Blogs from Quang Binh, North Central Coast, Vietnam, Asia - page 5

Tuesday morning rolls around and we’re all packed and ready to country hop. The group of us (sans the American girls who did something else) hike down to the bus stop and pile on for the 7-8 hour journey to Hanoi. The ride was lovely. As soon as we got away from the cement sidewalks of Nanning, fields are bursting with different shades of green. The farmland seems to extend for miles, circling large mountains of limestone. The area is known for it’s limestone topography—had I been more adventurous over the weekend I would have gone and checked it out, but sometimes it’s nice just doing nothing. We arrive at the Chinese border where Juhani and I assumed we’d be returning to the same bus and both left our books on board. I have carried Anna ... read more

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 to know that besides the random cough I'm better. I worked a bit on Saturday, but devoted Sunday to the Sun Spa Resort. It's about $5 USD a day to swim in the pool or ... read more

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 to all youth volunteers killed in the war and the cave entrance contains a shrine. We also visited a Botanical Garden and hiked the trail that winds through the forest. I stayed overnight in Phong ... read more

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 property. They chose an excellent location, pretty far off the road (nobody gunning their motorbike engines at 5am), in the shadow of beautiful green mountains and surrounded by the family's gardens and fruit tree groves. The houses ... read more

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 we need both involved in the planning of this project in order for all the ideas to actually work as a business. And it was also encouraging to hear them say the area has a ... read more