'Language is the Dress of Thought' - Cowley

I am heading to Saigon tomorrow to visit more new relatives except this time on my mom’s side. Uncle 7 (technically should be calling him by his first name, but have not actually learned it yet) is picking me up at the airport and I am not sure how we are to recognize each other - maybe he will be holding a sign with my name or perhaps somehow we will just know as we are scanning the crowds for each other or maybe I will call him on my mobile to make sure I am not climbing into some complete stranger’s car!

Local market in Saigon that my relatives go to daily.

Overall my experience has been quite positive here, but sometimes there are frustrating days (where the simpliest things seem to take a lot of energy) and times you are feeling a little bummed out. My internship will be ending at the end of February and I need to figure out what I am going to do afterwards and look for a job again. Being a contract worker has some perks but I feel like I am always constantly applying for jobs. It’s a full time job just looking for a job. Since I will be away for work and then away for Tet holidays, I am not going to worry about job prospects until the end of February. My visa goes until April so I think I will stay in Vietnam at least then, so if anyone is considering to visit ...

Near Hoa's village in a northwestern province

So I just found out I am heavier than a 7-month pregnant woman. That’s always a nice feeling. Linh is 53 kg and when I figured out what that is in pounds (about 117 lbs) I was shocked how light a pregnant woman could be. I feel very large boned-ed over here (even though I am at my normal weight), but at least I don’t feel short like I usually do in Canada. I am usually about the same height or a little taller than local women my age, but that is with me wearing flats and them wearing heals. That’s one thing that still makes me laugh: seeing vietnamese women wearing high heels while driving their motorbikes.

I will be heading to Vung Tau soon for a research mission. I am a little nervous – I will be leading an 8-day workplan with the senior municipal staff by myself. This is the base work of one of our municipal partnership projects where we will be creating a new census survey to capture the migrant population and using the results to develop better municipal service delivery like education, healthcare, and employment opportunities. I do a bit of independent work over here and I am not complaining (it was written in the job description), but when you don't have experience in leadership roles, especially in a different and typically traditional culture, it feels a bit daunting. It reminds me when I and the other Ottawa SURPers all just started our new jobs after graduating from Queen's and we all felt the same ... we were way over our heads! But I know it will be good experience and it will only make me stronger ... right?!

It's just cold

One of my friends' says there really is no such thing as cold, you just have to wear the appropriate clothing ... I disagree. Today in Hanoi it is about 14 degrees, and it is a cool 14 degrees. Although it would seem like it should be warm, it is the humidity that makes the cold chilling. I thought the humidity in warm weather was bad, but this is ridiculous. I am sitting in my office in my sweater, jacket, wearing my mitts when I am not typing, and winter boots (which I had to go find), plus drinking tea and I am still freezing. I am not sure how else to warm up?!

Even everyone on the street has on big puffy winter jackets and toques. I admit I was skeptical when I was warned about Hanoi's winter, boasting that I was from Canada and I could handle it no problem. I feel like a wimp. My colleague, Linh, who sits next to me is 7 months pregnant. She is cold too but has not complained - so I am not letting myself complain out loud and thought I would just vent on my blog instead.

Linh and I were born in the same year (quick aside - when you ask people their age they normally tell you what year they were born because in Vietnam you are 1 when you are born and 2 on your first birthday, so really I am turning 27 in March ...) she has been married about a year and is expecting her first child. It has been very cool watching her belly get bigger and asking her questions about healthcare for pregnant Vietnamese women. I found out when you go to the doctor's for the ultrasound, they will tell you if you are having a boy but don't tell you if you are going to have a girl. I am not really sure if that dissuades abortions, but I have heard abortions are a growing problem in Vietnam. I might still be here when Linh delivers and can't wait to see her baby boy.

Physical Inactivities

It may seem like I should be really fit by now but my exercising only seems to happen in short bursts, in particular when I am travelling. In Hanoi it is actually quite hard to just go for a walk, let alone a run, because the traffic is not only on the street but on the sidewalks as well. Plus, everyone stares at you like you are crazy ...

Don't get me wrong, there are lots of nice parks (much more than I expected) with lakes to run around however it just seems contradictory to have to hop on a xe om (motorbike taxi), breath in smog, and weave through heavy traffic (and pray that you aren't going to get into an accident) to get some healthy exercise in. I suppose I have been spoiled by Elm Street where I was able to go to the Plant Bath around the corner for a swim or go down the street to go biking and running on the NCC pathways. But I have been feeling a bit groggy and out of shape and have been eating a little too liberally that enough was enough, it was time for me to get some physical activity into my routine! Or perhaps this drive for exercise is because when I was getting some clothes made I had to step on a scale - not sure why that matters for a skirt and a pair of pants - but I was quite unpleasently surprised, moreover because all the seamstresses around me were probably all under a 100 lbs ...

Hoan Kiem Lake, near the Old Quarter

So in the last week, I tried a series of activities to see what would be fun:

Wednesday - Sarah and I decide to go for a run in the Botanical Gardens and we happen to get there at the beginning of an aerobics class. We say 'hey, why not?'. We caused quite the stir that people who were there walking would stop to watch us and the more experienced participants, who wore brightly coloured bodysuits with leggings, went in the row in front of us so we could follow their lead. It was a lot of flapping our arms in the air and pelvic thrusts or pelvic circling (and we were in a public park) to techno english music we never heard before. Result: good arm workout, but didn't really break a sweat that we still went for a run afterwards.

Friday 6am - I decided to check out Steve's gym, which is a local gym. We get there nice and early and there is a step class going on which I get really excited for. I enter the gym and get ready to join until a lady comes over to me asks if I have a membership. I tell her no and ask if I can just pay for the day to see if I like it but she insists I have to buy either a 1-month or 3-month membership. I try again to explain that it is my first time here and just want to check it out before committing. She does not let me participate in the class, even though it is 6 in the morning, I am more than willing to pay for a day pass, and there are only 3 people in the class in this huge gym (so it is not like I would be taking someone's spot away). I call it aerobics snobbery and it was really probably because I did not have my own bodysuit ...

