Got a couple hours of sleep on my favorite bench in the Saigon airport before it was time to check in. Luckily b/c of my job at sapidyne where I got to fly all the time for work, I am a 1k star gold member on united and the star alliance, which means you get to hang out and enjoy the 1st class business lounges while you wait for flights. These always include good free food and unlimited free beer, cocktails, and spirits. So I made sure to indulge at the star alliance lounge in saigon.
From Saigon I had a short 2.5 hour flight to Hong Kong where I had a decent layover. I first checked out the united red carpet club there and stocked up on some american food and beer before heading out to the Thai airways (smooth as silk) royal orchid lounge. Thai is a member of star alliance and I know that the thais have a tendancy to spoil people. And I was right. The other lounges are all fancy and luxurious, but this was beyond that. Had some good thai food (and some cereal!) the got a massage from the massage chair, did a bit of a work out on the elliptical machine, and then took a nice hot shower before relaxing in a comfy chair and doing some internetting with a thai cocktail.
My next flight was from Hong Kong to San Fran and took 11 hours. I sat next to a middle aged business man from san diego who was just blown away by the fact I had been in se asia for a year. He said he wished he had done that and just kept exclaiming how amazing it was. He suggested I do at least one more before going to the real world (my sentiments exactly) though also told me an all to true joke: What do you call a person with a bachelor's degree in biology? Unemployed. Though apparently I'm easy to pick out as a biologist. For those of you who have been abroad, you undoubtedly remember the customs form that you have to fill out. With all the questions that you usually answer no to: are carrying any disease agents, any fruits or vegetables, currency greater than US 10,000, any drugs, etc. Well there are the two questions that ask if you have been on a farm or in close contact with livestock. B/c there is no way of knowing, I think most people just answer no to those so they can speed through customs, not really understanding that all those questions are set up to protect us in the US and not just to cause hassle in the airport. Well knowing the biological consequences of bringing diseases into our country (wiping out crops or animals) or ecological damages (those in boulder county are all too aware of the havoc that new zealand mud snails are doing on the creeks in the area), I checked yes on those. So it did mean I had to go to some special line where they disinfected my shoes (gave them a nice shine) and anything else I had that may have touched dirt or mud. They were all very nice and appreciated me being honest and checking those. They asked if was a biologic science major b/c they said it is usually only those that voluntarily check yes on those forms.
In San Fran I settled into the red carpet club before my 3ish hour long flight to Denver. I slept pretty hard so I don't really know how long it was, but I was woken up with a jolt when the pilot came on the intercom as we were preparing to land and said that the current temperature at DIA was a balmy -7F.
I was easy to pick out by my mom b/c I was the only one in the area code wearing shorts and also had an asian cone hat on. Had a happy greeting with my mom and then rolled outside to the parking lot full of blowing snow, subarus, and below zero temps. I guess the low that day at been to -16F. The low in Saigon had been 85F. The high in Denver -2F, the High in Saigon 97F with 99% humidity.
On the way through Estes Park, mom treated me to Taco Bell. Mmmm! It was good to be back home, if not cold! Gave the papa bear a big hug and then went downstairs after some more food to watch jay leno and some sportscenter.
Recouperated and tried to stay warm for a couple days. Got more into the swing of things today and went out with mom to cut ourselves a Christmas tree. Drove out into a snowy road into the national forest and then traped through the snow before we finally found a nice one we liked. Tonight after some pizza (very difficult to eat with chopstix let me tell ya) we sat down to watch the snow village and listen to a concert a la Reg. Tomorrow heading down to Denver for a big Christmas concert at the buell theatre and then a fancy dinner in LoDo.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Vietnamese Sahara
12/7 Took a late flight from Hanoi to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City)where I arrived around 12:30. Slept at the airport and then took a bus in the morning to Mui Ne for a day trip. I met a really nice security guard at the bus station who went around showing me all his favorite things to eat for breakfast and helping me find my bus. When he found out I was American he was all excited saying how great a country the USA is. He asked me, "did you know we were once enemies? Not anymore now. I talk to many americans!" This was actually the first vietnamese that had brought up the American war (as it's known everywhere outside of n. america) without me asking something about it And as I had come to find, still no one with hard feelings. The interesting thing about vietnam is that although we may have lost the war, it appears as though we won overall. Everywhere you look are American products, chains, movies, tv, freedoms, and ideas. Vietnam appears to be full steam capitalist with only communism as a name. Everyone is out trying to make a buck, or a dong...or as many millions of dongs as they can (1 USD= 20,000 dong). Hung, my motorbike guide was saving up to start his own business, something I'm pretty sure you wouldn't find in a communist society.
The book had said that the trip from Saigon to Mui Ne was supposed to take 2.5 hours, but it took 5! But I still had plenty of time b/c check in wasn't until 4am the next morning. So I rented a motorbike (a sweet fully manual old bmw), and took off to explore the area which is known for its fish sauce plant and sand dunes. My first stop was a fishing village where I scratched my head at the completely circular boats that they had. Seemed like not the best boat design to decrease water drag. But I guess it's been working for thousands of years.
Rode on to the red sand dunes, which you got it, are some dunes made of red sand. Climbed up to the top and then went back to the bike to ride the 30k's to the white sand dunes. The drive along the coast was very scenic, though blustery with sand blowing around. The desolate, hot, and dusty landscape made me think of how I imagined the dust bowl to be, especially after having passed a huge cemetary just placed in the middle of nowhere amongst plants that looked like sage. But then I saw the towering white sand dunes in the distance, glowing out of the stark landscape with a shimmering lake below them. These dunes were much larger and more spectacular. It was a bit of a rough and 4wd road to get to them. I spent a couple hours hiking around them and up to the tallest one. Once back at my bike, 3 of the boys who work there renting sleds to slide down the dunes with asked if I could give them a ride back to their village. Why not? I put one up against the handlebars up front and two behind me (plus I still had my pack on). It was just like the typical asian soccer mom van that you see all around: a mom driving (always talking on the phone, with a baby on the front and 2 kids on the back, and perhaps a live chicken strapped on for dinner. I put on my asian face mask (to keep out the sand and dust) and took off. A little ways down the road some tourists had crashed on the wild road. People were there helping them, so I continued past them. All the bystanders gave me quite the quizzical look. A white guy, with four vietnamese children crammed on, wearing a face mask, and driving an old school bike (most of the tourists rent the typical scooter or semi automatic motorbike). It was like I was asian, and after 364 days, I sure as heck should have looked and acted like one.
