Mai Chau and the 1,000 Step Stairway

My buddy Flip recently started working for a tour company that offers tours of the ethnic minority village Mai Chau, about 3 hours outside of Ha Noi. His business partner recently purchased a communal stilt house in the heart of Mai Chau, so all of his friends were invited up to do the initial tour and take some pictures to use in the brochure. It cost us each around 400,000 Dong (equivalent to 20 USD), and this included transportation to and from, one night in the communal house, four meals, an ethnic dancer performance, and 2 walking tours around the village. Obviously this is an incredible deal, and one of the main reasons I plan on staying in Viet Nam so long! Honestly, what could you get for 20 bucks in NYC, a taxi ride around the block?

Anyway- I had been to Mai Chau on a Connecticut College excursion almost 3 years ago, and the place looks exactly the same. The only difference is the incredible influx of the dog population. There were AT LEAST 3 dogs to each house, and all the female dogs we saw were either nursing or pregnant. I am a huge street dog lover, but it's really just ridiculous! The village is doing absolutely nothing to control dog reproduction, and I can't even begin to imagine it being any worse than it already is. I got very little sleep, since any sound in the night started a cacophony of dog barking that would sweep from street to street. The communal houses were made of bamboo and therefore functioned as a very poor sound barrier. It sounded like the dogs were barking directly into my ears, and all the other people sleeping in the stilt house agreed with me. Despite the dog issues, I had a wonderful time and now that I got the dog rant out of the way, can go on about the rest of the the trip.

The village consists of stilt houses clustered in the middle of rice paddies. Walking in any direction for 3 minutes will put you out into a field with fish/duck ponds, vegetable gardens, or rice paddies (mostly the latter). Each house has an assortment of scarves, blankets, or other little trinkets for sale. I ended up picking out a very cool-looking stitched bag, then had the woman tailor it to fit my cell phone, all for a whopping 1 dollar. The first day, we walked out of the actual village and around the outskirts, running into the kids, cows, poultry, and other typical countryside things. These people definitely live with the bare minimum, and it's always interesting to experience such a lifestyle (although our hut had newly renovated bathrooms, which was an absolute blessing). Everyone sleeps together in one big room underneath mosquito net "tents". We ended up being short a couple beds, and ended up sleeping 3 to a mattress pad for 2, which definitely didn't help in addition to the dog barking. Roosters (which there was also a very large number of) started going off around 5, and didn't stop until 9am, so that was yet another reminder of my being in the countryside.

The next morning, running on an almost empty battery, we walked through the main market (which was as equally smelly, jam-packed, and interesting as all the markets I've seen in Viet Nam thus far) and then made our way to the 1,000 Step Cave. This is actually not quite accurate, since there are in fact 1,270 steps, and by the end of the trek up, those 270 extra steps made a huge difference. It was incredibly sunny and we were all drenched in sweat by the time we reached the top, but the cave was definitely worth it. I had made the journey up before, and once I hit around 500 steps, remembered that I had told myself that I would never do something like this again. Yet, here I was, climbing up a ridiculous number of crumbling stone steps to get to a cave. We sat around enjoying the coolness of the cave before we headed down and back to the stilt house for lunch. The way down was a lot more enjoyable, as we could actually appreciate the view of the village from above, since the way up was mostly spent panting, sweating, occasionally cursing, and ignoring the inner dialogue telling you to quit. My legs are still feeling it today, and walking up and down the stairs to get to my classroom didn't help my case. Either way, I'm happy I did it again.

Below are some pictures for ya'll to enjoy.

