Bill Baileys Vietnam - Season 1 Episode 02- Ho Chi Minh
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00:00Welcome to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
00:10A city that's been on fast forward for the last 50 years since the end of the war.
00:15So what better time to pause and reflect on this fascinating city.
00:24Vietnam. Of course it's a place of tea plantation.
00:29Traffic. Temples. But then it's something else entirely.
00:38Come with me on an unusual.
00:40Oh no, no, no.
00:41Unfiltered.
00:42I'm soaked. Look at me trousers.
00:45Unforgettable adventure.
00:48Give me five.
00:49My mind's off on a whole bunch of other tangents.
00:53I'm thinking about a sandwich I had in 1982.
00:56As this nation commemorates 50 years since the end of the war.
00:59So as soon as it's safe, right?
01:01I'll explore this fertile land.
01:03Ask the big questions.
01:05Am I in the right place?
01:06Embrace new experiences.
01:08Even my own future.
01:09I'm proud of them.
01:11You are a smart contestant.
01:13Is there any, you know, good news?
01:16Navigate tight spaces.
01:18I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to get out.
01:20Make some new friends.
01:21Separated at birth.
01:24This is a voyage of discovery.
01:26Of strange encounters.
01:27This is your whole life in a plant.
01:29And kindred spirits.
01:31An enchanted stroll to one of the most fascinating places on earth.
01:36Welcome to Bill Bailey's Vietnam Adventure.
01:39This is Ho Chi Minh City.
01:55A huge, dynamic, clamorous assault on the senses.
02:00But what strikes me most is the traffic.
02:03It's relentless.
02:04Simply crossing the road is an adventure in itself.
02:08On the southeastern curve of this S-shaped nation
02:12sits the former capital of South Vietnam on the Saigon River.
02:17Right, that's the geography sorted for you.
02:21Now, back to the street crossing.
02:24I'm told confidence is key.
02:26All right, here we go.
02:30Oh, .
02:31It's bloody green, you .
02:41Is this worth it for a selfie?
02:44Let's get the .
02:45I mean, it's not worth getting mowed down for,
02:50but it's quite a good shot.
02:56I've arranged a personal guide of this thrumming metropolis,
03:01still affectionately known as Saigon.
03:04No safe bus tour for me.
03:06I want to get amongst it, be at one with the people.
03:15Hi, Mr Bell.
03:16There's my guide.
03:17I'm here.
03:18KK.
03:19Across another road.
03:20Yes.
03:21All right, KK, I'm here.
03:23All right.
03:24Watch out.
03:25Just take this nice and easy.
03:28You can do it.
03:31I'm leaving you.
03:32Come on.
03:33Okay.
03:34Yay.
03:35There we go.
03:36High five.
03:37Hi, KK.
03:38How are you doing all right?
03:39You survived.
03:40I survived, yeah, exactly.
03:41I don't know how.
03:42Hello, nice to meet you.
03:43Lovely to meet you.
03:44Yeah.
03:45How do you do that?
03:46Well, I don't know, actually.
03:47It's not something I do normally.
03:49Oh, my God.
03:50Walk out into traffic.
03:51But, hey, you know, I'm here to try new experiences.
03:54And in this context, safety first.
03:57But let's not let safety get in the way of looking stylish.
04:00All right.
04:01I like the fact that I'm colour-coded with the bike.
04:03Yeah.
04:04Oh, my gosh.
04:05Outfit match.
04:06I know.
04:07Like a pose.
04:08Got to get on here like that.
04:09Yes, exactly.
04:10Okay.
04:11I'm just stretching out my hips a little bit.
04:12Yeah, all right.
04:13I've got a little bit of cramp in me.
04:14All right.
04:15My leg won't go.
04:16Yeah.
04:17Yeah, just stretch it up.
04:19Yeah, that's right.
04:20And I can put my feet on this footrest here.
04:22Yes, right.
04:23Perfect.
04:24All right.
04:25Okay.
04:26All right.
04:27All right.
04:28Have some workout today.
04:29It is a workout.
04:30All right.
04:31All right, you ready?
04:32Okay, let's do it.
04:33Okay, here we go.