So I head to the workout gym instead in a bit of a huff, and decide I will just run it off on the treadmill. I go onto the treadmill and see it is not on. I look for the electrical cord to plug it in to find out that there is not cord - it is a manual treadmill! I tried it for about 10 seconds and it was way too much effort. Oh yes, I should add I am the only female in the room so I am trying not to stick out. The equipment was all really old and some I did not even recognize so I ended up just doing crunches in a corner of the room for the rest of the hour.

China dragon - this dragon is a statue completely made of china plates in a park in Saigon

Sunday - I decide to try rugby and luckily it is touch rugby. I never played rugby before, so I did not know the rules. But, I had a very patient team and even scored a try. I really liked playing, so I finally found a physical activity that I am going to stick with except ... it is changing practice times next week and will fall on the same time as ultimate ...agh! Even worse the rugby and ultimate fields are next to each other, so I don't know how I am going to choose one without insulting the other. Worry about it when I have to, I suppose.

New Year, New Family

I wasn't sure what to expect when meeting my relatives. I didn't know their names, what they did, or what they knew about me. I heard their names in conversations, but when you are a kid, hearing names of people who you don't know, doesn't really make them seem very real. I just knew I had family who lived in Vietnam and that I wanted to meet them and maybe wanted them to meet me. My family that lives in Canada were boat people and they were sponsored by three churches in Sydney in 1980 (this is how my Cape Breton roots developed). I was born the following year, making me the first Canadian born - my age represents the number of years my family has been in Canada and how long (or rather quickly) it took for them to get to where they are today.

But getting back to my relatives in Vietnam, I was scheduled to meet them on New Year's Day at my uncle's farm, which is about an hour drive outside of Saigon, for 10am. They hired a car to come pick me up at my hotel and also invited Sarah to come to the family gathering. When the car rolled down the driveway, there were people waiting outside with cameras and camcorders. My first chao (hello) was caught on film and my aunt from Toronto (who is down visiting) took me by the hand and started to introduce me to all these smiling people.

My dad comes from a family of 12 children and he is the 8th oldest. You address your aunts and uncles by their number or seniority in the sibling chain if they are older than your parent, however if they are younger you would refer to them by their first name. So in this photo, is Aunt 6 (from TO), Aunt 7, Aunt 3, Aunt 5, and Aunt 2.

I was bit nervous in the coming days of meeting my relatives (poor kate and sarah had to deal with my slightly tense moments ...). But as soon as I met everyone, I was completely at ease and now that I think about it, I wasn't really sure why I was so stressed about meeting them in the first place. I did worry that they might be disappointed that I did not speak Vietnamese fluently or maybe they might have thought I was a spoiled foreigner. Even though our oral communication skills were limited, we were still able to laugh, find common ground, and be family.

Sarah and I in our matching ao dai's (traditional Vietnamese dresses)

There is an alter to my grandparents and my aunts were getting dressed in their ao dai's for the ceremony and one asked if I wanted to wear one. I think she assumed that I wouldn't want to, so when I said sure my two aunties got really excited, grabbed me by the arms, and rushed me in the house to change. Remember it has only been about 20 minutes at this point ... one pulled off my top while the other buttoned the dress on me - all I could do was laugh, so much for modesty with the relatives.

I spent the day out at the farm and ate lots of pork (my uncle runs a hog farm) and enjoyed the company of my new relatives. I think the strangest part is knowing you are related to someone because they look like other family members. When I met my aunts, they looked like my Toronto aunt, when I met my uncles they looked like my uncles from Halifax and Montreal, when I met a cousin, he looked like an uncle from Toronto and when they saw me they could tell I was my father and mother's daughter.

My aunt has been going to this dance class in the park for years and is trying to teach me the rhomba.

I returned to my hotel at end of the day, but I was going to see them again in a few days after I came back from my work trip. On my return, I stayed at Uncle Chien's house (who could be my father's twin) in Saigon and got to explore the neighbourhood where my relatives have been living for decades. So on my first morning, I was woken up at 5am and was taken to the park to go exercising. They asked me the night before, but I really thought they were joking when they said we would be going at 5 since it is pitch black at that time. No, no they were serious, and I couldn't even put in my contacts. I was a little cranky to be moving at the early in the morning, but when we got there it was a very interesting sight to see.

Picture hundreds of people congregating at the park (you have to pay $2000 dong to enter, so about 1/7th of a cdn dollar) and either participating in an aerobics class, dance lesson, playing badminton, walking laps around the lake, or just getting some good old exercise in. Couple of my aunts go everyday, except Sunday because that's rest day (so lucky for me I did not have to go again the next morning), and go to aerobics from 5 to 6 then dance class from 6 to 7. Now I understand why vietnamese people take naps at noon!

Other fun things that happened: my 70-year old aunt and I hopping on to a moving bus, my other aunt taking me to get my hair washed at the salon, having slight miscommunication with my uncle when he thought I said I was at the airport but I was really at the ferry terminal when he was coming to pick me up, and (I believe gluttony is a sin) one aunt dropping me off at another aunt's house when they were done feeding me so I could go for another round.

I saw this photo in my aunt's cabinet and it is of some of my Toronto cousins from over 30 years ago

So something I always wanted to do has been done. It still feels strange that I just met new relatives as I feel like I have known them for a long time. I get to see them again in a few weeks and am now much more motivated to learn more vietnamese so I can ask lots of questions and tell them more about my life in Canada.

My uncle took me to visit my grandparents' graves. I remember hearing when they passed away when I was younger. It is vietnamese custom for the family to gather on the anniversary of the death of a family member to celebrate their life, which was a tradition we held up in Canada when my grandfather died.

Happy 2007!

