexibility and durability make it easy to understand why people assign it spiritual significance. Yet, it too, lasts only for its season, then disappears.

Banyan Tree in Downtown Ho Chi Minh City

Roots Growing Down

With its thin, airy and translucent texture, the Vietnamese pancake looks a lot like a crêpe. The Saigon chefs prepare them in large woks, packing them with your choice of meats and vegetables. A lunch or dinner meal, one is enough to satisfy your appetite. You can arrive at the restaurant in a green cab, moving like a dragon.

They taste good, too. A fun time out.

Two weeks into Vietnam we are starting to understand some of the language—just a very little—both written and spoken. While we can distinguish a few words audibly, the written language is somewhat easier—despite its extensive use of diacritical marks as in the phrase “Nó là rất tốt đẹp để đáp ứng bạn”—probably because it employs the familiar “abc characters,” as a Vietnamese friend said. For American English speakers, there is almost nothing familiar in the tonal enunciations of this language.

A first vocabulary discovery materialized from within a grocery store meat cooler. The cooler categorized various meats by type. The cuts and parts—cât for kidney, tim for heart, gan for liver—obviously belonged to one type of animal because of the common word on all of the product labels: heo. The well-known appearance of the tai, or ear, gave it all away—we had learned many anatomy words because of a pig.

Trâń Kìm Chaû helps us learn Vietnamese

Superheo T-Shirt Design

First of all, if the winds are really powerful, Vinpearl Land shuts down the cable car and uses its water-based transportation to move people between the mainland and the Island. The Vietnamese operations team and their Russian developers are very aware of your safety.

Given that, the day we visited Vinpearl Land the wind was stiff. The Vinepearl cable car is the longest over water in the world, spanning 3.3 kilometers from near Nha Trang to the amusement park, resort and spa. The winds were even stiffer at the peak of the ride 60 meters above the South China Sea. So how do such winds modify your ride?

Not being engineers, we have no detailed knowledge about this, just our experience. The cars themselves hang as rectangles with diamond shaped outer walls—that is they are wider in the middle than at the top or bottom. This must be a design decision because in a stiff wind, the cars have almost no swaying motion you can feel. You can hear the whooshing of the wind, but you never notice any uncomfortable wind-generated movement. The ride is very smooth. In fact, the oscillation from the wind is so small, it is less than that created by twisting around to look behind. I know this because I got elbowed by my female half for slightly moving the car—not much—but more so than the wind.

Wind-swept cable cars. And be sure to see the next image.

April Fools in May! In reality, the cars hang stable in the wind.

About one-third of the way to the island.

While we understand relational caution, tact, transcultural manners and politeness, we sometimes take social risks to obtain facts and photos for a story. Behind our most current calculation was our interest in the Cham Towers located near Phan Rang-Tháp Chàm, Vietnam.

It seems everyone and their aunt has at one time eyed with envy the rich soils, rugged mountains and beautiful sea shores of Vietnam. The Champa empire occupied the coastal regions of middle and southern Vietnam for several centuries, bringing along a lot of Hinduism, a little Islam and the masonry skills to construct brick towers without mortar. The skills they developed for building these Lego-precise structures no one understands even today. Although the native Vietnamese eventually toppled the Cham—almost totally absorbing their culture by means of war and marriage—some of the religious influence attached itself to the Buddhism and Catholicism of Vietnam. You can also see the eight remaining towers constructed by the Cham people.

On the way to Nha Trang our tour guide pointed out two towers near Phan Rang-Tháp Chàm as our bus zinged along Highway 1. Because of the research of our female half, we knew something about the Cham and really eyed with envy this missed opportunity for photographs. So, the evening before returning to Saigon, I asked the tour guide if we could stop on the way back for a photo op. I figured everyone would unpack their digital cameras, step out of the bus and shoot away. Not so.

The tour guide was obviously very concerned I would be killed by the unending flow of high speed 18-wheelers, automobiles and other buses. He grabbed my hand and escorted me, alone, across the highway. Everyone else stayed in the bus. I was feeling a bit concerned about the comfort of the others since bus air conditioning works better when the vehicle is moving. But then, there I was, in the shadows of these amazing towers, clicking away. A Vietnamese expatriate from Canada eventually joined me.

Back on the bus, with the help of our tour guide I thanked the others for their patience and kindness. As usual, our Vietnamese friends were gracious and pleased about our interest in their country. Apparently, no harm was done.

Cham Towers Near Phan Rang-Tháp Chàm Vietnam (1)

Cham Towers Near Phan Rang-Tháp Chàm Vietnam (2)

Cham Towers Near Phan Rang-Tháp Chàm Vietnam (3)

Cham Towers Near Phan Rang-Tháp Chàm Vietnam (4)

Cham Towers Near Phan Rang-Tháp Chàm Vietnam (5)

We met a person who works in international trade for the United States government. A few weeks before we left on our trip, this person told us Vietnam is positioning itself to become the next South Korea when it comes to manufacturing high quality products and improving the economic life of its people.

While we are neither economists nor investment bankers, we know smart work and good quality when we see it. On the narrow residential streets in Saigon and on its busy boulevards you see enterprise erupting. As one micro example, we watched for several days as a small business welded together on its shop floor the frame for an ornamental door. We then saw it being carried off on a motorbike to their customer—quality work with a practical delivery.

Nha Trang is another possible example. Numerous cranes rise above new high-rises in the city as it becomes a center for rest, relaxation and recuperation. The services at the hotels are excellent, even with the language barrier we carry with us.

Then, there is the case of the dragon fruit. Farmers in the region between Saigon and Nha Trang have switched from growing resin trees to cultivating dragon fruit. With this change, the area has seen an economic uptick as consumers purchase this novel, attractive and lightly flavored specialty product.

Finally, Vietnam appears to be trying to respect its natural resources and its environment as it develops new products and services. The Vinpearl Land park in Nha Trang has worked with the steep slopes of its host island to develop a facility on you barely see until you are at the gate.

Again, these are just surface observations from amateurs, but from what we can see, hear and experience, the Vietnamese people appear to have an industrious, self-help spirit.

High Rises, Cranes and Undeveloped Islands in Nha Trang, Vietnam

Vinpearl Land Attempts to Enhance its Natural Setting

Small Fishing Boats and Modern Shipyard Share Vietnam Coastal Waters