welcome to my place of dreams. my spirit house. the city of ghosts. ♪

♪ ♪ i took a walk 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 la ♪ sha la la la la ♪ sha la la la la la la

♪ way in central vietnam is someplace i've never been before. but it's still vietnam. where all the things, the smells, the sounds, the details, i love so much. first night in country, it's like sliding into a warm, deeply comforting familiar bath. i've been all over vietnam, a place i feel a special connection to. my first love, a place i remain, besotted with, fascinated by. so back in vietnam, one of my favorite places on earth. and all of the things i need for happiness. plastic stool, tiny little plastic table, check. oh.

something delicious in a bowl. check. in this case a local specialty,com hen, clam rice, sweet clams out of their shells, tossed with a wild swirl, beans, spicy green chillies, crunchy roasted peanuts, fried pork rind, and cilantro. and a similar variation with rice noodles. that fish sauce with chilies in it, and oh, that'll just singe your eyebrows off. chilies in. hit with hot clam broth, and you're on your way. i'm back. back in vietnam. grin for the duration. a giddy, silly, foolish man beyond caring. and a cold local beer.

my preferred brand. ahhh. clams with pork cracklings. how could that not be good? this is the way so many of the great meals of my life have been enjoyed. sitting in the street, eating something out of a bowl that i'm not exactly sure what it is. scooters going by. [ horns honking ] so delicious. i feel like an animal. where have you been all my life? fellow travelers, this is what you want. this is what you need. this is the path to true happiness and wisdom. ♪

[ singing in foreign language ] located on the north and south banks of the perfume river in central vietnam, mountains behind, sea ahead, an arrangement determined by criteria both military and spiritual. for 143 years, way was the seat of power for the dynasty which ruled the entire country until the late 1800s when the french started taking power and land under their control. the french allowed the imperial throne to rule nominally the center of the country, until the end of world war ii in 1945.

hue has been celebrated for its dynastic architectures since the early 1800s, vast palaces, pagodas, and tombs. the center is wealth of the intellectual, artists, and spiritual life of the country. ♪ oh yeah, that's tempting. around here somewhere. this is dong ba market, and deep inside, somewhere in there is what i want. my way of thinking, in the

hierarchy of delicious, slurpee stuff in a bowl, it is at the very top. he is an author and journalist that spent much of his childhood in hue. >> if i'm going to die or go to prison and they were going to give me a last meal, this would be it. >> let's do it, man. >> here he creates an elaborate broth of mixed bones scented with a lemon grass, spice, and fermented shrimp paste. at the bottom, rice noodles garnished, heaped with tender slow cooked beef shank, pig's foot, crabmeat dumplings, and blood cake. garnished with lime wedge, cilantro, green onions, shredded banana blossoms, it's a wonder of flavor and texture. the greatest soup in the world. look at that, man, that is just unbelievable. blood cake.

>> blood cake. >> the sauce. i want to see how much he put in there. >> you have to make it look really red in there, it has to be blood red. >> and the broth is wonderful. people are put on earth for various purposes, i was put on earth to do this. eat noodles right here. >> when i was a kid, we used to tell each other, do not take a date to go out to eat, if you start sweat, your hair stick up. >> really? i would definitely bring a date to this, if she doesn't like this, there's no hope of a relationship. >> exactly. >> if she said i don't know, there's icky stuff in there, that would be a relationship-ender for me. i'm not kidding. >> here you are having it in a market like this. she makes this like in new york, it would be a real cuisine. >> it's just sophisticated a bowl of food as any french restaurant.

it really is the, just the top of the mountain. how long has she been here? >> she started out when she was 12. >> you live in a great country, man, any country that could produce this is a superpower, as far as i'm concerned. i'm getting down to the pepper residue. how long does that broth have to simmer to get good? [ speaking foreign language ] >> an hour. >> wow, really? i would have guessed like 14 hours. yum. happy. nice burny feeling on my lips, flop sweat, check. happy. so, we can pretty much cancel the rest of the show. i've achieved the, my happy zone. it's really all down hill from here. turn the trips you have to take,

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♪ my oldest friend in vietnam, lin. originally assigned to translate, the guide, to escort, and to report on me back in 2000 when i first came to this country. how are you, brother? >> my brother. >> good to see you. his responsibilities to his employers have never been an impediment to our friendship. we meet where you pick your own seafood out of the tank, and you cook it yourself. you really do look exactly the same. you look good. >> yeah? >> oh yeah. >> no trace of time on your face. >> my hair is white, i have lines on my face. i look completely different in 2000. >> people told me the sea food is from the lagoon over here.

