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MissyS - Melissa Stevens

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I am a graduate student of anthropology in my mid-20's focusing on sustainable community-based tourism. I am from Philadelphia (U.S) and I am married to Woods who writes funny, scary, and affecting stories and sets them to punk/western/surf/folk music. I usually do not travel in comfort but I do travel well.

Update: I spent last summer (2007) in Vietnam working as an intern with Counterpart International doing community-based tourism research and planning outside of Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park. After receiving my Masters degree in Applied Anthropology in May, I have returned to Vietnam for the month of July to work on the same project as a professional consultant (fancy!).

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Joined on: June 8th 2007
Last Login: July 28th 2008

Blog Entries: 23
Photos: 314

TB Code: [blogger=40354]
Status: BLOGGER

Blogs & Travel Journals

by MissyS, order by Date newest first.

By MissyS
July 22nd 2008

More Kayaking Photos From Phong Nha Ke Bang

Asia » Vietnam » North Central Coast » Phong Nha Ke Bang

Me and Victor Kayaking Phong Nha Ke Bang

These additional photos are courtesy of Mr. Vinh. [View Full Entry]

By MissyS
July 22nd 2008

Mysterious Medicine, Guilty Resort Pleasures, and My Own Personal Gecko

Asia » Vietnam » North Central Coast » Dong Hoi

Sun Spa Resort, Dong Hoi

I have been working myself ragged which is maybe how I got sick. I went to the pharmacist and mocked some coughing and nose blowing and then rubbed my throat (glad I didn't have any diarrhea to act out). So she gave me cold/flu medicine that contained stuff I recognized and then four different meds that she indicated were for my throat. I didn't want to buy them all so I grabbed one and went home to look up the active ingredients. Evidently, it's a drug only found in Vietnam. It's still sitting unopened in my drawer... Mom will be glad [View Full Entry]

By MissyS
July 17th 2008

Another Day at the Office: Kayaking in Phong Nha Ke Bang National Park

Asia » Vietnam » North Central Coast » Phong Nha Ke Bang

Kayaking in Phong Nha Ke Bang National Park
Victor and Mr. Vinh

I am now sick with a bad cold or the flu or some such nonsense. But earlier this week I was having a much much better time. Monday, Mr. Vinh and I took the car on the road around the park to take promotional photos and to check distance and difficulty for each section of the proposed biking route. We also re-visited the Tam Co or "8 Volunteer" or "8 Girl" cave where 8 youth volunteers were killed during the war when the cave where they were taking shelter in collapsed during an American bombing raid. There is a temple built [View Full Entry]

By MissyS
July 13th 2008

German Management + Vietnamese Engineering + Australian Eco-Aesthetics = A Nice Walk in the Park

Asia » Vietnam » North Central Coast » Dong Hoi

Eco-Trail

I had plans to work through the weekend in order to save up free days for a trip to Hoi An later, but Greg and Evi invited me to Phong Nha to check out the Eco-Trail and I couldn't resist. I can actually count a few hours of this as work since the Eco-Trail will be part of the tour options we are developing. Before leaving I had coffee Saturday morning in Dong Hoi with my Counterpart colleague Mr. Quy and some others. We had made plans for 8am coffee and I woke up kicking myself for agreeing to voluntarily wake [View Full Entry]

By MissyS
July 11th 2008

Constructing Community-Based Tourism

Asia » Vietnam » North Central Coast » Dong Hoi

Chay Lap Girl

On Wednesday I visited Chay Lap Village, the location of our pilot community-based tourism project. A lot of progress has been made since I was last involved last summer. A CBT Village Management Board has been set up and they have been busy. As with everything in Vietnam, there have been many bureaucratic hurdles to get past, but now the focus is on constructing the homestay buildings and training the local people. One household was chosen for the pilot. We'll start small and develop more as everyone learns. Two traditionally styled wooden houses are being built on the family's prop [View Full Entry]

By MissyS
July 8th 2008

Return to Vietnam!

