Final Vietnam Blog!

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May 24th 2010

Published: May 25th 2010

After living in Hanoi for the last 5 weeks I am definitely ready to move on. I have enjoyed it here but now that my friends have left the house its way to quite here with only two of us. I had a great time with my "Hanoi family" for the month I lived with them. They were an energetic pack that always kept me laughing, even when the volunteering was tough. I've also been enjoying the street food here. We live in a very local area so all the restaurants around only have Vietnamese menus and in a country where dog meet is popular, I would like to know what I'm eating. There are two street food places that I really like. Pho (noodles with a broth with either chicken or beef) is very popular in Vietnam. The locals will often crack an egg and drop it raw into the noodles where it cooks because it is so hot. I haven't been brave enough to try it.. the whole concept of raw eggs creep me out. The other street food that is my biggest weakness is Kebabs. I know I know... not so Vietnamese but they are just sooooo good. I have to restrain myself not to have them for every meal!
On one of the first days I arrived in Vietnam, a Vietnamese women took me to a local market where we bought all the ingredients to make spring rolls. We zig-zaged through the alleyways behind our home until we found a small strip where the front of houses were converted into shops. There we bought fresh produce, noodles, eggs, rice paper and some unidentifiable meat (although I did make sure it wasn't Dog). We came back to the house and she taught me how to make spring rolls. It was a lot of fun rolling them and frying them but even better when we ate them. Since then, I have made them many times for my house mates and we even had a "lash spring roll chunder race" as my friend B so eloquently named it. I do like them better fresh then fried and look forward to making them when I get home for my family!

Ninh Binh
So my four room mates, Lindsay, B, Julia and Toby went to Halong Bay one weekend. I had already been so I picked somewhere in the guide book to go for a night. 93KM south of Hanoi is Ninh Binh, a town in the Vietnamese country side . It is known for Tam Coc which is similar to Halong Bay with its limestone rock formations but instead of being in the ocean it is in a sea of rice fields. I took a public bus which took two hours and was an experience in its self. On a bus which has 25 seats there was 46 people on it and most of them were smelly men. I'm pretty sure there are about two obese men in Vietnam and I had the pleasure of sitting next to each of them on my bus ride there and back. Part of the reason I wanted to get out of Hanoi was to escape the smog, but it is inescapable. There were two massive factories as I drove in to Ninh Binh that were emitting gross amounts of smoke.
The next day I hired a motorbike to go to the local sites. The drive through the country side was beautiful. I loved how the rice paddies blend religious pagodas, cemeteries and limestone mountains into the perfect scenery. The first stop was Mua Cave which was pitch black. I was the only tourist there so I didn't go in. Instead I climbed to the top of one of the limestone mountains on very steep stairs. On top there was a shrine to Quan Am (goddess of Mercy). The views from the top were amazing. Next I took a rowboat ride on the rivers weaving through the rice paddies and mountains and even through 3 caves. The woman who was rowing would use her arms for a while then when they got tired she would switch to her feet. I tried rowing the boat and it was much harder then it looked! While on the boat, all the Asian tourists would wave to me, then get their friends attention and point at me and even take pictures of me. I have become used to this because through out south east Asia many people have asked my friends and I for pictures with us. I'm not sure what the obsession is with white people but my blond hair and blue eyes definitely makes me stand out more.
After the boat trip I went to a Pagoda that was built into one of the limestone mountains which was also beautiful. While on the motorbike I loved putting my arms out and pretend I was flying. It reminded me of driving in Africa when I would stick my head and arms out of the window. Its moments like this when I really feel alive.

Mausoleum
One of the must do things in Hanoi is to go to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. Ho Chi Minh was the President of Vietnam. He was a very powerful and led the North of Vietnam to conquer the French, Americans and the south of Vietnam. He united the country under one communist government and as the people in the north say, "saved" the south. Following in the steps of communist leaders Stalin and Lenin, Ho Chi Minh had his body embalmed so that people can see him and pay their respects to him after his death.
I went to the Mausoleum last week and it was quite an experience. Before going I was warned to wear long clothes that covered up knees and elbows and not to bring a camera. The hours of viewing are only certain days and end before 11 AM. We stood in line for a while with Asian tourists then had to form two straight lines where we weren't allowed to talk. Guards in impeccable white uniforms with massive guns enforced this. When we got in the room after waiting about an hour, we had less then 30 seconds to shuffle around and peer into the glass case with his body and if we fell behind one of the guards would give us a push. It was definitely an experience and very interesting one but very surreal seeing people worshiping this dead body.

