Mui (Ne) Bien!

Mui Ne, Vietnam

April 4, 2010

So Vietnam has this really awesome system of open bus with which you can book tickets to the main tourist destinations around the country the day before and just hop on and off at your destination whenever you are ready to move on. We hopped on one of these buses at 8pm and arrived in Mui Ne under the blanket of nighttime and crawled into bed at our hotel--which turned out to be a great place with a pool overlooking the sea and a pretty good restaurant.

We got up later that morning to a wonderful Easter morning sun. We decided to take it easy for a bit and relaxed by the pool; it was so hot though that we spent most of our time in the water :) That afternoon we hired a jeep to take us on a tour of Mui Ne and it's famous sites which turned out to be really awesome. The first stop was the Fairy stream which we are still unsure as to why it's named that, but I guess you could say it's sort of magical seeming. It's a very shallow stream that you walk through passing incredible landscapes until you reach a small waterfall. Looking down you see red sand maneuvering through your toes as its vibrant image passes under the sparkling waters. On your left are martian landscapes of contrasting bright whites and crimsons while a lush jungle shades your right. We went searching for the fairies in the rocks, but to no avail!

Next we drove to the fisherman's village, literally a sea of hundreds and hundreds of wooden fishing boats bobbing colorfully along the shores, on our way to the white sand dunes. The scenery was magnificent as we cruised along the coastline and then changed drastically to a beautiful red desert overlooking the water until we reached the dunes; it felt like we were in the Sahara with these sand giants looming in the distance. In all honestly it looked like that desktop wallpaper that used to come standard with Windows. Upon arrival we quickly bartered for two plastic sleds which we hauled with us on our trek to the top. While the sleds didn't exactly slide that gracefully (Emily and were covered head to toe in sand) the view was worth every grain! The sky was so blue that it looked like there was a perfect line where it met the dunes and we, being the preservationists that we are, decided to add to the beauty by writing Happy Easter in the sand.

After some more sledding attempts and running down the steep slopes we headed for sunset at the Red Dunes. I'm still not quite sure how there is so much white and so much red sand in Mui Ne, but it really is amazing. The sunset was pretty awesome over the dunes and on the drive home we got an even better show over the water. We decided to head out to Pogo for dinner which turned out to be a great decision; it's a restaurant owned by Brits and they put on an Easter egg hunt after dinner for the patrons which we dominated (I think together the 4 of us had 3 dozen eggs!) I wasn't feeling well that night--a little head cold coming on so I decided to nip it in the butt and headed back early while the others stayed to dance the night away.

Gooooooood Morning Vietnam!

Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam

April 1-3, 2010

So after Dad and my adventure in Nepal we spent a couple days on Ko Si Chang (an island close to BKK) relaxing and unwinding. It was the perfect way to end our trip with Shu, our personal tuk tuk driver, carting us around as we soaked up some sun and swam in the crystal blue waters. I was/am so lucky to have had the trip I had with my dad and still am processing everything we did together, especially since he left the night of March 30th and I had to immediately repack and get ready for a 7am flight to Ho Chi Minh City the very next morning!

HIGHLIGHTS

Madame Cuc's 156 (Apr. 1-3): This hotel turned out to be a welcome escape from the sweltering heat of HCMC. For about $10 a night we were able to bask in the a/c and were also given breakfast and dinner each day...talk about getting the most Bang for your Baht! (well they use Dong in Vietnam, but same same). The staff was also extremely nice and helpful and was able to get us booked for some tours/transportation. BONUS

War Remnants Museum (Apr. 1): This mostly photo-based museum was extremely eye-opening. In all honesty I don't know a whole lot about the specifics of the Vietnam war (I feel like most of our history classes always ran out of time before we got there), but it was so interesting to see the other side's view of the American War as it is called. It's so rare that you have the chance to have both viewpoints as they say that history is usually written by the winner, but in the case of this war it just doesn't seem like anyone won anything. The photos of the affects of Agent Orange and decapitated bodies and bombs and pain and anger and life and death and moments of happiness were informative and well presented. They also had a replica of the prison camps where US soldiers were kept and I can honestly tell you I would have wished for anything but to be put in one of those places--they even had a guillotine that was used (seriously?!) and these small barbed wire boxes called tiger cages where 2-3 men would be forced to lie flat on the ground or risk getting cut up by the barbs. I really liked the exhibit on all of the anti-war campaigning from around the world--seriously posters and photos from the far ends of the Earth all asking for it to be stopped; it's amazing the parallels between then and now huh?