On the way back I stopped at the red sand dunes to watch the sunset where I met Safrie a nice indonesian who had gone to the savannah college of art and design, a big CofI swimming rival.
Back at Mui Ne at 6pm, I found out that the last bus to Saigon had left at 5pm. Well there was one that left at 2am, but it arrived at 6am to saigon, and I needed to be at the airport by 4am for check in. Everyone said that there were no more busses. But this is Asia, and I certainly didn't believe this. I told them that there must be busses running along the major highway that starts in hanoi, goes through Da Nang and Nha Trang. They said probably so. So I took a motorbike out to the highway and also took with me a sing with Saigon written on it in case I had to hitch hike b/c I am sure there would be plenty of traffic on the highway. After a few minutes, the first public bus came by. It was 8pm, which meant I had 7 hours plus 1 hour allowed for a taxi to the airport to get to saigon. Considering the direct bus had taken 7 hours but had lots of traffic, I would make it. But I got on the bus and it was terribly slow. Every asian bus I have been in has a driver that drives like crazy. But not this one. featherfoot. Add that to stopping for bathroom breaks, a meal, and picking up and dropping off people, and I was getting quite worried that I would make it. Believe me, I was timing how fast we were doing 25km segments (it was exactly 200km (124miles) from mue ni to saigon. It was starting to look like it would be very close. I didn't want to risk it, so at one of the food breaks, I stood by the highway and flagged down a fast moving minivan. It had room for me and was glad to take some dong to take me, actually neary the airport. Ended up getting dropped off around midnight at some random point in saigon and with plenty of time. So I sat down for my last meal in South East Asia!! Had two bowls of Pho and 2 bottles of saigon brew.
The book had said that the trip from Saigon to Mui Ne was supposed to take 2.5 hours, but it took 5! But I still had plenty of time b/c check in wasn't until 4am the next morning. So I rented a motorbike (a sweet fully manual old bmw), and took off to explore the area which is known for its fish sauce plant and sand dunes. My first stop was a fishing village where I scratched my head at the completely circular boats that they had. Seemed like not the best boat design to decrease water drag. But I guess it's been working for thousands of years.
Rode on to the red sand dunes, which you got it, are some dunes made of red sand. Climbed up to the top and then went back to the bike to ride the 30k's to the white sand dunes. The drive along the coast was very scenic, though blustery with sand blowing around. The desolate, hot, and dusty landscape made me think of how I imagined the dust bowl to be, especially after having passed a huge cemetary just placed in the middle of nowhere amongst plants that looked like sage. But then I saw the towering white sand dunes in the distance, glowing out of the stark landscape with a shimmering lake below them. These dunes were much larger and more spectacular. It was a bit of a rough and 4wd road to get to them. I spent a couple hours hiking around them and up to the tallest one. Once back at my bike, 3 of the boys who work there renting sleds to slide down the dunes with asked if I could give them a ride back to their village. Why not? I put one up against the handlebars up front and two behind me (plus I still had my pack on). It was just like the typical asian soccer mom van that you see all around: a mom driving (always talking on the phone, with a baby on the front and 2 kids on the back, and perhaps a live chicken strapped on for dinner. I put on my asian face mask (to keep out the sand and dust) and took off. A little ways down the road some tourists had crashed on the wild road. People were there helping them, so I continued past them. All the bystanders gave me quite the quizzical look. A white guy, with four vietnamese children crammed on, wearing a face mask, and driving an old school bike (most of the tourists rent the typical scooter or semi automatic motorbike). It was like I was asian, and after 364 days, I sure as heck should have looked and acted like one.
On the way back I stopped at the red sand dunes to watch the sunset where I met Safrie a nice indonesian who had gone to the savannah college of art and design, a big CofI swimming rival.
Back at Mui Ne at 6pm, I found out that the last bus to Saigon had left at 5pm. Well there was one that left at 2am, but it arrived at 6am to saigon, and I needed to be at the airport by 4am for check in. Everyone said that there were no more busses. But this is Asia, and I certainly didn't believe this. I told them that there must be busses running along the major highway that starts in hanoi, goes through Da Nang and Nha Trang. They said probably so. So I took a motorbike out to the highway and also took with me a sing with Saigon written on it in case I had to hitch hike b/c I am sure there would be plenty of traffic on the highway. After a few minutes, the first public bus came by. It was 8pm, which meant I had 7 hours plus 1 hour allowed for a taxi to the airport to get to saigon. Considering the direct bus had taken 7 hours but had lots of traffic, I would make it. But I got on the bus and it was terribly slow. Every asian bus I have been in has a driver that drives like crazy. But not this one. featherfoot. Add that to stopping for bathroom breaks, a meal, and picking up and dropping off people, and I was getting quite worried that I would make it. Believe me, I was timing how fast we were doing 25km segments (it was exactly 200km (124miles) from mue ni to saigon. It was starting to look like it would be very close. I didn't want to risk it, so at one of the food breaks, I stood by the highway and flagged down a fast moving minivan. It had room for me and was glad to take some dong to take me, actually neary the airport. Ended up getting dropped off around midnight at some random point in saigon and with plenty of time. So I sat down for my last meal in South East Asia!! Had two bowls of Pho and 2 bottles of saigon brew.
