Goodbye Vietnam

Tonight is my last night in Vietnam. I'm sad to be leaving the country, but excited to continue my travel adventures.
We're leaving bright and early tomorrow morning for Phnom Penh. In anticipation of the long bus ride, I'm forgoing my picture editing and blog writing activities tonight so that I'll have something to occupy my time on the bus tomorrow. So the final Vietnam blog post will be up tomorrow night.

Goodbye Vietnam, Hello Cambodia!

 

last dinner in Vietnam with Megan and Kelly. street food rocks!

Saigon

I've been in Saigon for a few days now, and I definitely like it a lot better than Hanoi. The people are friendlier, the food is much better, and the weather is nicer. That being said, I'm glad I spent a lot of time in Hanoi because I got to experience a more traditional lifestyle. But Saigon is better.


On Wednesday day I did a tour to the Cao Dai Holy See in Tay Ninh and the Cu Chi tunnels. Cao Dai is a fairly new religion that takes aspects of Buddhism and Confucianism and Taoism. The religion is also structured similarly to Catholicism with an hierarchical leadership such as a Pope and Bishops. They pray four times a day, and visitors are allowed to watch from a balcony above. We arrived at the temple before the service started so I had time to walk around the temple and surrounding area. The temple itself looks kind of like something you'd see at Disneyworld. It is extremely colorful with lots of statues and ornate details. The service started at noon and we stayed for the first half of it. The part I saw mainly consisted of everyone walking to their places, sitting down, and then bowing to the ground every once in a while. There was music but no talking. I'm not sure if that part came after I left, or if there's no talking at all during the service.

In the afternoon we went to the Cu Chi Tunnels. The tunnels were built by guerillas living in the South, but who fought for the North during the Vietnam War. These tunnels were way more touristy than the tunnels I saw in the DMZ tour near Hue. But, it was still cool because the Cu Chi tunnels are now part of a park run by the Vietnamese Army and they have set up lots of exhibits that show how the guerillas lived and fought. Tourists can even shoot a variety of guns at the shooting range!

Yesterday, Megan and I went to three museums: Reunification Palace, Ho Chi Minh City Museum (this one was by accident), and the War Remnants Museum. It was a very informative day. Of course, most of the information was very biased against the U.S. but that didn't surprise or bother me much.

At the War Remnants museum I did start to feel guilty about what our country did, especially after the exhibit on the horrors of Agent Orange. But then I saw a comment from an official commission saying the U.S. perpetrated genocide against the Vietnamese, and that just made me angry. While the U.S. most certainly committed terrible war crimes against the Vietnamese, it did not commit genocide. Genocide is a subject I've studied in depth, and I know all the commonly accepted definitions. Not only do America's actions in the war not fit the parameters of genocide, but calling the Vietnam War a genocide undermines the legitimacy of the real genocides that have been committed (Holocaust, Khmer Rouge, Darfur, etc). Anyway, enough of that. Overall, I thought the museum was very well thought out, except for the fact that there was no A/C. That seemed like a bit of an oversight considering the average temperature year-round in Saigon is around 85 degrees.

Let the traveling begin!

After a final, crazy weekend in Hanoi, I hopped on a plane to Ho Chi Minh city this morning.  Arrived to sunny skies and hot, humid weather.  I've only been here a few hours, but I think I might like Ho Chi Minh better than Hanoi. That's not a conclusive decision yet, just my first impression.

Since lots of people have been asking, here's my tentative travel schedule for the next few weeks...

Ho Chi Minh City/surrounding area: March 29 (today) - April 3

Mekong Delta, Vietnam: April 4 - 6

Traveling between Ho Chi Minh and Phnom Penh: April 7/8

Phnom Penh, Angkor Wat and various other places in Cambodia: April 8 - 22

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: April 22 - 24

Malacca, Malaysia: April 25 - 26

Pulau Tioman, Malaysia: April 27 - 30

Bangkok, Thailand: May 1

This itinerary can and probably will change, so if anyone has any suggestions of places I shouldn't miss let me know!

Giao Xuan - weekend workcamp

Background: Giao Xuan is a small town in Nam Dinh province, where the Red River empties into the South China Sea.  One of VPV's NGO programs focuses on Giao Xuan: they are trying to improve/maintain the fragile ecosystem while also promoting ecotourism in the area.  Part of the work is currently focusing on sending groups of students and volunteers to Giao Xuan for weekend workcamps, and that's what I did this past weekend! There were six foreign volunteers and about 12 Vietnamese volunteers, so it was a pretty big group.

