Week 2: Vietnam
Jan 5th :: Kon Tum
Early to rise! 6 am and wide awake. The phone cord is cut and the receptionist says his phone is not working either. There is no shower curtain and one of the bathroom tiles in the ceiling has been shifted open. You might just see me on the internet! We get a motorbike tour into the outlying minority villages. Our tour guide is charming and also happens to be my driver. Everytime I get on he says "Are you ready?" I say "Yep!" and then he lunges us forward a bit and says, "shu-ah?" and we both laugh and I say, "Sure!" He doesn't honk ceaselessly as does the rest of traffic and he slows down near children and animals. He expresses dismay when conveying the info that the minorities now sell their traditional houses so they can buy modern ones. He smells good. I don't mind sliding into him when going down steep paths. It's hard to learn a lot about these minorities but it's great to get out of a town that was ravaged by American B-52 raids and where all the inhabitants fled to the coast when the VC won a few battles, burning down Pleiku (the town out of which we're flying tomorrow) on the way. So everyone here in town are transplants and essentially VC invaders. No wonder I get such an icy reception here. There is apparently a difference between wet and dry rice [meaning one is grown in water and one in soil... but I couldn't quite understand how they are different on the plate]. The rice here is delicious but the food here is sub par - bland and tastes like prepackaging. As I go by children laugh and wave and yell "Hello!" I get a lot of stares but even here I can't help but smile big unharnessed smiles. You know why Asian people wear face masks? No, not because of bird flu. Because of the pollution. Yikes. But I love how all street restaurants use children's plastic furniture. And no, I'm still not "tall" here but at least I'm average! When at a restaurant, you throw your dirty napkins, shells, and bones on the floor. And yes, our meals (the best ones, even) are about 50 cents each (and the portions too large for me). I had the realization that this place, Kon Tum, is not at all palimpsestic. Probably another reason I'm not too keen on it. There are no secret passageways, alleyways, or spaces that mutate in their function over time. Just buildings. Lined up.
Jan 6th :: Kon Tum - Pleiku - Ha Noi
The bus always seems to work out well in 2nd world countries no matter how hopeless the situation and you seem. We walked 1 km to the airport from the bus stop. We got looks like no one had ever done it before. On the way, teenage boys hung out of a shop and yelled if we wanted to play pool (Tron translated and declined). They replied that our plane wasn't leaving yet. Yes, we were 3 hours early and these boys knew that. Why? Because there are only 2 arrivals and 2 departures a day from this airport. We are the only ones here in a small empty modern building. The simplicity is surreal but appreciated. Layover in Da Nang. Tron inadvertently finds a way to sneak into the business class lounge. Free food! Free internet! We almost miss our plane. Short hop over to Ha Noi. Cram into a van. The Vietnamese are artists with space. Always aware and efficient. Seems like chaos - and is in the technical sense. Lots of complexity with lots of hidden order. Agriculture on the side of the road with tiny cemeteries and alters in the middle of plots of produce. Lots of very thin very tall French-style buildings - isolated - jutting up from the urban fabric. Everything is whitewashed. Visibility is low. Tron says it's pollution. Far more cars than any other place we've been. Traffic is devastatingly inefficient. I've taken to wearing a scarf around my face ninja stylee. The pollution is so bad that my nose won't stop running and my eyes burn. Thank goodness we only killed 5 hours here waiting for a train. Tron and I just wiped our faces with a wet nap and it's brown. We have a fantastic sleeper car, so far to ourselves. And I think I may try to write some postcards before hitting the hay. The train pulls away through the city and we literally can see the insides of restaurants pass beside us - patrons a few feet away eating noodle bowls and watching us, little fish in a differently scaled bowl. It's the most amazing thing I think I've ever seen - like a camera panning through sets.
