Tying Loose Ends

Elsbeth writing…

Finally I have reached the end of October and there are only two and a half weeks left before I come home again. It’s been a long time—too long—since I’ve been home and every day I count down the days to when I can start packing up. As I said in my Shutterfly album description and before, it’s not that I hate traveling or that my days abroad are over (not in the least), I just need to go home and reset again. I need to see the old people and things I love, have comfort food, and spend the holidays in the cold and snow instead of in the tropical heat.

These last couple weeks since my last blog I’ve taken two other little trips: One to the Perfume Pagoda and one to Sapa. These were the last things on my list to see in Vietnam (besides a few more things in Hanoi). I enjoyed both trips, but I have to admit that it’s nice to finally be done with them and now look forward to coming home.

The Perfume Pagoda was very nice. It’s not far from Hanoi—I’m not sure the direction. It was a day trip with a tour group and a bit like my trip to Ninh Binh the other week. We took rickety row boats along a river through the mountains for an hour or so. It was rainy and cool that day, so when we got to the dock and walked up the short distance to the entrance most of us decided to take the cable car to the top of the mountains (instead of climbing the slippery 3k up). It was actually well worth the extra 70,000 d (about $4) to take the cable car up (considering that it was new and made in Switzerland which equals safe and reliable in my book). It was neat to see the mountains here in a different way—from above instead of below—and it was beautiful.

After the cable car, we walked a short distance to the Perfume Pagoda itself. There are actually many different pagodas here and it’s a religious destination for many Vietnamese people (especially around TET and the holy days). This particular pagoda, however, is the main attraction because it is set in a cave. You have to walk down stairs to get to the wide mouth of the cave and walk through some short pathways to get to the back where there are a variety of shrines for men, women, children, and the ancestors. There are also some formations in the walls of the caves that mean different things—one for women to be more fertile and others that are shaped like men, women, and elephants. It was interesting.

After that, we walked back and took the cable car down. We had lunch and then went to a temple (same as most of the other temples I’ve seen so far). After that we took the row boats back and went back to Hanoi. It was a nice relaxing day and good to meet and talk with some other people.

Then I just got back from a four-night/three-day trip to Sapa this week. Sapa is Northwest of Hanoi—near the Chinese border. The trip was very nice and Sapa was gorgeous. My landlady’s son, who works for a tour agency, organized everything. All I did was pay. I left on Sunday evening after work and took the night train to Sapa. I had a sleeper cabin with a family from Singapore. There was a husband, wife, and their adult son. I talked for a bit to the husband and they were all very nice, but the husband and son snored up a storm the entire night. As I told my parents, it sounded like a pack of lions tearing apart a gazelle. Needless to say, I didn’t get much sleep.

We arrived in Sapa early in the morning. Outside the train depot there were many people with signs to pick up tourists who were with tour groups. I looked and looked for my name, but didn’t see it, so I called my landlady’s son and asked him how he spelled my name. He said “O-U-T-S-P-I-T.” “What?! Outspit!” I said, “That’s not my name at all! It’s spelled E-L-S-B-E-T-H.” I rushed to one lady who I’d seen with that name previously—she was starting to walk away. I had her talk to him, because she said she wanted a receipt. All I had was my itinerary, which she took and subsequently never gave back. Eventually it was sorted out and I got on the bus that went into Sapa.

The morning was beautiful there. The bright yellow sun was just coming up over the top of the mountains, lighting up the rice terraces. Only then did I really start to realize that it was my birthday! Yes, on Monday morning I turned 24. It didn’t seem like my birthday at all, though, because…well…I’d never had a birthday in a place like that nor had I ever spent it alone.

Anyway, we eventually got to the hotel after dropping off some of the other people on the bus. The hotel was much nicer than I’d expected. When I came in they asked me if I would be okay with staying in the hotel the first night and the homestay the second. Originally, it was supposed to be the other way around. That was fine with me. I didn’t care.

So I dropped off my backpack and went downstairs to have a good breakfast of fried eggs and bread. I sat with two middle-aged German women and ended up having a conversation in German with them. My German’s a bit rusty, but it’s good to practice. They were very nice and they invited me to their houses when I, hopefully, am able to teach/live in Germany or one of those German-speaking countries one day. They also showed me pictures of their families and we took a picture together.