it is one of the biggest ones in southeast asia. >> i'm going for some eel. season with lemon grass, green chilly and pepper, drizzle with house special sauce, grill over charcoal and dig in. >> i have the picture with you. >> you have some old photos? oh, look at me, come on. i look like my young son, look at that, i look 30 years younger. >> my son. ming. >> he's now 17. >> oh my god, he's going to college soon. wow. this is the island of mr. sang. >> yes, on the bay. >> hanoi. oh my god, look at that. we look cool. we totally look cool here. but does everybody fall in love with the country like i did? i came here, and it stole my heart. you know. >> i think it's a very good meeting point.

but in the past, it was over, and now is a new time. >> mm. wow, that's great. dude, that's pretty spicy. perfect with beer. >> we need more drinks. >> lobster from the south china sea. give it a nice haircut table side, and it's perfect. >> sweet. >> sweet, just like i remember. >> yeah. >> yep. sentimental guy. >> sometimes at work i try to be serious, and i just think about work, but i don't know why, when i think about you, i think about drinking and getting something good to eat. one more cheer. >> good to see you again, my friend. its been a long time since my

old friend and i met. a hell of a lot of road with this guy. ♪ one of the great joys of life is riding a scooter through vietnam. to be part of this mysterious, thrilling, beautiful choreography. thousands upon thousands of people, families, friends, lovers, each an individual story glinsed for a second or two in passing, sliding alongside, pouring like a torrent through the city. a flowing, gorgeous thing. as you ride, you not only see, but overhear a hundred intimate

moments in miniature. you smell wonderful unnamed things cooking. issuing from storefronts and food stalls. the sounds of beeping, laughing. announcements from speakers, the putt putt and roar of a million tiny engines. hue's place in history long regarded as the heart of the imperial dynasty, changed forever during the vietnam war. ♪ [ gunfire and explosions ] in 1968, hue became the site of some of the most bitter fighting of the war.

during the lunar new year, usually there was a cessation of hostilities, more than 100 cities all over south vietnam were attacked by the north vietnamese and vc. hue quickly fell. you have seen these images. it was footage like this that turned finally a great part of the american public against the war. the u.s. marines fought house to house to retake the city. a vicious three and a half week long battle. eventually, artillery and air support were called in. the city was saved. and of course, largely destroyed in the saving. the civilian population caught in the cross fire were equally devastated. the north vietnamese to their enduring shame had while

controlling the city, rounded up anyone seen as a potential enemy and either disappeared them away to unknown prisons or killed them outright. most notoriously when they massacred almost 3,000 people, rolling them, many of them still alive in a mass graves in and around hue. he knows full well the horrors and heartbreak of that time. in his memoir, where the ashes are, the odyssey of an american family, he captures the terror of a nine-year-old boy, the son of a high ranking civil servant caught up in the nightmare of war. where were you in 1968? >> i was at the place where it's now a hotel. my parents were staying there, we were staying there, we were surrounded during the night, we didn't even know. my father looked out the window and thought it was south vietnamese soldiers. everybody was surprised. in those days, we thought of the

war that was something happening out in the battlefields and the mountains, out in the countryside. and all the sudden, we come here, and there's the flag of the national liberation front, and to see that was complete shock. we stayed for a week in the basement, and the american soldiers came. by that time they marched my father away, the north vietnamese soldiers, we didn't know where he was taken to and we had no idea whether he was alive or not. my mother went out to the mass graves and she saw the bodies and she said i can't go there and look for him. ♪ >> a lot of people died here. >> you cannot help thinking about these people who died when they're young, who died for no reason. who just got caught in the fire fights. we have the day of the dead here, the day of the souls, and we honor those who are not buried within their home village, and are not taken care

of, their spirits are not taken care of. there are families here who don't have a death date. which is huge, a death anniversary in the vietnamese is when you do the ceremonies, you pay attention to the dead. you can't do that if you don't know when they really died. you just assume those people are just never liberated, spiritually, that they are stuck in that space. it was like that for my father because he was in prison, we had no news from him. you couldn't set up an altar. you just hoped that he was alive. ten, 12, 15 of your friends are going out and doing things, you just had that weight on you that your father is somewhere imprisoned or in the jungles. and that stuff stayed with me for 40 years in my mind. i don't know how many vietnamese have that kind of experience. at the same time, i come back to

hue, my hometown, my family's hometown, i'm glad people are alive, people are living, things are happening, things are changing. we need to let the country open up and let the people have a moment of enjoyment, have a better life. >> i mean, obviously i'm an outsider, but it seems to me as a casual observer, you can survive anything. >> that's what my brother reminds me when i used to get upset about things happening in vietnam. he said look, it survived 4,000 years. it will do okay. when you ask me to be hopeful, i am hopeful. it's a young country. it's a young population. it's energetic and that drives me, that gives me hope that makes me young, that makes me to want believe in this country. and this town. such a wonderful place to be.

