Vietnam: 3/22-3/26

This trip was definitely a big change from what I’ve been doing the past couple of countries. As opposed to crowds of tourists pushing through monuments, we saw quiet countryside and isolated villages. Not only did we see only a handful of other white people, but we didn’t see a single other group of people from semester at sea during the entire trip, which was a nice change and very relaxing.

With four other people who I’d only really met on the ship in passing (Ryan, Ryan, Gillian and Karine) I flew from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi. In Hanoi we met our guide for the week, whose name was Ngoc. After realizing that none of us could pronounce those consonants in that order, he told us to call him “Ruby”, which worked for all of us. Ruby was friendly and enthusiastic, and he quickly became our favorite tour guide and a close friend. We spent most of the first day traveling about 4 hours out into the country to a place called Lang Son where we stayed the night in a hotel. We had dinner and some beers at a nearby restaurant on a lake, and then went to the night market. Most of the markets we’ve been to so far have been handicrafts and other touristy knick knacks, but since we were far from any attractions this market was definitely geared towards the locals. Despite being in Vietnam, I’ve never seen so many things that were “made in China” in one place in my whole life! Fake Rolex watches, fake silk ties, fake everything! The only things we bought we some socks and coloring supplies for the children at our home stays.

The next day we traveled out into the Cao Bang province through the mountainside. We stopped at a small village on the way to walk through and see the preparations going on for a local wedding. On our walk, we were stopped by a woman who ushered us into her house and sat us down to have little green bean cakes (I know it sounds gross, but they were really sweet and actually pretty good!). We spent about 45 minutes in her house, and she told us about how she is the principal at the village school. She was very friendly and we couldn’t’ believe that she had invited us into her home off of the street! After giving her some new school supplies, we continued to make our way down the road. We stopped to talk to an old woman making rice and banana leaf boxes for the wedding, and she showed us how to make them along with some of the local girls who gathered around to stare. We left the village that we had only intended to walk through with some real memories of the kind people. After hiking along the road for a while to take in some of the scenery, we got back in the van and made our way to the village where we’d be staying for the night. It was definitely a more modern village that we had anticipated. Although it was definitely extremely poor, there were tall buildings painted in crazy bright colors in some areas and little wooden huts in others. We briefly met the family we would be staying with, but they were all very busy with dinner preparations and construction on their new house. Ruby then took us on a walk through the village, where we were waved to and greeted with “Xin Chao!” by all of the locals. We walked up the road that led up the mountains and away from the village, and then took about an hour to sit on the stone wall lining the road and look down into the valley at the rice paddies and the little village. It’s amazing to think how peaceful and beautiful this view was, but that this is the only view that some of the villagers will see in their entire lives. We had a homemade dinner and then hung out with some of the family while they played cards and we showed them where we’re from on a world map. It was also interesting to see the giant map of the world they had hanging on their living room wall. On the map, Asia and Africa are on the left side and the US is on the right side, and it looks a lot smaller than the way we portray it on our maps. It’s strange to see how even maps are biased. We all went to bed early that night on our mattresses surrounded by mosquito nets, which are really kind of pretty in the morning light…not a bad way to protect yourself.