Friday, December 11, 2009
Motorbike touring through northern Nam to China
12/2 After my walk around hanoi in the morning, I met my motorbike guide, Hung, and the owner of mototours asia. We sat down for some green tea before taking off. This was to be a for real motorbike tour. Not one of those wimpy ones on a scooter or a semi-automatic bike. No, this one was on an old soviet minske bike. Fully manual, no gauges like odometer, fuel, etc. We got decked out in motorbike pants and a motorbike jacket, loaded up saddle bags and headed off. It took us an hour to get out of hanoi, and it was one of the most exciting and nervewracking thing I have done. You remember in a previous blog me describing how crazy the traffic was. Well I went into it headon. Good thing Lucas had taught, way back in the Philippines when he burned his leg, me how to drive a manual or I could have been in trouble. Of course the good news is that the other drivers are so skilled it didn't matter if I didn't know the rules (or the unrules) of the road. But before long I was weaving in and out with no problem.
The first day was mainly just driving on flat roads through the red river valley. We passed lots of countryside and agriculture and women working in the field sporting the infamous conical vietnamese hat. Just like the vietnam that you always think of. For lunch we had dog bbq. Yep, that's right, DOG bbq! I asked the name of the dog, and it was little Fluffy. Just kidding! They actually have farms for dogs, just like we have for chickens or cows or pigs. Crazy as it was, it was one of the best meat dishes I had eaten in Asia. Truth is, in all liklihood,I had eaten dog before in asia b/c it's a common food and lots of times when ordering things from pots set out by street vendors, you just point and then eat it. You try and figure out what it is, but usually they don't know english, and our english sounds for farm animals (moo, quack, oink, baa-a, ruff) aren't the same in their language. So you just eat it. Probably have eaten horse, snake, lizards, and other such things as well.
This motorbike trip was actually one of the best tours I had done in Asia. And one of the great things was the food. For lunch Hung always took me out to a local joint and ordered a plethora of things. Instead of the attempt at "western" asian food (what I mean by this is asian food that guides always assume is the only thing we can eat like fried rice or noodles and beef or the like), he ordered very vietnamese food, and not just the food they had out for display, but ones only a vietnamese would know how to order. Also had some other unusual things like chicken feet, fish poppers, duck embryos. Also at every lunch we had other people in the restaurant come up and offer to buy me beers and rice wine. We'd usually accept a couple, but then as we had to drive, we'd decline the rest. The locals were always so interested in me and they'd come up to talk (translating through hung with his excellent english)...and just so friendly. I of course had worried a bit about hard feelings towards me as an american visiting a country they we fought, bombed the heck out of, and is still suffering the effects of agent orange. But this was pointless worry. They loved americans and were so happy to meet me, shake my hands, share some rice wine with. SOme of the homestay people had maps and wanted me to show them all the nice places of america. (my version of the nice places of american probably differs just somewhat from most: Estes Park, Stanley Idaho, Jackson hole and the geysers, the grand canyon, the big trees of california, moab, aspen, etc). You could just see in their friendly eyes their true interest and enjoyment with talking to me. And always offering me rice wine, beer, and green tea (which is their social after meal drink that is drunk at a different table than where the meal is. It's also a welcome drink at homes and a drink to share when you meet new people). And Hung was really great b/c he would do a great job of translating and when we'd meet teachers or other educated people, he wouldn't let them speak in vietnamese for basic english conversation. On this trip I really felt like I got to know a lot of the people. But even on my little bit of independent travel I did get to do while in vietnam, I found the locals so nice. Always willing to help me out or just go out of their way to try and offer me the better spot (for my long legs) on the bus, or get me to the right bus, etc.
Each night we stayed at the home of a hill tribe minority group. The ethnicity of vietnamese makes up 90% of the population of vietnam. The rest of the 10% is made up of westerners and the minority tribes in the north such as the tay, white tay, black tay, and hmong. They each have very distinct dress, languages, and houses. The homestays were great. They would cook an amazing meal and we'd have an unlimited amount of rice wine. As is tradition, you first get out the rice wine, where you take little shots and saying jesuquay before taking it. In the Tay minority they'd also shake hands after each shot and say howmaydo (thankyou in Tay). You'd take several shots of the rice wine before it was time to start eating and then continue while eating and then after eating until it was time for the green tea. With the first family they brought out a 1.5L old coke bottle of rice wine. I was really feeling it when we finally finished it, and I was quite relieved, but then, the father went back and brought out a whole other bottle! At first I thought the rice wine stuff was only being done for me as the tourist, but he said they always do it, and it's true that I would notice everyone in the restaurants with their bottle of rice wine. One of the really great things about this trip and the homestays was that the family would eat dinner with us and then attempt to talk to us via hung the interpreter. And I was actually staying right in their house, so with them all the time. I have done quite a lot of homestays on this trip and with most of them you stay in some specially built shack for tourists or on their deck. Rarely inside the actual home. And also usually the family doesn't eat with you, and neither does the guide b/c they instead eat their everyday local food and give the tourists that western asian food I was talking about. So I really felt like I got attached to the family and got to know them.
The first night we stayed in a little village called Ton Tra with a white tay minority family who were farmers. They lived in stilted houses that could be open to the air in the summer or closed up in the winter (which it was now) for warmth. That night the vietnam soccer team was playing thailand in their first pool game of the SEA games. The South East Asian equivalent of the olypmics. They're the two best teams in SEA, so it was a tough match with plenty of rice wine that ended in a 1-1 draw. We woudl also along the trip watch the next 3 games as the vietnamese were really into their soccer. Amazingly Conrad and Whitney who were flying out of Vientiane, Laos where the SEA games were being held attended the Vietnam/Thai game and I'm assuming were rooting for vietnam as well since in their pictuers they were wearing red shirts with big yellow stars.