Jan 7th :: Sapa
Slept like a log on the train. Woke up in Lao Cai. We catch a van to Sapa - we're getting to be pros at avoiding scams. We just get out when the first locals do despite all the scammers' pleas. There is a time and a place for paranoiac shoving. Sapa's center is EXHAUSTING. Young girls following you everywhere trying to get you to come to their hotel. Ethnics peddling goods persistently. Tron and I panic and flee after circling a few areas. We stumble upon a fairly remote, cheap, beautiful hotel with staff you would bet your life on. We sat in the market and ate. No whiteys there. I'm blessed to have Tron as my guide. Our cook is a wonderful woman. Have I mentioned that the Viet are the kindest people in the world with the warmest smiles? We head back to our room and my stomach does battle with some local bacteria again. I pass out for 3 hours and awaken not fully convinced of my capacity to hold down my lunch. We lounge around a bit and decide that yes, French pastries and sandwiches offer some much needed repose for our tummies and tongues and yes, we were willing to be total tourists for it. There comes a time when you grow tired of vomiting and all you want is baguettes and chocolate. So out we went and the streets are finally empty and the fog is so thick that even the most tacky looks magical in the distance - lights and buildings settling down into the landscape for the night. We take a saunter and eat delicious food along with some incredible lemongrass ginger tea which helps a bit with the waged gastrointestinal war. Tomorrow we trek out into a bamboo forest and visit more ethnic minority groups. They all wear incredible garb here - Tron wonders how much of the tradition is actually PRESERVED because of tourism. It's a valid and fascinating observation. Oh hyperrealism and simulacra, how we do adore you.
Jan 8th :: Sapa
We get picked up at 10am by a spunky H'Mong girl. She takes us through 3 villages. The hike/walk is about 25 km up and down the mountain. We balanced on the ridges of rice paddies and ate raw sugar cane. We walked through a bamboo forest and I got the nickname "muddy shoe" when my left shoe got eaten by a mud pile. Our tour guide informs us the H'Mong make themselves new clothes once a year on the new year [Tet] and that they eat "doggy." She says she doesn't know where her home is either - she doesn't want to stay in the villages forever. But the cities are too loud for her. We buy strange little musical instruments from an old woman who had a large dark circle on her forehead. When they get a headache, a bull horn is place on the forehead and something is burned inside. The mountainside is incredibly terraced - I wonder about agriculture and gardens being the first incarnation of landscape architecture.
Jan 9th :: Hanoi - Hai Phong - Bai Tu [Long Beach] on Van Don Island
We arrive at the train station in Ha Noi to find that the station doesn't open until 8am then to find that the train we need departs from another station @ 6am. We find this out at 5:50am after all that sitting around and killing time. We hire 2 motorbikes and make a mad dash through Ha Noi. We reach the ticket window RIGHT as she closes and we hear our train whistle. 2 other xe om drivers tell us there's one more stop at another station 20 km away @ 6:30am. And off we are again! Vroom! We get on the train platform right as our train pulls in. Racing the train paid off and felt like something straight out of cinema. We get off at Hai Phong and it's really lovely - somanambulistic. We are the only tourists and we get long stares. We walk to the bus station where a hoard of bus drivers encircle us wanting to take us somewhere. I start laughing uncontrollably. Tron manages to find a bus to Cua Ong. 5 hours later we're there hopping on more xe om's to Bai Tu where we arrive at a cheesy ecotourism resort. It is completely deserted. We are the ONLY guests. It's surreal and wonderfully quiet. We walk along the beach and stare at plant and animal life that has not yet been obliterated by the footsteps of tourism. We watch a ship being built and fireworks that were undoubtedly found by a youth. We gaze at the huge rocks jutting out of the ocean and smile at the gas station that looks more like an IV hookup at a hospital in the little town.
Jan 10th :: Bai Tu - Bai Chay
I wake up from a dream with lots of homesickness. We take another walk and shoot photos. I'm brought to tears and then we're back on a xe om to Cua Ong pier. We eat fresh fish and clams and a young military officer gets us tossed with 2 shots of something very alcoholic. He's very congenial and gives Tron a cigarette and lights it for him. After, we stand on the pier and try to find a boat that will take us around for a few hours. No luck so we hop on a bus to Bai Chay - a more touristy area. Buses here absolutely blast music and their honks are earsplitting. I don't know how anyone in this country still has their hearing. I resort to wearing neon-colored earplugs. We manage to find a boat for quite a chunk of change but we have it to ourselves. The rock formations and caves are absolutely breathtaking. We pull into a floating village where we choose our meal and the fish is killed in front of us. We have an argument with the man on the little seafood store platform and then with one of the staff on the boat but get out relatively unscathed. Back on xe om to the bus stop where we crawl into a packed bus back to Ha Noi. We get a taxi who terrifies me with his driving - it's like it's his first time ever driving a car AND he's falling asleep. On the side of the road we see yet another motorbike accident. This time the two drivers appear utterly dead. Tron and I seat belt. My faith in traffic is thrown. We miraculously arrive in one piece at the airport and spend the night sleeping in a deserted room on the cold hard floor.