In the morning, we thanked our host family and began the drive to the Ban Gioc waterfalls. When we got there, border patrol had to check all of our passports. When Ruby saw our confusion, he explained that the river coming out of the waterfall is actually split between Vietnam and China, so we couldn’t swim or raft all the way across the river because that’s technically crossing the international border! Once we were allowed into the park, we saw how beautiful the waterfalls were. We rode on a raft out into the river and almost under one of the falls. Then we all jumped into the river, which definitely amused some of the Chinese tourists on the other side of the river who snapped some pretty funny photos of us…I guess a bunch of white kids in their bathing suits in a river where no one else is swimming is kind of a funny sight in Asia! After drying off, we hiked up and around the falls to get a better view. Once we were closer up, we realized how many layers there were to the falls, they just kept going higher and higher. We hiked back down (which was actually little tougher), and had lunch back near where we parked the van. After lunch we walked to the base of a huge mountain, where we crawled through a little tunnel that opened up to giant caves that must have had at least 60 foot ceilings! There were beautiful stalagmites and stalactites, some of which sparkled because they were made out of crystal. It looked like some kind of lost world. There were definitely some narrow parts we had to get through, and Ruby kept yelling back at us “Happy Buddha’s be careful!” We tried not to take this offensively, since I’d definitely rather be called a Happy Buddha than a fat American! Ruby had some other funny terms, such as a “happy house” for a bathroom, because when you’re done using it you’re happy! When there were no happy houses along the road, he told us we could use the “happy trees” and “happy rocks”. Needless to say we had to get a little creative with our bathroom habits on this trip. After the caves we made our way back to Cao Bang city (which definitely isn’t the type of city you might picture) and had dinner. This was a pretty low key night that we spent at a hotel, so we took some time to get to an internet café and I started to figure out my classes for next semester, which was pretty tough but I think I got it figured out.

The next morning we had “Pho” for breakfast, which is a beef noodle soup…pretty interesting breakfast choice. After breakfast we drove to Lake Ba Be where we were greeted by the grandfather of the family we would be staying with in a wooden boat. You have to take the boat across the large lake to get to a path where you walk the rest of the way to the village. It took us about half an hour to make this entire transfer, so it’s not surprising that not a lot of people leave the village until they can afford motorbikes to take the narrow road out that our van couldn’t fit down. This was definitely a more traditional village with wooden houses surrounded by rice fields, mountains and the lake. It was one of the most peaceful places I’ve ever been. The family welcomed us into their home and we sat and ate lunch. I absolutely adored their 4 year old daughter, In, who was shy at first but by the end of our stay was so friendly. After a little relaxation on the hammock, the grandfather took us back out on the lake for the day and we walked around one of the little islands for a bit. When we got back, I spent the whole afternoon playing with In until it was time for dinner. I was so happy because Ruby had bought us the ingredients to make spring rolls earlier in the market, so he gave us a lesson and we made them for the whole family! They weren’t the prettiest spring rolls I’ve ever seen since most of them kind of exploded, but there were so good! Dinner that night was definitely the best meal we had the entire trip. After the family went to bed, we met up with some international teachers who were living in Hanoi that Ryan and Gillian had met in the city the night before. They were absolutely hilarious and from all over the world, and so we hung out with them for a while and drank and talked about Vietnam and life and everything. The two girls who were staying in the same guesthouse were great because one of them is a Public Health graduate student at UCLA and the other is living in China teaching and volunteering, they had some great advice and opinions on my plans.

When we woke up, we were really sad to leave the village. It had definitely been our favorite part of the entire trip. We went back across the lake and started the 7 hour drive back to Hanoi. Saying goodbye to Ruby at the airport was also really tough, since we’d gotten so close to him. So, in his honor I’m putting in this plug for the new travel agency he’s trying to start, the website is www.originvietnam.com and it should be up and fully running within the next couple of weeks. Check it out if you have time! On the topic of plugs, I was contacted by someone who has read my blog and said that I can have a donation made it to the World Wildlife Foundation, World Vision or Make-a-Wish foundation just by mentioning their website. So, to get involved in “Traveling for Charity” I’d like to encourage you all to visit www.HotelsCombined.com when you need to find a well priced place to stay while you’re on your own travels! I figure any company that’s willing to donate some of their profits directly to charity just for a little advertising is a good one!

Overall, Vietnam was a great way to take a break and really get to meet the people who inhabit the majority of this stunning country, and get away from the stresses and pressure of traveling with an around huge groups of other people on our program. I’m so glad I’ve gotten to do such a variety of trips in each country, it’s definitely teaching me what’s important for me to do while I travel and what I want to get out of this and every other trip I take in my life.