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she is a painter and something of a throwback, an

anomaly, a creature from another earlier time in the life of the one time imperial city. she lives in an area called the hill, in a magnificently restored compound. these traditional wooden houses were once part of the regal style with slope grooves to handle all the rainy hue weather. but most importantly, they feature a garden at the center, which follows the eastern philosophy that all things originate from a single source, and expand in all directions. since the loss of her beloved son, she's lived here. surrounded by her garden and her art. occasionally, she invites guests and friends. there's duck, writer and food blogger, lon, art collector, and phillipe. >> this is also a gallery?

>> yes, i design and my people work. >> she also cooks, magnificently from a repertoire of imperial hue dishes numbering over 100. back in dynastic time, the emperors demanded varieties in wives, in whom sometimes they would have over 100, and in food. the menus of the 19th century boasted new dishes every night. small, flavorful, and beautifully presented. and that culinary tradition continues today. how much of that persists? those imperial roots that need for variety? >> yes, the tradition has stayed, and it will stay forever here to cook all these different things all the time. >> we start with bird's nest soup. a delicacy to which i am usually immune.

this one is unusually flavorful. these are swallow's nests from high up on cliffs. they're soaked in water, cooked in chicken stock, and served with crab meat. lotus seeds are a symbol of purity, nobility and patience from a nearby lake. steamed. crab roe is mixed with red onion, pepper, and seasoning and added to the soup. and simmered. [ speaking foreign language ] >> the symbolic and health aspects of many of these dishes not to be overlooked. this is fantastic. lovely. how does hue differ from the rest of vietnam? >> a wonderful architecture, and very quiet people.

if you stay some time in hue, after some day you feel quiet, you take your time. [ speaking foreign language ] >> it is a traditional dish that's seldom made these days because of the complexity and the time needed to do it right. a fish stock is made from a fish from the perfume river. pineapples, onion, chilies, shallots, and coriander. a salad of quickly cooked prongs, rice noodles, ginger, red chili, garlic.

layer of rice noodle, banana flower, then the prongs, garnishes. the strained fish stock is brought to the table with the salad in separate bowls and combined just before eating. >> spicy for you? >> no, it's good. i love it. >> it is very spicy. >> oh no, i like it. what i found when i first came to the this part of the world, vietnam in particular, my pallet changed, i need and elevated level of chilies and heat. much of vietnamese cooking abides by principles of ying and yang. heat and cold. this one a lobster dish with five spices balances the coldness of the lobster with the heat of the spices. red onion ginger, lemongrass is

added to cook the lobster. once the lobster's cooked, it's presented in a bowl of lime leaves. and the stock is poured over it. whoa. that's beautiful. we're getting into this with our hand, i'm guessing. i like this. beautiful. >> the winter here is unbelievable, it's very -- here is unbelievable, very cold and wet. that's why we have chili to keep us warm. >> spoils all of with us a succession of dishes. but the past as it often does in a place like this, intrudes. >> hue, it's dealt with a lot of suffering. the people are very withdrawn in some ways.

smiling, but of course as they remember everything. they have to remember the war in 1968. i was visiting my grandfather's house, and i got goose bumps because i knew during the war in 1968 lots of people were killed. and they were buried on all the sidewalks there. and i'd walk around there and i feel it. it's dark, it's somber, and the history is there. >> my mom, she never wanted me to go home after like 10:00. she get angry if i got home at 11:00 or something. i tried to go home very early. >> riding a boat along the river, you sort of feel there are things living in the water and in the trees and in the darkness out there. ♪

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♪ know your enemy they say. know who it is you're facing out there. who are they? why do they fight? what are they willing to endure in the furtherance of their cause? these one would think are simple questions, useful in any conflict.

meet the enemy. okay. he was only an infant during our nine year long war, but his experience should be instructive. [ speaking foreign language ] >> in 1965, the united states initiated a sustained bombing campaign called rolling thunder. hoping to destroy an elusive enemy in villages like this one. vinh moc which was less than 20 miles from marine fire bases just south of the dmz. this is where he was born. as the target of frequent bombings, the village of vinh moc moved underground. up to 100 feet down into darkness.

[ speaking foreign language ] >> the villagers carved over 5,000 feet of tunnels out of the earth. creating a complex that would house all 90 families of vinh moc. 13 entrances and exits leading from the inland to the beach. showing me through the labyrinth. born in hue during wartime, she since moved to the dmz to work as a guide. how did they dispose of all of this earth at rock without revealing the tunnels? >> the craters, the craters were everywhere on the landscape of the moon, and you know, the dirt of the craters are so fresh, look new, so they just left them there. >> this was the maternity ward where he was born. where did people sleep? >> they have sleeping places. just like this, but smaller. two square meters only, just

enough to put a bed. [ speaking foreign language ] >> how long did it take to build? >> 20 months of digging. >> 20 months of digging. by hand. >> with shovels and hoes. the farmer dug with their tools. >> right. >> under the bombing. >> while the bombing is going on, they're down here digging this out. [ speaking foreign language ] >> wow. how many children here? [ speaking foreign language ] >> how did they play?