I just came back from a 12-day vacation / work trip and it has been a very jammed-packed journey. I feel like I have been gone for months because so much has happened.


Here is a quick synopsis: the trip started off with Kate, Whitfield parents, and I visiting Ha Long Bay and Cat Ba Island for 3 days, then driving back to Hanoi to catch an evening flight to Saigon. Sarah joinned us for this leg of this trip and Sarah and I were in the Saigon New Year's Ultimate tournament, while Kate and her parents toured the city. We spent New Year's eve with the ultimate people and danced the night away at a fancy club downtown. The following morning, New Year's Day, I went to visit my relatives at my uncle's farm, which deserves a separate posting, and met about 20 aunts, uncles, and cousins for the first time. During this whole time, I was up early and used the following day to sleep and let my body recooperate (we played 6 games of ultimate in less than 48 hours in about 30 degree weather). Kate and Linda left for Da Nang (the city that divided South and North Vietnam at the 17th parallel) and I had to say my farewells to them and let them travel around Vietnam without my watchful eye. The funny part is Kate and Linda probably know Saigon better than I do (you would think it would be in my blood ...) as it was them telling me where everything was.

So what are one of the things to do when you are in Saigon? Oh course, shopping! Sarah and I did some window shopping and then went for sushi (haven't had since being here and been having many cravings) with the Canadian Chamber of Commerce Ho Chi Minh office (Sarah works for the Hanoi office). Sounds like a lot of time has passed with all these activities, but really it has only been about 7 days at this point ...

Ha Long Bay is a pictureseque area that is seen in lots of travel ads for VN

My director from Hanoi met me in Saigon where we caught a 1.5 hour ferry ride to Vung Tau City for a 2-day working session for one of our municipal partnership projects. We will be helping to develop a census survey which will be used to develop municipal services for the migrant population. I will be heading there again at the end of the month, and can't complain as it is off the sea and surrounded by beaches. When France occupied Vietnam, they used this area for resorts and a holiday getaway from Saigon.

There were ultimate players from mostly around Asia, but a few who travelled from Canada and Australia. Ultimate use to be predominantly played by expats, but is now growing in popularity with locals. Group pic of all the players from Hanoi.

From Vung Tau I headed back to Saigon where I stayed with my uncle and litterally ate for 48 hours straight. I had lunches and dinners at different houses, each aunt taking a turn to feed me and was also taken to two weddings, where one had over 900 people! I returned to Hanoi last night and am back at work, feeling a little tired, but had a great trip overall. I am going away again in 3 weeks but in the meanwhile am keeping put in Hanoi as I barely have slept in my own bed.

Even the Fantastic Four came to the New Year's party. There was a space galactical theme, but I however left my costume somewhere ...

New Year's eve on the bustling streets of Saigon

I will get to celebrate New Year's twice this year as Tet (the Vietnamese New Year) is in mid-February and that is the largest vietnamese holiday where everything shuts down for a week. I feel like I am on on-going holidays, but it is now time to buckle down and get some work done. Not allowed to have anymore fun, at least until I learn some more vietnamese.

Thanks Paulina and Yvonne for the Xmas cards! Yvonne - I been snacking on the candy canes and introduced them to my office-mates.

Chuc Mung Giang Sinh

Happy Merry Christmas to all (that's how all the locals say it in English)! It is Christmas day and yes, I am at work, but it does not bother me whatsoever as it has been a great Christmas holiday so far.

My roomies, Caroline from England and Lora from the US, and our Christmas tree

We hosted a Xmas Eve party that I think will be memorable for all. We had homemade lasagna, gingersnaps, and shortbread cookies - that might seem easy to make, but you have to remember that most houses don't have ovens and that Lora had to go to a friend's house, do all the baking, and transport it to the house! We ate well and I was stuffed by 7:30 (party started at 7) but was able to eat the whole night long ... when else am I going to get homemade baking?! We had a gift exchange where we were able to steal other people's presents, sang lots of caroles (except for some reason the only song we all knew was Oh Come All Ye Faithful ...), and played games (Team Couch Potatoes came in a respectable 2nd place). Let's just saw the party went until 3:30am and I made it to work by 9 ...


Vietnamese santa even made a showing to our party

There were people from all over the world at our place and can you believe there were 6 Nova Scotians (either from or went to university) out of about 40 people?

I think about Christmas and how normally I spend it with my mom, stepdad, and relatives in Sydney and this year I spent it with 40 strangers ... people who I never even knew I would cross paths with ... but had a special celebration with people who were away from their family, too. And now I sound mushy, but it really felt like Xmas because we didn't need extravagent gifts or expensive presents, we had a good time because of good company.

Kate and family have arrived safely and I am so impressed with their open-mindedness and sense of adventure to really see Vietnam. They are presently in Sapa for a few days and are spending Xmas in the mountains. On their first day here they surprised me at work and walked all the way from their hotel, which is a hefty hour / hour and a half walk through major arterial roads with heavy traffic. Kate lugged a huge bag of cards and presents from home and thanks to everyone who sent me greetings, I really appreciate it :) It is kind of strange having someone from home, being here with me as you can easily get stuck in a bubble which I think was happening to me. I am glad Kate and her parents can see what I see, they got to see my house, my neighbourhood, my work, where I eat, where I hang out, and meet some of my friends.

So technically I am celebrating Xmas 12 hours earlier than everyone. My sister, Michael, and Donna & Claud just phoned and wished me a Merry Christmas. It's Xmas eve for them and they just prepared food for tomorrow's big meal. I was very jealous to hear they are having a big bowl of turnip! I really miss eating root vegetables, I am more Canadian than I sometimes realize ...

Kate, Geoff, Linda, and I will be heading to Halong Bay and Cat Ba Island for a few days then are off to Saigon. I am going in the NY's ultimate tournament and we will be celebrating NY's with ultimate players from around Asia. My aunt from Toronto is visiting family in Saigon right now and I will be visiting new family in the new year.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone. Hope you are having a monstruous turkey and turnip.