04:34All right.
04:35Don't be scared.
04:36Yeah.
04:37What could I possibly be scared of?
04:40Actually, this is exhilarating.
04:42Just me, KK, and nothing but Saigon smog between us and the bitumen.
04:47I'm trusting KK with my life.
04:49Watch out for the scooters.
04:51Uh-oh.
04:52There we go.
04:53Look out.
04:54Yeah.
04:55No worries.
04:56Just a little bit of...
04:57It seems like a whole wall of bikes were coming towards us then.
05:01Yeah, that's the beauty of life, my friend.
05:04Yeah.
05:05Uh, the time that you were about near your death.
05:07You never know that.
05:08Oh.
05:09Okay.
05:10I mean, it's a very good point, but not that reassuring.
05:15Uh, KK, I was going to ask you, how many people are in Ho Chi Minh City?
05:19We have approximately about 12 million.
05:2112 million?
05:2212 million people, yes.
05:23Wow.
05:24And of those 12 million, how many scooters are there here?
05:27I mean, there must be a million.
05:29Yeah, we have actually around more than nine million scooters.
05:34Nine million?
05:35Yes.
05:36That's extraordinary.
05:37With the millions of scooters comes smog.
05:41But the good news is, Vietnam is aiming to phase out scooters by 2050 to achieve net-zero emissions.
05:48Until then, riding a scooter is thirsty work.
05:51By the time you've dodged a billion buses and crossed a five-lane highway, sustenance is essential.
05:58So, are we going to have a quick juice or something?
06:00Yes.
06:01Oh, my God, they have some lovely seats for you as well.
06:03Oh, a tiny stool.
06:05Yes, exactly.
06:06So, we will sit right here.
06:07This is how it sits for you.
06:09I hope it's not too tiny for you.
06:11Is this?
06:12Yes.
06:13Is it how it is?
06:14Just like that, please.
06:15All right.
06:16Have a try.
06:17How do you try?
06:18I'll try it.
06:19Yep.
06:20Ah!
06:21You did it!
06:22Great.
06:23And our friends here as well.
06:24Hello, everyone.
06:25Yeah.
06:26Hi, guys.
06:27This city is set on contorting my body into awkward positions.
06:33But this is good practice, actually, for being on the bike, sitting on a tiny stool.
06:40I feel like a giant.
06:42I feel like these stools are for a different size of person.
06:48So, we have some other drinks for you.
06:49What's that?
06:50Oh, so this one is called the peach tea.
06:51Peach tea?
06:52Yeah.
06:53Right.
06:54Please, have a try.
06:55Okay.
06:56Cheers.
06:57All right.
06:58How was it?
06:59Oh, that's good.
07:00That is really good.
07:01And what is this?
07:02Oh.
07:03So, this is what we call a rice cake pudding, you can say.
07:04Okay.
07:05Mushrooms and minced pork as well.
07:06Right.
07:07So, this is like a dumpling or something.
07:08Yes, it's similar.
07:09In Vietnamese name, we call it banh dò.
07:10Banh dò.
07:11Banh dò.
07:12Yes.
07:13So, anything that is made with flour, as long as it has flour, it's called banh.
07:15So, yes, you have it.
07:16Banh dò.
07:17That's exactly.
07:18Something.
07:19Right.
07:20Great.
07:21And for this baby himself, it's the breakfast.
07:22This is the breakfast.
07:23This is delicious.
07:24From one to ten, how much would you make this?
07:26I mean a solid eight.
07:41Solid?
07:42Oh my God.
07:43Right now, I mean this is really hitting the spot.