Early to rise! 6 am and wide awake. The phone cord is cut and the receptionist says his phone is not working either. There is no shower curtain and one of the bathroom tiles in the ceiling has been shifted open. You might just see me on the internet! We get a motorbike tour into the outlying minority villages. Our tour guide is charming and also happens to be my driver. Everytime I get on he says "Are you ready?" I say "Yep!" and then he lunges us forward a bit and says, "shu-ah?" and we both laugh and I say, "Sure!" He doesn't honk ceaselessly as does the rest of traffic and he slows down near children and animals. He expresses dismay when conveying the info that the minorities now sell their traditional houses so they can buy modern ones. He smells good. I don't mind sliding into him when going down steep paths. It's hard to learn a lot about these minorities but it's great to get out of a town that was ravaged by American B-52 raids and where all the inhabitants fled to the coast when the VC won a few battles, burning down Pleiku (the town out of which we're flying tomorrow) on the way. So everyone here in town are transplants and essentially VC invaders. No wonder I get such an icy reception here. There is apparently a difference between wet and dry rice [meaning one is grown in water and one in soil... but I couldn't quite understand how they are different on the plate]. The rice here is delicious but the food here is sub par - bland and tastes like prepackaging. As I go by children laugh and wave and yell "Hello!" I get a lot of stares but even here I can't help but smile big unharnessed smiles. You know why Asian people wear face masks? No, not because of bird flu. Because of the pollution. Yikes. But I love how all street restaurants use children's plastic furniture. And no, I'm still not "tall" here but at least I'm average! When at a restaurant, you throw your dirty napkins, shells, and bones on the floor. And yes, our meals (the best ones, even) are about 50 cents each (and the portions too large for me). I had the realization that this place, Kon Tum, is not at all palimpsestic. Probably another reason I'm not too keen on it. There are no secret passageways, alleyways, or spaces that mutate in their function over time. Just buildings. Lined up.
Jan 6th :: Kon Tum - Pleiku - Ha Noi
The bus always seems to work out well in 2nd world countries no matter how hopeless the situation and you seem. We walked 1 km to the airport from the bus stop. We got looks like no one had ever done it before. On the way, teenage boys hung out of a shop and yelled if we wanted to play pool (Tron translated and declined). They replied that our plane wasn't leaving yet. Yes, we were 3 hours early and these boys knew that. Why? Because there are only 2 arrivals and 2 departures a day from this airport. We are the only ones here in a small empty modern building. The simplicity is surreal but appreciated. Layover in Da Nang. Tron inadvertently finds a way to sneak into the business class lounge. Free food! Free internet! We almost miss our plane. Short hop over to Ha Noi. Cram into a van. The Vietnamese are artists with space. Always aware and efficient. Seems like chaos - and is in the technical sense. Lots of complexity with lots of hidden order. Agriculture on the side of the road with tiny cemeteries and alters in the middle of plots of produce. Lots of very thin very tall French-style buildings - isolated - jutting up from the urban fabric. Everything is whitewashed. Visibility is low. Tron says it's pollution. Far more cars than any other place we've been. Traffic is devastatingly inefficient. I've taken to wearing a scarf around my face ninja stylee. The pollution is so bad that my nose won't stop running and my eyes burn. Thank goodness we only killed 5 hours here waiting for a train. Tron and I just wiped our faces with a wet nap and it's brown. We have a fantastic sleeper car, so far to ourselves. And I think I may try to write some postcards before hitting the hay. The train pulls away through the city and we literally can see the insides of restaurants pass beside us - patrons a few feet away eating noodle bowls and watching us, little fish in a differently scaled bowl. It's the most amazing thing I think I've ever seen - like a camera panning through sets.