Teacher's Day

This past Friday, we celebrated Teacher's Day at my school. They take this "holiday" very seriously here; every school throws the teachers a celebration party and gives them all gifts. My school was no exception, and we spent almost 2 hours being handed bouquets of flowers, watching students sing songs and dance, and even enjoying a faculty party complete with catered Vietnamese food and wine. The bouquets of flowers are packed full of colored paper and other little trinkets, so they end up being as a big as a garbage can. Since I received 5 of these, I had to enlist the help of Son and his motorbike to help me get them home (can you even imagine me and 5 gigantic bouquets on my tiny motorbike?). I was also given a huge assortment of gifts (a majority of it being perfume or beauty supplies) and was really impressed that the families spent so much money on the gifts. A majority of my gifts came from high-end designer labels (i.e. Chanel perfume, Ferragamo wallet), and it felt like some absurd form of Christmas. Son insisted that Vietnamese families believe that the nicer the gift, the better the grade. If that really is the case, all my students will be getting A's. I also was given a bunch of material with which to make an Ao Dai (the Vietnamese traditional dress) and I am currently debating whether I should actually use the material for that purpose, since I'm not sure how often I would wear an Ao Dai. My best gift was a big, hardcover book that is called "Traces of Old Ha Noi". It is full of pictures of Ha Noi from a hundred years ago, and it's so interesting to see all my familiar hangouts in these pictures. I'm excited to bring it home to show everyone.

In addition to the presents and flowers, I got a great many cards. A majority of these are incredibly funny, given my students (and their parents') limited English. Some examples are below:

"I wish you are beautiful, have some good children, you live happily. -Cam Le"

"I very love you because you is very beautiful. Love, Phuong Linh"

"I hope you will more pretty and you are helps me in Term 1. You help me everythink of I learn and everythink too. I wish you are my teacher. -Thu Trang"

"I wish you beautiful and a good teacher for a year with children and strong. From, Son Ha"

"I wanted you to live forever. Love, Tuan Duc" (my favorite)

I'm not sure why, but all the cards I have received as of yet (and this includes Woman's Day cards) have something to do with staying beautiful and healthy. I think America could use a bit more of this mentality.

A Movie and some Frog

This past Thursday I got together with a bunch of my Vietnamese friends to go see the new movie "Mastermind". Apparently it is quite the big hit back in the states, but I had heard nothing about it and went along as it was something to do. Per usual, I was the only white person in the audience, and most certainly the only American. This made a big difference because (as some of you may already know) this movie is absolutely hysterical. I spent almost the entire 2 hours laughing out loud at all the jokes, which was a very nice dose of American humor. Due to this cultural comedy, a lot of the time I was the only one laughing. There were multiple Obama references, and other things that really only someone raised in the USA would get, which resulted in a lot of head turning and people wondering just what the heck was so funny. As annoying as I may have been to all the other audience members, I had a great time listening to the voices of some of my favorite comedians (Will Ferril, Tina Fey, and David Cross just to name a few...) and didn't care that I seemed slightly crazy. Just another day as an American in Viet Nam. :)

Afterwards, I got to experience some straight-up Vietnamese cuisine, which was a nice contrast to my previous experience at the movie theatre. We all got on our bikes and drove to a place that's specialty is frog. From there, we went on to enjoy grilled frog with chili, fried frog skin with lemongrass, and a frog hot pot accompanied with mushrooms and bamboo. I have a particular fondness for boiled bamboo, so that last bit was my favorite part of the meal. Frog is actually really tasty, and even the skin was (mostly) enjoyable. I'm wondering if it's possible to get bamboo for cooking back in the states... anybody know? I would love to make some traditional bamboo soup for everyone!

On a side note, I was thinking about some ridiculous encounter I had when Luke was here that totally slipped my mind. It was so interesting that I need to get it down in my blog before I forget- Luke, Son, Flip, and myself were sitting on this roof top cafe admiring the view of the lake when this older Vietnamese man next to us whips out a giant poster of a Vietnamese boy band and starts pointing at one of the musicians, smiling. We all had no idea what was going on until Son did a bit of translating for us. As it turns out, this group is considered the most famous "rock band" in Ha Noi, and the man sitting next to us was the father of the guitarist. This group, called "The Wall" in English, was putting together a reunion tour (apparently they hit it quite big in the 90's) and they had just printed out posters from a recent photo shoot. Naturally, the photo was a bit hokey (cowboy hats and tight pants...) but it was really pretty funny that we just came across this guy in a cafe. Son went on to explain that this music group is a big deal in Ha Noi, and that we were all very lucky to come in contact with someone who's son is "sooooo famous!" I tend to meet a lot of interesting people at cafes, ranging from old opera singers to people working for National Geographic. Well, now that I have got that down and I will no longer be forgetting it, I'm off to cook to some rice.