07:47to teach you how to say cheers in vietnam all right go then how do you say so how is it we counted
07:52from one to three in vietnam we count mot is number one m-o-t mot mot yes exactly and number
08:01two is hi you say hi to your friend hi hi yeah it's number two hi hi yeah and then number three
08:07which means bar like you go to the bar oh back back yeah counting what hi yes all right let's
08:16just as the cacophony of traffic threatens to swallow you whole the saigon river appears
08:46wide and calm gliding through the center of the city like it knows a quieter way to get things done
08:53stretching over 250 kilometers from cambodia to the sea it's been a vital economic trade route for
08:59centuries and still is if i ask you how do you describe vietnamese traffic into work how you
09:06call um organized chaos exactly yes ho chi minh city traffic is like a symphony with no conductor
09:21and then standing calmly amid the chaos is the father of modern vietnam the man who led the
09:27country through war independence and into history and whose profound impact brought about the renaming
09:34of saigon mr ho chi minh for vietnamese people who live abroad uncle ho may be a deeply polarizing
09:41figure but for locals he was the leader of north vietnam who fought for autonomy from french colonial rule
09:48sad thing about his death is that he was fighting for so long to have the independence day
09:53independence day is 30 april 1975. yes he never survived he never lived to see it exactly he
10:01unfortunately passed away before that when the war ended in 1975 and the north claimed victory saigon
10:08once the capital of the south was renamed ho chi minh city the people love him so much they named him the
10:16title the bringer of light there's not really an equivalent figure in british society the only person
10:22i can think of who is anything like as revered in terms of carrying the hopes of a nation is winston
10:28churchill we could pay tribute like this okay you pray like pray mr ho chi minh thank you for bringing
10:36the hope and the lights for people i hope we have the blessing to bless us with a splendid journey today
10:42a handsome man in his early days before the balding although bald heads are held in high regard here
10:52the ball the thought of as wise which of course i can't argue with he's actually quite a good looking
10:59fellow yes quite striking yes exactly but because he's been thinking too much so his
11:05hair like kind of similar oh yes same with me i'm thinking so much all my hair
11:11well seems like you carry heavy responsibility like yeah must have done do you know what it's
11:16actually a very good statue as well it's actually really well done you know because some statues are
11:22sort of i don't know they they don't maybe their look likeness isn't great or the actual proportions
11:28but this is very well done would you like to have a statue of the future i mean who knows you know
11:33wouldn't that be great have a statue of yourself oh my god i don't think i'll get a city named after
11:37myself oh my god no i don't think so maybe a roundabout
11:43that's my first big lesson of being here of learning about what is important to vietnamese people
11:51and it's so much of it is is tied up with him and such a sort of reverence
11:58it's interesting that kk was saying don't try and imitate his pose and i guess that's what
12:04we do as tourists you know but actually it's disrespectful and i can see that you know he's
12:11he's he is after all the bringer of light
12:21whoa i wasn't ready
12:22i had the back of your helmet yeah they like using the horn don't they
12:35okay thank you so much kk it's been fantastic thank you for all your uh information and all your
12:48uh guides guidance and it's been brilliant never mind all that get out of the road you idiot
12:54i've survived this challenge this is not a series about the vietnam war
13:11which has been dealt with exhaustively elsewhere but it is 50 years since the end of the war
13:17and to help me understand what makes vietnam so extraordinary i can't ignore the very thing that
13:23has defined this country for decades and with that in mind i've come to this place the cu chi tunnels
13:30a tourist site now which celebrates the ingenuity of the vietnamese in a conflict that was broadcast
13:36graphically into the world this country is no stranger to attempts on its freedom after a thousand
13:43years of chinese imperial rule french colonization and of course the vietnam war it's no wonder
13:50the people value independence so much i'm here to find out a little of what it was like to have
13:55been a soldier in the viet kong in this brutal battle between north and south vietnam that was
14:00backed by the us as i prepare to head down into the tunnels an experience which is not as it turns out
14:06for the faint-hearted i'm just looking at these rules you should not go down the tunnel in the
14:14following cases visitors who are afraid of darkness and narrow places visitors of old age 70
