My first trip to Vietnam

My first trip to Vietnam in 2008, a visit that I, especially in hindsight, will never forget. Together with my husband, I visited Hanoi because our daughter with family lived and worked there. From day one Hanoi stole my heart. A bustling, busy city balanced out by the tranquillity of ample greenery, flowers, and the many lakes that are in the city. All that positive vibrancy caused a nostalgic sentiment and a happy feeling.

The cheerful, busy preparations of Tet, the New Year's celebration in Vietnam, gave our visit an extra glow. This festivity has no fixed dates and occurs in late January and early February, and lasts from three days to a week. Tet is a new start and it is the most important festival of the year in which the worship of ancestors and the spirits of the deceased is central. People travel great distances to be with their relatives at that time.

Our travels consisted of small tourist trips from Hanoi to Ha Long Bay, Hue and Hoi An.

We sailed for two days between the pointed, rugged mountains of Ha Long Bay. The foggy weather we had, paid tribute to the atmosphere of the legend of the dragon. "Ha Long" means "the falling down of the dragon", the dragon that jumped into the sea while its tail violently moved back and forth causing about 2000 different islands to appear. .

We continued to Hoi An. Due to the silting up of the river, Hoi An lost its function as a major trading centre in the late 19th century. The town remained as it was. Japanese and Chinese played an important role in the development of the port. Of the Europeans, including the Dutch, who settled around the 16th century, few remains can be found.

My Lay, a three hour drive from Hoi An is a village where horrible killings took place by the Americans, where now, rebuilt houses, a statue and a museum with photographs represent a monument in memory of the victims..

To stand there with only the sound of the wind gently blowing through the green rice - grass, we tried to imagine the horror of that time, and thinking of what terrible deeds people are capable of.

Via Danang, an important port city today, and Hue, an ancient imperial city on the beautiful Perfume River, we travelled back to Hanoi.

These are a few discriptions of our short travel through Vietnam. Every day Vietnam gave us so many new colourful encounters and experiences that it became an unforgettable and a most meaningful journey. A year later my husband died and this was our last trip together. I have been back several times, even for extended periods.

In Hanoi, I could wander endlessly through a spider web of streets and alleys absorbing the traditional scenes of the hairdresser with mirror, scissors and shaving cream on the sidewalk; the sidewalk cafes with low stools; the woman with her little stove and food, transported in baskets, rhythmically swaying on the bamboo stick on her shoulder. I could not get enough of walking between this vibrant turmoil and then to find a peaceful moment near one of the lakes in the city.
City life and traffic is an adventure in itself. It is astounding that if flows at all, when there are hardly traffic lights and thousands of motorbikes, cars and bikes criss cross the streets and intersections, with everyone giving warning of their approach as they blare their horns. Crossing those roads is an adventure in itself. I was told: if you cross, show no doubt or fear. Never waiver and never step back. In Hanoi I learned to find my way again..

Vietnam's vitality and life attitude together with its huge cultural background and history is an endless source of inspiration to my artwork, where the Vietnamese way of life becomes integrated with my own cultural background..

At the exhibition in Ho Chi Minh City, May 2014, I will be showing computer compilations and video collages that I have made in response to my visits to Vietnam. .

Hetty van der Kloot