Elsbeth writing…
It’s been a long and, at the same time, quick last couple weeks, so I haven’t had much time just for myself. Mainly work, work, work or travel. Teaching is going just fine, but I was sick the week before last with the flu and called in sick two days. Sorry, no Swine Flu, though, to make an interesting story, and I’m perfectly fine now.
Luckily, I was all better just in time for my trip to Ba Be Lake last weekend (I had stayed home on Friday). I went again with the Zoom Zoom group from the New Hanoian and had a fantastic time. I had been looking forward to last weekend since the previous trip. There were many new people, but it was still a great group and so good to meet people outside of work—ex-pats and Vietnamese alike. I wish I could go on more trips with them, but I can only take so many days off and I want to save up my days off so I can go home in time for Thanksgiving.
Anyway, this time we didn’t drive motorbikes and instead took a bus. Although I love driving my motorbike and I think it’s the best way to explore the countryside, it was a relief to take a bus. Traffic is crazy and driving for hours on end gets tiring. It’s nice to not have to worry about all that and be able to gaze at the countryside (even though you don’t feel as close to it as you do when driving a motorbike). I felt much more safe and secure. In Vietnam you can rent buses for group trips. They’re not your typical coach bus equipped with TVs and a bathroom. You rent these buses for private trips, not tours. They’re smaller and basic.
Even though I appreciated having a bus, the length of the drive was another story. It took us almost eight hours to get to Ba Be (thus the reason for taking a bus). It went fairly quickly because I talked with one girl I met on the trip, read a little, listened to my iPod, thought, and tried to sleep. I haven’t been able to sleep very much lately. I’m too restless. I have this drive to get out and do things, especially because I have so little time off of work. That’s a good thing, because I’m usually always tired.
The countryside was beautiful—especially the second half of the journey when we wound our way through the valleys. It was a little precarious though with all the steep and tight twists and turns. Many of us were getting car sick (we had also just eaten lunch) so we tried to sleep it off.
Finally! We arrived at our destination—Ba Be Lake. It was beautiful. We stopped at the small ferry docking area and took rickety, small ferry boats across to the “island” (I don’t think it was really an island, but connected to the mainland on the other side of the lake) where our stilt house was. The house wasn’t as nice and clean as our last homestay. The bathrooms were dirtier with squat toilets and the beds weren’t as clean, but the view outside the open, wooden-shuttered windows was amazing. About 50 meters bellow water buffalo and ducks grazed in the marshy field while men fished in the lake beyond with bamboo poles standing in hollowed out wooden boats. Behind them were green, jungle mountains. We joked how it all seemed so orchestrated. Someone was telling the pigs and ducks to stand just there while the water buffalo meandered in and out of the streams that ran through the field; then, in the meantime the birds were told to fly gracefully just in the distance. Perfect. Bravo.
We went almost immediately on a trek. It wasn’t very difficult. I was glad about this, because I didn’t want to push myself after having just recovered from the flu. We walked to a cave, which had a pond that went deeper inside. We didn’t go very deep and just took pictures for awhile. Then we walked back and down some small gravel country roads between traditional farmhouses. We turned back after a bit, because it was starting to get dark. Although it wasn’t hard going we were pretty sweaty and dirty, so we took turns taking showers and then had a traditional Vietnamese shared dinner. It was pretty good. After dinner some local women did a traditional performance for us. Originally, we planned to have a bonfire with the performance, but because it had been raining all week we had to have the performance at the stilt house. (P.S. luckily, the weather was perfect all weekend.) The performance was great. They wore their local Ao Dai style—velvet dyed with a dark blue color from a local tree and silver hoop necklaces, I believe signifying the peach tree. They played traditional lute/guitars, danced, and sang. Our fearless leader, Quyen, translated the songs for us. They talked about the beauty of the area, their customs, and welcomed us to their village.
The next morning many of us got up early and chatted for awhile before breakfast. Then we went to the ferry dock and took a five-hour tour on the ferry boats around the lake. It’s a huge area and so beautiful with tall rocky mountains, jungle, and quaint, traditional farming villages. It was just peaceful and relaxing to sit and look at the scenery. I dreaded going back to the bustle and constant noise of Hanoi as you can imagine. We visited a cave, which was more like a tunnel to another part of the lake. You could get off the boat and walk along a path. There were thousands of bats hidden in the ceiling and they were dropping poop left and right. The path was half an inch deep in their putrid feces, which we had to walk through. Disgusting. We also went to a rushing waterfall and sat for awhile. On the way back we stopped at a pond where there’s a tale of a fairy maiden who came to bathe in this pond. There were so many yellow and orange butterflies there. It really did look like some Asian fairy tale. Everyone stopped to have a rock skipping competition before we headed back to the boat.
When we got back to the house we had lunch and then left at 3 p.m., sadly, to head back to Hanoi. We didn’t get back into town until almost 10 p.m. I went to dinner with the trip leader, her boyfriend, and Steve, but I was so tired and felt and looked disgusting.