On day 2 we headed out on a small dirt single track to check out a lake. We then continued further north through more rural areas and some hills. This was the start, but definitely not the end of endless children running out to wave and shout hello. They loved to come bounding out to shout hello. But even all the women endlessly walking or pushing bicycles on the road carrying loads of agricultural stuff would smile and wave. And all the highschoolers on bicycles going back and forth from class (it always seemed like they were going back and forth from class) would come say a bold hello and then run back away shy and giggling to their friends. And of course the men sitting drinking beer or just hanging about would wave and smile. You'd hear shouts from high up on the hills or high up on buildings as you'd go by. And anyone passing you on a motorbike would slow down to wave and smile. I just loved all that. I don't think they get many westerners in the area b/c it's far of the tourist track. In the whole 6 days on the trip I didn't see a single westerner. Mix all the friendly locals with the great scenery and the unique little agricultural fields and villages and it was just great riding. That night we stayed in a Hmong minority house on the shores of Ba Be lake. Of course had a great meal and plenty of rice wine.
On day 3 we did a couple hour boat ride on Ba Be lake in Ba Be national park checking out the mountain and jungle scenery and watching monkeys along the lake shore. Today was a day of riding over big mountain passes with amazing scenery in order to get to the town of Cao Bang. From Cao Bang it was a short ride over another pass and into a magical land of towering limestone karsts and rice paddies and little villages. Of course this unique landscape came with so many smiling and waving people. It was like travelling back in time to days gone by. There was absolutely not machines save for a few passing motorbikes on the road. Water buffalo were used to plow the field, all the harvested crops (along with anything else imaginable) was carted off on bicycles or on shoulder yokes carried by the women. All the fields were being handwatered by people carrying large buckets on shoulder yokes. Definitely no irrigation here. And no tractors to help harvest the various things. Just huge groups of people. The students coming in on their bicycle would soon join the group working out in the fields. Old women were in the little huts cooking on fires. It really looked like something out of the middle ages or 16th century china or something. I just really loved riding through here b/c it was so unique and the karst scenery so absolutely amazing. If you've heard of the famous guilin tourist destination in china, this is what that is like. Something else unique about this area was that being winter and farther north and up in elevation a bit, it was cold. So everyone was out in coats and wool hats and gloves. I hadn't seen that in Asia yet of course. I figure the cold (not that cold maybe 50's to 60's as the lows) helped me to begin my acclimitization towards the cold colorado winter I would be returning to. That night we stayed in Quang Uyen with a Nung An minority family that had the funniest and happiest grandma I had seen and a cute little daughter, who was 3 or 4, who was always so happy to share her fruit and water with me.
Day 4 was an amazing amazing day of scenery. Add the scenery to the sunny mild day, the cool little farming villages, all the happy, waving people, and the great food and homestay, and the day definitely made it into my top 10 days overall best days in asia. I can't even imagine how incredible it would have been had we been there during the wet season when the rice paddies shimmered green instead of being harvested and brown now.
We drove for several hours through the amazing karst scenery up little passes between farming valleys. The woman at the gas station accidentally didn't mix the oil with the gas, which is what needs to be done for minske bikes, so we had some engine issues, which was the only slight damper on the day. But after a while Hung with the help of other guys on the road was able to get them going again. We took back roads arriving all the way at the chinese border in the north. The border is a river, with a beautiful and very wide waterfall at one point. The falls are called Ban Gioc. Once there, we took a bamboo raft along the river to get right up to the spray of the falls. I had crossed borders on this trip about every way imaginable: boat, plane, train, automobile, walking, but I hadn't swum across yet. So I wanted to do this. But Hung told me that one of the signs written in vietnames said no crossing over to the border. Had Hung not been with me, I probably would have done it, b/c a. I couldn't read the sign, b. there weren't any police or anything around, just women selling wares and men poling bamboo rafts, and c. I could have dove deep and held my breath the whole way across so they wouldn't have seen me anyways. But I decided to not get hung in trouble so I didn't do it. But it was kind of funny b/c on our side were the vietnamese tourists (no westerners) and on the other side were chinese tourists. We could wave at each other, but not go across to the other side. In fact a chinese tourist through me a chinese apple from his boat to my boat. Delicious! I was able to get the boatman close enough to the chinese side that I was able to quickly jump onto a rock on that side and jump back, and can now say I've been in china. I would of course end up in Hong Kong later via airplane, so it didn't really matter. I don't know if you've ever noticed at chinese or vietnamese restaurants (or maybe it's only the ones i've been to) but the paintings and drawings of the steep mountains (limestone karsts) and waterfalls flowing onto rice paddies. Well, that's basically what this was. Wow! So beautiful. On the way back to Quang Uyen we took a different way and just as scenic. At one point we took a steep dirt road up to the top of a mountain (where they were currently erecting a monument to the unknown soldiers who had died in the american war) that had great views down to the river and across all the mountains.
Day 5 we started off early, but about an hour into it my bike broke down most likely due to residual problems with the unmixed fuel. I had to get a tow back to the town which meant that Hung drove his motorbike with one leg extended while he pushed me. After several hours, it had appeared they had fixed the bike, so we continued on. Up over a really scenic, sweet and rough dirt pass. At the very top my motorbike died. Luckily I was able to coast the next 12km to the town at the bottom (no different than mountain biking really.). Another couple hours later the bike was fixed (and this time for good). We had obviously made poor time that day, so we wouldn't be making it to the destination and homestay we were supposed to and would instead have to take a shortcut, or at least faster and easier way. Hung still wanted to get a bit closer to Hanoi, so we drove on into the night. Now with all the fixing of my bike going on, the headlight had lost power. So Hung bought me a flashlight and I just followed behind him, which was fine. An hour later we arrived in That Khe where we stayed at a guesthouse
Day 6 We continued on to Hanoi through Lang Son and more nice scenery before arriving in the crazed traffic of hanoi. Since we still had day light left, Hung showed me some sights in Hanoi like where John McCain's jet had crashed and he'd been captured, the wreckage of a B52 bomber shot down, and the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum. We later sat down for some sugar cane juice and to wait for his wife so that I could meet her. She was all excited to practice her english with me.
But wow! what a great tour and an amazing way to see the beauty and friendly people of north vietnam.