Jan 7th :: Sapa
Slept like a log on the train. Woke up in Lao Cai. We catch a van to Sapa - we're getting to be pros at avoiding scams. We just get out when the first locals do despite all the scammers' pleas. There is a time and a place for paranoiac shoving. Sapa's center is EXHAUSTING. Young girls following you everywhere trying to get you to come to their hotel. Ethnics peddling goods persistently. Tron and I panic and flee after circling a few areas. We stumble upon a fairly remote, cheap, beautiful hotel with staff you would bet your life on. We sat in the market and ate. No whiteys there. I'm blessed to have Tron as my guide. Our cook is a wonderful woman. Have I mentioned that the Viet are the kindest people in the world with the warmest smiles? We head back to our room and my stomach does battle with some local bacteria again. I pass out for 3 hours and awaken not fully convinced of my capacity to hold down my lunch. We lounge around a bit and decide that yes, French pastries and sandwiches offer some much needed repose for our tummies and tongues and yes, we were willing to be total tourists for it. There comes a time when you grow tired of vomiting and all you want is baguettes and chocolate. So out we went and the streets are finally empty and the fog is so thick that even the most tacky looks magical in the distance - lights and buildings settling down into the landscape for the night. We take a saunter and eat delicious food along with some incredible lemongrass ginger tea which helps a bit with the waged gastrointestinal war. Tomorrow we trek out into a bamboo forest and visit more ethnic minority groups. They all wear incredible garb here - Tron wonders how much of the tradition is actually PRESERVED because of tourism. It's a valid and fascinating observation. Oh hyperrealism and simulacra, how we do adore you.
Jan 8th :: Sapa
We get picked up at 10am by a spunky H'Mong girl. She takes us through 3 villages. The hike/walk is about 25 km up and down the mountain. We balanced on the ridges of rice paddies and ate raw sugar cane. We walked through a bamboo forest and I got the nickname "muddy shoe" when my left shoe got eaten by a mud pile. Our tour guide informs us the H'Mong make themselves new clothes once a year on the new year [Tet] and that they eat "doggy." She says she doesn't know where her home is either - she doesn't want to stay in the villages forever. But the cities are too loud for her. We buy strange little musical instruments from an old woman who had a large dark circle on her forehead. When they get a headache, a bull horn is place on the forehead and something is burned inside. The mountainside is incredibly terraced - I wonder about agriculture and gardens being the first incarnation of landscape architecture.
Jan 9th :: Hanoi - Hai Phong - Bai Tu [Long Beach] on Van Don Island
We arrive at the train station in Ha Noi to find that the station doesn't open until 8am then to find that the train we need departs from another station @ 6am. We find this out at 5:50am after all that sitting around and killing time. We hire 2 motorbikes and make a mad dash through Ha Noi. We reach the ticket window RIGHT as she closes and we hear our train whistle. 2 other xe om drivers tell us there's one more stop at another station 20 km away @ 6:30am. And off we are again! Vroom! We get on the train platform right as our train pulls in. Racing the train paid off and felt like something straight out of cinema. We get off at Hai Phong and it's really lovely - somanambulistic. We are the only tourists and we get long stares. We walk to the bus station where a hoard of bus drivers encircle us wanting to take us somewhere. I start laughing uncontrollably. Tron manages to find a bus to Cua Ong. 5 hours later we're there hopping on more xe om's to Bai Tu where we arrive at a cheesy ecotourism resort. It is completely deserted. We are the ONLY guests. It's surreal and wonderfully quiet. We walk along the beach and stare at plant and animal life that has not yet been obliterated by the footsteps of tourism. We watch a ship being built and fireworks that were undoubtedly found by a youth. We gaze at the huge rocks jutting out of the ocean and smile at the gas station that looks more like an IV hookup at a hospital in the little town.
Jan 10th :: Bai Tu - Bai Chay
I wake up from a dream with lots of homesickness. We take another walk and shoot photos. I'm brought to tears and then we're back on a xe om to Cua Ong pier. We eat fresh fish and clams and a young military officer gets us tossed with 2 shots of something very alcoholic. He's very congenial and gives Tron a cigarette and lights it for him. After, we stand on the pier and try to find a boat that will take us around for a few hours. No luck so we hop on a bus to Bai Chay - a more touristy area. Buses here absolutely blast music and their honks are earsplitting. I don't know how anyone in this country still has their hearing. I resort to wearing neon-colored earplugs. We manage to find a boat for quite a chunk of change but we have it to ourselves. The rock formations and caves are absolutely breathtaking. We pull into a floating village where we choose our meal and the fish is killed in front of us. We have an argument with the man on the little seafood store platform and then with one of the staff on the boat but get out relatively unscathed. Back on xe om to the bus stop where we crawl into a packed bus back to Ha Noi. We get a taxi who terrifies me with his driving - it's like it's his first time ever driving a car AND he's falling asleep. On the side of the road we see yet another motorbike accident. This time the two drivers appear utterly dead. Tron and I seat belt. My faith in traffic is thrown. We miraculously arrive in one piece at the airport and spend the night sleeping in a deserted room on the cold hard floor.