The Vietnam Tour: Choosing To Go and How

If I thought Fargo and Nicaragua as choices to visit brought out the quizzical looks, inability to comprehend why I would go there or just plain boredom with the idea, then Vietnam really was the winner.

And to go without Joel! You would have thought I was going to travel alone, rent a car and take off into the Highlands with nothing more than a camera and no language skills. Anyone who knows me knows I eschew tour groups like the plague. But, sometimes you go somewhere and need to consider some guidance. And Vietnam is one of those places.

Frankly, before going, I already believed you couldn’t go there without a well researched guide and driver. And now that I’ve been there, I can say, without any equivocation at all, that if you try to drive and guide yourself, then you have a fool leading your trip.

A woman in Mekong rice paddy (above)

But why Vietnam? As I have said before, I like to go to places where there are few footprints from tourists. A good place to do that is in countries that have just emerged from behind an Iron Curtain, are still communist controlled or out from under a dictator and emerging as a tourism destination.

Joel and I traveled to Berlin when the Wall was still up. We needed “Flag Orders” to travel across the “frontier” at Checkpoint Alpha in Northern West Germany, across the East German countryside non-stop and enter Berlin through Checkpoint Bravo. Checkpoint Charlie was the crossover between East and West Berlin.

That trip cemented my policy of going to out of the way places. It was a trip that was life changing.

Vietnam was no exception.

I read Nelson DeMille’s book “Up Country” several years ago and was hooked from that point on. I had considered it as a destination, but that was the final straw.

So I researched.

A Hill Tribe boy (above)

I had heard of some tour groups, and I researched them. But I was not inclined to go with a group that required I wear brand new white sneakers, a logo fanny pack (makes my butt look bigger than it is) and neck wear that proclaims I am an aging tourist and proud of it, complete with my name and tour group number.

Being a military spouse (MajDep or Major’s Dependent) and proud of it, and the ex-wife of a Vietnam veteran, I started focusing on retired military groups on Google. I found, right off the bat, Tours of Peace Vietnam Veterans Organization, known as TOP.

Old and new on Highway 1 (above)

I read the site and I was hooked. A travel group that needed an application and approval process to be allowed to pay your money and go to Vietnam. That was incentive right there to inquire.

But there was more that really drove it home for me: I needed a life changing experience if possible as Berlin was becoming a faint memory. TOP is not a vacation for sightseeing your way through Vietnam. Hire a travel agent if you want to do that.

TOP is for those who want to understand someone else, themselves, a country, or an era for starters. The Vietnam War (or the American War as it is called in Vietnam) had a profound effect on many people from the early 1960’s to the present. Vietnam reportedly lost over 3 million people from the French and American wars and their aftermath. Whether you are a Vietnam veteran of either country, the family of a veteran or you were involved in trying to end the war, it had an effect.

For veterans and family, TOP offers a way in which they can go back to Vietnam or go for the initial trip of understanding in a safe and caring environment. Coupled with hands on listening and caring, TOP provides participants the rare opportunity to participate in selected, trusted and proven humanitarian efforts while in country. Through such humanitarian efforts, many veterans and family members have gained insight into not only their own feelings and experiences, but those of the Vietnamese people.

Through understanding and education we can let go of the past, or at least come to some degree of reconciliation and acceptance. When done with this article, since you would hate to miss the rest of it, I recommend you to TOPS Winter Newsletter for another participant’s experience.

For me, I wanted to learn and return to educate not just veterans, but family members and people who weren’t connected. For those who weren't born yet and undereducated about this very important time in our history, there is an educational need. Many people are not as fortunate as I to be able to financially, mentally and physically, do this type of tour so it is incumbent on others to share.

I’ll let Jess DeVaney describe TOP:

TOP (Tours of Peace) Vietnam Veterans is an independent nonprofit 501(c) 3 organization founded in 1998, to help Vietnam veterans and families heal and find closure through Tours of Peace. The Foundation is comprised of five programs: Veterans, Family, Humanitarian, Personal Effects, and Education. Tours of Peace revisit sites of personal meaning, and conduct humanitarian projects nearby--meeting needs of orphans, villagers, and elderly. TOP and participants retrieve personal effects, left behind during the war. We research and attempt to return effects to families and veterans. TOP educates the public about Vietnam veteran & family issues, the War, and Vietnam as it is today. Our approach integrates group support and humanitarian components, based on the principal, “by helping others we help ourselves.”