This week and weekend hasn’t been too eventful. Next week doesn’t look any more interesting. Back to work again. I don’t know when I’ll have another two days in a row off next or when I’ll get out of the city. Kind of depressing, but there’s heaps to do here and the days go by pretty quickly. Last Monday was my 11 month mark! Can you believe it? I’ve been here for ELEVEN months—almost an entire year. Crazy how the time has flown by and yet so much has happened…. That means only four months left before I get to go home. I’m excited for it, but there’s plenty to do here in the meantime that’ll distract me.
Yesterday I taught one class in the afternoon (it breaks up your entire day) and went with a co-worker to see Harry Potter. I was so excited to see it, but sad that I couldn’t share the experience with Sarah or Katie as our tradition goes…. It was good. Jeez, I haven’t read the book for ages; I’ve forgotten a lot. I can’t wait for the last one to come out—I hear it’ll be broken up into two parts? Today I finally got off my bum and went to this pool across town to swim laps and read. I have to say that I am amazing with directions…not to brag or anything ;-), but I could navigate my way there and back through the crazy Hanoi traffic. Not to mention I didn’t know my way back home very well, but nevertheless came straight here without having to stop to check the map. I’m getting used to the layout of this city. Tonight I’m met Ellyn to see the Quiet American at the Cinematique (the cinema I think I’ve mentioned before that plays old and foreign films as well as documentaries). It was the old 1958 version and pretty good. It was interesting to see how Saigon in the 50s is portrayed. Remember I told you, mom, that the Continental Hotel was in this movie? It was pretty cool to see it on the silver screen after having eaten breakfast there one Sunday morning on our trip. It looks pretty similar. I finally got a membership to the theatre tonight as well so I should go there at least once a week.
Oh, yes! The weekend before last I also went to the Cinematique on Saturday night where they had an improv skit show going on. Some ex-pats put it on. The first part was pretty funny, but I ended up talking to a friend, who I don’t see very often, and his roommate for the second half. On Sunday, I went with some other co-workers to the Ethnology Museum across town. It was really interesting to see, but we didn’t see it all because most of it is outside and it started to pour. Driving on the way back was crazy. I had one of the guys on the back of my motorbike and the rain was insane. He got soaked and I was pretty wet despite having a (crappy) raincoat.
Okay, I think that’s enough for now. Time to go to bed so I’m fresh and awake for…*shiver* Monday… Blah, who doesn’t hate Mondays, especially when you only have one day off before it comes? Hope everything is going well for all of you on your end…wherever you are!
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Monday, July 6, 2009
Happy Fourth of July Vietnam!
Elsbeth writing…
Happy Fourth of July! Of all places to spend the Fourth… Last weekend wasn’t as exciting as the weekend before, but I’ll give you a quick update.
On Saturday, I unfortunately had to work—I now teach a class in the late afternoon on Saturdays (a very inconvenient time because it breaks up your entire day). After work, however, I went to a house party hosted by one of my co-workers. She was house-sitting for a Dutch-Ethiopian family who were away for a month on holiday. Their house was amazing—huge, beautiful, new, and situated right next to West Lake (the biggest lake in Hanoi). It was decorated beautifully with lots of artwork and they had a little terrier named Spotty. The party was good. There were at least 30 people there (most of them my co-workers). We had a traditional Fourth of July barbeque with hamburgers, hotdogs, awesome potato salad, fruit salad, and of course beer. It was fantastic. After socializing for awhile I left with one of my co-workers. I had taken the motorbike taxi guy who usually gives me a ride there, because it was raining, dark, there was heavy traffic, and I didn’t know how exactly to get there. Originally, I tried taking my motorbike, but I gave up after it broke down several times and decided to turn back. So long story short, I ended up taking a taxi back home. We had to walk down this road in the dark and there were bats everywhere swooping low and almost flying into us. I was freaking out—well, I thought it was funny more than anything, but I didn’t want to get rabies. Because you know, that wouldn’t be too good. So far it’s been more than 24 hours and luckily no rabies yet (knock on wood).
Sunday morning I realized that I had left my motorbike helmet and poncho at the house. It was still pouring rain and I dreaded going all the way across town. I didn’t want to drive (not to mention the problem of not having a helmet), so my landlady ended up calling me a taxi, which wasn’t really necessary since I don’t need to be pampered by staying out of the rain. But my motorbike guy wasn’t around so I just went with the taxi. I arrived and walked through the rain down that same street with the bats the night before (obviously none there in the middle of the day).
I ended up staying at the house for several hours helping my co-worker clean up everything. After that she drove me to a nearby salon. I was planning on getting a haircut and pedicure yesterday, but going to different places. She suggested this place just down the road so I went there. I got a haircut for 80,000d (about $5), a pedicure for 25,000d ($1.25), and I bargained for a 45-minute body massage also for 80,000d, because I only had a little money on me. Talk about an awesome deal, right? Total I paid 185,000d ($11) for several hours of pampering—something you’d pay at least $50 for in the States. I tell you it’s the life and I needed it from last weekend and this last week. Plus, I received a lot of complements on my haircut today (I also wore a dress I had made in Hoi An that I haven’t worn to Language Link yet, so I’m sure I looked much different). I think the salon trip was a success.