[ speaking foreign language ] >> so much of the time you were in total darkness. >> yeah. >> you can't see your mother. >> some people say that even when the parents, you know, fit the children, they need to touch their face and find their mouth and feed them. >> wow. children played here. but people also emerged from these tunnels to kill or cripple americans. to shoot them, to plant booby traps, and that's what they did. six years in darkness. and at the end of the war, the people of vinh moc emerged from the darkness. and what did they do?

what was that like after living in darkness for so long? what was it like to come out and be able to spend the rest of his life in the sun? [ speaking foreign language ]

>> thank you, wow, ready. >> thank you. >> looks kind of like a mackerel. good. >> good? >> yeah. >> really? >> yes. >> last question, hypothetical, if the french or the japanese, or the americans, suddenly decided they wanted for some reason to come back, would he fight? [ speaking foreign language ] >> that's different. >> they're all welcome if they're tourists.

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♪ there are particular sounds that come with waking up in rice country. at lat goon however, early morning is the end of the workday. as fishermen who have been out on the water tie up close to

shore and sell their catch in the early mist. ♪ i'm meeting up for lon for what he has promised is a very tasty snack. it is set back from a quiet lane in the outskirts of town. it's a neighborhood place specializing in this. little pancake-like things made of rice flour, steamed in molds, and topped with crispy fried shallots and crumbled fried shrimp.

show me how you eat this. >> i have this when i was a little girl. so you try to pick it up like this. >> right. i got it. just cut around the edge here. >> i feel so clumsy. its been a while. >> fold it over. oh it just -- mm. this is great. >> this is so nostalgic to me. when i was younger, my mom asked me to make a noon nap. she said if i take a noon nap, i will buy you some. so i would sit there waiting with an etchty dish waiting. >> waiting for her, with a dish, empty dish waiting for her. >> what are they eating in the

banana leaf? are we having one of those, too? >> everything. >> oh, yeah, there's tapioca wrapped like a tamale in a banana leaf, then steamed. >> so in vietnam you learn how to wrap the thing and unwrap the things. >> i'm watching you. let's get this right. >> you're doing it right. i think you're an expert. >> so this is shrimp? >> uh-huh. >> pick it up and dip, right? very nice. >> uh-huh, nice. >> they're pretty, too. >> you call this type of eating

enchoi. it's not a main meal, it's snacking? >> yeah. >> this is a delicious marriage of fried and sticky rice dumplings. it starts with frying the paste in cooking oil. then unpeeled shrimp are stuffed into dough. place the chewy part with the crunchy part and sprinkle with chop fried shrimp. >> oh, wow. that looks awesome. what is underneath there? >> rice paste. >> okay. >> it's nice and greasy. i love it. anybody would love this. it's soft and crispy, crunchy. delicious.

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♪ last ride a few miles out of town, whip across the rice paddies. just getting from here to there in this part of the world, it's pure pleasure.

♪ i'm meeting my friends for a country lunch. what is the specialty at this restaurant? you say chicken baked in clay? >> yes. >> another friend in the past, lin, lon and a new friend from hue. a last meal, some goodbyes. >> normally people come to hue and stay only one or two nights. what is your impressions? >> it's very laid back. the food is great. it's pretty. there's a lot to see. it's a perfect place to go if you want to take your time. it's beautiful.

food's coming. out here, there are a lot of dishes like this. fill a chicken with lemon grass, then cover it with mud clay from the nearby rice paddies. unwrap, section with cheers. serve with a little lime and salt, make some chili sauce. that's good. some unexpected last words. >> on behalf of the people of hue, thank you for coming. >> thank you for having me. >> we wish you have blessed trip, safe, sound and success. >> thank you. >> i learn many things from american. i still remember some poems.

i can send it. sometimes after i drink a lot of beer. [ reciting poetry kren [ reciting poetry ] >> bravo. >> so we wish you have a good trip, a good fly. will you come back after you return back to new york? >> i'm come back to vietnam, always. cheers, everybody. thank you for all of your help.

>> cheers all the time. ♪ >> this is what came out of the ground, out of the jungle, the darkness when it was all over. and this is what they did. ♪ -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

♪ there's a place in america where for decades people farmed the land. everyone knew each other, and the pace was slow. and then -- almost overnight, things changed. it's all because of something found deep underground. something that brought men from every corner of america. they've come by the thousands to extract it from the earth.