14:20come on that's not that old visitors who are drunk well yeah fair enough
14:27old drunk people with asthma don't bother don't even bother coming down here
14:34who comes here drunk i know well i'm going to answer that question british tourists
14:40i can just imagine it come on lads let's get out of the tunnels there yeah oh i know i mean they're
14:51pretty well turned out matching scarves and capes imagine it was pretty grim down these tunnels
14:58i like a cape i do like a cape
15:02it's all pretty practical stuff sandals webbing belt water bottle torch
15:09i mean that's what you need for tunnel life quite attractive in a strange kind of way
15:21the coochie tunnels are a complex underground network designed to conceal the vietcong from the enemy
15:31and local expert tin is going to help me navigate these tiny spaces now these tunnels
15:37tunnels originally would have been much smaller wouldn't it today for visiting yeah some part of the
15:43tunnel has been widened for two years right yeah it's about 80 centimeter high by 60 centimeter wide
15:49that's tiny really yeah because uh mostly vietnamese people so skinny you know much smaller yeah smaller yes
15:55yeah do you think i'm too big for this um but it's big enough for for you all right it's comfortable
16:01for your time all right i'll take your word for it be careful your step yeah
16:11i'm hoping to avoid a subterranean freak out trying to comprehend how soldiers survive this dank
16:18claustrophobic space which was remarkably all dug by hand wow this is the well down here yeah you see
16:25the wells oh right yeah 15 meters 15 meters by human power there's no technology it must have been
16:33tough living down here must have been like dark and yes damp and were there like sort of snakes and
16:42rats down here and all sorts of animals yes yeah during the rainy season there are a lot of animal in the
16:47tunnels insects you know centimeters you know yeah yeah and what about um how long did they would they
16:54spend down here uh minimum for a week and maximum for a month without going out and if they were
17:02underground they were at risk from being bombed or shot or seen by the american forces
17:10us army knew the tunnels but they didn't know exactly where tunnel system yeah from aircraft
17:15helicopter the bombing so if us army dropped the heavy bomb local people moved down to second and
17:21third level because our tunnel system included three levels we are on the first level first level not
17:26so deep yeah it's gone deep us there's another two levels yeah below this yeah six meter and ten meter
17:33it's extraordinary this tunnel system which stretches out for hundreds of miles and lots of directions
17:41was crucial in this war of attrition this guerrilla warfare it was kind of instrumental in their eventual victory
17:51this bat is that's amazing there we go whoa to the bat cave
18:05oh
18:09okay right somewhere here yes not being able to find the entrance to the tunnels was a big part of how
18:16effective they were oh my god is that the entrance this is a secret entrance to the tunnels the actual
18:22side of the entrance it's really small yeah 30 by 40 centimeters i think you don't believe how local
18:28people can fit down here then i uh demonstration for you to see how local people get in the tunnels
18:34yeah you have to do like this the camel flash the entrance put some leaf on the cap yeah and make sure
18:40everything from around you like a natural right yeah hold it up
18:47yeah put the cap over your head yeah straight your arm like this and lower your body
18:58gone disappeared amazing it's like a vanishing trick
19:03that's amazing excuse me i'm here oh what hello i'm here
19:13how'd you get there so fast that's incredible
19:20i'm too big to fit down here do you think uh if you want to go may i show you the bigger size
19:24oh yeah thanks i'd like do you have this in a large yeah oh there we go that's more like it
19:30bigger so okay sit down yeah sit down with your left first okay here we go
19:40all right
19:46okay wow okay yeah your hand below the cap
19:51hello here yeah below the cap and now yeah straight your arm yeah straight straight your arm
19:57hold on like this yeah yeah i'm straight straight yeah yeah yeah okay lower your body yeah
20:06all right yes
20:07how was it wow okay huh hand up first yeah put your hand up first yes gosh i mean even this is a tight
20:22squeeze sure i'm not only just about fit in here but this is the wider one yes wow
20:30wow gosh okay i hear you you're saying oh look he's like a tunnel badger who needs to lay off the
20:37brown meat
20:40but in all seriousness the human cost of the war here was overwhelming with around three million
20:46vietnamese dying during what the locals called the american war i mean the americans threw everything at
20:52them i mean they carpet bombed the place from with b52s they dropped napalm they dropped phosphorus