On the way to the salon I also realized that Ellyn didn’t live too far away, so I called her and we met for an expensive dinner at Al Frescos. We also found a Western grocery story with….Cheetos! Yay, but unfortunately they weren’t the original kind—only flaming and the puff twists. I bought an expensive bag of the twists, but hey, it’s a taste of home junk food. After dinner and conversation the mosquitoes in the restaurant were getting too bad so we went back to our respective houses. So it turns out that it was worth traveling across town for the day. It was soggy all day, but it was good to get out and do something.
Today was back to work again. This morning I went grocery shopping and finally bought a bouquet of flowers—pink lotuses. I’ve been meaning to buy flowers since I moved into this apartment, because I have a vase, but haven’t gotten around to it. There are flower peddlers everywhere near where I live, but I’m too darn lazy. I also need to venture to the huge park only a block away (I haven’t done that either), but I can never get up early enough before it’s sweltering hot. Sometime this week for sure if the rain lets up…. I’m hoping to take a yoga or tai chi class in the mornings in this park. Oh! I’m also starting Vietnamese lessons tomorrow. I’m taking them with another co-worker every Tuesday/Thursday for two hours throughout the next three months. I want to be able to talk with my landlady, the peddlers, and the other people who live in my area. I feel bad for being so ignorant.
It feels good to finally be really settling in and getting involved in things.
P.S. I should have realized this a long time ago, but the old picture website listed on this blog was not my regular picture website. I just posted the other link. Some of you may know that it's http://elsbethsescapades.shutterfly.com/. I haven't posted any pictures on the Flickr one for ages, so check out the Shutterfly one although I also haven't posted new pictures on there for ages either, since my camera was stolen on Easter morning and then I haven't finished even deleting photos from my trip with my mom (there were over a thousand and my computer is really slow). So sorry! I'm getting better at this updating thing and I really hope to find some time to finish deleting, editing, and uploading all these photos between work. Also soon to come are my photos from my other trips.
Happy Fourth of July! Of all places to spend the Fourth… Last weekend wasn’t as exciting as the weekend before, but I’ll give you a quick update.
On Saturday, I unfortunately had to work—I now teach a class in the late afternoon on Saturdays (a very inconvenient time because it breaks up your entire day). After work, however, I went to a house party hosted by one of my co-workers. She was house-sitting for a Dutch-Ethiopian family who were away for a month on holiday. Their house was amazing—huge, beautiful, new, and situated right next to West Lake (the biggest lake in Hanoi). It was decorated beautifully with lots of artwork and they had a little terrier named Spotty. The party was good. There were at least 30 people there (most of them my co-workers). We had a traditional Fourth of July barbeque with hamburgers, hotdogs, awesome potato salad, fruit salad, and of course beer. It was fantastic. After socializing for awhile I left with one of my co-workers. I had taken the motorbike taxi guy who usually gives me a ride there, because it was raining, dark, there was heavy traffic, and I didn’t know how exactly to get there. Originally, I tried taking my motorbike, but I gave up after it broke down several times and decided to turn back. So long story short, I ended up taking a taxi back home. We had to walk down this road in the dark and there were bats everywhere swooping low and almost flying into us. I was freaking out—well, I thought it was funny more than anything, but I didn’t want to get rabies. Because you know, that wouldn’t be too good. So far it’s been more than 24 hours and luckily no rabies yet (knock on wood).
Sunday morning I realized that I had left my motorbike helmet and poncho at the house. It was still pouring rain and I dreaded going all the way across town. I didn’t want to drive (not to mention the problem of not having a helmet), so my landlady ended up calling me a taxi, which wasn’t really necessary since I don’t need to be pampered by staying out of the rain. But my motorbike guy wasn’t around so I just went with the taxi. I arrived and walked through the rain down that same street with the bats the night before (obviously none there in the middle of the day).
I ended up staying at the house for several hours helping my co-worker clean up everything. After that she drove me to a nearby salon. I was planning on getting a haircut and pedicure yesterday, but going to different places. She suggested this place just down the road so I went there. I got a haircut for 80,000d (about $5), a pedicure for 25,000d ($1.25), and I bargained for a 45-minute body massage also for 80,000d, because I only had a little money on me. Talk about an awesome deal, right? Total I paid 185,000d ($11) for several hours of pampering—something you’d pay at least $50 for in the States. I tell you it’s the life and I needed it from last weekend and this last week. Plus, I received a lot of complements on my haircut today (I also wore a dress I had made in Hoi An that I haven’t worn to Language Link yet, so I’m sure I looked much different). I think the salon trip was a success.