Afterwards, I met my group for the tour and we went on a trek through the mountains. There were four others in my group: A couple from Switzerland and two guys from Holland. They were all very nice. A Vietnamese family also joined us. They had two young daughters who went to private International schools and spoke English really well. It was good to talk to everyone and the scenery was amazing. The paths on the trail could be muddy and rocky, but luckily the weather was sunny and perfect for the entire trip. It wasn’t too hot—cool in fact—and it was windy. A group of minority women dressed in their traditional outfits followed us around the entire time. I’d heard of this before. They don’t try to sell you things right away, but talk with you and help you along the trails. Then at the end they ask you to buy something. I thought their strategy was smart and so I was willing to buy something from them. One little girl, about 11 years old (she said), followed me and we talked together. She was very sweet, so at the end I bought a small purse and a bracelet from her (for a lot more than it was worth). That’s okay, she was nice, but I shouldn’t buy from kids—it just makes their parents think they can make money and so they take them out of school—she’d already been out of school for about three years.

We finally stopped at a waterfall where we sat and rested for awhile. Then we took motorbikes back to have lunch at the hotel. We had the rest of the afternoon to explore Sapa and I walked around town with the Swiss couple. I told them that this town reminded me of St. Moritz in the Swiss Alps minus the snow and plus the rice terraces. They didn’t agree at all. I don’t know…something about the mountain town, touristy feel.

Oh! And my hotel put a lovely, but over-the-top, bouquet of roses and lilies in my room. That was totally unexpected but really nice. It really made my day. Before the lady at reception had said happy birthday and I asked her how she knew—she had seen it on my passport. I brought them home and they’re next to my TV now. They probably thought I was crazy to drag them away with me (maybe they thought I was just traveling around).

Anyway, the next day our group met up with a group of four Spanish people traveling together—one girl and three guys—and we went on another trek. This one was longer—10 k. We walked through the mountains, rice terraces, and minority villages again. The villages were filled with little children who had no pants on. They were filthy and their clothes were all torn. It seemed as though nobody was looking after even the littlest ones who were barely able to walk and wandering around. They were sliding down the hills on plastic bottles and bits of cardboard, trying to sell us little cloth bracelet and baubles, and following us around. We visited a school which was bright and colorful, but the kids had no uniforms and were only dressed in their torn dirty clothes, while other kids who were not in class still followed us around trying to sell us things. The homes we visited were like barns—very dark and dirty and impoverished.

It’s crazy to imagine how people can live like this—so poor—but at the same time, somehow, people seemed relatively happy. They didn’t seem to need lots of things to make them happy like we tend to want in our Western culture. I’m sure their lives aren’t perfect by any means and that they have a lot of problems, but it’s a simple way of living which isn’t entirely bad in and of itself. One thing I do think is sad to see is the children running around the way there are—not taken care of properly and with little education. The Vietnamese government does seem to be trying to build good schools for them and encourage the parents to keep them in school. In all the villages we visited or saw, the schools were the biggest, newest structures there. I think that shows something.

Well, the trek was good, but exhausting. My legs are still aching. The food was good, too—traditional Vietnamese food—and the homestay was very nice. It was similar to the other homestays I’ve done here in the northern part of Vietnam. We all slept in one big room with mats on the floor and mosquito nets. Because it gets so cold here, we had super thick blankets which kept me more than warm at night. The homestay (even though it was more open to the elements) was warmer than the hotel which was freezing cold the night before—probably because it was made of stone. We talked outside on the patio that night before and after dinner. It’s great to meet new people and talk with them. That’s always my favorite part of traveling.

The next day we had a shorter trek—5 k—and saw another waterfall. When we made it back to the main road a clean, new bus was there waiting to take us back to Sapa. Back in the hotel we took showers and had dinner before we got on the bus headed back to Lao Cai, where we would take the train back to Hanoi. At the train station we had a couple hours before the train took off so we sat down at a restaurant to have a beer and talk some more. I was supposed to take a train later than the others, but they came up to me and asked if I wanted to switch my tickets for the earlier train. So I did. The second night on the train wasn’t the greatest either. It was freezing cold because the A/C was on full blast and we couldn’t turn it down, so I hardly got any sleep. We got into Hanoi around 4:30 and I just took a taxi straight home—nobody was out on the streets yet.

So those are my adventures from the last several weeks. Phew! I had a really nice time on both tours and it was good to be in the countryside, but again, I’m glad to be over with them and really start thinking about going home.

Jeez louis, that’s a long blog. It took me ages to type. Okay, well, this may very well be the second to last blog you see on this site, because soon I’m headed home! I can’t wait to see everyone, but for now I should remember to enjoy life on the other side of the world. See you soon!