I’ll give you a nutshell tour of the pre-trip process and a little taste of the posts to come regarding Vietnam.

My travel buddy absorbs China Beach (above)

First, you express interest and begin the initial application process. Yes, a multi-page, in depth application process. Why? Think about it. Wouldn’t you love to have an application process when doing any kind of travel group activity with complete strangers?

There is no question such as: Are you a jerk as a rule? But there are probing questions, I can guarantee it.

Then there are usually only about 10 available slots for participants. This is not a project to see how many people can go at one time as it is supposed to be a personalized effort to put together a cohesive and varied group. Filing buses is not the desired result.

The application process, in itself, is a great start at the self-introspection that will, or should, happen during the trip.

Then Jess DeVaney calls and does a phone interview. And those piercing eyes of his, that you don’t even yet know exist, start to come through over the line (for those who use a landline phone that is).

Getting my acceptance was, for me, a day of joy. And the ride to Vietnam started in earnest. Then Joel asks “is it too late for me to go?” “Yes Dear, it is too late” I reply. But, I already know in my heart he’d be a hard sell as he wouldn’t even want to write down his answers, let alone be absolutely honest in the phrasing. Two weeks before departure he sees Anthony Bourdain’s Travel Channel segment on Vietnam and he is sure he wants to go. It was really too late at that point.

A woman sorts her rice harvest on the edge of Highway 1 (above)

The long, long flight to Vietnam was daunting as I am now a very spoiled traveler and do not want to sit in steerage for 20 or so hours, upright, knees, back and neck screaming for relief. There is not enough Ambien, gin or Vicoden to make that trip feel good or unmemorable.

So, though I don’t often fly on United I started scouring around for miles, any miles, on United’s mileage program. American, I could fly free anywhere First Class but that didn’t help me to Vietnam as TOP flies as a group. Jess doesn’t want the group spread all over the South China Sea, Hong Kong and San Francisco, trying to get to Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City at the same time and date. Plus there is bonding all the way from the boarding gate to the hotel.

Anyway, I joined the UAL Club; I got a credit card; I got Joel a credit card and transferred his miles to me; I used my card for everything I bought and made sure I waited to buy those big ticket items until I got the card; I bought some miles to make that final 1897 mile push to the finish line. And voila! I got a Business Class upgrade.

A woman who resides in a Leprosy village (above)

I do have to say I was a little embarrassed as I parted company at the stairs to the upper lounge on the 747 in San Francisco. But, I did come down and talk to whoever was awake and tried not to lord it over them.

Business on United to Vietnam, upstairs, in the new configuration was divine. The seat folds out flat; the entertainment is great and the food pretty good. Great service too. Upstairs is hard to beat. So if you go, beg, borrow, steal and connive to get upgraded.

The project at the Leprosy village (left)

With that, I’ll just say that arriving in Vietnam at 10 pm was amazing. It was hot. And, in Vietnam, the “masses” are not allowed into the terminal to greet arriving passengers. That is done on the sidewalk behind a barricade. One feels like they are walking the Red Carpet at a Vietnamese A List event when the doors open and you stroll out all bug eyed and brain dead from the anticipation and travel. Everyone comes to the airport if there is a rumor of family or friends coming in. There were hundreds of people there to meet the plane and waiting for someone they know to appear.

A group of young men perform on their water buffalo on Highway 1 (left)

My next postcard will introduce you to Vietnam, Saigon—returning to form as the Paris of Southeast Asia, the group and our first days. In days and weeks to come you will read of a rare visit to the Montagnard Hill Tribes (see the boy above); a Leprosy Village; Da Lat; Hoi An; Nha Trang; Hue and Memorial Day at My Lai, just to give you a taste. You'll read of moving tributes, meeting elders at a senior citizens home; an orphanage visit; special schools and other remarkable works of charity.

Until then it is time to grab some pho and the first test will be how to pronounce this fantastic soup’s name.