Kickin' it in the countryside

This weekend my good friend Lien invited a bunch of her highschool friends and myself to her house in the countryside. Although I knew I would be the only English speaker, I jumped on the opportunity (although this fact made understanding fireside stories virtually impossible). So we got on Ha Noi's only form of public transport, and headed to a bus depot station on the outskirts of the city. Even though there were 13 of us, we still managed to get off the bus at the wrong place, then had to hop back on another one. We finally got to the bus depot around 9:30 AM, and from there got into a little bus that would take us an additional hour into the countryside. This van stopped and picked up random Vietnamese people on the side of the street on numerous occasions, until we were beyond capacity. We were dropped off at a market where we picked up a whole bunch of cooking supplies (this was yet another market not accustomed to white people, and I got quite a few stares). From there we made our way down some dirt roads until we reached Lien's compound. The compound has two houses, two lakes, numerous gardens growing all sorts of vegetables, a sugarcane field, and various fruit trees. It was incredibly beautiful, and I could definitely understand why her parents come here every weekend to escape the bustle of Ha Noi. They had hand-pump wells to get water, and I was told that they are also used for showering.

It was really interesting to spend some time with a large group of Vietnamese people, and to see how Hanoian's my own age do the whole "bbq party" thing. Most of the day was the boys playing cards, and the girls preparing food or sleeping. I took the opportunity to leave the compound and walk down the street to snap a couple photos. I came across this one guy carrying a bunch of recently captured tiny birds in a cage. We followed him along, with my friend asking him what he intended to do with them. Either her Hanoian accent was too thick, or this guy just didn't feel like listening, because we never got an answer. My friend guessed

that they would be fried, and I agreed since I have seen whole fried swallows on numerous occasions.

Upon return, we ate a really small lunch of pate', bread, and salad, which left me thinking how hungry I was, until the real preparations began.

We all walked around the compound collecting vegetables, tea leaves, sugar cane, and fruit. Then, we set up some grills and everyone began to help (in the picture on the right, I am fanning some pork over the grill).

The cooking started around 5pm, and we started with grilled pork, grilled chicken, an incredibly spicy salad of sorts, and some cold bun noodles. Once the grilling was done, we spread all the meat over banana tree leaves and went to town. I was quite full by 6:30, and was a little confused, since a typical Vietnamese meal tends to cover all parts of the food pyramid. By the time we sat down in front of the fire, the second part of dinner appeared. Skewers of mushrooms and sweet potatoes were held over the fire (a nice break from your typical American hotdog or marshmallow) and sugar cane was placed in the embers to grill.

Everything was quite delicious, and I really liked how the whole evening was based around a long, drawn-out dinner. When I have get togethers with my friends, dinner usually begins and ends in an hour or two, and the rest of the night is spent lazing about, but we spent over 4 hours eating, which left me very satisfied and sleepy by the end of it. Once the food was all gone, a guitar came out and everyone joined in singing some traditional Vietnamese songs (with the exception of myself of course). Then, talk turned to high school memories, none of which I could understand, so I walked further into the compound to get a better view of the stars for a bit. As the night drew to a close, people drifted into the house, eventually with everyone squished together on mattresses on the floor. It was all quite cozy, but the lack of sufficient blankets left everyone feeling the oncoming winter chill.

The next morning brought a gorgeous day. We took this opportunity to collect some water lillies, so a couple of us took turns paddling out in a tiny, tiny boat and picking them out of the water... which is a lot easier than it sounds. Trying to yank these flowers out and not topple over the side was quite a challenge, and I retired after 2 flowers, fearing that I would get my only set of clothes soaked. Oh, and the "paddles" were just little boards of wood, which made steering a bit of an issue...