Kampuchea

The Travelling Trio have just come back from the Kingdom of Cambodia. The idea to go there got started with running in the half marathon at the Temple of Angkor Wat. We set low expectations for ourselves, but we ended up doing alright. Sarah and I made awesome running partners and ran the whole thing (in 2h32min ... not bad since we did not train at all!), we just kept pace and it helped big time that the whole course was flat and the race started before the sun was at full blast.

But visiting Siem Reap became much more than just running a half marathon, it was tough at times to really comprehend what the Cambodian people have been through and what they are going through now. There are no landmines in Siem Reap Town but if you go outside the city boundaries you have to be cautious. There is an estimated 6 million land mines left in the country and the signs of the ones that have been discovered is obvious from all the maimed people we saw. Cambodia has been in wars until the 1980's and you wonder where will they go from here. The poverty is much more extreme than I have been seeing in Hanoi. Although in Vietnam you still see a lot of serious issues, there is a feeling in the air that things are on the upswing ... I did not feel that in Cambodia. The kids did not smile as much, they weren't in school, instead they were out of the streets selling postcards or books and following foreigners around.

One of the reasons an international half marathon started in Siem Reap was to bring Cambodia on the travelling stage to encourage tourism and the registration fee goes to landmine victimes. The Angkorian temples were amazing and pretty reasonable in price if you consider what you are seeing. We paid $40 USD for a 3-day pass and although by the last day we were templed out, the sites were spectacular. The temples have both Hindu and Buddhist influences as well as being commissioned by various kings from about 900 - 1400 AD. You really do need at least 3 days to see everything, because the sites are massive.

This is about 6am. Angkor Wat is in the background and the race starts in half an hour and the sun does rise by then.

Angkor Wat is the more famous temple, but I think I enjoyed visiting Angkor Thom which was the last capital city of the Khmer Empire and is 9 km2 in area.

I believe this is Pre Rup temple, thought to be the crematarium temple

We decided to rent bikes on our second day at the temples (yes, even though we just ran a half marathon) and biked from temple to temple. That was my favorite way of touring the sites. We got to go at our own pace and took out time. We had a lonely planet book and would read the info on each temple then would go see what we just read.



We were allowed to walk everywhere and anywhere in the temples, which we were a bit surprised by since it is a UNESCO heritage site and over a thousand years old! The temples have taken a beating, especially during the wars as there are still markings of bullets and bombs. Many of the dieties and animals' heads have been removed by bandits which they have sold on the black market. The sandstone blocks are collapsing and weathering away from the rain. And as you can see from the above picture, the jungle vegetation has taken over. Trees and plants are growing over the temples, but perhaps it is a good thing because they are also keeping the foundations standing.

Mr. Tet, our favorite tuk-tuk driver. This was our main mode of transportation and Mr.Tet even took us to visit his village and family which is about an hour (by tuk-tuk) outside of Siem Reap town.

I am back in Hanoi but Cambodia has left a lasting impression. I bought a couple of novels, a history book and 'the killing fields' which we also visited. This is my small personal plug - if you have an opportunity to make a donation to landmine victims, please do. Interestingly enough, the international treaty to ban landmines was created at the Ottawa Convention in 1999. Although Canada has signed - the US, Russia, and China are not signatories.

Just Trying to Get some Dough

So I am off to Cambodia tomorrow morning and the highlight of the trip will be running a half marathon at the Temple of Angkor Wat. I have not seriously trained, but my friends (Steve and Sarah - we have become the travelling trio) and I figure if we have to walk we will have a beautiful backdrop to walk along. Today, I am checking off my list of things to do before I go and the next item is to get some US dough, which US money coincidently in Vietnamese is called do, short for dollar but pronounced like dough-lar.

So I go the bank with some traveller's checks and my passport as well as some Vietnamese dongs to exchange for US money. I wait in line for about 30 minures and am then told that they can only cash my traveller's checks and need my plane ticket if I want to convert my dongs. Oh course, this is the first time I ever heard of this rule and oh course I did not bring my e-ticket and I feel a little bit impatient that I have to accept this state rule. I guess I have taken it for granted how easy it is for us to convert money in Canada and did not realize that getting foreign currency isn't so easy for locals even if they do have the money. Plus, for a vietnamese person to even go travelling it is quite a process for them to first get permission from the government and then applying for a visa.

It is common to go to a jewelly store to get your money converted although I am not really sure if it is legal. So I decided to go this route and the first store I go to, which has about 12 ladies working, are closed for lunch and will not serve me even though the doors are wide open and it is noon. They tell me to come back after lunch and I tell them I need to go back to work after lunch. So they turn me away and tell me to go 2 stores down. I say alright, find their recommendation and gladly give them my business. I finally got my US dollars but it just took me 2 hours to figure out how!

St. Joseph's Cathedral in the Old Quarter

There is a small catholic population in Hanoi and you can see in the pic that mass is well attended, so much so that there is a live recording on the screen for people who are sitting outside. I stayed near this Church in my first month (and so will kate and her parents) and was always amazed by how many people came to mass. Motorbike drivers and taxis would park in front of the church steps during the service.

I am spending Christmas with the Whitfields and they are coming next week. I haven't seen Kate in 3 months and am very excited to see familiar faces from home. We aren't exactly sure of our plans yet but likely be spending Xmas in Halong Bay and going to Saigon for New Year's Eve. I requested some things for them to takeover and here are some of the odd items I asked for: peanut butter, my jogging pants and sweatshirt, a wool sweater, maple products to give out as presents, chapstick, contacts, floss threaders, and a nalgene bottle.

So this is my first Xmas not being celebrated in Sydney. I have been home every year no matter where I have been living. I keep forgetting how close Xmas is coming up because I am not near any of the commercialism of the Xmas shopping which is actually very nice. There are some small decorations here and there, which I find more symbolic for the holidays. Tonight, I am attending a Xmas concert tonight at the school for the blind. I am looking really forward to it and singing Xmas caroles with the kids, although I don't know how excited they will be singing with me!

