Original subtitles

♪ I took a ride ♪ Through this beautiful world ♪

♪ Felt the cool rain ♪ On my shoulder

♪ Found something good ♪ In this beautiful world

♪ I felt the rain getting colder ♪

♪ Sha la, la, la, la

♪ Sha la, la, la, la

♪ Sha la, la, la, la

♪ Sha la, la, la, la, la, la

♪

Do you smell that?

Motorbike exhaust, fish sauce, incense...

The faraway smell of something... is... is that pork

grilling over charcoal?

♪

Vietnam, it could be no place else.

♪

Listen to me.

Listen to me.

There is no other way to see this city, Hanoi,

than from a motorbike or a scooter.

To do otherwise would be to miss it all.

♪

-Whoa!

♪

It is one of the great pleasures of my life

to join the river of people

rushing through the streets.

♪

Vietnam, it grabs you and doesn't let you go.

Once you love it, you love it forever.

I've been coming here since 2000,

the first time I'd been in this part of the world,

and it's held a special place in my heart

and my imagination since.

I keep coming back.

I have to.

♪

Vietnam has changed since last time I was here.

It's changing every minute.

But some things, for now anyway, remain the same.

Important things like this stuff.

That's gonna be good.

Bun oc, first meal in Hanoi,

and it's something they do here

better than anywhere else.

Okay, I'm officially in Hanoi now.

Mmm, magic.

A spicy, wonderful broth with tomatoes and herb

and noodles and fresh snails.

Plump and delicious.

Look at those beauties.

Come to me, plump, little love muscle.

Mmm.

Hanoi, capital city of Vietnam.

Seven and a half million people live here.

In the winter, it's chilly and damp.

In the summer, hot, humid, subtropical.

The boulevards and many of the buildings are French.

But its heart and soul is always, always Vietnamese.

Americans coming here as tourists for the first time,

especially veterans of the war,

are shocked by how friendly the place is.

People are genuinely happy to see you.

♪

This is Hanoi's Old Quarter, but it's looking less

and less old these days.

Man, this area's changed though.

I mean, the Irish/Czech- themed pub next door?

♪

Vietnam is a young country.

Almost half of Vietnamese are under the age of 30.

Fewer every year even remember what they call here

the American War.

Those years were a defining time

for just about everyone, Vietnamese or American,

who lived through them.

And though there are still a lot

of conflicted feelings back home, for most Vietnamese

these days, the war has become an abstraction,

not even a memory.

Vietnam is still a poor nation,

but the standard of living has improved a lot

with the relaxing of hardline

communist economic policies.

More and more foreign tourists every year.

Western chains inevitable are everywhere.

And President Obama is visiting for the first time,

taking another step on the long path

toward normalizing relations

between the two countries.

That is good.

Ooh, hot.

Ooh, I hit that chili hard.

- Nice to meet you. - Yes.

- It's such a pleasure.

- Oh, and we have -a beer ready to go, great.

- Yes.

So we're doing by bottle, or we're going to pour it

in a glass?

How would you do it if I wasn't here?

- I would pour it in the glass. - Okay.

In Vietnam, particularly in the North, it would be

very improper for a woman to drink

- straight from the bottle. - Oh, really? Oh, really?

- Yeah. - Okay, well, I'm glad I know this now.

Cheers.

Thao is an Eisenhower Fellow and a Fulbright scholar.

She's devoted her career to help strengthen the bonds

between Vietnam and the US.

Today, we drove to the outskirts of Hanoi.

- Uh-hmm?

- Cranes, tall buildings.

People moving from the country to the city?

- Uh-hmm?

- Marc Jacobs, Prada, I mean, this is

a very young country now.

Oh, very much a young nation.

They like to eat the Kentucky Fried Chicken.

They like to spend a lot

of their time on the internet.

The history of our country is a history of war.

We had a thousand years under the Chinese,

and then we had eighty years under the French,

and then the Japanese came in,

and when the American left finally in 1975,

we got involved with Cambodia, so we only have peace

since 1989.

Just in the matter of a few decades,

the entire population will be those

without any war experience.

And that's a great thing.

And what are we eating today?

Well, we are going to have a banh cuon.

- And that means?

- Rice roll, very thin.

- Like a crepe?

- Yes, it's like a crepe.

And inside, ground, minced pork and wood ear mushroom.

Ah.

♪

And you dip it in, and there you go.

Mmm.

Oh, that's very good.

Everything we do internationally, someone refers back

to the Vietnam experience.

You know, "Let's not do that again," or...

-Let's not repeat Vietnam.

- But I find it interesting that the people

who had perhaps the most painful experience

were among the first to reach out.