21:01they dropped millions of liters of asian orange this defoliant which just sort of stripped the
21:08landscape of any kind of vegetation and yet they still prevail and but a terrible cost you know that the
21:17lands was was poisoned by this dioxin there's fragments of bombs everywhere it's still the legacy of this war
21:26is still very much around
21:32above ground is very much my preference in general and ho chi min city has much to offer in that regard
21:54on my travels around the world i find it hard to pass any creature feathered or furred without saying hello
22:03hello hello hello don't be like that hey come and say hello yes oh i've always believed if you
22:12really want to understand a place talk to the animals or at least give them a little pet
22:21oh that's nice hello mate hello but wait there's more
22:29oh my word that is a pampered looking pooch this dog's getting a fantastic trim here
22:40hey dog look at it how can i resist that doggy in the window oh
22:50i'm drawn to this salon like an englishman to the midday sun
22:53hello hello hello hello i have many pets i'm practically dr doolittle and this menagerie of fluff
23:04is making me feel right at home oh i love you too it's like the sort of thing that you know
23:09sort of very fancy parisian women might have
23:21wow this is great i do miss my dogs when i'm away oh so any chance i get for a bit of a cuddle i'm not
23:31going to pass up they don't want to they don't want me to put them down i've got this sense that
23:35they want to want to come with me is that right
23:37you know i'm a soft top that's what it is
23:47look into my eyes
23:55what you're trying to tell me something with your mind what you want to come back to london with me
24:00is that what you're saying you're mesmerizing me with your cuteness
24:11i'm totally i don't know who's hypnotizing who here
24:17bye
24:17it's like look at you pampered idiots oh you're getting your ears trimmed are you yeah yeah look at
24:30you vein you're not proper dogs look at me i've got one ear going up one ear going down
24:38there we are as the city settles into early evening i've spotted a group of locals playing this
24:52rather hypnotic game with their feet and i'm thinking this could be the perfect opportunity
24:57to make a fool of myself in public it's called dachau and it's the national street sport of vietnam
25:04and you can play it anywhere all you need is a weighted shuttlecock
25:08and hope that your legs will do what your brain tells it to
25:11lum yuwang is my coach the first is the chicken wing you hit outside of your food
25:17that way you throw to my right i show you so there chicken wait oh okay
25:26like that yeah take it up
25:29no turning no turning
25:36wow i feel like i'm a kung fu fighter learning to juggle with my feet which of course feels
25:42completely natural easy huh when you score you have to park it over the net to the other side
25:48yeah and the feather is done when you hit the rock right right and you need the 15 boy for winning
25:54right 15 and you get it i say similar scoring to badminton so 15 is a set like yeah
26:03i love that the game dates back to the second century bc in china when it was a way to keep
26:08soldiers healthy and entertained i like it it's good fun it's a bit like a hacky sack only with a
26:14shuttlecock a simpler way of playing badminton without a racket which i like i like the idea of it you know
26:21the idea of the idea of simplifying what can be seen as quite an elitist sport into something that
26:27you can just do in the park i can see a future for this polo without the ponies or the sticks or the ball
26:35i should have brought me crocs that would have been better
26:51it's morning in ho chi minh city and like most big cities and me we need a kick start with the
26:57help of a familiar friend cafe vot uses an old-style cloth filtered coffee technique first used in the
27:06early 20th century and here in the city there's only a few practitioners left hello hello hi how you
27:13doing can i get a olive a black coffee black coffee yes please yeah qua is the grandson of two yet who
27:21started making coffee here when she was just six years old my grandmother has opened this like coffee
27:27for 70 years her whole life wow yeah you seem to be doing a good trade do you know yeah people are just
27:36coming past all the time these are like uh usual customers right for me every day making coffee is
27:43like a ritual oh you know i i love good coffee i'm going to give it a go and learn from a master all
27:51right so i get some of this in here all right now so i need to get this spoon out and then i have to get
27:58in here oh how do you yeah oh i see in there right okay in here like that yeah yeah right okay so that
28:09goes back over there right then you you can hold it all right okay so hold it over here you have to
28:18hold it in an angle angle like that there we go look at that there we go that's it there we go
28:30i spilt it a little bit i'm not getting the job as a barista here anytime soon