Lang Son City: Famous for their BBQ Duck

I was in Lang Son City which is on the border of China and located in a northeastern province of Vietnam. I was there for about 6 days for work and the mission went pretty well, especially since we had a really good interpreter which can make or break a project.

The trip started off with the hotel assigning my Canadian colleague and I the same room, because they just assumed we were a couple (which i quickly informed them we were not). Murray is a 52 year old man, happily married with 3 kids. However for the rest of the trip, the third question the locals kept asking me was (1st question, where are you from?; 2nd question, how old are you?) is he your husband. So really the whole town pretty much thought I was his mistress no matter how many times I told them I was there working with the City and their mayor.

We were working with the more senior officials, the chairman of the People's Council, as well as the chairman of the People's Committee. I kind of felt like we were in the mafia - the government cars are black with tinted windows and we were picked up and driven everywhere and escorted throughout the whole trip. Everytime we visited a site, the chairman would just give the ticket person a look and we would get waved in. I felt like VIP!

The population of Lang Son City is approximately 100,000 and even to me now seems like a small city. A lot of people who can't afford motorbikes, ride bicycles and I wanted to get this experience. So I asked the hotel if they knew where I could rent a bicycle and the hotel staff didn't have any idea, but the receptionist offered to go home and bring her bike and let me use it for the rest of the week. I thought that was pretty nice of her and got up early for a couple of the mornings and went for a bike ride through the city. Many people think I am crazy for the distances I walk and are always offering to take me by motorbike. For once I felt like I could blend in when I was on the bike and felt a little more Vietnamese.

One of the neat places we got to visit was the Friendship Gate which is the border entrance to China. We were only allowed to walk to the neutral zone but we could see part of the Great Wall on the other side - not sure if it was brought there or if it was actually built there.

Photo: Group at the Friendship Gate entrance

This picture is taken from the 0 Km line. Vietnam's main highway is Highway 1 which starts from this point and run from the very north of the country to the very south passing through Hanoi and Saigon.

Photo: The Underpass to China

There is quite a bit of Chinese influence here. When you go to the markets, all the items are from China and the vendors are Chinese who speak some Vietnamese. There was a 2-week war back in the late 70's (I may be wrong on the timeline) when China invaded Vietnam and it was this province that they destroyed. So much of the houses and buildings are relatively new since they have been rebuilt during the 80's and 90's.

We ate really well and if I did lose any weight while I have been here I definitely gained it back! One of Lang Son's famous dishes is its bbq duck which happens to be one of my favourite meats (just behind lobster). I gorged and ate half by myself while the interpreter and Murray barely finished the other half.

Photo: Furniture making business

On our way back to Hanoi, the Lang Son people arranged for us to visit an industrial village that was created in 1990 near Bac Ninh City that produces furniture. This was pretty eye-opening to see. All this furniture is done by hand and completely done by labor. There are no manufacturing shops or machinery creating the furniture, just people's bare hands, with a saw and sandpaper. This village exports a lot of its furniture around the world, so next time you see wood furniture made in Vietnam, it was probably made in a town like this.

Photo: When you buy furniture, people examine it pre-stained and pre-lacquered so they can examine the quality of the wood and craftmanship.

It was a pretty educational trip overall since I was able to participate in the mission and get to see Lang Son with local guides and oh course, have my bbq duck, which I bought one and brought to my office as a treat for lunch.

Never Underestimate a Mountain

So I and 2 friends, Steve and Sarah (fellow Canadians), hiked the highest mountain in Vietnam - Mount Fanxipan (kind of pronounced like 'fancy pants'). I am not sure where to begin or what part to write about but I will say it was hard, crazy, and at times scary just as my friend Melissa had warned. The height of the mountain is 3,143m and we started at around 1900m, however it was quite the distance just to get to the base of the mountain. We had a guide, who had a cigarette in his hand for almost the whole time, and a porter, who carried all our food, cooking stuff, sleeping bags and mats, and tent by himself in a pair of broken sandals and tatered clothes - and yet these 2 still whipped our butts up the mountain.

We hiked through fields, valleys, streams (which I fell in within the first hour and had wet feet for all of the first day and had to wear plastic bags around my feet on the second day), bamboo forests, rain forest, vertical rock faces, and other muddy and slippery surfaces. We indeed made it to the top but now we had to worry how we were going to make it down since it had rain during the night and there were some serious steep sections along the trek.

Sarah and I rejoicing that we finally made it.

It took us all day and the next morning to make it to the peak, but when we got there we were there less than 10 minutes because it was absolutely freezing and we couldn't see anything since we were in the clouds and the fog was thick. The frustrating part of the hike was on the way up to the peak, we would being going down a lot that we knew every step down was an additional step up that we would have to do later. A funny realization we had was when we were looking at the other mountains, someone said "wow, they are so high" and then we would realize "oh crap, we are going higher than those mountains".

Steve on top on the world, well on top of the mountain

We had some casualties along the way, I actually fell on a rock the day before and had cut open my shin which wouldn't stop bleeding since it was in a awkward spot and we didn't have much medical supplies on us. Luckily I had my good old hiking bandana and used that to tie around my leg, but had to be careful to not make it worse. Sarah is allergic to smoke and with our one pack a day smoker guide, one eye got really aggrevated that she could only wear one contact and her depth perception was slightly impaired. Steve became an old woman (just joking!) because we did so much trekking going up that going down was hard on the knees.

You can see our porter near the bottom corner of the pic.

The trek to the peak was beautiful and we did have some clear skies. If the fog lifted more often we would have been able to see China and Laos. I don't regret doing it and feel great that we did it, but I don't think I would volunteer to do it for a second time. We ached for days afterwards ...

So when I said our porter carried our tent, I should rephrase and say he carried our tarp!