On the way to the salon I also realized that Ellyn didn’t live too far away, so I called her and we met for an expensive dinner at Al Frescos. We also found a Western grocery story with….Cheetos! Yay, but unfortunately they weren’t the original kind—only flaming and the puff twists. I bought an expensive bag of the twists, but hey, it’s a taste of home junk food. After dinner and conversation the mosquitoes in the restaurant were getting too bad so we went back to our respective houses. So it turns out that it was worth traveling across town for the day. It was soggy all day, but it was good to get out and do something.
Today was back to work again. This morning I went grocery shopping and finally bought a bouquet of flowers—pink lotuses. I’ve been meaning to buy flowers since I moved into this apartment, because I have a vase, but haven’t gotten around to it. There are flower peddlers everywhere near where I live, but I’m too darn lazy. I also need to venture to the huge park only a block away (I haven’t done that either), but I can never get up early enough before it’s sweltering hot. Sometime this week for sure if the rain lets up…. I’m hoping to take a yoga or tai chi class in the mornings in this park. Oh! I’m also starting Vietnamese lessons tomorrow. I’m taking them with another co-worker every Tuesday/Thursday for two hours throughout the next three months. I want to be able to talk with my landlady, the peddlers, and the other people who live in my area. I feel bad for being so ignorant.
It feels good to finally be really settling in and getting involved in things.
P.S. I should have realized this a long time ago, but the old picture website listed on this blog was not my regular picture website. I just posted the other link. Some of you may know that it's http://elsbethsescapades.shutterfly.com/. I haven't posted any pictures on the Flickr one for ages, so check out the Shutterfly one although I also haven't posted new pictures on there for ages either, since my camera was stolen on Easter morning and then I haven't finished even deleting photos from my trip with my mom (there were over a thousand and my computer is really slow). So sorry! I'm getting better at this updating thing and I really hope to find some time to finish deleting, editing, and uploading all these photos between work. Also soon to come are my photos from my other trips.
Friday, July 3, 2009
The Motorbike Diary
Elsbeth writing…
I had a fantastic weekend last weekend at Mai Chau! Of course, I loved my trip with you mom, but this was also a great experience.
The night before the trip I was so nervous that I hardly slept. We were meeting the next morning at 5:30 a.m. in front of the Opera House. I was anticipating having to get up so early (I set my alarm for 4:40, having packed my backpack the night before). I didn’t want to over-sleep my alarm. I was also nervous about driving at that time in the morning on deserted city streets (if you’ve read my previous blogs you’ll know that I haven’t had good experiences driving on my motorbike when few people are around). Luckily, though, I did get up on time and make it to the Opera House safe and sound.
When I arrived, a group of about eight bikes was already waiting there (including Ellyn and Steve), but we still waited a good half an hour for some others to turn up. Finally, we decided it was time to take off before the traffic got too bad. We revved up our bikes and made tracks out of Hanoi. The first few hours of driving was non-stop, gut-wrenching traffic. It takes skill, patience, and a level head to weave your way around the pandemonium of semis, dump trucks, cars, SUVs, bicycles, motor-carts, pedestrians, peddlers, water buffalo, dogs, geese, and of course your plethora of fellow idiot (understatement) motorbike drivers all packed onto a narrow, two-lane highway. Not to mention the deep, jolting pot holes that can really throw a kink in your bike and the bumps that send you flying otherwise. The going was tough but thankfully I came out unscathed. I only nearly hit two dumbass girls on a motorbike who pulled out in front of me and weren’t looking where they were going. I was literally about two inches from their front tire. I shook my head at them in reprimand, since I had no free fists.
Gradually, the traffic thinned. After getting through the worst of it, I kept driving and driving without seeing anyone from the group ahead or behind me. I was starting to freak out that they had turned off the main road without me seeing them or that they hadn’t stopped to wait for everyone. I stopped on the side of the road and was starting to call someone when four other bikes from the group came up. Apparently, they had been farther behind me and said that the rest of the group would stop up ahead before they turned. Surely enough, not long after I saw the group on the side of the road for a pit stop. We drove ahead for another 45 minutes and stopped for a Vietnamese breakfast of Pho. Then we drove and drove, stopping every now and then until we reached our destination in the valley of Mai Chau.
The rest of the drive there was both one of the most amazing, exhilarating experiences of my life and one of the most frightening experiences. There’s nothing like reaching those speared rock mountains after driving for several hours through dusty streets that seem out to kill you. These are the mountains you hear about in Asian legends and folklore. They’re the ones you see in paintings hanging in Chinese restaurants. And it’s obvious why they’ve given people so much inspiration throughout the centuries. Even by looking at them you feel like you’re in some myth. Then to see them when driving on a motorbike—ah, I can’t even describe that. I just want to say that it’s by far the best way to explore the countryside here in Vietnam. You feel so much more a part of everything around you. You feel vulnerable and at the same time it gives you a rush of adrenaline. There’s no air conditioning, no stereo blaring your favorite radio station, no screaming kids in the back seat, no windows to stop the dirt and pebbles kicked up from some dirty truck in front of you, or windshield wipers to scrape away the rain so you can see properly. There’s nothing to make your ride particularly comfortable or to make you forget your surroundings. You’re right there with the elements. You swerve for Water Buffalo who are just inches from your hand if you stretched it out. You can actually smell the jungle and rice paddies that surround you. You have to stop to put on a poncho to protect yourself from getting absolutely drenched. It’s brilliant.