- I think the John McCain story... - Yes.

Is particularly interesting because here's a guy

who had an atrocious experience here in prison,

and yet he has been among the most vocal supporters

of normalizing relations.

It took several trips to Vietnam,

and so he could see Vietnam in a different light.

It's no longer a war.

It's a country with people.

Have you been out with returning veterans from...

Oh, yes, all the time.

Do they often want to go to the area

that they served?

- Oh, yes.

- Do they often even meet with the people they fought?

- Yes.

- B-52 pilots come to the areas

they unloaded their bombs?

Yes.

♪

What is that experience like?

What do you see when they come?

Extremely emotional, extremely emotional.

♪

People burst into tears.

"The memory I kept of you 45 years ago was an enemy."

"I did anything and everything to protect my life

and to protect the people in my platoon."

"But today, when I see you again

not as an enemy, as a person."

Everything just disappear.

All the bad feeling disappear, and now

"Oh, are you married?"

You know, "How many children do you have?"

You know, "What are you up to?"

Their life turn into a new chapter, and this chapter

is a good chapter.

[woman speaking Vietnamese over PA]

Hanoi in the morning, the usual high-pitched whine

of thousands of motorbikes.

People and the things they carry coming out to work,

to set up shop, the sound of commerce...

Of a wildly free market economy in a system

that's decidedly not.

♪

Ohh!

Hey!

-Whoo!

- Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!

-Hey! Hey!

- [woman sings in native language]

When I first came here, it was Tai Chi at dawn,

and that's still here.

But there's also this.

♪

-Good to see you.

- It's nice to see you too.

- This is An, my friend. - Nice to meet you.

She's also my Zumba instructor.

Ah.

No Zumba for me.

Breakfast, though, sounds good.

How often a week do you think

the average person cooks, and how often

do they eat out?

Mostly we just cook at home for dinner

because that's the only meal in the day

that everybody can be together.

But for other meals, normally we eat out.

♪

Whoo!

I meet my old friend Ha

on the edge of the Old Quarter, a place known

as Cussing Noodles.

This is my favorite, favorite restaurant.

- This place? - Yes.

The name comes from the owner, this lady,

known for the free and frank way she communicates

with her customers.

-I hear she yells at people.

-Yes.

What are you standing there for?

If you're going to order, hurry up!

I want the vermicelli with tongue and ground pork.

I don't have that.

If you like ground pork go to the market,

they've got lots of it.

If you go to her counter and order something

and then you indecisive like, "Oh, can I have these?"

"Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, maybe I have

these instead,"

she's like, "I don't have lots of time for you,

so just get out of here."

- Really? - Yeah.

It's best if you just go home and eat.

And what's the specialty of the house here?

"Bun chin zou."

"Chin zou" means pig knuckles.

- Pig knuckle? - Pig knuckles.

We know that's gonna be good.

You put up with the abuse for this glorious,

steaming bowl of rice noodles with spicy chilies,

a rich, hearty, porky broth

with pig's knuckle and snout.

It's the only item on the menu, and it's good.

- You know taro?

- Yes. Ah.

So this is the stem - of the taro plant.

- Uh-huh.

And to prepare this, you have to be very careful

because if you don't do it right,

- then you get itchy mouth. - Toxic, right.

No, no, not toxic.

- You won't die from it but... - Right.

It makes your mouth really itchy, so...

Interesting.

♪

Mmm.

Wow, that's delicious.

When people talk about Vietnam, they always say

about spring rolls or pho, but I think this should be

in... in the mix.

- In the mix?

- Yeah, in... I'm easy.

Give me some spicy noodles, some pork,

I'm happy every time.

Get out of here.

♪

Hello.

♪

♪

It's a maze of narrow streets and alleyways

behind the old French cathedral.

♪

Vendors set up stools, and it's happy hour in Hanoi.

♪

Every doorway, every window, a little slice of life.

♪

A story all its own.

Lives lived, being lived, caught for a second,

a moment, then gone.

In Vietnam sometime, to be truly friend,

- to be friendly... - Yeah.

We have to drink until we a drunk.

Well, well, okay.

- Yeah.

-We must. We must.

Cheer for friendship.

Linh Dinh, my oldest friend in Vietnam

from the very beginning.

Many happy memories, my friend.

We've been to Saigon, Can Tho, Nha Trang.

He was my original minder for Vietnam's Ministry

of Foreign Affairs.

We became, in spite of his official responsibilities,

-fast friends.

- One, two, three.

- Welcome back. - Welcome back.

- Cheers. - Thank you.

