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Well, I'm home now. It is good to be home, but it was a bit of a culture shock. As I tried to adjust to sane traffic and the crisp winter air, I realized that my experience in Viet Nam had been quite the immersion experience. The trips I've taken in the past few years have always been as a tourist - which means there is always a buffer between me and the culture. Clean hotels and restaurants. People explaining how the natives live, but making sure you don't get too close. Oh, I made forays into the streets and markets, but then went back to the hotels. This time, I walked down the little alleys to a regular home. More middle class than many in the city, but still a regular home. Only in a few cafes did I find a more genteel gloss, a place where Westerners hung out.

The trip home was long and tiring, but uneventful. According to my pedometer, I walked about 8 miles around the airport in Taipei during the 7 hour layover. My digestive system has not taken kindly to American food. Jet lag caught up with me. Today, my third full day back, I am hoping to be more fully present - it is a long day. Work at the church, then a four hour meeting at the Conference Office in Des Moines, WA. I'll be home late this evening.

I cannot thank Dashal & Nick enough for their wonderful hospitality. They are courageous people, living boldly - yet gently. The world is blessed by their presence.

More photographs - this time of Hanoi

Dashal & Nick going to work

Neighbor's house - midsection

Neighbor's house - top section

Looking straight down from the balcony

Balcony of Dashal's house - 5th floor

Dashal & Nick's house

Alley to Dashal's house - ground level


Looking down the alley from Dashal's house
Taken from her 5th floor balcony

Wholesale Market in Hanoi

Scenes from the streets of Hanoi

Photographs from Hoi An trip

Some photographs with minimal text



Rice paddies on the way to Hoi An

Old Chinese Assembly Hall

Red coils of incense, with prayer card in the center

Pretty

Prettier

Prettiest

Scenes on the way to the beach - via bicycle. Dashal took the above picture while pedeling on her bike - silly girl!

Beach scene - cafe ready to set up - note the coconuts. The cut a hole in the top, you drink the milk, then they cut it in half for you and you eat the coconut meat.

Dashal took this beach picture on a windy, cloudy day. When we went on the last day, it was sunny and clear - very beautiful

My Son Temple ruins

Local Ferry & Hoi An Port

Sunday Morning, Jan 24

Another warm, humid morning, sitting in the beautiful Betel Garden Home Stay in Hoi An. Slightly south of Danang, this old city is a tourist destination for good reason. Dashal and I arrived here on Wednesday evening. We flew into Danang, where we were met by a driver holding a sign saying, "Mr. Dashal." As we drove through Danang, we talked of how Dashal's grandfather, my previous father-in-law, had been Base Commander in Danang in the late 1960's. He was a colonel in the Air Force. Pete passed away this Fall; we missed having the opportunity to exchange stories of Viet Nam. He was very excited about Dashal living here, and grateful for the country's recovery over the past 40 years.

It was about a 45 minute drive to Hoi An, which is on the coast of South China Sea. We saw a mixture of city and rural, with many, many rice paddies. By the time we got to Hoi An, it was dark. We pulled into the Betel Garden, which was a delightful garden courtyard hung with lanterns. Brick laid pathways wove through the tropical garden areas, with candle lit tables placed here and there. We were shown to a little pagoda, where tea was brought to us, and then a young man joined us to welcome us and get our information. Then we were shown to a sweet guest room. Built in the traditional VN garden home style, it was fitted with modern conveniences - television with multiple channels (we took their word for it, never watching any); air conditioning, private bathroom, stocked fridge. Bathrobes in the closet, flip flops for inside use (all shoes taken off on the steps), umbrellas for use during the day. A porch with reclining chairs that wrapped around the guest room front and side. Two smaller guest rooms adjoined ours. A larger one was a building to itself. The family house was also part of the compound, with two adjoining guest rooms. There were three young staff that spoke some English, a gardener who brought out the bicycles for us each day, and the elusive family who cooked the meals. It turned out our driver from the airport was the son of the owner. The home has been in the family for a number of generations, one of the many "garden homes" of the area. I suspect it has only been in recent years that they have added the guest rooms and gone into the hospitality business.

Thursday we ventured into the old town on our borrowed bicycles. Luckily, the traffic is much calmer in Hoi An. It is a kilometer into town. Hoi An is an old city, once the main port city of the area but than over shadowed by other cities. It is very touristy - I saw more Westerners on Thursday afternoon than I saw altogether in Hanoi. It is known for its old merchant houses that are part of the old riverfront section of town, as well as its Chinese assembly halls and temples. Its heyday was in the 17th century, and is considered the best preserved port of this era in Southeast Asia - thus has become a UNESCO World Heritage Site. While we found the Betel Garden incredibly relaxing, quiet and with excellent service, in the town we were constantly harangued to buy, buy, buy. A bit sad of what tourism has done. It took a lot of energy to stay focused.