28:35one coffee anyone want a coffee anyone coffee fresh coffee come on get your coffee
28:44how much is it this is 22 for 22 000 uh oh 25 all right hold on a second so we get three
28:55one two three yeah right there you go okay
28:59i can get used to this why the comedy doesn't work out i'll sell coffee
29:13i had no idea that vietnam is one of the biggest coffee exporters in the world
29:18open 24 7 this place sees a day in the life of sygonese caffeinating the early workers right
29:25through to the party goers at 2am nice to meet you thank you so much i guess in a an age where
29:31you know young people want everything like right then and there you know you want to go to starbucks
29:37or something and get your latte it's really heartening to hear that actually they're rediscovering
29:44this traditional this authentic way of making coffee i thought that was lovely
30:03the bustling streets offer up many unexpected moments of human connection
30:07the street vendors mostly women are mobile merchants of charm and persistence and masters
30:21at selling you things you never knew you needed that's nice okay all right then i'll get these these
30:26ones and a fan can i get a fan i've only got a hundred thousand dong how much do the fan and the
30:33magnets i've got a hundred i've only got a hundred and that would be all right okay i need more dong
30:41can i get a fan all right there you go yeah okay thank you thank you so much good luck oh look at that oh yes
30:57wait wait wait mr darcy all right i have a hard time appearing coquettish these days
31:08as the sun dips the city shifts up a gear food stalls flicker into action markets serve up their
31:15sometimes dubious delights i'm not eating one of them oh my god the streets thrum with life it's not just
31:22noise it's the soundtrack of a city clocking off and coming alive this evening i'm searching for a
31:30spot to quench my thirst on route i've become distracted by the nightly ballet of commuters
31:36i just want to think what what do they all do where are they all going all these little individual
31:43stories of like lives you know there's all manner of things that have been carried you know it's
31:50it's an entire sort of culture of itself everyone's got some purpose they're driving somewhere they've
31:57taken the family they've got the business on the back you know it's an inexpensive way of getting
32:03around quicker to get around through the traffic you know kind of mind-boggling really i'm going to
32:12have another crack at this crossing the road caper
32:16it might leave you asking why did the bill cross the road or more importantly why did he try to cross it
32:26again i'm convinced after a few days here i've nailed it literally everything my parents have told me not
32:35to do blunder out in the traffic i reckon i've earned myself a drink at the local institution
32:47the caravel hotel once a popular wartime correspondence bar
32:54and they do a very good passion fruit sour and now a place to share an intimate moment with novak
33:00that's what i'm just disconcerting isn't it looking right up his trouser leg
33:17on my travels i become fond of a bit of a sketch some people take photos i enjoy drawing the sites
33:25in this case vietnam's national flower you know it's become a symbol of resilience the fact that the
33:34lotus blooms from mud something beautiful can grow in a way it's symbolic of vietnam in many ways this
33:44idea of independence of freedom growing out of something that was a time of great hardship and
33:52you see it around the lotus is a kind of common thread amongst a lot of the visual imagery in the
33:58city there's a big fountain here with the lotus in the middle but you often see it in you know cafes
34:04and the insignia and designs of lots of places i kind of think it's appropriate image of this country
34:10and this city particularly
34:11it's quite difficult to try that because loads of bikes in the way
34:24uncle ho is sort of giving his veneration behind the lotus in front of city hall with the flag gently
34:32fluttering above there's the three words which are sort of almost like bound up with ho
34:38chi minh's kind of philosophy and that that was you know independence freedom happiness and
34:48on these official documents there's a hyphen between each one independence freedom happiness and apparently
34:55some vietnamese mischievously interpret that as a subtraction mark so what that document could be
35:05interpreted as is independence minus freedom minus happiness it's a little bit rascally
35:15but i can see why
35:23i love slowing things down in the middle of a fast-paced city and staying on trend i'm going to post this
35:29picture into the future in old school snail mail style at the saigon central post office a famous
35:36landmark here i shall send this symbol of vietnam to my final destination harlong bay like a time capsule
35:43to test the postal system and to see if it still resonates when it gets there all right that's it he's