Linh has brought me to a great and proud

and uniquely Hanoi tradition, Bia Hai.

Bia Hai refers to the roadside joints

where locals gather to consume keg-dispensed,

freshly brewed draft beer.

Oh, that's good.

It's not strong at all, my friend.

Just, like, between three to four percent.

Ah, so we need to drink a lot.

- Yeah. - Yeah.

Cheer for Hanoi beer.

♪

It was something luxurious 30 years ago.

- Yeah. - Right.

- And now it's for everyone. - Yeah.

- It's not expensive. - Right.

- Ten thousand dong.

- So that's... - Forty cents.

- Forty, forty-five cents, yeah.

- Forty-five cents a beer? - Yeah.

I'll have another.

I can afford that.

♪

The country's changed so much.

When I first came, bicycles and motorbikes.

-Now, lot of cars.

- More cars.

Yeah, now look, money.

People are making mo... business is good.

- Yeah. - Right?

I mean, much, much, much more tourism

- every year, yeah? - Yes, yes.

People also enjoy life more.

♪

♪

Search the globe, and you will find no other place

that looks remotely like this.

♪

"Ha Long" means "where the dragon descends

into the sea".

And legend says that this is

where a great dragon charged, protecting Vietnam

from foreign invaders.

War is a constant theme in Vietnamese mythology

and history.

The Chinese, the French, the Japanese, the Americans,

the Cambodians, again the Chinese.

♪

♪

Ha Long Bay has become, for better or worse,

one of Vietnam's most visited destinations.

♪

Fortunately, this time of year anyway,

you don't have to go too far

to lose yourself in the past, find a quiet place

where you can still imagine the great dragon's

tail thrashing and churning and kicking up

these great karsts of rock.

♪

Chosen mode of transportation, the "Emeraude,"

an old French-era steamer refitted for more

current-day needs.

♪

A big freaking boat.

♪

And it's all mine.

Along with friends and crew, of course.

♪

I like this boat.

We're living a little larger than last...

Last time the boat was not this nice.

All the modern conveniences

but the charms of the past.

It fits perfectly with my over-romantic delusions.

And in general, it does not suck.

Hello, gentlemen.

- Hi, Tony. - How you doing?

We've having some gin and tonic.

Gin and tonic, traditional Vietnamese drink.

Well, not really, but... all right.

This my first time trying this.

- Yeah? - His first time.

How old are you anyway?

Wait a minute, you were five years old last time

I was in Ha Long Bay.

-Yeah, just five. He 20 now.

-Wow.

Linh and I came here for another show what feels like

a lifetime ago.

Back then, I got to meet his son Minh,

who's apparently grown up.

These are pictures of you and him.

- Whoa. - Fifteen years ago, fourteen years ago.

Oh, my God.

Look at my hair.

♪

It's changed a little bit.

Like over eight million people

are coming to Ha Long Bay now?

Yeah, every year, tourists.

All of this is protected, right?

You can't do anything on these rocks.

- No. - No, no.

And how many of these islands... is it 1,900

of these rocks out there?

One thousand nine hundred and sixty-nine,

and this is a good number, you know?

It's a lucky number?

- Six is for fortune.

- Right.

- And nine is for forever, so fortune forever.

♪

A drink or two on the top deck, check.

Now for the rest of the day trying to do

as little as possible.

A nap, sunset, maybe some more drinks,

and what about dinner?

- One for you.

- Oh, thank you, sir.

- Cheer, my friend.

- Cheers.

So we're eating some squid?

- Tons of squid.

-Tons of squid?

We try to get as many tons as possible.

Cue the majesty of the squid.

At night this time of year, the bright lights

of Ha Long Bay's fishing boats are unmistakable.

They can only catch the squid in the evening.

The light attract the squid - so they can catch them.

- Right.

They say that because of global warming,

all the fish are dying but that the squid

and cuttlefish populations are increasing,

so soon the whole sea will be

filled with plenty of squid.

We'll be eating it every day.

♪

Oh, yeah, those are cute, little squid.

Oh, those are gonna be tender.

- Ooh. - Mmm.

Oh, yeah, the tentacles are the best.

To catch squid is a very hard job.

- They work all the night.

- All the night.

- They work all the night. - The light, it turn on all the night.

Right, and then sleep all day?

- Yeah. - It's got to be hot out there, man,

- sleeping in the day. - Yeah.

-Cheer for the day.

- Cheers for the day.

♪

♪

♪

A morning swim, a bowl of spicy noodles, and a view,

perfect.

♪

How many in the family?

Six. Young couple and their three kids

and then the grandma is living with them.