Getting to Giao Xuan is a hellish five hour ordeal, over what is definitely the bumpiest road I've ever been on. The pic below was taken at the very beginning of the journey...the bus got a lot more crowded at each stop!

After arriving in Giao Xuan about 6 PM on Friday, we were divided into small groups and sent to our homestays.  After a quick walk around town, we all headed to one house for group dinner.  The rest of Friday night was spent playing icebreaker games and preparing materials for the weekend.

roomies 

Saturday was great, although I would have preferred waking up a little later - 6 AM on the weekend is just not my cup of tea.  We had breakfast, and the foreign volunteers had some free time while everyone else went out to collect the bikes we would use all day.  Around 8 AM we got on our bikes and started a tour of the village.  We also used the tour to hand out flyers advertising a town meeting we would be holding later that evening.  We stopped at a temple, the dyke that separates the town from the river delta, and the "beach" where there are hundreds of tiny stilt houses that fishermen live in.  On the way back from our tour we stopped at the only school in Giao Xuan to have a meeting with some of the students and sign them up for the new Giao Xuan environmental club.  

Saturday afternoon was supposed to be the main activity of the weekend - planting trees. And we did plant them, it's just that the things we planted barely qualify as trees. They were more like sticks with sprouts.  And the location was less than ideal - we planted them in this very grassy area where some trees had already been planted and a lot of them were dying.  So I'm not sure that our efforts will produce lasting results, but it was still great fun and all the Vietnamese students were so enthusiastic.  After planting "trees," we went on a leisurely bike ride through the countryside - my favorite part of the weekend.  This is exactly what I pictured myself doing in Vietnam, and it totally met my expectations.  The scenery was pretty, locals were friendly and the kids were always excited to see us. They would run after us shouting "hello! hello!" So cute. 

Sunday we held a town meeting to encourage locals to be more environmentally responsible, and raise awareness about the ecotourism project. Since it was all in Vietnamese I'm not totally sure what went on, but there was a skit, speeches, interactive games, a video and lots of singing. Basically the message was "take pride in your town and don't litter everywhere because it harms the environment and tourists won't want to visit."  The foreign volunteers participated in a few activities, including a very unharmonious rendition of Michael Jackson's "We Are the World."  After the meeting we went back to my homestay where we had an amazing lunch along with some incredibly strong home-made rice wine offered (read: forced upon us) by one of the locals.  Then it was back on the bus for the long ride back to Hanoi!

While Giao Xuan was neither the prettiest nor the most interesting place I've been (although it was both pretty and interesting), it was by far the most authentic.  There are still very few tourists so the town and the locals remain quintessentially Vietnamese.  That is to say, there are no ventures that specifically target tourists, and the locals don't try to hawk their goods because they have nothing out of the ordinary to sell.  I liked that a lot.  If this ecotourism project succeeds, I hope Giao Xuan is able to retain its culture and attitude or, in my opinion, the best part of Giao Xuan will be lost.  

ready to ride!

quick break

stilt houses

peace

Vietnamese pride

biking the countryside

high tide

singing "We are the World"

Bat Trang - Ceramic Village

Yesterday I went to Bat Trang, a traditional village known for its ceramics, located about 10 kilometers from Hanoi.  The story of why I went there is long and complicated so I won't bore you with those details, but suffice it to say I had a great time.  

The town makes a significant percentage of the country's ceramics, and also exports its wares to other countries. The old part of town is very cool with really small winding alleys, and random doorways where you can see locals making pottery.  We even got to make our own ceramic creations! I felt like I was at a children's birthday party or something.  I made a flower vase - literally, a vase shaped like a flower - that turned out surprisingly well given my lack of artistic ability.   

prepping my clay

ready to make ceramics

cooking our creations over hot coals

ceramics factory

Bat Trang pagoda

a family honoring their ancestors on the banks of the Red River

the finished product! (and please ignore my hair...it was very windy)

Mai Chau

This past weekend, Camille and I went to Mai Chau in the northwest part of the country.  In the northwest part of the country, it's basically a mountainous area with gorgeous scenery, and a few small montagnard villages.  It's a very peaceful place...so different from the craziness in Hanoi!

                                       sunset in Mai Chau

There isn't much to do in Mai Chau, but we were okay with that - a relaxing weekend was definitely needed.  After a long bus ride, we arrived in Mai Chau and were immediately amazed by the scenery; it's absolutely beautiful.  Unfortunately, it's also quite hazy most of the time which is reflected in the photos. We spent the weekend doing pretty much nothing, and it was great.  We spent a lot of time walking around the area, talking to locals, reading magazines/books, eating delicious food, exploring the villages, and of course, sleeping.