We assumed we would be sleeping in a regular old tent, but when we saw them collecting bamboo wood for our campfire we noticed they had cut 4 fresh green bamboo sticks down. The frame of our sleeping accommodation was made out of bamboo, which I thought was pretty cool. Then they drapped a tarp over it and we slept on a tarp, all five of us together, my friends and I with our porter and guide at about 2400m up the mountain. It rained and was windy during the night and poor Sarah was on the edge, but our tarp didn't collapse, the wind just blew right threw it ...

Anyway, we survived and thinking back it wasn't that bad, but doing it once is good enough for me.

Hoa's Home Village

Photos: Sarah and I sporting our motorbike gear. The rental I was on ran out of gas (plus the front brake didn't work) and we had to coast down a hill to find a gas station.


A few friends and I took the night train to Lai Cau on our way to Sapa. Our friend, Hoa (guy with cap in photo), took us to visit his home village of Phu Thuy where he tries to visit as much as he can when he isn't working. We decided to buy candy and milk (although the candy was a bigger hit) and ended up having a huge little get-together at Hoa's family home where all the kids were told to tell the other kids to come for treats. I don't know where else you can go and just by word of mouth get all the kids of a village to come eat and play at a moment's notice.

The kids were pretty shy when they first saw us, for most it was the first time they ever seen foreigners - Steve and Trevor were almost a foot taller than the adults and Sarah has long blond hair. Hoa's family cooked us lunch and we went for a walk around the village and visited the local school to disperse more of the candy. We played with the kids and I even learned (tried to anyway) play marbles.

We took lots of photos and everywhere you turn you just want to take another photo of that child or that field. I can't imagine not having a digital camera, but another reason why it's good fto have is that we can show the kids their picture. The kids get so excited when they see their faces on the screen.


For us it was such a contrast to Hanoi, where there is a constant buzz that I almost forget what silence sounds like. It was so calm in the country and the people were very kind and gentle, that it makes me worry what will happen in the future when Vietnam's economy starts taking off and opens up to the rest of the world ... where will it leave these people?

No title today

Photo: My first rain storm in Hanoi, I actually think it might have been the tailend of a typhoon. Alex and Sarah are wading through the water - this is the end of my alley and let's just say I am applying what I learned at SURP, Hanoi has awful stormwater managment, there is pavement everywhere even where there are trees there is pavement right upto the trunk! It flooded within minutes and the hail was hail I never seen before. It was litterally the size of golfballs and I first thought who the heck is throwing rocks at us. I don't even want to get into what might have been floating in the water since garbage is regularly thrown onto the street. But I will say I took a very hot shower and used disinfectant when I got home ...

I went to Lang Son City yesterday for the day, it's about a 3.5 hour drive one way (even though it is only 162km from Hanoi - I will never complain about traffic or highways in Canada again ... it takes about an hour by car just to travel about 50km). I really got a good feel for the town which is in a northern province that borders China. I will be there next week for a week where I will be working with the City of Fredericton and Lang Son City on a Tourism Development project that has been underway for the last year. They went over their workplan with me and it looks like I'll get to do some neat activites and visit some cool places when we arrive.

I am heading to Sapa tomorrow night to hike the tallest mountain in Vietnam, Mount Fansipan. Melissa just did the hike and described it as wild, hard, and at times scary. Her group did it in 4 days (though they were doing research along the way), we are going to do it in 2 days. I am not in very good physical shape and I have been breathing in smog for the last 2 months, so this will be interesting ... I will likely complain (a lot), but I am sure we will feel very rewarded after we get to the top.

The autumn weather is setting in, people are in pants, jackets, and turtlenecks. I, however, am still wearing my short sleeved shirts and capris and everyone thinks I am crazy for sporting such light clothing for this time of year. Winter is suppose to be very cold here, not cold like Canada, but cold because it is damp and there is no indoor heating. Many people wear their outside clothes inside. I remember Lily telling me the top thing people generally talk about is the weather and I completely agree. I keep bringing it up in this blog ... but another thing I wanted to add is that I miss seeing blue skies! I always think it is going to rain because it looks cloudy but really it is a thick cloud of haze and pollution.

Hospital Clinic and Water Filtering Program in Phu Ly

Phu Ly Town is the capital in Ha Nam Province and it's about an hour drive by motorbike from Hanoi. Steve's organization, Samaritan's Purse (SP), has a couple projects in Phu Ly and I was able to tag along on one of his field trips. We visited a small clinic that just received donated medical equipment and supplies from the US, but much of the equipment they had not seen before so they got a Canadian doctor to visit and look through it all to see what the clinic could really use. Although the donation was hugely generous (some of the items alone were worth hundreds of dollars), there are some things that hadn't been taken into consideration - some of the equipment was electical and there is a different voltage between North America and Vietnam, luckily they had not yet plugged in the equipment but if they did, it could have caused an electrical fire and ruined the equipment. But there is a simple solution, they will just need to buy a voltage converter which SP will purchase and donate.

Another project SP has in the town is a water filtration program - these filters are actually a Canadian product, invented at the University of Calgary. The filters are made locally (material and labour) and are given to each household that has given a week's work to the project. It uses a natual filtration process using sand to remove iron and arsenic from the water to produce clean drinking water. Not sure if you can tell in the pic, but you pour the well water through the top and the clean water comes out of the spout.

I didn't crash the motorbike!

I knew I couldn't really experience Vietnamese life until I rode a motorbike. I just was not going to drive one in Hanoi. I was out of the city yesterday for a field trip with my friend Steve to visit one of his projects in Ha Nam province. It was a nice small rural city with no traffic and Steve suggested I try to drive his organization's new bike since I wouldn't have to worry about learning how to use a clutch since I don't know how to drive a standard (to Kate's dismay).