Harvest Moon

Elsbeth writing…

I just got back today from vacation in Ninh Binh, which is about two hours West of Hanoi. Overall it was good to be out of the city after being cooped up and getting progressively fed up with everything over the last two and a half months. I stayed for about two and a half days—two nights.

I took a tour there the first day and we saw a temple and went on a boat tour around these beautiful, spired mountains. The landscape is gorgeous, but they were just trying to push us to buy things on the boat trip. I was with a Japanese guy in our row boat and I struck up a conversation in Vietnamese with one of the ladies who was rowing the boat. I was so proud that I could talk for an extended length of time in Vietnamese and I understood most of what she said. Of course, though, she had to push the embroidered cloths she was selling on me (to fund her daughter’s college education, so she said). I was nice and bought two small embroidered things…so I guess that’s one of your future presents, mom. Another lady on one boat at the end of the boat tour before we turned back pushed us to buy drinks for our rowers. I was stupid and should have known better. I thought the rowers were going to pay for their drinks for some reason, but I was expected to pay at the extortionary price of 30,000 d (about $2.50) for two drinks. Okay, that doesn’t sound like a lot over there, but it’s a lot here. Anyway, the Japanese guy and I paid some. You can’t even have a pleasant conversation in Vietnamese without being asked to buy something…I guess I can see where they’re coming from.

Anyway, I ended up staying at the hotel where we had lunch and which my tour guide was pushing for me to stay at. I had another hotel in mind, but actually this one was pretty good as it turned out. It was right across from the place where we took our boat tour and the room I was in had an amazing view of the mountains. The room was also very clean and new. The owners there were pretty friendly and helpful. They even gave me a discount and didn’t charge me for some things. The first night they even had me eat dinner with their family. It was very nice.

The second day I went on another boat tour that was further out in the middle of nowhere and less touristy. It was also more beautiful and a longer tour. We went through a bunch of caves that were so low we had to duck our heads as we rowed through them. I was getting claustrophobic and some of the caves had bats flying around, which freaked me out even more. I officially hate bats. One of the owners of the hotel drove me there and back, which was nice.

After that they had another motorbike driver take me to the Phat Diem Cathedral, which is apparently the biggest Cathedral in South East Asia. It was different from any other Cathedral I’ve seen—the architecture was clearly Asian with tiled roofs and Chinese carvings and motifs. It was really neat to see the blend between Western and Asian cultures in this Cathedral. It was a long drive through the bumpy countryside to get there and I only stayed for about an hour. I ended up talking to a Vietnamese girl who came up to talk to me. She didn’t speak much English so we ended up talking for awhile in half English, half Vietnamese. She was very sweet and showed me around the area.

Then my driver and I headed back in the cool evening through the countryside. Even the flat rice fields were so beautiful and reminded me of Wittenberg in Germany for some reason. Of course, the crops are different and in Wittenberg they had wind generators dotting the countryside instead of palm trees. It’s harvest season now so there was sweet-smelling hay strewn all over the roads and they were burning piles of it—sometimes even in the middle of the road. I don’t know why they had to burn it. There was also a bright red harvest moon as we were driving back. It felt more like autumn. That evening I had dinner at the same place I had lunch at that day. Jeez, again the prices were super high for Vietnamese food, but the people there were nice.

Today I got up “early” and went for a bike ride around the countryside for a little bit. Again, it was so beautiful, but the locals were very rude. They kept shooing me away wherever I went and wanted me to buy a ticket for some tour or another. I don’t trust many people here anymore, so I just ignored them and went on my way. I didn’t stay out long. Just long enough to work up a dripping sweat. I went back to the hotel, freshened up, quickly gathered my things, and left. I took the bus back to Hanoi.

I unpacked my things and cleaned out my defrosted fridge right away. Then I went grocery shopping and cleaned my room.

Oh, also last weekend was the Harvest Moon Festival. I was here last year for it, but I didn’t see much. This year I was determined to see a little and I saw a lot. It was a nice festive atmosphere—like Halloween and Karnival combined. All the children were dressed up—the little girls had on cute princess dresses. The teens and university students were also wearing elaborate masks. I wanted to get a mask but I couldn’t find one. We saw a little Chinese dragon show for the kids in one of the streets and went to a Vegetarian restaurant for dinner. After that one of my friends from work and I ended up walking all the way back to our apartments when we realized the streets were so crowded and no empty taxi could be found. It was neat to see the festivities as we walked back and the people just socializing around Hoan Kiem Lake, but I was exhausted.

Speaking of exhausted, I better get to bed because tomorrow is going to be a very long exhausting day.