We made our way up and down and up and down again through steep mountain cliffs. On your right side are the mountains with loose rocks and on your other side are straight drops down a couple hundred feet or so. I usually love heights, but this scared the bejeebus out of me and the huge semis and road construction didn’t help matters either. Stupidly, I should have been in second gear on the way down, but I was in fourth. I knew this and didn’t shift down. Thankfully, I was fine—next time I’ll know better both when driving a motorbike and a car. It twisted up my stomach all night just thinking about having to drive up through those mountains again the next day. Yet, despite this fear, the drive was gorgeous. I’ll post pictures on Shutterfly…eventually. I’m still slowly working on deleting and fixing pictures from my trip with my mom. The hills and valleys are absolutely amazing. Then there’s the traditional wood and stilt houses nestled within them. It’s a true adventure.
We finally made it to our destination by 11 a.m. after driving for a good five hours. Our homestay was in a small village in a wide, flat valley filled with rice paddies and surrounded on all sides by mountains as far as you could see. We all stayed in one traditional wooden stilt houses in a campground/compound area for tourists. The house was about 15 feet in the air. Underneath is a slab of concrete where meals are served on low wooden/straw tables and plastic chairs. Inside the house there is one large room. The floor is made of straw woven over wooden beams, so you can see straight to the concrete slab below. You feel like you’re going to fall through at any moment as the floor crunches and moves underneath you. Nevertheless, there was some big, ornate wooden furniture up there in the corners. The women who worked and lived there first laid out woven mats and then our thin mattresses side-by-side. They covered them with clean white sheets and beautiful traditional embroidered blankets. I chose a mattress with an exceptionally thick, embroidered blanket. I wish I could find one like it and have enough room to take it home with me. The inside was like our ancient blue sleeping bags at home—good enough for winter. There were no windows in the house—only shutters which were open to the cool mountain air blowing in. The weather was perfect for traveling the entire weekend: overcast and cool with not too much rain. This was by far the best homestay I’ve done so far in Vietnam. The house, our beds, and the bathroom were clean and tidy, the food was fantastic, and the owners were lovely.
When we arrived they hadn’t prepared a lunch for us at the homestay because they didn’t know when we were coming, so we drove down the street—right through a rice paddy—to a restaurant where we had a shared Vietnamese meal. It was great to chat with and meet everyone on our trip. It was a good, friendly group.
After lunch we went back to the house, chilled for a bit, took naps, and waited for the rain to stop. Then we hired one of the men who lived in the stilt houses to be our guide and take us around the valley. He led us on a seven kilometer trek through the rice paddies, village, and eventually up through jungle and mountain. We thought at first that we were just going around the mountain on a nice afternoon stroll, but no. Half of us ended up practically getting lost in the mountainous wilderness when the other half raced ahead through the bush. We had to constantly stop to yell out “Dung Oi!” Dung—pronounced zung, but she likes to be called zoom—was our group organizer/leader and “Oi” is the equivalent of “hey.”
Despite our fears that it was getting dark and we wouldn’t find our way out again plus the fact that we were filthy and sweaty from struggling up slippery rocks plastered in red mud, the whole thing was a pretty comical experience—especially when we finally found the other half of the group only to discover that our guide had disappeared ahead. Now none of us knew the way out! Yes, we did survive this ordeal, obviously as I’m posting this on the internet. Civilization! We came upon a small farmhouse hoping it wasn’t another scene from Deliverance and these weren’t natives waiting cook us in a stew. Sorry, no painted, spear-bearing locals (although I did faintly hear drums on our trek), only a water buffalo giving us the most absurd look.
We trudged back through rice paddies as the sun set with a perfect reflection of the mountains on the paddies. All of us were looking forward to a good hot shower and a filling dinner. We got what we wanted. We ate at our homestay on the concrete slab and the food was delicious. Then we decided to have a bonfire. We paid our homestay to set up the fire and bought two clay jugs of (weak) traditional rice wine. We drank this wine through long hollowed bamboo straws that we stuck in the pots and drank communally. We also invested in a bamboo dance and accordion player. You have two long bamboo poles laid horizontally on the ground and six poles (three sets of two) laid vertically over the horizontal poles. There are six people (three at each end) who have two ends of the bamboo poles. In unison, they bang them in a rhythmic pattern on the horizontal poles. We all tried our hand at this. Then while the poles are being moved people dance over them. You have to step through the poles a certain way before they hit your ankles. Simple enough and most of the time you escaped the bang of the poles, but sometimes you didn’t. It was a lot of fun. Still, I was exhausted from the long day, so after about an hour some other people and I went back to the house and straight to bed where mosquito nets were already set up over our mattresses and waiting for us to climb into.