Asia » Vietnam » North Central Coast » Dong Hoi

Something to Look At
Since I don't have any Vietnam pictures yet to post with my entry, I figured I would put a random picture of me and my family up. That's my sister, me, my dad, and my husband (l-r) in Washington DC.

I have returned to Vietnam this July to work on the same community-based tourism project as last summer. The project is located in Quang Binh province in the buffer zone of the UNESCO World Heritage site Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park. I am now working primarily on marketing and promotional material for the project. Last summer I was an intern, but this summer I am all grown up with a Masters degree in Anthropology, so I have been commissioned as a professional consultant. I guess this is the start of my real career. (Good-bye waiting tables! I hope.) I arrived in [View Full Entry]

By MissyS
September 30th 2007

More 'Nam Entries, Posted Very Late

North America » United States » Maryland » Baltimore

So, I've been home over a month and I have about two entries I wrote in Vietnam that I never posted and one more I should write to conclude the trip. This is just an entry promising that I will post these entries in the next day or two. And a little update: I just started taking martial arts classes with a crazy Vietnamese grandmaster who was the Southeast Asian champ. He swears he will teach me Vietnamese if it kills me. That would be helpful (learning more Vietnamese, not getting killed) in case I am able to return to Vietnam [View Full Entry]

By MissyS
August 19th 2007

Wandering Hoi An with the Ex-Pats

Asia » Vietnam » South Central Coast » Hoi An

Rules Posted at the Dong Hoi Train Station
#7 says, "Seal off the the seller, the madman, and the contagioner in the waiting room."

After a late night of farewell drinks in Dong Hoi, Greg, Evi, and I woke up at 4:30am to catch the 5:30am train to Da Nang. We got to the station only to be told the train was running an hour and a half late because of last week's floods. An hour and a half later we were told it would be another hour. Finally after waiting in the train station for 4 hours the train arrived and we began the 6 hour ride to Da Nang. Once we got there and took a car to Hoi An, we checked into [View Full Entry]

By MissyS
August 18th 2007

Goodbye Dong Hoi and Phong Nha Ke Bang

Asia » Vietnam » North Central Coast » Dong Hoi

Boys on Water Buffalo
These boys were riding the water buffalo and jousting one another with sticks.

I had my last real office day on Wednesday, and my last day of work on Thursday was spent showing two Intrepid Indochina (tour company) guys around the villages and the park to get their feedback and advice on our project. Mark (Australian) and Hung (Vietnamese) are two chain-smoking, heavy drinking ex-tour leaders who are both brilliant when it comes to planning and doing tourism in Vietnam and a lot of fun to hang out with. They gave me a lot of good information over beers. There's a bit of a disconnect between the NGO world and the business world and [View Full Entry]

By MissyS
August 14th 2007

A Rainy Day Workshop Works in Phong Nha Ke Bang

Asia » Vietnam » North Central Coast » Dong Hoi

Our Impressive Banner

So we held our successful "Workshop: Community-Based Tourism Potential in the Phong Nha Ke Bang Buffer Zone" on the 7th with representatives from the three communes and local and regional authorities. Wow. I'm still kind of giddy a week later. I'm somehow light years ahead professionally of where I thought I would be one year ago right before I started this Master's program. I was waiting tables at the time. And I just planned and ran an all day workshop attended by important people and introducing a revolutionary idea, assisted of course by the capable workshop-running pros at Counterpar [View Full Entry]

TravelBlog » MissyS

MissyS | Melissa Stevens | Travel Blog

MissyS - Melissa Stevens

My Map

Blogs & Travel Journals

More Kayaking Photos From Phong Nha Ke Bang

Mysterious Medicine, Guilty Resort Pleasures, and My Own Personal Gecko

Another Day at the Office: Kayaking in Phong Nha Ke Bang National Park

German Management + Vietnamese Engineering + Australian Eco-Aesthetics = A Nice Walk in the Park

Constructing Community-Based Tourism

Return to Vietnam!

More 'Nam Entries, Posted Very Late

Wandering Hoi An with the Ex-Pats

Goodbye Dong Hoi and Phong Nha Ke Bang

A Rainy Day Workshop Works in Phong Nha Ke Bang