The oldest kid is a girl,

and she was sent into the shore with some relatives

to go to school -because they have no schooling here.

-Right.

♪

Floating fishing villages like this used to be found

in nearly every sheltered cove

or corner of Ha Long Bay.

But as Vietnam becomes a more

popular tourist destination,

authentic fishing villages are starting to disappear.

The government has been relocating

fishing families inland, hoping to minimize

their ecological impact.

The people living on floating villages,

they're just generally nice and willing to open

their home to us and... - They basically farm oysters?

-Yeah, yeah.

A lot of pearls for sale in Ha Long Bay

and in Vietnam.

They come from places like this.

♪

It takes over a year to grow each pearl,

and there's no guarantee

an oyster will even yield one.

♪

Water spinach, I think that's called, right?

Water spinach.

♪

That's the most common vegetable for Vietnamese

- in the summertime. - Yes.

- Mm-hmm. - Yeah.

♪

What kind of fish are these?

-Little fish?

-Yeah, Ha Long fish.

- Ha Long fish.

- Yeah.

♪

It's delicious, yeah.

- It's good fish. - Mmm.

This is a pretty prime piece of real estate,

and they've lived here how long?

For many generations.

This old grandma is 78 years old, and she said that

her grandparents lived here

before this all become, like,

a big tourist attraction.

Is their situation protected by the state?

They're allowed to live here by special...

Because they've been here so long?

Actually, the government now is encouraging them

to move back to shore because it's better

for their children's education.

To tell the truth, we would like to move on land.

If the government did offer us anything,

then we should take it.

But right now we would need help to live ashore.

For someone like me who isn't educated

and got skilled in the kind of work on land...

I'm just used to working on the ocean, fishing...

They said that they're happy to move back because it's

better for their children,

but they've been living here for many centuries,

and all they know is just fishing.

Right.

♪

Just another day in paradise.

A tropical downpour in a working class neighborhood

on the outskirts of Hanoi.

♪

The lady selling vegetables and gum and cigarettes

taking a nap under a piece of corrugated tin

has no idea what's about to happen.

Turn around for me, sir.

Thank you.

♪

♪

♪ Paid the cost to be the boss ♪

♪ Look at me ♪ You know what you see

♪ You see a bad mutha

♪ Look at me ♪ You know what you see

♪ You see a bad mutha -Mr. President.

-Good to see you.

Good to see you.

Mr. President, how are you liking Vietnam?

Love it.

Markets like these I grew up with.

When I was a kid in Jakarta, these were basically

the only markets available.

You know, you would buy pretty much everything

in stalls like this.

Yeah, I wouldn't mind going in there

and haggling and seeing what I could find.

This country, when I first arrived here,

it smelled like a place that I would like.

Certain countries just... pheromonically,

- they just smell good, and I know they're - gonna be good.

Do you... do you kind of smell that?

You know, there's certain spices that you can smell

in certain countries that you just don't

smell back home.

Now, you know, there are some smells that aren't

as appealing as well, but that's part of the mix.

- It is indeed. - So, yeah.

♪

♪ Head for the turnaround How you doing, guys?

How are you?

♪ Heading for the turnaround

I love you, Obama!

♪

♪

There's something magical about the smell.

The minute you touch down here,

it grabs you, captivates you, and chances are,

it holds you forever.

I'm not the first to feel this way.

There is no better place to entertain the leader

of the free world, in my opinion,

than one of these classic,

funky, family-run noodle shops

you find all over Hanoi.

Dinner and a beer cost about six dollars.

I'm guessing the President doesn't get a lot

of state dinners like this.

♪

How often do you get to sneak out for a beer?

Very rarely.

First of all, I don't get to sneak out, period.

But the... once in a while, I'll take Michelle out

on a date night.

The problem is part of enjoying a restaurant

is sitting with other patrons

and enjoying the atmosphere, and too often

we end up getting shunted

into one of those private rooms in the back.

Well, I'm glad I could help,

and to many more cold beers, Mr. President.

I appreciate it, absolutely.

Mmm.

♪

All right, you're gonna have to... I will walk you

through it.

You're gonna have to walk me through this.

We're about to eat bun cha... ♪

And it is about as typical and uniquely a Hanoi dish

as there is.

These beautiful little pork patties,

some grilled pork belly.

Bun cha is served in a broth of vinegar, sugar,

and the ubiquitous nuoc mam, or Vietnamese

fermented fish sauce.

Chilies to taste.

I mean, if you have an important state

function after, you might not want

to go too heavy on it.

- You know what? - I'm going with this thing.

You know, we're gonna do what's appropriate.

- Vinegar. - All right.