The first day was mainly just driving on flat roads through the red river valley. We passed lots of countryside and agriculture and women working in the field sporting the infamous conical vietnamese hat. Just like the vietnam that you always think of. For lunch we had dog bbq. Yep, that's right, DOG bbq! I asked the name of the dog, and it was little Fluffy. Just kidding! They actually have farms for dogs, just like we have for chickens or cows or pigs. Crazy as it was, it was one of the best meat dishes I had eaten in Asia. Truth is, in all liklihood,I had eaten dog before in asia b/c it's a common food and lots of times when ordering things from pots set out by street vendors, you just point and then eat it. You try and figure out what it is, but usually they don't know english, and our english sounds for farm animals (moo, quack, oink, baa-a, ruff) aren't the same in their language. So you just eat it. Probably have eaten horse, snake, lizards, and other such things as well.
This motorbike trip was actually one of the best tours I had done in Asia. And one of the great things was the food. For lunch Hung always took me out to a local joint and ordered a plethora of things. Instead of the attempt at "western" asian food (what I mean by this is asian food that guides always assume is the only thing we can eat like fried rice or noodles and beef or the like), he ordered very vietnamese food, and not just the food they had out for display, but ones only a vietnamese would know how to order. Also had some other unusual things like chicken feet, fish poppers, duck embryos. Also at every lunch we had other people in the restaurant come up and offer to buy me beers and rice wine. We'd usually accept a couple, but then as we had to drive, we'd decline the rest. The locals were always so interested in me and they'd come up to talk (translating through hung with his excellent english)...and just so friendly. I of course had worried a bit about hard feelings towards me as an american visiting a country they we fought, bombed the heck out of, and is still suffering the effects of agent orange. But this was pointless worry. They loved americans and were so happy to meet me, shake my hands, share some rice wine with. SOme of the homestay people had maps and wanted me to show them all the nice places of america. (my version of the nice places of american probably differs just somewhat from most: Estes Park, Stanley Idaho, Jackson hole and the geysers, the grand canyon, the big trees of california, moab, aspen, etc). You could just see in their friendly eyes their true interest and enjoyment with talking to me. And always offering me rice wine, beer, and green tea (which is their social after meal drink that is drunk at a different table than where the meal is. It's also a welcome drink at homes and a drink to share when you meet new people). And Hung was really great b/c he would do a great job of translating and when we'd meet teachers or other educated people, he wouldn't let them speak in vietnamese for basic english conversation. On this trip I really felt like I got to know a lot of the people. But even on my little bit of independent travel I did get to do while in vietnam, I found the locals so nice. Always willing to help me out or just go out of their way to try and offer me the better spot (for my long legs) on the bus, or get me to the right bus, etc.
Each night we stayed at the home of a hill tribe minority group. The ethnicity of vietnamese makes up 90% of the population of vietnam. The rest of the 10% is made up of westerners and the minority tribes in the north such as the tay, white tay, black tay, and hmong. They each have very distinct dress, languages, and houses. The homestays were great. They would cook an amazing meal and we'd have an unlimited amount of rice wine. As is tradition, you first get out the rice wine, where you take little shots and saying jesuquay before taking it. In the Tay minority they'd also shake hands after each shot and say howmaydo (thankyou in Tay). You'd take several shots of the rice wine before it was time to start eating and then continue while eating and then after eating until it was time for the green tea. With the first family they brought out a 1.5L old coke bottle of rice wine. I was really feeling it when we finally finished it, and I was quite relieved, but then, the father went back and brought out a whole other bottle! At first I thought the rice wine stuff was only being done for me as the tourist, but he said they always do it, and it's true that I would notice everyone in the restaurants with their bottle of rice wine. One of the really great things about this trip and the homestays was that the family would eat dinner with us and then attempt to talk to us via hung the interpreter. And I was actually staying right in their house, so with them all the time. I have done quite a lot of homestays on this trip and with most of them you stay in some specially built shack for tourists or on their deck. Rarely inside the actual home. And also usually the family doesn't eat with you, and neither does the guide b/c they instead eat their everyday local food and give the tourists that western asian food I was talking about. So I really felt like I got attached to the family and got to know them.
The first night we stayed in a little village called Ton Tra with a white tay minority family who were farmers. They lived in stilted houses that could be open to the air in the summer or closed up in the winter (which it was now) for warmth. That night the vietnam soccer team was playing thailand in their first pool game of the SEA games. The South East Asian equivalent of the olypmics. They're the two best teams in SEA, so it was a tough match with plenty of rice wine that ended in a 1-1 draw. We woudl also along the trip watch the next 3 games as the vietnamese were really into their soccer. Amazingly Conrad and Whitney who were flying out of Vientiane, Laos where the SEA games were being held attended the Vietnam/Thai game and I'm assuming were rooting for vietnam as well since in their pictuers they were wearing red shirts with big yellow stars.
On day 2 we headed out on a small dirt single track to check out a lake. We then continued further north through more rural areas and some hills. This was the start, but definitely not the end of endless children running out to wave and shout hello. They loved to come bounding out to shout hello. But even all the women endlessly walking or pushing bicycles on the road carrying loads of agricultural stuff would smile and wave. And all the highschoolers on bicycles going back and forth from class (it always seemed like they were going back and forth from class) would come say a bold hello and then run back away shy and giggling to their friends. And of course the men sitting drinking beer or just hanging about would wave and smile. You'd hear shouts from high up on the hills or high up on buildings as you'd go by. And anyone passing you on a motorbike would slow down to wave and smile. I just loved all that. I don't think they get many westerners in the area b/c it's far of the tourist track. In the whole 6 days on the trip I didn't see a single westerner. Mix all the friendly locals with the great scenery and the unique little agricultural fields and villages and it was just great riding. That night we stayed in a Hmong minority house on the shores of Ba Be lake. Of course had a great meal and plenty of rice wine.
