Evening with partners - Entertainment, speakers Maria Bunina and Stephen Quant

HOLIDAY TO VIETNAM

A fascinating insight into Vietnam was the entertainment at Henley Rotary Club’s “fifth Tuesday” meeting held at Henley Golf Club this week.

Maria Bunina, the club’s vice-president, showed many excellent photographs of the country she and her partner Richard had visited on a recent holiday. She was assisted by Stephen Quant, husband of club speakers’ secretary Vivienne Quant, who gave an extremely well-researched overview of the history of this part of south-east Asia.

Stephen explained that this long narrow country had always had two distinct ends, Viet in the north and Nam in the south, and how it had become part of French Indonesia. With three distinct microclimates, it had split into North Vietnam and South Vietnam in 1954.

Maria then went on to describe in graphic detail their arrival in Hanoi and how they had found the traffic “shocking.” She said they had visited the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and the various markets, where there were various stalls selling anoraks and trainers, and of course silk was everywhere.

She showed a menu from a restaurant selling fried dog meat and various other delicacies. In a country in which Samsung Electronics and Canon had factories, she said that the mobile reception was “amazing, not like in Oxfordshire!”

They spent time in Halong Bay, with the rocky outcrops and caves, and, on the way southwards, came across numerous rice fields. She showed many stunning photographs of buildings incongruously situated next to each other, but all with an imposing door on the front. There was a distinct French influence to the architecture.

Stephen then gave a potted description of the Vietnam War, from which the American withdrew in 1973, due to public opinion at home, following which Saigon fell in 1975, then being re-named Ho Chi Minh City. The numerous tunnels built by the North Vietnamese were illustrated, with Maria showing pictures of both herself and Richard scrambling through them.

Maria said they then reached the comparative luxury of Ho Chi Minh City before returning home. Roger Sayer proposed the vote of thanks.

Earlier in the meeting, club president John Grout had welcomed the guests and partners of Rotarians, who included Richard Walker (a new associate member) and two previous outside speakers Jan Mirkowski and Jim Donahue.

Members and guests had observed a moment’s silence before sitting down, in memory of Herman Jansen, a former president of the club, who had died suddenly last week.