The next morning we had a breakfast of sticky rice at the house. It was wrapped in a husk, which had been cooked on the fire. When you peel open the husk there’s a banana leaf inside. You peel open the banana leaf and in that is the sticky rice which you can dip in crushed peanuts or sugar. After breakfast we packed our things and took off right away. We drove through the valley to a minority Hmong village where there was a Sunday market. It was fantastic to see. All the women were dressed in their traditional brightly colored woven dresses selling their homemade ribbons, yarns, and cloth. The men—some of them also traditionally dressed—were selling ammunition and other things for hunting. I bought some ribbon and a little purse.
After that we drove further down the road to a path only for motorbikes. It wound up and down the mountain on very steep hills. I didn’t think my bike would make it and I was sure to use second gear on the way down. In the valley below we ran into a bumpy gravel road and traveled down a little ways to a dingy general store where our Vietnamese members negotiated lunch for our group. In the meantime, I walked around with two other girls from the group. It was a farming community filled with little wooden houses and children running around and climbing trees in their traditional outfits. So peaceful. It was straight out of a National Geographic picture. On the way back to the general store some of the group members and the store owner were climbing the small mountain behind the store, so of course I ran to join them. Apparently lovers climb up this mountain to have their romantic rendezvous. It was steep going up and even harder down on the slippery gravel, but the view was amazing. You could see the entire valley up there and the little dusty village below.
By the time we reached the bottom, I was starving. We took our motorbikes just down the road to another general store where we ate our lunch on straw mats on the floor. After lunch I road on the back of another ex-pat’s bike instead of driving my own. I was nervous about the twisting steep roads and another Vietnamese girl had offered to drive so I let her. We took off back home and she drove for a ways until it started to rain a little. Then we stopped and another Vietnamese girl, who had wanted to drive earlier, offered, so I let her. I jumped on the back of another ex-pat’s bike and we drove and drove and drove. Our group split up along the way. Apparently one of the bikes behind us broke down and so half of the group was with them and the rest of us were up ahead. We decided to wait for them at a café where we had sugarcane juice; however, as we were heading to the café, the girl who was driving my bike sped on ahead and didn’t realize we’d stopped. None of our phones had reception and the ones that would have worked were dead, so we couldn’t get a hold of her. I was also carrying her purse. Ha, well she had my bike and I had her purse, so it was a trade. The others eventually caught up with us, but by then it was dusk. We hopped on again and drove straight through to Hanoi. When we got into town it was dark. The ride had been long, bumpy, and nerve-wracking, but we made it safe and sound. It turns out that the girl had been in town for a good hour and a half at a café waiting for us, so we met up and exchanged our possessions. Most of the group headed to a Bia Hoi for dinner and it turns out that it was literally just around the corner from my apartment—such a relief that I didn’t have to find my way home in the dark. In fact, I had walked there for lunch the week before.
So…finally…there ends my adventure for last weekend. Now onto the next adventure this weekend. Happy Fourth of July! When you think about it, it’s kind of crazy to be spending the Fourth in Vietnam of all places. I’m headed to a BBQ with some work buddies tomorrow evening after work (yes, I work six days a week now). Then on Sunday I’m hoping to get a pedicure and my hair cut. It’s been a long, busy week this last week…work, work, work. Finally I have more hours! In fact, maybe too many. Troi oi! You can never win….
I had a fantastic weekend last weekend at Mai Chau! Of course, I loved my trip with you mom, but this was also a great experience.
The night before the trip I was so nervous that I hardly slept. We were meeting the next morning at 5:30 a.m. in front of the Opera House. I was anticipating having to get up so early (I set my alarm for 4:40, having packed my backpack the night before). I didn’t want to over-sleep my alarm. I was also nervous about driving at that time in the morning on deserted city streets (if you’ve read my previous blogs you’ll know that I haven’t had good experiences driving on my motorbike when few people are around). Luckily, though, I did get up on time and make it to the Opera House safe and sound.
When I arrived, a group of about eight bikes was already waiting there (including Ellyn and Steve), but we still waited a good half an hour for some others to turn up. Finally, we decided it was time to take off before the traffic got too bad. We revved up our bikes and made tracks out of Hanoi. The first few hours of driving was non-stop, gut-wrenching traffic. It takes skill, patience, and a level head to weave your way around the pandemonium of semis, dump trucks, cars, SUVs, bicycles, motor-carts, pedestrians, peddlers, water buffalo, dogs, geese, and of course your plethora of fellow idiot (understatement) motorbike drivers all packed onto a narrow, two-lane highway. Not to mention the deep, jolting pot holes that can really throw a kink in your bike and the bumps that send you flying otherwise. The going was tough but thankfully I came out unscathed. I only nearly hit two dumbass girls on a motorbike who pulled out in front of me and weren’t looking where they were going. I was literally about two inches from their front tire. I shook my head at them in reprimand, since I had no free fists.
