In Search of Authenticity

Today, in the wake of yesterday's frenzied search for knowledge, we take things comparatively slowly. We go to yoga in the morning and learn a few more postures, return to the same place where we ate amazing vegetarian pho previously, and repeat the experience. It is just as good as we remembered it.

We walk to the Ho Chi Minh city museum to educate ourselves further. It's interesting, though I think our brains are a little fatigued by now and I don't feel I retain very much of the information. The highlights, though, are the description of Vietnam's biggest economic draws, among which, predictably, were tourism, rice export and fabrics and handicrafts and the exhibition about the Spratly and Paracel islands. The latter are islands off the coast of Vietnam and China. The exhibition focuses on the apparent invasion of these, by rights Vietnamese islands, by the Chinese and the brave defence put up by the Vietnamese inhabitants. What with French colonialism and the American entanglement in the 17 year war, Vietnam seems to have a right to feel somewhat aggrieved. Everybody, it would appear, has had a pop.

Internet research on the subject, however, seems to imply that one of the islands is actually controlled by the Chinese and the other does not seem to have any particular control, but has been laid claim to by many countries in addition to China and Vietnam.

The general difficulty in finding impartial information from any source, either within Vietnam, on the internet, or, for that matter, in England, leads us to discuss the problem of authenticity. Our plan for today is to go to yoga, eat breakfast, visit a museum and then have coffee while we catch up on our blog entries. Tomorrow we will go to yoga, eat a different kind of traditional Vietnamese breakfast, and walk to the outer areas of the city to, (drum roll), buy a bus ticket to Chau Doc for when we need to go back there at the end of the month to prepare for our crossing into Cambodia. The afternoon will be dedicated to Neville, who is supposed to be furnished with another section of rewrites by the end of the week. M has guide books and internet research he wants to do. That done, M wants to make like a local and head for another Bia Hoi establishment. Both plans include some things which are exclusive to Vietnam, and quite a few which aren't.

We have had the pleasure of talking to both of our sets of parents via Skype now, and the previous night had been faced with the observation that we didn't need to travel to Vietnam to do yoga - we could learn that round the corner, down at the local rec! It was a jovial comment but a reasonable point. People do often look askance if you say you have done anything abroad which seems relatively normal. We look askance at it ourselves sometimes, guiltily. 

But the fact is, it isn't actually possible to spend a month in another country and never do anything there that you could also do at home. Aside from the mental strain, there are probably not enough things to do in any given place to sustain you if you only engaged in activities you couldn't possibly do elsewhere. 

Moreover, if what you seek is an authentic experience and this is your reason for scorning anything vaguely familiar, you might be on something of a wild goose chase. The Vietnamese have coffee. A lot. They wear western style garments. They keep cats as pets. There are yoga sanctuaries everywhere. You can shop in a supermarket. You sleep in a bed. All of these things can be done in England.

Also, as M points out, society has different stratas and different people. You have to decide who you want an authentic experience of. A poor farmer? A middle class professional? A rich landowner?

I try to imagine what we might introduce a tourist in England to. M and I cook Japanese quite regularly. Our house contains a futon and plenty of ornaments from Africa, Japan and Thailand. We don't have TV. It's not especially authentic. We would try instead to show our tourist things like cottages with thatched roofs and log fires.

"How quaint. Do most English houses have these?"

"Well. No. Actually it's kind of a novelty. And we don't eat fish and chips every night. And the Morris dancing is kind of a dying tradition. It's wheeled out on bank holidays sometimes or at folk festivals. Most people don't really like it that much. They stay at home and watch reality shows and American sitcoms."

It's really hard to be authentic. The only thing you can hope for as a tourist is to gain a rudimentary understanding of the actual culture. What's rude and what's expected, what some people do and what others do instead of that. Even that's hard to grasp at because everybody is different.

We would have to show our tourist a street full of pubs and puking drinkers on a Friday or Saturday night. Take them out with us to listen to conversations about others. They would need to read the Daily Mail, the Guardian and the Sun (for the laughs). To watch how a public play park changes from daytime to night, when the clientele are older. To see teenagers skateboarding off railings and benches. To go to the pub when the football is on. To see what happens if you cheer for the opposing team. To apologise. To eat pizza. To diet. To queue.

Perhaps we are all so very different, there is no unifying culture, no exact science.

Authenticity may not really be all that authentic.