Hoi An is also well known for its textiles and tailors - on of the things one "must do" is have clothing made for you. We were recommended a tailor shop from Betel Garden, and both Dashal and I ordered a few items of clothing. We were measured every which way, and told to come back the next day for a fitting. Quite worn out from such demanding work of shopping, we bicycled home for a bit of an afternoon nap! Later that evening we walked a bit back toward town to pick out a restaurant for dinner. All these lantern lit restaurants were along the river, but playing very obnoxious, loud disco music. We passed one after the other until we came to one that was playing quiet music and had fountains in it's garden court. So we decided to try that one. The prices seemed decent.

We were greeted by several young people who showed us courteously to a table, pulling out the chairs for us, putting the cloth napkins in our laps (very unusual for Vietnamese restaurants, where service is basically yelling out what you want and them plunking the food down). The dinner was quite good. While eating it, a man from Australia stopped by and introduced himself as Ron. Turns out he owns the restaurant, though he generally lives in Australia where he is a rancher. Sort of came upon it when visiting Vietnam a few years after his wife died and kids were grown. It is run as a non-profit, managed by a Vietnamese couple who are also the cooks. All the staff are young teenagers from the streets or the orphanage. They are taught how to wait upon tables, to cook, to use good manners, to speak some English, etc. so that they have some good life skills. He was quite enjoyable, and the story rather fascinating. Made eating there twice as much fun.

Friday was more shopping, trying on the clothing, and wandering around town seeing the historical sites. That evening we were treated, along with the other guests at Betel Garden, to a dinner in the courtyard. The young staff both served us and joined us for dinner. The food was excellent, the company quite enjoyable. I was the matron of the group - the other six at the table were all young adults from Germany. Three different parties, and most of them spoke English.

Saturday we went on a tour to My Son (pronounced Me Saun), considered Vietnam's ancient "holy land." About 30 miles away from Hoi An, it is a 1,500 year old brick-built temple complex that had been lost and forgotten in the jungle until discovered by the French in 1898. Built by the Cham dynasty over a 1,000 year period, there is a great mystery as to how the bricks hold together, as there is no evidence of mortar. Also a UNESCO World Heritage site, they are still excavating parts of the complex. Two sections were destroyed by US bombing when it was believed that the Viet Cong were hiding there (which our guide emphatically said was totally incorrect). We took a big tour bus to the site, spent several hours wandering around the site, then were bussed to the river to take a small two-decker boat back down to Hoi An. Between the bus and the boat, we saw a lot of rural countryside. A very pleasant day.

10:00 p.m. We are now back in Hanoi. This morning after breakfast we packed up our stuff and left it at the reception desk, then borrowed the bikes to go to the beach. It was an absolutely beautiful day, the first clear day since I've been here. The beach is very nice, the water rather warm (I only waded, Dashal did a bit of swimming), the view spectacular. Now I can add one more ocean I've waded in. Then biked the 2 kilometers back, had lunch, and were driven back to the airport. An hour flight brought us into Hanoi. After dropping the suitcase off at Dashal's house, we walked down the street to have a "hotpot" dinner. They have metal tables with a hole in the middle, in which they place a pot of burning coals. Around this they place a metal ring, that then holds a pot of broth, meat, tofu and a few other things like some strange berry and sweet potato. We are given a basket of leafy greens and noodles to add to the pot. When the broth goes down, they bring a pitcher of broth to replenish it. It was quite fun. When we asked for a container to take some home for Nick (who was working tonight), they brought two plastic bags. We laughingly said we should just pour the soup into the bags, but waited for the container. Turns out, you pour the soup into the bag (double bagged)! Really made us giggle. So we brought Nick home a bag of soup!

So tomorrow is my last day here before my marathon trip home. I have a few more gifts to buy, and maybe another foot massage to endure, before I leave. I'm actually ready to come home, I think. I'll post some photos tomorrow, when Dashal's camera is recharged.

Here is a link to a map that shows where Dashal & Nick live.

Wednesday morning

It's been awhile since the last blog entry. It is 8:30 a.m. here, and the neighborhood is awake. Yesterday, I awoke to the sound of sharp, high pitch hammering. I finally got up to see what it was. Two houses away (which is 20 feet away), there is a house that is being "reconstructed." They hollow it out, keeping just the floors in place, and remodel the whole thing. Yesterday, they were chipping out the bricks of the threshold, to replace it later with bricks, mortar, a long metal bar and cement. It was the chink-chink-chink of the removal of the bricks that woke me up.