On day 3 we did a couple hour boat ride on Ba Be lake in Ba Be national park checking out the mountain and jungle scenery and watching monkeys along the lake shore. Today was a day of riding over big mountain passes with amazing scenery in order to get to the town of Cao Bang. From Cao Bang it was a short ride over another pass and into a magical land of towering limestone karsts and rice paddies and little villages. Of course this unique landscape came with so many smiling and waving people. It was like travelling back in time to days gone by. There was absolutely not machines save for a few passing motorbikes on the road. Water buffalo were used to plow the field, all the harvested crops (along with anything else imaginable) was carted off on bicycles or on shoulder yokes carried by the women. All the fields were being handwatered by people carrying large buckets on shoulder yokes. Definitely no irrigation here. And no tractors to help harvest the various things. Just huge groups of people. The students coming in on their bicycle would soon join the group working out in the fields. Old women were in the little huts cooking on fires. It really looked like something out of the middle ages or 16th century china or something. I just really loved riding through here b/c it was so unique and the karst scenery so absolutely amazing. If you've heard of the famous guilin tourist destination in china, this is what that is like. Something else unique about this area was that being winter and farther north and up in elevation a bit, it was cold. So everyone was out in coats and wool hats and gloves. I hadn't seen that in Asia yet of course. I figure the cold (not that cold maybe 50's to 60's as the lows) helped me to begin my acclimitization towards the cold colorado winter I would be returning to. That night we stayed in Quang Uyen with a Nung An minority family that had the funniest and happiest grandma I had seen and a cute little daughter, who was 3 or 4, who was always so happy to share her fruit and water with me.
Day 4 was an amazing amazing day of scenery. Add the scenery to the sunny mild day, the cool little farming villages, all the happy, waving people, and the great food and homestay, and the day definitely made it into my top 10 days overall best days in asia. I can't even imagine how incredible it would have been had we been there during the wet season when the rice paddies shimmered green instead of being harvested and brown now.
We drove for several hours through the amazing karst scenery up little passes between farming valleys. The woman at the gas station accidentally didn't mix the oil with the gas, which is what needs to be done for minske bikes, so we had some engine issues, which was the only slight damper on the day. But after a while Hung with the help of other guys on the road was able to get them going again. We took back roads arriving all the way at the chinese border in the north. The border is a river, with a beautiful and very wide waterfall at one point. The falls are called Ban Gioc. Once there, we took a bamboo raft along the river to get right up to the spray of the falls. I had crossed borders on this trip about every way imaginable: boat, plane, train, automobile, walking, but I hadn't swum across yet. So I wanted to do this. But Hung told me that one of the signs written in vietnames said no crossing over to the border. Had Hung not been with me, I probably would have done it, b/c a. I couldn't read the sign, b. there weren't any police or anything around, just women selling wares and men poling bamboo rafts, and c. I could have dove deep and held my breath the whole way across so they wouldn't have seen me anyways. But I decided to not get hung in trouble so I didn't do it. But it was kind of funny b/c on our side were the vietnamese tourists (no westerners) and on the other side were chinese tourists. We could wave at each other, but not go across to the other side. In fact a chinese tourist through me a chinese apple from his boat to my boat. Delicious! I was able to get the boatman close enough to the chinese side that I was able to quickly jump onto a rock on that side and jump back, and can now say I've been in china. I would of course end up in Hong Kong later via airplane, so it didn't really matter. I don't know if you've ever noticed at chinese or vietnamese restaurants (or maybe it's only the ones i've been to) but the paintings and drawings of the steep mountains (limestone karsts) and waterfalls flowing onto rice paddies. Well, that's basically what this was. Wow! So beautiful. On the way back to Quang Uyen we took a different way and just as scenic. At one point we took a steep dirt road up to the top of a mountain (where they were currently erecting a monument to the unknown soldiers who had died in the american war) that had great views down to the river and across all the mountains.
Day 5 we started off early, but about an hour into it my bike broke down most likely due to residual problems with the unmixed fuel. I had to get a tow back to the town which meant that Hung drove his motorbike with one leg extended while he pushed me. After several hours, it had appeared they had fixed the bike, so we continued on. Up over a really scenic, sweet and rough dirt pass. At the very top my motorbike died. Luckily I was able to coast the next 12km to the town at the bottom (no different than mountain biking really.). Another couple hours later the bike was fixed (and this time for good). We had obviously made poor time that day, so we wouldn't be making it to the destination and homestay we were supposed to and would instead have to take a shortcut, or at least faster and easier way. Hung still wanted to get a bit closer to Hanoi, so we drove on into the night. Now with all the fixing of my bike going on, the headlight had lost power. So Hung bought me a flashlight and I just followed behind him, which was fine. An hour later we arrived in That Khe where we stayed at a guesthouse
Day 6 We continued on to Hanoi through Lang Son and more nice scenery before arriving in the crazed traffic of hanoi. Since we still had day light left, Hung showed me some sights in Hanoi like where John McCain's jet had crashed and he'd been captured, the wreckage of a B52 bomber shot down, and the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum. We later sat down for some sugar cane juice and to wait for his wife so that I could meet her. She was all excited to practice her english with me.
But wow! what a great tour and an amazing way to see the beauty and friendly people of north vietnam.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Sailing through the descending dragon on an old junk
11/29 Joined a three day tour to the famous world heritage halong bay, which means dragon descending into the ocean. We first drove to halong city where we boarded an old (chinese?) junk. It was quite fancy and luxurious really. We spent the first day sailing around halong bay. Spectacular! Halong bay is a bay in the gulf of Tonkin where giant limestone karsts jut out of water producing huge sheer cliffs that rise straight from the water up to the top of the mtn. In the afternoon we explored a very intricate cave on one of the islands and then kayaked around some of the islands and watched the sunset. At night we had a nice dinner and then sat up on the deck of the junk and watched the stars.
The next day we did more touring of the gorgeous bay before stopping on one of the bigger islands to do some biking through nice scenery to a small village. After the biking we continued on the junk through halong bay where we stopped for lunch at a beach and did some more kayaking. After that we reboarded the junk to sail onto cat ba town on cat ba island. On the way we passed lots of cool floating fishing villages. When we checked into the hotel, most of the people went to take naps, but I hiked up a hill just outside of town to get a nice view of the bay and the sunset over the bay. On top of the hill there were some old ruins, that definitely looked like some old fort b/c the windows had the narrow slit design used to protect from arrows or bullets or whatever. Not sure how old they were.
