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Wylie makes it through Vietnam!
***I know it’s been a long time since you’ve heard from me everyone, but Vietnam kept me moving really fast throughout the entire country! We didn’t stay in the same bed more than 2 nights for about 3 weeks! To get into Vietnam, we decided to take a boat down to Chau Doc. From there, we made our way to Can Tho, where we would go see the floating markets. The markets are going by 6:00 in the morning, so we had to be at the boat we took by about 5am. I need WAY more monkey beauty sleep than that! At least it was worth it though. Since we were on a small boat, we could make our way through the little boats that were selling all kinds of fruit, vegetables, and even some clothes. It’s almost like going to the grocery store, except you’re in a boat with a little motor on the back instead. To show people what they have for sale, they put a piece of fruit (or what they’re selling) on a long stick that points up from their boat. We even got to try some new fruits while we
were there. Next, we made our way up to Ho Chi Minh City and continued north. When we were in Hue, we stopped at the Forbidden Purple City just outside of town. I was a little confused when we got there and nothing was purple, but it was still fun to see some of the statues around. In Ninh Binh, we rented a motorbike to go visit a national park where they were trying to increase the monkey population in Vietnam. I was really sad to find out that there are less than 500 monkeys in some of the different species left in the wild. It sure was fun to watch them swing around in the cages though! Boy, I thought I was fast. The gibbon made me look like a slow poke! I wouldn’t be winning a race with any of those, that’s for sure. We were getting hungry, so we went back for dinner that night and had some Pho, which is noodle soup with vegetables unless you want meat. Pho is one thing that EVERYONE eats in Vietnam. It’s really, really good, but when you eat soup every single day, it’s nice to have something different. How
long do you think YOU could eat soup for without needing a break? People in Vietnam eat some scary things, too. We even saw people eating chicken feet on the street! Yuk! Even NATE wouldn’t try those things, and he eats bugs! That’s really saying something! Even though I was having fun, I still couldn’t wait to get to my favorite place in all of Vietnam…
There wasn’t too much for a monkey to do in some parts of Vietnam, but all of that changed when we made it to Sapa, a little town in the mountains almost on the border of China. We were over a mile high and could see clouds floating by right in front of our eyes. In fact, we were actually higher than a lot of them! I couldn’t believe how amazing the views were. There were rice terraces everywhere and lots of tribal people from different local villages walking around town. I even got my picture taken with 2 of the ladies. Nate and Jessie were laughing when the ladies said, “Awww. He’s so cute,” because my cheeks turned as red as a ripe tomato! I think they wanted to take me home
with them. Sorry ladies, I have too many other countries to visit still! One day, we spent the entire day riding a motorbike to another town, winding up, down, and around the mountains to get there. You wouldn’t believe how quickly the temperature changes when you’re that high up in the sky. One minute I was enjoying the breeze on the bike, and the next I was jumping into Jessie’s jacket pocket quicker than a baby kangaroo to stay warm! She was actually really cold sometimes too, but she doesn’t fit in Nate’s pocket.
We were getting a little worried the second day we were there. When we woke up and walked outside, we were literally walking down the road through the clouds. It looked like a really, really foggy morning and we couldn’t see further than 15 feet in front of our faces. Oh no! Where did the mountains and rice terraces go? We had to wait for 2 whole days before we could see again on the last day we were in Sapa we went on a really neat trek, or hike. Our guide met us early in the morning at our guesthouse and started to walk us
down the road for a while. Every time we stopped at a clearing you could see for miles and miles, looking down at not only the rice terraces, but the villages down in the valley. We weren’t on the road for long before our guide decided to take us down the mountain side. It had rained the night before, so the path down was really muddy and slippery. Most of the ladies with us had a bamboo basket strapped to their backs, but some of them actually had babies and little kids on their backs, too. The craziest part is that they could get up and down the hill easier and faster than ALL of us could. So could the women who were 50-60 years old! When the path started to get muddier and had some big puddles, Nate tried to take a big step over to his right when his foot sank all the way to his ankle. He almost couldn’t pull it out and just about fell on his butt pulling his foot from the mud. Way to go Nate! Leave it him to be the dirtiest person in the whole group. Typical!
Our guide showed us
some really neat things when we got to her village. They have a really neat way of separating the rice after they harvest it. They have a big tool that looks like a teeter totter, and one end of it fills up with water. When the water is heavy enough, that end drops and lifts up the other end that has a long wooden rod that smashes down onto the rice, separating it from the husk. That’s pretty smart isn’t it? She also showed us the indigo plants they grow and use to make the blue colors in their clothes. When they soak the plants, they start to release a blue dye that they collect in a barrel. Then, they dip their clothes over and over and let them dry and the dye turns them blue. The other colors they buy from other people. Our guide said that when your clothes are new, your whole body turns blue until you wash wear and wash them enough times. Can you imagine having your entire body turn blue? Are you sure you aren’t just really cold? Ok, I know. That was a horrible joke! It actually made a lot of sense because
we saw quite a few people in town with blue looking skin.
The one other thing that amazed me was how many tribal kids I saw with babies strapped to their backs, too. How would you like to be anywhere from 4-8 years old and have to carry your baby brother or sister around on your back all day? The only thing I had to do for a while was hang onto my mom’s stomach when I was a baby!
You’ll all be happy to hear that we heard a familiar sound coming from the school next to where we were staying. We woke up one morning to the kids in English school singing “Jingle Bells” and the alphabet! How about that?! I hope you enjoy the pictures. I’ll do my best to stay in touch better, but internet here is very different from the US. A lot of people don’t have it at all! I hope everyone is doing well back home. I’ll talk to you as soon as I can!
Your friend,
Wylie
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