35:49there so got the stamp now i just can't post it
35:59that's it it said it's in the post i got my receipt next time i see it will be in harlong bay
36:09i'm getting the feeling that ho chi minh city is a place where the only thing you can expect
36:14is the unexpected and for a lover of the spontaneous that suits me fine this is a place
36:20that looks like a modern thriving city that just wants to get on there's a sense of energy determinism
36:28dynamism about the place look out there's a triceratops coming
36:36sometimes for me staying focused on the job at hand can be hard oh look now you can get little
36:41that you can get little um scooters how much for one of these
36:49oh despite having a schedule to keep to the director is indulging me
36:55yeah we have four minutes to get over there and be able to ferry
36:59it's all right it's sorted all right
37:01it's a lot faster than i thought oh oh sorry oh hang on i'm in the wrong gear
37:29it's all right we have to go
37:39okay let's go
37:43i'm getting the wind up from the crew so i've got to get moving brilliant thank you
37:49yeah we've got to get the boat i was having too much fun on the crazy goat cart
37:55best 50 000 i've ever spent
38:04gliding across the calm of the saigon river offers a moment to reflect on the rhythm of this city
38:11that's constantly reinventing itself i'm heading to meet a local band to experience my first foray
38:17into vietnamese music what will be the sound of this city
38:25i'm heading off for my first experience of contemporary vietnamese music it's exciting
38:31i've got no idea what to expect it wasn't long ago here playing western music would get you arrested
38:37but times have changed and now i'm about to meet a group who are rewriting the rules i've heard about
38:44this local band that blend traditional vietnamese folk music with modern rock so i thought i'd come and
38:55check them out
39:00nan top are an eight member band and one of the trailblazers of the folk rock genre
39:05and i'm fascinated to hear how they fuse authentic vietnamese sounds with contemporary instruments
39:11this band use a mix of traditional ancient instruments with amplified guitars and metal drumming
39:25it seems an incongruous mix but they managed to pull it off wow fantastic amazing wow thank you is this
39:35common in vietnam no nobody play that nobody's a fuck and rock together you're sort of like
39:42you know pioneers really in a way it's just amazing i've never heard anything like it
39:50it's a measure of the progress of the arts here that nam talk are playing this music at all
39:57i really want to ask you a little bit about these traditional instruments this instrument called
40:03dang john dan john dan john yeah and so you you strum here and then what and what are you doing here
40:11you're you're adjusting the pitch oh i see operation so you can have vibrato or you or pitch change right
40:23okay yes wow it's beautiful oh could you explain to me a little bit about this so we call that uh dan
40:45down bow down bow down bow only one string the down bow is an ancient one string zither that has been adapted
40:52and amplified the stem is bent to change the pitch of the string wow
41:01yes yes yes wow amazing it's so difficult to play i mean it takes an enormous amount of skill because
41:15you it's about the you have to feel the where the sound is coming from uh we have a gift for you oh thank
41:24you yeah here we go this is nice vietnamese yeah
41:30this is lovely okay and this is uh the frog okay so yeah it's like a frog like a frog sound right okay
41:41okay so that's him and then this little that's great yes thank you so much we have another song and
41:50you you can try and join i can join in i'll play piano and frog and frog yeah yeah
41:55prepare for a world's first okay vietnamese folk rock bill bailey style
42:04oh
42:13oh
42:19oh
42:27oh
42:29oh
43:00So when are we going on tour?
43:04I'm available, you know.
43:06I can come and jam with you guys any time.
43:09Nam Thong!
43:10Nam Thong!
43:11Nam Thong!
43:14Three, two, one.
43:16Nam Thong and Mill!
43:18Yeah!
43:24I actually love this city.
43:26It's a dynamic, bustling metropolis.
43:29It's full of resourcefulness, full of young people, full of bikes.
43:36Millions and millions of them.
43:38And as a city dweller, I kind of, I love the energy of it.
43:42And it's a place of contrast as well, because let's not forget, you know, 50 years ago, the fall of Saigon is still present in people's memories.
43:53And as I travel throughout this country, I want to find out more about that balance.
43:58A place which acknowledges the past, but is embracing the future.
44:04Next time, on Bill Bailey's Vietnam.
44:10The lofted, verdant hills of Dalat.
44:13Nothing says I love you like 64 knackered flamingos.
44:16My mind's off on a whole bunch of other tangents.
44:20I'm thinking about a sandwich I had in 1982.
44:22?
44:32?
44:33?
44:34?
44:38?
44:45You
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