The next day we made our way back to halong city, of course going through amazing scenery. We arrived back to hanoi in the late afternoon, so I got to explore hanoi a bit for the first time in daylight. I continued to really like this alive city. Walked to some lake with some temples in the middle and to an old cathedral and just enjoyed walking around looking at all the goings on of the city. At night I sat down for some pho and bia hoi and watched my last full moon in asia =(
12/2 I had a motorbike tour booked to leave today, so I got up really early to continue my walking around hanoi in daylight hours. Of course the city was quite active even at 6am. My favorite was walking around the same lake with the temples. Lots and lots of people were running around it, but the best were huge groups all around doing yoga, tai chi, and dancing to music. People of all ages out there doing exercises and dancing. Pretty funny and entertaining. And on one side there were even whole free weight sets where guys were working out. I hadn't experienced anywhere else in asia yet where there was such an exercise conscious society.
The next day we did more touring of the gorgeous bay before stopping on one of the bigger islands to do some biking through nice scenery to a small village. After the biking we continued on the junk through halong bay where we stopped for lunch at a beach and did some more kayaking. After that we reboarded the junk to sail onto cat ba town on cat ba island. On the way we passed lots of cool floating fishing villages. When we checked into the hotel, most of the people went to take naps, but I hiked up a hill just outside of town to get a nice view of the bay and the sunset over the bay. On top of the hill there were some old ruins, that definitely looked like some old fort b/c the windows had the narrow slit design used to protect from arrows or bullets or whatever. Not sure how old they were.
The next day we made our way back to halong city, of course going through amazing scenery. We arrived back to hanoi in the late afternoon, so I got to explore hanoi a bit for the first time in daylight. I continued to really like this alive city. Walked to some lake with some temples in the middle and to an old cathedral and just enjoyed walking around looking at all the goings on of the city. At night I sat down for some pho and bia hoi and watched my last full moon in asia =(
12/2 I had a motorbike tour booked to leave today, so I got up really early to continue my walking around hanoi in daylight hours. Of course the city was quite active even at 6am. My favorite was walking around the same lake with the temples. Lots and lots of people were running around it, but the best were huge groups all around doing yoga, tai chi, and dancing to music. People of all ages out there doing exercises and dancing. Pretty funny and entertaining. And on one side there were even whole free weight sets where guys were working out. I hadn't experienced anywhere else in asia yet where there was such an exercise conscious society.
Good morning Vietnam (and wild hanoi)
11/27 Flew from Luang Prabang, Laos to Hanoi Vietnam, a city that turns 1000 in 2010. Checked into a really sweet hostel in the Old Quarter and then walked around Hanoi. Hanoi is a crazy and awesome city. Perhaps my favorite in Asia thus far. It's very alive and happening and has felt the most "asian" of the places I've been. Maybe b/c hollywood is always doing vietnam or chinese (n. vietnam has a large chinese influence) movies so that's what we think of. But all the ladies in the street are walking around wearing the conical hats and carrying their wares over their shoulder on bamboo poles with straw baskets. There are locals out on all the steet courners eating noodles (pho) and bia hoi (pints of on tap beer hanoi for the huge sum of 15 cents). The streets were filled with people walking, cyclos (the 3 wheeled push bikes used to cart people around), old chinese bicycles, and of course hordes of motorbikes. One of the things I really liked about the city was that there was not a so-called tourist ghetto like khao san in bangkok. Here the tourist stuff was intermingled with the everyday lives of the local vietnamese. Whereas in bangkok you had to walk a bit to get to a place that wasn't entirely there b/c of tourists, in Hanoi it was right outside your hostel. And the city was so alive and happening and abuzz, which was a huge contrast from Cambodia and Laos. And it wasn't some giant nasty city either, it was sort of cute with nice boulevards, lots of lakes and parks, and tree-lined narrow streets.
The traffic in the city was purely insane. They say saigon is worse, though I didn't have much time to experience it there. But anyways, there are about 7 million people in Hanoi and somewhere around 5 million motorbikes. As someone said, hanoians eat, sleep, and dream on motorbikes. There's not really any road rules and the roads are so packed with motorbikes, people, and bicycles that it's a wonder that the traffic moves, but it does of course. Traffic supposedly drives on the right side of the road in vietnam, but in the city, it doesn't matter what side you drive on. Motorbikes are on the right side, in the middle, on the left side, using the sidewalk, anywhere. At 4-way intersections, there's really no stopping or traffic lights. Instead all 4 sides just go into it. They dodge, swerve, and ultimately find their way through to the other side. You've seen those movies that show the mess of pedestrians on sidewalks in downtown NYC where they are bumping into each other, swerving out of the way, etc. Well this was how the roads in hanoi were except with motorbikes, bicycles, and pedestrians (lots of sidewalks are so crammed with motorbike parking that you just have to walk in the road). The amazing thing though is that the motorbike drivers are so skilled and adept at swerving around and through traffic that I never once witnessed an accident. Some near misses, well everything appeared to be a near miss, but no accidents. The other thing that's interesting is that they seem to have unlimited patience with each other. They never get upset if they have to do a hard swerve or sudden break, or at anyone going the wrong direction. The only time that they get angry is that if they are at a rare stoplight that is obeyed and someone isn't already moving into the intersection before the light turns green. In hanoi they have the stoplights with the countdowns that tell you how long until the next green or red light. So when it's a red light and the countdown is down to 4, you better be going, which means of course, the other side still has about 3 seconds left of green. But again no accidents.