Gradually, the traffic thinned. After getting through the worst of it, I kept driving and driving without seeing anyone from the group ahead or behind me. I was starting to freak out that they had turned off the main road without me seeing them or that they hadn’t stopped to wait for everyone. I stopped on the side of the road and was starting to call someone when four other bikes from the group came up. Apparently, they had been farther behind me and said that the rest of the group would stop up ahead before they turned. Surely enough, not long after I saw the group on the side of the road for a pit stop. We drove ahead for another 45 minutes and stopped for a Vietnamese breakfast of Pho. Then we drove and drove, stopping every now and then until we reached our destination in the valley of Mai Chau.
The rest of the drive there was both one of the most amazing, exhilarating experiences of my life and one of the most frightening experiences. There’s nothing like reaching those speared rock mountains after driving for several hours through dusty streets that seem out to kill you. These are the mountains you hear about in Asian legends and folklore. They’re the ones you see in paintings hanging in Chinese restaurants. And it’s obvious why they’ve given people so much inspiration throughout the centuries. Even by looking at them you feel like you’re in some myth. Then to see them when driving on a motorbike—ah, I can’t even describe that. I just want to say that it’s by far the best way to explore the countryside here in Vietnam. You feel so much more a part of everything around you. You feel vulnerable and at the same time it gives you a rush of adrenaline. There’s no air conditioning, no stereo blaring your favorite radio station, no screaming kids in the back seat, no windows to stop the dirt and pebbles kicked up from some dirty truck in front of you, or windshield wipers to scrape away the rain so you can see properly. There’s nothing to make your ride particularly comfortable or to make you forget your surroundings. You’re right there with the elements. You swerve for Water Buffalo who are just inches from your hand if you stretched it out. You can actually smell the jungle and rice paddies that surround you. You have to stop to put on a poncho to protect yourself from getting absolutely drenched. It’s brilliant.
We made our way up and down and up and down again through steep mountain cliffs. On your right side are the mountains with loose rocks and on your other side are straight drops down a couple hundred feet or so. I usually love heights, but this scared the bejeebus out of me and the huge semis and road construction didn’t help matters either. Stupidly, I should have been in second gear on the way down, but I was in fourth. I knew this and didn’t shift down. Thankfully, I was fine—next time I’ll know better both when driving a motorbike and a car. It twisted up my stomach all night just thinking about having to drive up through those mountains again the next day. Yet, despite this fear, the drive was gorgeous. I’ll post pictures on Shutterfly…eventually. I’m still slowly working on deleting and fixing pictures from my trip with my mom. The hills and valleys are absolutely amazing. Then there’s the traditional wood and stilt houses nestled within them. It’s a true adventure.
We finally made it to our destination by 11 a.m. after driving for a good five hours. Our homestay was in a small village in a wide, flat valley filled with rice paddies and surrounded on all sides by mountains as far as you could see. We all stayed in one traditional wooden stilt houses in a campground/compound area for tourists. The house was about 15 feet in the air. Underneath is a slab of concrete where meals are served on low wooden/straw tables and plastic chairs. Inside the house there is one large room. The floor is made of straw woven over wooden beams, so you can see straight to the concrete slab below. You feel like you’re going to fall through at any moment as the floor crunches and moves underneath you. Nevertheless, there was some big, ornate wooden furniture up there in the corners. The women who worked and lived there first laid out woven mats and then our thin mattresses side-by-side. They covered them with clean white sheets and beautiful traditional embroidered blankets. I chose a mattress with an exceptionally thick, embroidered blanket. I wish I could find one like it and have enough room to take it home with me. The inside was like our ancient blue sleeping bags at home—good enough for winter. There were no windows in the house—only shutters which were open to the cool mountain air blowing in. The weather was perfect for traveling the entire weekend: overcast and cool with not too much rain. This was by far the best homestay I’ve done so far in Vietnam. The house, our beds, and the bathroom were clean and tidy, the food was fantastic, and the owners were lovely.
When we arrived they hadn’t prepared a lunch for us at the homestay because they didn’t know when we were coming, so we drove down the street—right through a rice paddy—to a restaurant where we had a shared Vietnamese meal. It was great to chat with and meet everyone on our trip. It was a good, friendly group.
After lunch we went back to the house, chilled for a bit, took naps, and waited for the rain to stop. Then we hired one of the men who lived in the stilt houses to be our guide and take us around the valley. He led us on a seven kilometer trek through the rice paddies, village, and eventually up through jungle and mountain. We thought at first that we were just going around the mountain on a nice afternoon stroll, but no. Half of us ended up practically getting lost in the mountainous wilderness when the other half raced ahead through the bush. We had to constantly stop to yell out “Dung Oi!” Dung—pronounced zung, but she likes to be called zoom—was our group organizer/leader and “Oi” is the equivalent of “hey.”