Motorbikes (Apr 1-3): HCMC has the most motorbikes in one place that I have ever seen and they were ruthless. You actually have to take your life into your own hands and Frogger your way across the streets to get anywhere. I actually got hit by one after 5 min of being out of the cab in the city--I'm so used to being in Thailand where they drive on the left side of the road, and then I come to Vietnam where the drive on the right and while looking the wrong way...SMACK!

Nina (Apr 1): My friend Nina, whom I met up with in BKK, was travelling with her family in Vietnam and we happened to overlap in HCMC. It was once again great to see her and have her meet Josie, Emily and Mark, the people I've been living/travelling with! It's so surreal to see part of your life from home half way across the world! We walked around a night market for a little bit and then sat down at a street restaurant and just soaked in the night atmosphere of this crazy city.

Cu Chi Tunnels (Apr. 2): This was probably one of my favorite things we did in Vietnam. We woke up late and missed a tour to these tunnels, which are a little ways outside of the city, so the 4 of us were able hire our own private car from the hotel that took us! This site is a 120 km series of tunnels that was used by the Viet Cong during the war to evade and/or attack US troops and were unbelievable. We started out with a guided tour that showed us life of the Viet Cong during the war and how, as the war went on, their houses and living quarters moved more and more underground until they were basically entirely submerged (ie their roofs were at ground level with storage and hospitals, etc. completely under the earth). Each house was connected to the tunnel system for an easy escape should a bomb raid or soldiers come; as you walked through the jungle you could see huge pits where bombs had exploded all over the place. There were 3 tunnel levels at various depths underground and each served a different purpose--to get air into the channels they would hollow out bamboo poles and bury them. To hide them they would stick them in big dirt mounds that looked like anthills: GENIUS! We were also shown some of the guerilla traps that were scattered throughout the jungle including trapdoor pits with meter long bamboo spikes waiting at the bottom. I cannot begin to fathom how terrifying it would have been to be dropped in the middle of this dense jungle without knowing the terrain and knowing that these people are scurrying beneath you unable to be detected. Talk about a mind trip!

For lunch we ate tapioca root dipped in salt, sugar and crushed peanuts as well as sticky rice--high in carbs to maintain weight and energy. In order to cook the Viet Cong would wake up early so that smoke from their fires would blend in with the morning fog; additionally they rigged a pipe system which lead the smoke to an exit point above ground a few meters from their homes so troops didn't know their exact location should they spot it. Another hiding trick they had were trap doors in the jungle that lead into the tunnels and/or underground spots they could shoot from. Our guide had us search for one of the trapdoors buried in the leaves (which was seriously impossible) and then we were able to climb inside. This hole did not look big enough for an infant, yet somehow we all fit. The best part of the day was the trek through a 30m segment of tunnels (which had been made slightly taller and wider to accomodate tourists--these people were TINY). I cannot imagine spending daylight hours trapped in a dark, cramped hole that was seriously the hottest and most humid place on Earth; not to mention it was littered with spiders and bats that were basically impossible to dodge in a place where you are hunched like Quasimodo half duck-walking, half crawling through the dirt. Needless to say I probably would have surrendered after half a day in one of those. Still, what an amazing experience!

City Life: One of the best parts about HCMC was the constant pulse of the city--any time of day or night there were people buzzing around. Our first afternoon we made our way back from the museum and stopped in a nice park to watch people doing aerobics (there were pockets of old men and women with boom boxes dancing spastically so we had to stop!). Within one minute of sitting on a bench we were surrounded by Vietnamese people: one woman telling us we needed manicures and pedicures for cheap, one guy just asking for money and another who tried desperately to give our shoes a nice scrub down! It was pretty hysterical and they were very well-intentioned so we ended up spending some time talking with them, which is one of my favorite things to do: talk to the locals.