I have been reading a travel guide of Dashal's and it is helpful in giving descriptions of what I am seeing and experiencing. Food and the eating of it consumes a lot of time and attention here. Most houses do not have ovens, as almost all food is cooked on stove tops. I was having trouble deciding what to call the places where we were eating - I now have four categories, thanks to the book. There are restaurants, bistros, rice-and-noodle shops, and street stalls. I have eaten in all of them. As well as some cafes that serve coffee and tea and beer and such.

So the bistro serves the traditional Vietnamese fare. Different ones specialize in different dishes. So you may go to a hotpot bistro, a Pho (noodle) one, a Bun cha shop (grilled chopped meat and rice vernicelli), etc. I'm never sure what I am eating, as in the name of it, but all of it has been very good. Here is a photo of one of the bistros we ate at.

You can eat inside or out. These chairs are slightly higher than the little stools that are in the street stalls. Today I hope to get a photo of the street stall at the end of the alley here. Many people eat "out" rather than cooking at home - the meals are very cheap, running a few dollars for a full meal.

I've also noted that while the city is very dirty, most of the dirt is from smog and the endless debris of construction. Everyone is required to sweep the alleyways in front of their homes. The streets generally have little trash. The sidewalks in some places are fairly smooth and broad tiled areas and in other places broken up cement. Motor bikes and scooters park on the sidewalk, where every section has some youth or man "watching" the bikes for a small fee. Sometimes there are so many parked that one is forced to walk in the street. Actually, more often than not. Apparently, there is very little theft here, although there is a lot of mafia type crime that goes on behind the scene.

One evening we went to the movies. There is a small theater that caters to ex-pats. You buy an annual membership, and then make a donation for each movie. We saw "Food, Inc." To get to the theater, first we went by motor bike. I rode with Nick, and Dashal took a motor bike taxi. She always gets to where we are going first, which tells me Nick is being a cautious driver with me as a passenger. Once you park your bike on the sidewalk, you go through a long alleyway to an interior courtyard. Here are "real" tables and chairs, a lovely latern hung, outdoor restaurant. There were Westerners from all different lands, primarily Europe and America. Some were people that lived in Hanoi, others were obviously visitors like myself. After having a beer, we went in to watch the movie - which every American should see and reflect on. We tried to order popcorn to take in, but they were out of that!

On Sunday, Nick and I went to the History Museum. Dashal had to work that evening, so stayed home to prepare her lessons. The tour book states, "The History Museam is the most powerful French colonial building in Vietnam, a masterpiece of the Indochinese style developed by Ernest Hebrard in the 1920s and '30s. Fortunately, the museum's exhibits, which survey Vietnamese history from 500,000 BC to the 1940s, are a worthy complement to the promise of the building's grandeur." Indeed, we saw many rocks, teeth, bones from the stone age, shaped into tools, jewelry, etc., moving up to pot shards and into more recent history (5,000 years ago or so) with far more recognizable artifacts, all the way to the French turning the government back to the Vietnamese in the 1940s. It was interesting. There were brief English translations of the different displays, which was helpful. Probably most famous is its collection of bronze drums, dating as far back as 100 BC. Each drum is unique, made with some lost wax technique that imprints intricate designs on each one. The top, or tympanum always features a sun or star design in the center. Concentric bands are engraved with Dong Son motifs, representing daily life activities, birds, deer, birdmen, dancing people, and geometric patterns. Some of the more recent drums added four bronze frogs on the top, which symbolize rain and fertility. Outside, there was a courtyard filled with stelae (stone tablets), stone gongs, and decorative critters. Also a model temple. Photographs of the building and courtyard below.

This is a stone gong!

A few videos of traffic

Below are several links that give you a flavor of the traffic here.
This one Nick filmed on the main street - Kim Ma - that he and Dashal live by. This is a relatively calm traffic situation, mid-day. Toward the end of the clip you will see that the traffic has stopped for an unseen light, which allows cross traffic to occur. U-turns are a regular part of the traffic flow.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mf8Eh_6_z5I

These next three youtube clips were by other folk, but they show the more frantic traffic scene.
This one is on a smaller street, taken from a sidewalk corner:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCvtEjML6QU

And another one, a small street without many cars. Things to note: there are actually traffic lights here, which you can tell because MOST of the motor bikes adhere to it. But you will see occasional ones who ignore it and cross the traffic in the midst of the stream. Also note the way the pedestrians "dance" across the street - there is definitely an art to weaving through the traffic patterns, chaotic as they are. You also might note the little shops in the background, each about 12 feet across.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MECdBuUiLP0

This one is a major intersection with time lapse, etc. An interesting take.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-H4U9fUVWH4

Enjoy!