Despite our fears that it was getting dark and we wouldn’t find our way out again plus the fact that we were filthy and sweaty from struggling up slippery rocks plastered in red mud, the whole thing was a pretty comical experience—especially when we finally found the other half of the group only to discover that our guide had disappeared ahead. Now none of us knew the way out! Yes, we did survive this ordeal, obviously as I’m posting this on the internet. Civilization! We came upon a small farmhouse hoping it wasn’t another scene from Deliverance and these weren’t natives waiting cook us in a stew. Sorry, no painted, spear-bearing locals (although I did faintly hear drums on our trek), only a water buffalo giving us the most absurd look.
We trudged back through rice paddies as the sun set with a perfect reflection of the mountains on the paddies. All of us were looking forward to a good hot shower and a filling dinner. We got what we wanted. We ate at our homestay on the concrete slab and the food was delicious. Then we decided to have a bonfire. We paid our homestay to set up the fire and bought two clay jugs of (weak) traditional rice wine. We drank this wine through long hollowed bamboo straws that we stuck in the pots and drank communally. We also invested in a bamboo dance and accordion player. You have two long bamboo poles laid horizontally on the ground and six poles (three sets of two) laid vertically over the horizontal poles. There are six people (three at each end) who have two ends of the bamboo poles. In unison, they bang them in a rhythmic pattern on the horizontal poles. We all tried our hand at this. Then while the poles are being moved people dance over them. You have to step through the poles a certain way before they hit your ankles. Simple enough and most of the time you escaped the bang of the poles, but sometimes you didn’t. It was a lot of fun. Still, I was exhausted from the long day, so after about an hour some other people and I went back to the house and straight to bed where mosquito nets were already set up over our mattresses and waiting for us to climb into.
The next morning we had a breakfast of sticky rice at the house. It was wrapped in a husk, which had been cooked on the fire. When you peel open the husk there’s a banana leaf inside. You peel open the banana leaf and in that is the sticky rice which you can dip in crushed peanuts or sugar. After breakfast we packed our things and took off right away. We drove through the valley to a minority Hmong village where there was a Sunday market. It was fantastic to see. All the women were dressed in their traditional brightly colored woven dresses selling their homemade ribbons, yarns, and cloth. The men—some of them also traditionally dressed—were selling ammunition and other things for hunting. I bought some ribbon and a little purse.
After that we drove further down the road to a path only for motorbikes. It wound up and down the mountain on very steep hills. I didn’t think my bike would make it and I was sure to use second gear on the way down. In the valley below we ran into a bumpy gravel road and traveled down a little ways to a dingy general store where our Vietnamese members negotiated lunch for our group. In the meantime, I walked around with two other girls from the group. It was a farming community filled with little wooden houses and children running around and climbing trees in their traditional outfits. So peaceful. It was straight out of a National Geographic picture. On the way back to the general store some of the group members and the store owner were climbing the small mountain behind the store, so of course I ran to join them. Apparently lovers climb up this mountain to have their romantic rendezvous. It was steep going up and even harder down on the slippery gravel, but the view was amazing. You could see the entire valley up there and the little dusty village below.
By the time we reached the bottom, I was starving. We took our motorbikes just down the road to another general store where we ate our lunch on straw mats on the floor. After lunch I road on the back of another ex-pat’s bike instead of driving my own. I was nervous about the twisting steep roads and another Vietnamese girl had offered to drive so I let her. We took off back home and she drove for a ways until it started to rain a little. Then we stopped and another Vietnamese girl, who had wanted to drive earlier, offered, so I let her. I jumped on the back of another ex-pat’s bike and we drove and drove and drove. Our group split up along the way. Apparently one of the bikes behind us broke down and so half of the group was with them and the rest of us were up ahead. We decided to wait for them at a café where we had sugarcane juice; however, as we were heading to the café, the girl who was driving my bike sped on ahead and didn’t realize we’d stopped. None of our phones had reception and the ones that would have worked were dead, so we couldn’t get a hold of her. I was also carrying her purse. Ha, well she had my bike and I had her purse, so it was a trade. The others eventually caught up with us, but by then it was dusk. We hopped on again and drove straight through to Hanoi. When we got into town it was dark. The ride had been long, bumpy, and nerve-wracking, but we made it safe and sound. It turns out that the girl had been in town for a good hour and a half at a café waiting for us, so we met up and exchanged our possessions. Most of the group headed to a Bia Hoi for dinner and it turns out that it was literally just around the corner from my apartment—such a relief that I didn’t have to find my way home in the dark. In fact, I had walked there for lunch the week before.
So…finally…there ends my adventure for last weekend. Now onto the next adventure this weekend. Happy Fourth of July! When you think about it, it’s kind of crazy to be spending the Fourth in Vietnam of all places. I’m headed to a BBQ with some work buddies tomorrow evening after work (yes, I work six days a week now). Then on Sunday I’m hoping to get a pedicure and my hair cut. It’s been a long, busy week this last week…work, work, work. Finally I have more hours! In fact, maybe too many. Troi oi! You can never win….
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