Mekong Delta Tour (Apr 3): So this may or may not have been one of the most touristy things I've ever done, but it turned out to be really fun; and for $9 roundtrip, plus boat trips, plus lunch how can you go wrong? We got up early and took a bus for a couple hours to the Mekong Delta, an area in the South of Vietnam where the Mekong River fans out and meets the sea. It's a lush area with a lot of agriculture and is more of how you imagine Vietnam looking than the bustling city. When we arrived at the river we hopped on a boat for a tour past some of the famous islands in the delta and ended up on Unicorn Island. Here we visited a honey farm where they make the Queen's honey (I was left holding one of those honeycombs with bees crawling over it like you see at the State Fair and was contemplating dropping it and running as the bees were getting dangerously close to my fingertips, but thankfully a guide came and grabbed it from me finally.) Along with the honey we tried some of the plantation's rice wine and banana wine which were NOT good; they tasted more or less like rubbing alcohol and felt like fire. Next we stopped for some fresh fruit and tea and for a traditional Vietnamese dance/music show.After our fruit we hopped in this small, flat canoe-like boats and little women in the cone hats paddled us through the mangrove canals on the island--cool. Then our boat took us to a coconut candy making factory where we saw how they take the raw cocounuts and roll it all out and turn it into sweet treats which we did our fair share of sampling! For lunch we went to a small village on the shore called Ban Tre where we had a traditional lunch and spent the afternoon biking through the back roads and lazing around in hammocks. Sometimes it pays to be a tourist!

After the tour we made it back to Madame Cuc's in time to get on our 8pm bus to our next destination: Mui Ne.

Sabai Dee Mak Mak

End of May-Early June

I've gotten a little behind on my posting lately and I guess I'm going to attribute this lack of literary endeavor the fact that life is so very good right now. I'm not sure what it is, but this semester has been really awesome thus far. My classes, despite the fact that I have more of them than last semester, are going well and I'm having a lot of fun with my students, the other teachers, friends and Thailand.

It's insane to think that I am in my 4th week of teaching in semester 2 and that my mom left a month ago. Time is flying by and I'm learning to let it, but in the process I'm learning to soak up every minute. My kids are doing well and I'm having fun being able to teach English this semester--it allows for a lot more freedom in terms of activities and classwork. My little ones (1st-3rd) have been amazing and although some of them are not always the best behaved it's hard to stay very mad at them for long :) We usually spend some of class reading aloud, then we learn a new question and answer and then usually have an activity related to that for the last part of class; right now we are working on colors and are making a sweet book with pictures and the names of all the colors. My older kids are fun as well because I am able to talk fairly candidly with most of them and, as I had them last semester, I know them all pretty well. We usually do some bookwork or a worksheet and then finish up with a game or something fun. I'm learning the importance of balancing class with work/fun so as not to have a bunch of antsy/bored kids. I will have to say though, that swimming is my favorite. It's a blast trucking through the water with a trail of 20+ little kids screaming after you trying to jump on you and be the first to get teacher and with my older kids I'm able to have some sweet races.

In terms of travels we've kept pretty close to home. We went to our favorite island, Koh Samed, a few weekends ago which was the first reunion of all my friends from the program after the big summer holiday. It was blast per usual with great food and some quality beach time. There aren't as many people as there were last semester, but it's been fun getting to know some new people who are just starting the program as well as keeping in touch with those who stayed for 1 more. Other than that we went into BKK last weekend for a night on the town and then went wakeboarding/kneeboarding with my Thai friend. He goes to this lake about 5 min from my village which was amazing as we had no idea it existed. As most people don't have speedboats in Thailand this lake has an overhead cable rig with attached ski rope handles which you grab onto and pulls you around as though you were behind a boat. It's like a little oasis with a boardwalk and places to hang out and be by the water; guess I won't be missing MN summer as much as I thought! It's also nice because we will be able to head there after school somedays and hopefully improve our skills--right now I'd say I'm pretty poor :)

So yea I guess all in all I'm sabai dee mak mak (very very good) and have really adjusted to my new home. It's been an easier transition this semester and I hope that it continues to go as well as it has been.