The only places to stay in the immediate area are homestays - the White Thai hill people (an ethnic minority) live in stilt houses, and they offer rooms to travelers.  We walked around a bit until we found a house we liked, and settled into our room.  Addtionally, there aren't really any independent restaurants in the area, so wherever you sleep is also where you eat. I had been told that the quality of food varies a lot, and it just depends on which homestay you choose.  Luckily, our hostess was an amazing cook and all the meals we ate at the homestay were delicious! The view was also amazing. Overall, it was a nice, relaxing weekend!

                                       a table with a view....

       view of the village from behind...our homestay is the house to the left of the palm tree

ride paddies and mountains

farmer herding his cattle down the road...typical

traditional Thai clothes

our homestay

Camille and I

Hue and DMZ area

The last part of my trip was to Hue.  The main thing I'll say about Hue is this: it has crappy weather. Apparently the city is known to have the worst weather in Vietnam. I didn't know that before I went, but now I can assure you it's true.

                                          overcast Hue

Hue was the capital of Vietnam for a while...I forget the exact dates, but it was mainly during the 19th century.   The city is basically split into two parts: the old part which mainly consists of the Citadel, and the modern part which is across the river. The citadel is an enormous area hemmed in by huge walls, with only a few entrance gates on each side. Tons of people live within the citadel, and once you're inside the walls you wouldn't know there was anything historic about the area (because almost all of it was bombed during the war).  That is, until you come to the inner citadel which surrounded by a moat and another huge wall...you have to pay to get into that part, and of course foreigners are charged twice as much as locals.


The other main thing I did in Hue – well,  near Hue to be exact – was go on a tour of the DMZ area, or demilitarized zone. That was the dividing line between North Vietnam and South Vietnam during the war, and the few kilometers that separated the area was no man's land.  We left Hue at 6:00 AM (ugh) and got back around 6:30 PM.  We basically spent a lot of time driving around with the guide pointing things out, but we also got out 4 times to see actual sights. But even when we were just in the bus, the scenery was quite beautiful, and there were lots of cows, water buffalo, and chickens all over the place so that was cool.  At one point we passed a long stretch of the road where there were rusting U.S. tanks and abandoned military outposts (some were bombed, others were intact)...when the Americans left no one ever moved or cleaned up that stretch of road so it's all just sitting there today. The coolest part of the tour was going into the Vinh Moc tunnels.  These tunnels aren't as famous or as touristy as the Cu Chi tunnels near HCMC, but I actually prefer it that way.  The tunnels were dug by hand(!) over a two year period, and then over 200 people lived in the tunnels from 1966 – 1972. I have no idea how those people were able to live in the tunnels for six years...after ten minutes I was dying to get out.  But, I guess people will do whatever's necessary to survive.  Overall, I really enjoyed the tour and thought it was very informative.

                               entrance gate to the citadel

                                traffic exiting the citadel...

                             entrance to the inner citadel

    most buildings were bombed during the war(including where I'm standing)

DMZ tour...beginning of the Ho Chi Minh trail, Northern Vietnamese smuggled supplies south to infiltrate U.S./Southern Vietnamese areas 

  former location of Khe Sanh command center and battle field, now a museum

                               remains of a crashed helicopter

                     entrance to Vinh Moc tunnels

Oh, and I also attended a Vietnamese wedding for a bit...this was actually the second time I've been at a Vietnamese wedding totally impromtu. They seem to love inviting foreigners to celebrate with them!  The place we ate lunch was also a wedding hall, and when we were getting back on the bus, the groom (who was totally wasted) invited us to celebrate and he wouldn't take no for an answer. So, we went up on stage and sang and danced for a while, and beers were forced into all of our hands....as in, they were literally pushing beers at us the entire time and if we didn't take them they seemed to get a little upset so we all took the beers. It was so random but fun!

                           Vietnamese wedding...

  the groom waving goodbye...he didn't want us to leave!

The next day, Sarah and I met up with Lynn at the train station to catch our overnight train back to Hanoi.  We got back to Hanoi around 7:00 AM and I totally crashed.  It's sort of nice to be back in Hanoi, but our dorm and the location is so terrible that it's hard to actually be excited to be living here again. The hotels were so much nicer than Peace House, and we were only paying $5 per night!!