I had to learn completely from scratch - when Steve showed me the nozzle I think I worried him when I asked what it was for ... but he rode with me so he could tell me step by step what to do. It actually wasn't very complicated and I got up to 40 clicks for a few seconds. We rode down a long not very windy road but somehow I still almost got into a few accidents! I kind of got nervous when trucks when pass us and I wasn't use to using the foot break that I had to swerve and a truck stopped and yelled some profanity at us ... oh well. I made the locals laugh with my very not smooth starts and stops. I have to say I am impressed that Steve actually trusted me with his life - I did warn him that I have a reputation for being slightly clumsy, but now I am excited to go motobiking again!

Change of Weather

I was in Nam Dinh City which is in Nam Dinh province which is about 2 hours southwest of Hanoi for work last week. It is known for their pho and they took us to one of the popular pho restaurants on our last morning. In Canada there are lots of pho restaurants opened by south vietnamese, but it is actually a northern vietnamese dish.

Well, it is technically automn but it is apparently unusually warm for this time of year. Can it really be fall when it is 30 degrees? It was cool for a few days (which I welcomed with open arms) and took out my zip-up sweater from my suitcase for the first time. I hear it has already snowed in Canada and although people are envious of my non-snow winter, I will miss walking in snow and can't believe I am not going to see it until next year. I was talking to Kersten yesterday (thanks for calling!) and in Yellowknife right now it's -30 with 20cm of snow ...

So I am sick - not sick from the food, not sick from the water, haven't had to use any of the many prescriptions I brought (even though I got licked by Sarah's landlord's dog and was paranoid I might have gotten rabies for a few days), but what got me in the end after being here for almost 2 months was the common cold! I'm congested and my throat is really dry and scratchy which I didn't know initially if it was just from the pollution. But the part that drives me nuts is when I hear "you are sick because the weather has changed" - my mom says that to me all the time and I always tell her that colds come from germs! I guess the real explanation is that maybe when the weather cools, you're immune system is weaker and germs spread faster? I don't really know the science behind how colds get passed on, maybe my health professional friends can help me out here but I refuse to think the colds are caused by the cold, perhaps it is indirectly correlated ...

Last night I was invited by the family of my old hotel for dinner. They invited a few of their other former guests and made us a huge meal - fish, duck, beef, noodle soup, it was a nice spread and very generous. Even though I don't live there anymore, I still stop by to say hello.

Sunday Morning Tea

photo: Kids playing soccer after school, Ninh Binh City

I love having a huge brunch and relaxing with a cup of tea on weekend mornings. Now that I have a ktichen and a roommate I can actually do that! Alex has been living in Vietnam for a couple of years and is returning to the US next month. She spoiled me this morning and made scrambled eggs, bacon (real bacon), and toast, then I got to make some tea and just veg for the rest of this morning.

I been here over 6 weeks now and I keep saying how fast the time is going by, but I realize I have been saying that about everything since probably university. I remember someone telling me when I was kid how the time seems to go by faster when you get older and it is so true. I remember having summer break in school and thought 2 months was forever ...

I think about my first week here and not having a clue what was going on and thinking am I crazy for coming?! But I have settled in and have met some great people and am really getting to experience life in Hanoi. My footsteps aren't as ackward anymore and I move naturally through the streets and I don't need to carry a map with me every single time I go out. People actually understand me when I speak Vietnamese.

Last night a friend hosted a bbq and he went all out. He cooked for over 20 people and had crab, marinated chicken, several different types of Malaysian curries, and salads - it was a very impressive feast. I am thinking about having a dinner party but I think I will make it a potluck or invite him to be head chef :) I admit, I have not cooked while I have been here. To my defense I was in a hotel for a while but now that I have a full kitchen I should try, but it is just so much more convenient to go out and get a bowl of pho and even cheaper than to try to go and get the ingredients yourself. I don't imagine I'll be cooking very much or basically not at all for the next 4 months. My roommates and I said we might try to cook dinner once a week to learn to cook some Vietnamese food.

The system to pay your utility bills and take out the garbage is quite interesting. Our electricity and water are extra and when your bill is due someone comes to your door with the invoice and you are expected to pay at that moment. I am still not use to paying cash for everything, so you have to make sure you have a bundle of dongs ready - it is almost like a tax man coming for collection. And the garbage pick-up is quite different - there is no "garbage day", everyday is garbage day. For our alleyway, at about 5:10pm a garbage collector comes around with their cart and rings a bell (really loudly) and you come out with your bag of garbage and dump it in their cart or you can leave it outside your gate and they will pick it up.

Going to Nam Dinh tonight for a few days for work to participate on our Saguenay / Nam Dinh municipal partnership project which is to implement a land use management GIS database. It'll be a bit tiring since I will be only communicating in French and Vietnamese the whole time since we only have a Vietnamese-French translator.

King's Bananas

I was on a work trip to Ninh Binh City which is southwest of Hanoi over the weekend. FCM & ACVN are initiating a Communities in Bloom project and Ninh Binh is one of our pilot areas.

The bananas in the pic are known as the king's bananas because way back when, only the king was allowed to eat them - they are small and sweet, I have tried them in Canada a couple of times, but they taste much better here since you can eat them right off the tree.

I finally moved into a house! After living in a guest house/hotel and out of my suitcase for 5 weeks I was ready! It is a 4 floor house, really spacious and has a small pond with fishies and a turtle. As soon as I saw it I knew it was the one. Patience paid off. I will be dedicating a separate entry to my new home once I get settled in. I am already planning a house party ...

Hanoi is gearing up for APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) conference being held in mid-November. Bush and Harper are coming, the Chinese president, and leaders from the other Asian and Pacific countries. Security has definitely been heightened - more police on the streets, stricter enforcement of traffic control, special cars for the dignitaries have been practicing their routes, street vendors are getting cleared from the sidewalks. It will be interesting to see what happens and how everything is run.