No Fun Police
The communist government enforces a curfew of 12:00 in Hanoi that many bars follow. After this time lock ins occur. This is when the bar closes its doors but keeps the party going. If the party is too loud or the bar has not paid them enough the "no fun police" come.
One of my friends who I was living with described one lock in to his friends in an email very well...
"In Vietnam there's a curfew for everyonee so Lock ins go down all over town!!! however this lock-in didn't go as planned!!!!! at about 2ish we heard the first whistle blow!!!! then all of a sudden 10 Asian midgets wearing police uniforms come in blowing their whistles all over the bar while holding big batsss!!! all went down with the locals, a huge bribe was paid off but the cops weren't having any of it! so they kicked us alll out"
Last weekend I was out with my tour guide from the tour through S.E. Asia and there was another run in with the "no fun police". We were playing pool when we heard the whistles blow. I stood and watched for a minute until I saw one western guy just look at a police man and he was tasered. That was enough to send my friends and I running out of there!

Volunteering
I have finished my volunteering and it was a good experience. I became attached with a few of the students and just like South Africa, I became close with one whom I never thought possible at the beginning. I remember coming back to the house on the second day and telling my friends that I didn't want to go ín the afternoon because I spent the entire time getting chased around by one boy who would pull my hair and pinch me. One time he even pinched so hard that I started bleeding! Every time he came close to me I would run away and he thought this was a game and continued chasing me. The teachers were in their little huddle not paying attention to the children so I was left to fend for myself. The student, Tu, is very Autistic and like many Autistic children was very bright. I often sang songs to the children and one day I heard him say "E I E I O". He was incredibly quick at picking up songs. I taught his Frere Jacques, Old MacDonald and Bah Bah Black Sheep. He picked them up immediately!! I often had to hold his hands while we were singing and did loose some hair along the way but by the end he didn't hurt me anymore!
Another student I bonded with was Hung. He was one of the biggest boys in the class and always loved sitting on my lap even though it squished me completely. He was an incredibly happy child who was always smiling. Through lots of repetition I taught him to say "My name is Hung. I am cute." He also knew my name! Teaching the children English when half of them didn't even speak Vietnamese was difficult and I am not sure if he understood what he was saying but it was still rewarding.

Sapa
This past weekend I took the over night train to a little city in North West Vietnam. Sapa is the center city for many of the Hill tribes. I spent the first day trekking alone through Cat Cat village home to the Black H'mong people. It was a steep hike down the mountain that has incredible views everywhere I looked! The people there were so kind and friendly, but I did get hassled to buy things a lot. In the Cat Cat village there was a waterfall that I stopped at for a while to rest and have a cool drink. I then followed a path along Fairy River that was complete with scenic views and local boys showering in the river... oops. Hiking back up was the hardest part. I was almost crawling by the time I got back up to the top. It was 7km in total which was just a warm up for the next day.
I signed up with two French women to hire a local guide who would take us through three villages, one Red Dazo and two Black H'mong. While we walked, three other tribal women decided to join us and I picked their brains the whole way down about their life. Tourism has changed their lives completely. These tribes used to be the poorest in Vietnam but they are now doing very well. Many women now make their handy crafts for only tourists and don't work in the fields. All of the younger generation speaks English very well and also have a good command of Chinese, French and Spanish.
The 15 km trek was amazing. We climbed through rice fields and walked though local villages. I saw how they prepare their rice fields and how they plant it. Everything was so green there that it was the first time I was able to take a deep breath in a while. To sum it all up, I was exhausted after my two days in Sapa but they were the best 2 days I have had in all of Asia!!

I have just arrived in Singapore at a guest house. My first impression of Singapore is that is is a more modern city then even Toronto! I was shocked when my taxi driver stayed in his own lane and even used his directional when turning. The craziest part was he didn't use his horn once-- something that would NEVER happen in Hanoi! I also found it difficult to cross the street here. I am used to just stepping out anywhere and having the cars and motorbikes weave around me. I didn't know what to do once I started walking across the street and no one was slowing down!
My friend Linsay from volunteering in South Africa is meeting me tonight and we will be traveling through Malaysia together for the next two weeks. And then... home. A scary thought and something I'm not ready for. This trip has inspired me to do a lot more traveling and I'm already thinking about where I want to go next!

Hope everyone is doing well at home and looking forward to the summer weather. Its 92 degrees (30 Celsius) here and I LOVE IT!

See you all soon. xx

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