Okay, so I've been avoiding posting on the blog because Vietnam has decided that blog sites are too close to democracy to allow access to in the country. Kind of creepy, huh? In the back of my mind I know that it doesn't matter whether or not I can see the blog right now, that it's for posterity. It's for me to look back on at a later time and appreciate the experiences that make up my days and weeks here in Vietnam. But it’s hard to face that when I can't see the progress. However, I am now biting the bullet and sitting down to talk to those not “protected” by our firewall and to my future self, to whom, I would like to take this opportunity to apologize for loaning all of this money to pay for a piece of paper that says “you're educated”.
On the 30th of September, our group left on a week and a half long journey for the central region of Vietnam. The trip came at the end of a long week of serious academic preparation and effort – something I hadn't experienced since May. With the long week behind us, we scrambled to finish laundry, buy snack and large backpacks, and generally tie up loose ends. After picking up backpacks in the city center for Sean and myself, I hightailed it to the local super market, Big C. Unfortunately, I looked just about as touristy as I could with two large volume back packs, a brand new cell phone, and getting picked up in the tourist section. The taxi driver seemed overly friendly, asking about where I was from and how I liked Vietnam. He was trying to distract me from looking at the meter. When I started yakking on the cell phone he clicked on the meter jumper. It raised the fair about ten cents for every hundred meters or so – ridiculous meter hopping. I couldn't believe my eyes, but, with time short, and not being totally sure of myself, I simply groaned audibly. - Click – I heard him turn it off. It was somewhere in the armrest of the drivers' side door. I couldn't see because I was in the backseat. I cursed myself! I grit my teeth and rode out the rest of the highway robbery. When I got to Big C the meter was at least twenty thousand dong higher than it should have been, and possibly much higher than those twenty. He naively asked me if I wanted him to wait. I told him not to through my gritted teeth and then stalked into Big C to stock up for our trip to the central region.
When I got back to the dorms I hopped in the shower and quickly packed my bags. We gathered downstairs at the appointed time, piled into the air conditioned buses, and set off for the train station.
The train was, well, cramped. It was better than I imagined, but much worse than I had hoped. The bunks were stacked three high in compartments that were two meters by two meter by three meters. Our program director, Gerard, wasn't able to get us all tickets on the same car or together in six person cabins, so with the five EAP participants in my cabin there was also a nice man who was traveling south to visit his daughter (I think). Conversations with him were interesting but difficult because I repeatedly had to stop him to say that I didn't understand him and we had to ask other folks to translate. We all had a great time on the train and I got to watch my bowl movements fall onto the tracks over the course of a few kilometers – hot. That was the first time that I had been on a substantial train trip since I was sixteen and I took the train to Arizona from California and back again.
In the morning we hopped off of the train in the seaside city of Quy Nhon. We attracted heaps of attention as we tramped from the train station to our waiting coach. I guess that part of the country doesn't get many visitors from the outside world. As we learned, the fact that tourists don't know about Qui Nhon is one of the most charming aspects of the city. Our waiting coach bus took us on a leisurely tour through the city and on to our hotel on the waterfront. The hotel was under construction so most of the cool stuff wont be available for at least a few months, but it was pretty swanky digs anyway. We took a tour of interesting sites in and around the city on the next day. Of primary interest, we visited some beautiful Cham towers that stood almost shoulder to shoulder with a Buddhist temple on a hill just outside of the city. We also visited the village of Tay Son where the Tay Son rebellion was born. At this site they had a museum that focused on the military aspect of the revolution but completely neglected the reforms enacted by the Nguyen Hue or Quang Trung once he united the country (as my friend Tan mentioned as we were driving away from the museum). The museum was like Vietnam in general, they spent a lot of money on big statues and grandeur but they neglected the nuts and bolts that really make a museum, like quality exhibits and understandable translations. I kept a bottle of ‘Tay Son’ water from the well outside the museum. We also visited the grave of Han Mac Tu, one of the most renowned poets of his time. He died of leprosy in the 1930s(?). The area around Qui Nhon and the city itself were beautiful. They have wide boulevards and beachfront hotels. The water was kind of gross though; it had lots of flotsam and driftwood. Many in our group used some of our time in Quy Nhon to become acquainted with the operation of the ubiquitous motorbikes. Nobody got hurt but there were a few scrapes along the way, and even some drama when the bill for damages had to be paid.
After Qui Nhon, our group moved on to the central highlands city of Pleiku and Kon Tum. Pleiku reminded me of a Vietnamese Truckee, California. It was kind of run down and brown with a fine layer of soot covering the roads and many buildings. In Kon Tum we visited an orphanage run by the Catholic Church. The orphanage looks after dozens of Banar children. The Banar are one of the dozens of ethnic minority groups in Vietnam. The orphanage was as heartbreaking as you could imagine. The children were clothed in little better than rags and shod in little better than rubber strips, but at the same time they were all well fed and warm, and they looked genuinely happy to be together. After the orphanage, we walked down the road to take a look at a Banar village. This village was extremely rural. Animals lived side by side with the villagers and we got stares from everyone. I got the sense that the villagers had nothing to do. It felt like there were more that were sitting and doing nothing than there were in any other part of the country that I’ve visited. I don’t know if this was because they had no employment or agricultural opportunities.
The next day we headed back down the mountains and into the city of Da Nang. We spent the night in Da Nang but it was just not enough time to get a sense of the city. We didn’t even get to see the downtown area. I would like to make it back to Da Nang at some point because I feel that there must be a lot to see there.
The next day we headed to Hue. I liked Hue a lot. It rained virtually the whole time we were there but we still had a great time. The first day we took a tour of some of the historical sites around Hue (there are a lot of them). We visited two imperial tombs. One illustrated the Chinese influence on Vietnamese society and architecture and the other illustrated the French and Western influence on Vietnamese society just a few generations later. The difference in the style of the tombs was striking. The Chinese influenced tomb was a sprawling garden installation that was laid out in a very Feng Shui fashion. The Western style tomb was more like a parliamentary building with several layers of steps and a large building with vaulted ceilings and several chambers.
The part of Hue where we stayed was pretty overrun by tourists. In fact, I saw more white people in Hue than I have in any other part of the country with the exception of the Ho Hoan Kiem District in Hanoi. It rained so much while we were in Hue that the streets were essentially flooded for two days straight. We visited a bar one night and had the whole place to ourselves because it was so rainy outside.
We hopped on a train and made our way back to Hanoi after our time in Hue.
Everyone agreed that the trip was fun but we all lamented how much time we had to spend on the bus. We saw a lot of interesting things but they were so spread out over the central region of Vietnam that it was just too much to do in the time that we had to do it in. If we had spend all of our time in Hue or in Da Nang the trip may have been more enjoyable but we wouldn’t have seen nearly as many historical sites.
The central region is well known for the amazing food that they have there. During our stay in Hue we ate every few hours just to try all of the different foods. Beyond that, it’s difficult for me to comment on cultural differences simply because I couldn’t communicate with the people – story of my life.