I like to add random facts as I learn them: Vietnam has a 2-child policy, I did not know this at all (and feel kind of silly that I did not know this). You hear about China's 1-child policy often, but I did not realize that VN had a similar one. I heard that VN is the 14 densist country in the world. I just did some stats for my colleague's presentation and there are 258 people per sq.km in Vietnam while there is 3.6 people per sq.km in Canada - however there is a qualifer here, 90% of the Cdn population is within 160 km of the US border.

The Birla Orphanage

My friend Steve was a CIDA intern last year with the Samaritan's Purse which is an NGO that does humanitarian work around the world. He is now working with them full time in the Vietnam office. The founder of Samaritan's Purse is actually the founder of World Vision, but he (his name escapes me right now) created SP to avoid all the red tape so that if help was needed, immediate assistance could be provided right away. SP is supporting the Birla orphanage and I eagerly accepted the invitation to visit. There are about 110 kids from the ages of 3 to 15. They were having a farewell party for Mr. John Pham (he is the older gentleman in the group photo with the glasses) because he is returning to Canada for retirement (although they say he has been retiring for the last year and keeps coming back!) and actually helped to establish Samaritan's Purse in Vietnam 12 years ago.

I wasn't sure what type of conditions to expect at the orphanage, I saw a documentary by the CBC a few years ago called 'Falling from the Sky' that partly took place in a Vietnamese orphanage, so I had that pictured in my mind - concrete walls, bare, and glum.

But as you can see at this orphanage the kids were healthy, happy, and energetic. I got to hand out ice cream and cake and it probably made them a little hyper, but it was nice to see them play and have some fun with them. I was pretty popular when I pulled out my camera. They loved having their picture taken and seeing their faces on the screen. SP has sponsored the glass of milk a day program as well as scholarships to help them go to university when they are older. There was a little Hieu there, you can't see his face but that's his hand waving to the camera (must be a Hieu trait - we like being in photos ...). I am hoping to do some volunteering with them soon.

Super Saturday: Inc. Vietnam Run & Turkey

I survived the run around West Lake and actually ran (well, jogged) most of the 13km. In the photo is Paul, my running partner, and the start/finish of the run. I would not have been able to do it without Paul! I only expected myself to run for about half an hour and thought I would be walking the rest that I even was carrying my camera with me. I couldn't convince any of my friends to come join me at 630 in the morning. I was picturing actually running around the lake, but really we ran on the streets around the lake. It is not like Ottawa where they close the streets ... we were running in the traffic, weaving around the buses and xe om's (motorbikes). So I really was not expecting to last that long, but perhaps having cars behind me made me run faster. Paul was running in front of me and he is probably about 60 and I guess my competitive side came out and I told myself I was not going to stop until he stopped and we ended up running together for the rest of the run. Good thing I ran with him, he has been in Hanoi for about a year and runs regularly around the lake. I would have gotten lost since there were no route markers.

I was rewarded in the evening. I did have turkey for Thanksgiving afterall - just a week later. The Canadian Chamber of Commerce organized a big dinner hosted at the Ambassador of Canada's home. There were probably about 70 other Canadians there and all the food was cooked in the ambassador's kitchen and was delicious. They imported turkeys and there was mash potatoes (which were first to go), cranberry sauce (not the canned stuff), stuffing, veggies, and even pumpkin pie.

So that was my Saturday, normal as always!

Women's Day & Food

Today is Vietnam Women's Day. Women are treated to flowers and small presents at work and home. I was given a bouquet of flowers and shampoo (hopefully not because they thought I needed it ...). The hard part is, but I am not particularly shocked, I was the only one given a present in the office even though I have 2 other female colleagues. You can't not accept it, but I feel a bit guilty at the same time since they weren't given anything. It is pretty common for foreigners/guests to be given special treatment and I am definitely given special treatment all the time, no matter how many times I say it is not necessary. It was very similar to when I was in Beijing when they made special food for me in the cafeteria and put me first in line when there were already people waiting.

I probably eat best at lunch. There is a lunch fund (City of Ottawa should consider that!) and we eat together everyday and we either go for bun cha, which is a noodle soup with pork, or have rice with meat and veggies. I loved bun cha the first time, but I probably had it at least 10 times since and I admit it's losing its appeal. But the part I like is when we get take-out. There are lots of nearby small eateries, that they walk the food over on a tray with dishes and chop sticks. It's not pre-packaged and you aren't using disposible utensils, so we barely have any garbage after we're done eating. Someone from the restaurant just comes back to pick up the dishes. We should spread that idea to Canada or at least do tupperware.

I found the best sandwich shop for Vietnamese subs, my roommate Kate does not share my love for them, but maybe she'll change her mind when I take her to this place at Xmas. They are only 5000 dongs which is about 30 cents Canadian. Eating locally and street food is very cheap - I know it doesn't sound very appetizing, but street food really means to eat on the street, there are lots of little tables set on on the sidewalks and you sit on even tinier stools, and they bring out the food from the kitchen since there isn't any room to sit inside. Once you want to sit at a proper table or have Western/European food it is a bit more expensive. I find the street food a lot tastier and it's more easy going sittin' at a street table.

My favorite beverage is the fresh juice, which is unbelieveably cheap, I don't know why it has to be that expensive in Canada. I have fresh mango juice almost everyday and we usually go to sugarcane juice after ultimate. It is litterally costs cents to have juice with no preservatives or artifical flavour, all they usually do is just peel it and blend it up.

In about 15 hours I am participating in a charity run/walk tomorrow morning. It's organized by the Asia Development Bank and it's to raise scholarship money for disadvantaged and disabled Vietnamese children. It is around West Lake, which is what Hanoi is famous for. It's 13km in perimeter and I haven't gone running since I have been here, I haven't been up that early since I've been here, plus it's suppose to be between 24 and 33 degress and my favorite, it is suppose to be really humid. I asked if there would be water stations and the organizer told me that they have motorbikes that drive around the lake dropping off water to the runners. I guess I could always just hop on the back of one if I am really desperate ...