As the boys sat down to play cards, again, the girls got together to do a little karaoke. Keeping me in mind (which was very nice of them) we sang mostly English songs. It was pretty ridiculous, but enjoyable nonetheless. There was a lot of Spice Girls, Whitney Houston, and Backstreet Boys, but I made sure to get some Beatles on there as well. It left me questioning why Americans don't have mid-afternoon karaoke parties on a regular basis, because, really, it was a great way to kill some time. I think I will start this trend upon return...

The bus back towards Ha Noi had us packed like sardines. Naturally I was the only foreigner, and once again was gawked at, considering the fact that there wasn't much to look at since everyone was so squished together. When I finally got back to Ha Noi I was really excited to get into my big, oversized bed with a huge blanket. Despite the language barrier, it was an awesome experience and I hope to do something like it again before I leave.

Hoi An: Monsoon Season

So term 1 came to an end and with it, paid vacation time. I decided I had to take full advantage of my week off and got myself a plane ticket to Hoi An, considering how close it is to Ha Noi and how wonderful the city and beach are. If you recall from an earlier blog post, I had visited three months ago but had to cut my vacation short due to a pretty intense flu. This time, I left Ha Noi in good health on a nice sunny day, and arrived to a very rainy, cold Hoi An on November 1st. Let me preface this little anecdote with the fact that my Hanoian Halloween was very low key. So low key, in fact, that it didn't actually exist. I came down with a bit of food poisoning (at least that's my guess) and spent my Saturday night in bed. According to friends, most people don't get involved in the Halloween bit, so I "hadn't missed much". Either way, I was a bit bummed, and really missing the fanatic frenzy of an American Halloween, but figured I would just enjoy it all next year. Little did I know, I had my own spooky Halloween experience coming my way...

Son and I got to Hoi An around 5pm, but the sky was already dark with a very heavy wind stirring up. We had booked a room at what we thought was "Cua Dai Hotel", but upon arrival at such hotel, found out our room was at "Cua Dai Beach Hotel". I figured this wouldn't make much of a difference, so we jumped back in the taxi to head to our new destination. After driving down a very dark road with wild waves almost splashing into the street, we pull up to a giant hotel that seemed almost completely abandoned. The wind was howling as we crept towards a locked gate (now this got me very worried, who would lock a hotel gate at 5:30 pm?) and hung around a bit until some dejected Vietnamese worker came and pushed it aside for us. He lead us up a very dark walkway into the hotel that had all the lights off, with the exception of the lobby. Upon entering, I couldn't shake the image of the hotel in "The Shining", with the intense storm outside and the eerie emptiness inside. I was quite sure that some sort of creature from the netherworld would come knocking on my door that night, and Son and myself started backing away from the hotel desk, slinking away from a very eager woman saying "Stay just one night, just one! Please, stay!" It sounded like she hadn't had many guests recently, and from the 100's of dark, empty rooms, I think it was safe to assume that there currently were none. Her intensity in trying to get us to stay made it all the more scary, and I decided that I couldn't handle even a single night at this place, so we hightailed it out of there, leaving behind shouts of "No! Please stay! Don't go!" I figured that was a creepy enough experience to satisfy my hunger for a proper Halloween...

The rest of the trip was mostly enjoyable, despite the terrible weather for all 5 days. The beach was destroyed from a recent/current monsoon, garbage from people's houses and palm trees had washed up all over a beach that is usually quite pristine (see photos from my earlier Hoi An post). It rained non-stop almost the entire time, and I got very accustomed to enjoying the ancient town in the rain. We got one afternoon that was suitable for biking, so Son and I rented some bicycles and went around town, exploring little alleys and ultimately ending up on a lovely path beside the river

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The "ancient city" of Hoi An was still charming, even though one of my favorite streets had water up to the front door of the shops/restaurants. Now I know, don't go to Hoi An during monsoon season, lesson learned.