Another fun, and at first scary experience is crossing the roads in hanoi. There are crosswalks, but they are just a waste of paint. You can't wait until there is a break in traffic b/c that definitely won't happen until perhaps at 3 in the morning. So what you do is just start walking into the street, sort of blindly. Taylor the canadian I had travelled with in burma told me that you just have to go and if you hesitate, then that is when you'll be hit b/c they are trying to predict your moves. Now I had a leg up on most tourists here b/c I had been dealing with asian traffic and street crossing for a year now. It is usually does involved walking into the road with the traffic going, just going one lane at time. When one lane clears, you cross it, then stand on the divider line as traffic whizzes by until the next lane clears up, and then you go across. But hanoi was even more intense b/c instead of 4 lanes with 4 lines of traffic to cross, you had 4 lanes with 20 motorbikes across, swerving, going the wrong direction, etc. But it's true, you just walk out there slowly and keep moving, and they swerve around you. It's crazy to see the little kids (like 5 years old) doing this, or the women with the long bamboo poles taking up a much greater width doing it, or the old grannies that can hardly walk in the first place. I loved watching the traffic there. It was so crazy. When I was eating noodles at an intersection ones, I watched a western couple attempt to cross the street. It took them 20 minutes to attempt to cross the street before they ended up hiring a motorbike to take them across. But you just got to go and they'll miss you.
11/28 With my shortened time left before my trip ended and in an attempt to see as much as possible I would be doing a couple of tours out of hanoi. I usually try to avoid these, b/c they are never as good as doing it by yourself on your own time, but I was short on time, so I needed the quick day type tours instead of arranging going to the place myself, sleeping there and then touring it. So instead of going to Ninh Bin to visit Tom Coc I would just do the day trip, and instead of going to Cat Ba island to tour halong bay from there, I would be doing a 3 day trip out of hanoi that made a stop there.
So today I took a day trip to Tom Coc, known as Halong Bay on rice paddies. On the way we stopped at a few temples back from the time when China controlled vietnam. Once we arrived in the Tom Coc area we took a couple hour bike through a cool canyon. Then we boarded a little boat that fits two people rowed by a vietnamese woman and were rowed for several hours through a cool limestone canyon on a little river that included going through 4 cave tunnels. Very gorgeous and serene ride.
The traffic in the city was purely insane. They say saigon is worse, though I didn't have much time to experience it there. But anyways, there are about 7 million people in Hanoi and somewhere around 5 million motorbikes. As someone said, hanoians eat, sleep, and dream on motorbikes. There's not really any road rules and the roads are so packed with motorbikes, people, and bicycles that it's a wonder that the traffic moves, but it does of course. Traffic supposedly drives on the right side of the road in vietnam, but in the city, it doesn't matter what side you drive on. Motorbikes are on the right side, in the middle, on the left side, using the sidewalk, anywhere. At 4-way intersections, there's really no stopping or traffic lights. Instead all 4 sides just go into it. They dodge, swerve, and ultimately find their way through to the other side. You've seen those movies that show the mess of pedestrians on sidewalks in downtown NYC where they are bumping into each other, swerving out of the way, etc. Well this was how the roads in hanoi were except with motorbikes, bicycles, and pedestrians (lots of sidewalks are so crammed with motorbike parking that you just have to walk in the road). The amazing thing though is that the motorbike drivers are so skilled and adept at swerving around and through traffic that I never once witnessed an accident. Some near misses, well everything appeared to be a near miss, but no accidents. The other thing that's interesting is that they seem to have unlimited patience with each other. They never get upset if they have to do a hard swerve or sudden break, or at anyone going the wrong direction. The only time that they get angry is that if they are at a rare stoplight that is obeyed and someone isn't already moving into the intersection before the light turns green. In hanoi they have the stoplights with the countdowns that tell you how long until the next green or red light. So when it's a red light and the countdown is down to 4, you better be going, which means of course, the other side still has about 3 seconds left of green. But again no accidents.
Another fun, and at first scary experience is crossing the roads in hanoi. There are crosswalks, but they are just a waste of paint. You can't wait until there is a break in traffic b/c that definitely won't happen until perhaps at 3 in the morning. So what you do is just start walking into the street, sort of blindly. Taylor the canadian I had travelled with in burma told me that you just have to go and if you hesitate, then that is when you'll be hit b/c they are trying to predict your moves. Now I had a leg up on most tourists here b/c I had been dealing with asian traffic and street crossing for a year now. It is usually does involved walking into the road with the traffic going, just going one lane at time. When one lane clears, you cross it, then stand on the divider line as traffic whizzes by until the next lane clears up, and then you go across. But hanoi was even more intense b/c instead of 4 lanes with 4 lines of traffic to cross, you had 4 lanes with 20 motorbikes across, swerving, going the wrong direction, etc. But it's true, you just walk out there slowly and keep moving, and they swerve around you. It's crazy to see the little kids (like 5 years old) doing this, or the women with the long bamboo poles taking up a much greater width doing it, or the old grannies that can hardly walk in the first place. I loved watching the traffic there. It was so crazy. When I was eating noodles at an intersection ones, I watched a western couple attempt to cross the street. It took them 20 minutes to attempt to cross the street before they ended up hiring a motorbike to take them across. But you just got to go and they'll miss you.
11/28 With my shortened time left before my trip ended and in an attempt to see as much as possible I would be doing a couple of tours out of hanoi. I usually try to avoid these, b/c they are never as good as doing it by yourself on your own time, but I was short on time, so I needed the quick day type tours instead of arranging going to the place myself, sleeping there and then touring it. So instead of going to Ninh Bin to visit Tom Coc I would just do the day trip, and instead of going to Cat Ba island to tour halong bay from there, I would be doing a 3 day trip out of hanoi that made a stop there.
So today I took a day trip to Tom Coc, known as Halong Bay on rice paddies. On the way we stopped at a few temples back from the time when China controlled vietnam. Once we arrived in the Tom Coc area we took a couple hour bike through a cool canyon. Then we boarded a little boat that fits two people rowed by a vietnamese woman and were rowed for several hours through a cool limestone canyon on a little river that included going through 4 cave tunnels. Very gorgeous and serene ride.
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