And then you just hack off noodles,

and just drop them into your bowl.

Yeah, it's not too elegant, but I'm managing.

And you dip and stir and get ready

for the awesomeness.

I'm ready.

Now, is it appropriate to just pop

one of these whole suckers in your mouth?

Or do you think that you should be a little more...

Well, slurping is totally acceptable

- in this part of the world. - Oh, is it?

It takes some skills, by the way,

to handle these sticky, cold noodles.

But whatever your opinion of the man, the President

has those skills... -Mmm.

- I got to say.

- This is killer. - This is outstanding.

- That's so good to hear. - It's really good.

And we share, apparently, a sentimentality

about Asian street food and Southeast Asia in general.

One of my favorite meals of all time, there's an area

between Jakarta and Bandung, another city in Indonesia

called Puncak, and it's up through the mountains.

So you'd have these roadside restaurants

overlooking the tea fields.

There'd be a river running

through the restaurant itself,

and there'd be these fish, these carp that would be

running through, and you'd pick the fish.

They'd grab it for you and fry it up, and the skin

would be real crispy, and they just served it

with a bed of rice, and it was

the simplest meal possible, and nothing

tasted so good.

♪

Now, as a Chicagoan... Trickier question

fraught with peril.

Is ketchup on a hot dog ever acceptable?

No.

No, I re... I mean that.

That's one of those things like...

Well, let me put it this way.

It's not acceptable past the age of eight.

My daughter's eight, and she put ketchup on eggs

the other day, and I... I wi... I didn't know

what the good... What good parenting

called for at this point.

- An intervention. - I think so.

I think you just got to say, "You know what?

That's not acceptable.

I'm sorry."

♪

We are at a point where we seem to be turning inwards.

I mean, we're actually talking about building a wall

around our country.

And yet you have been reaching out to people

who don't necessarily agree with us...

Gaza, Iran, Cuba.

- I mean, I just wish that more Americans - had passports.

The extent of what you can see how other people live

seems useful at worst and incredibly pleasurable

and interesting at best.

It confirms the basic truth that people everywhere

are pretty much the same, the same hopes and dreams,

and when you come to a place like Vietnam

and you see former American Vietnam vets coming back,

when you see somebody like

a John Kerry or a John McCain,

two very different people

politically and temperamentally,

but who were able to bond in their experience

of meeting with their former adversaries

and you don't make peace with your friends.

You make peace with your enemies.

♪

As a father of a young girl, is it all gonna be okay?

It's all gonna work out?

My daughter will be able to come here

in five years, ten years?

She'll be able to have a bowl of bun cha,

and the world will be a better place?

Yeah.

I mean, I think progress is not a straight line.

You know, there are gonna be moments

at any given part of the world where things

are terrible.

But having said all that...

I think things are gonna work out.

- Thank you so much. - Cheers.

Cheers.

[woman sings a cappella in native language]

♪

The vast majority of this country

don't remember the American War.

-They don't remember any war.

-No.

You used to be a tour guide?

-Yes.

- For how many years?

-Fifteen years.

- Fifteen years?

I know you have to bring people over to the museum,

the American War museum, what, every time, right?

Yup.

In your lifetime, is there gonna be a time

when that's not gonna have to be a stop?

It won't be necessary, it won't even be important,

no one will remember?

Or should people always remember?

I think it's good to remember so we don't make

the same mistake, you know?

Some people choose to be angry, to hold grudge.

But then some people chose to let go

and... for the peace inside themself.

That's up to the person.

And I think it's good that...

It's important that we know about history.

And to make sure it's never happen again.

I met a lot of war veterans, and surprisingly,

a lot of them don't feel... Don't have any anger

against their old enemies... ♪

And that's... that's amazing.

That's... that is amazing.

I learned so much from them.

♪

♪

For Vietnamese, we have so many legends.

But the majority of legends related to our tradition

- of fighting against foreign invaders... - Uh-hmm.

And to protect our country.

♪

Over the last 20 years of my life,

I've seen a lot of changes.

And we know that there's still a lot of shortcoming...

♪

But everything needs time.

We need to be patient.

We can't rush because we really don't want

another war.

General William Westmoreland, who commanded US forces

here in the mid-'60s, famously said,

"The Oriental doesn't put the same high price on life

as does a Westerner.

Life is plentiful.

Life is cheap in the Orient."

♪

It was an extraordinarily grotesque

and wrongheaded observation from a guy

who, if nothing else, was expected to understand

his enemy on the battlefield.

He could not, it turned out, do even that.

♪

Maybe, I hope, we are a little bit smarter now.

♪

♪

♪