Viet Nam: Let’s Start at the Very Beginning

Can you hum that tune – the Do-Re-Mi Lyrics? There were many firsts as I boarded my flight to Tokyo and on to Ho Chi Minh City. The first was the adventure of getting to JF Kennedy Airport in New York on public transportation! The second, undoubtedly, was the longest flight I had ever taken and Ambien was in order for some uninterrupted sleep. It all worked perfectly!

Landing in Tan Son Nhat International Airport left me with a little knot in my stomach wondering if the “plan” would come together. My suitcase was on the carousel and I breathed my first sigh of relief. The second big sigh was completing the “visa on arrival” process.



I was engulfed in a sauna as I exited the airport. It was still amazingly hot and humid at midnight: 29 degrees centigrade (85 humid degrees!). There were hundreds of people with lots of luggage, not really luggage but boxes of stuff meeting people outside the airport. Scanning the crowd, looking for a perfect stranger, had to be the most anxiety producing moment! Finally, my name – in English! The third big sigh was the charmer! I found MY driver. Meet Duong.



My stay at the hotel was limited to a few hours of shuteye and a middle of the night (4 am) return to the airport for an early morning flight to DaNang. I vaguely remember closing my eyes!

Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon, is the largest city in the country. It was here that I had my introduction to electricity in Vietnam.



Energy conservation – the key has to be inserted in this wall-mounted outlet for the lights AND air conditioning to work. Brilliant, it is impossible to leave the lights or air on when you are not in the room. The overall management of electricity is another story – it really isn’t managed and these nests of electrical wires abound!









It was a quick flight and my guide, Phung, found me and we were on our way to Hoi Ann.









I had the Cliff notes tour of DaNang: the bunker remains of an American Army installation just south of the city, the beautiful and famous Marble Mountain, and miles of beautiful beaches. Given the state of the economy in the states, I was amazed at the amount of active construction. There were major resorts being built near the beaches, including two golf courses.

There are almost 20 miles of beach along this section of the country; between DaNang and Hoi Ann is China Beach. It is most well known of these beaches having earned its reputation as a favorite place for American soldiers on R & R during the war, on a dramatic TV show, by the same name, in the late 80’s into the 90’s.

Hoi Ann, my destination, is a seaport that was used by the Champa Kingdom from the 2nd to the 10th centuries. This trading port had been home to Chinese, Japanese, Dutch, Portuguese and French merchants at various times over the years. The efforts of each of the successive regimes to influence development are evidenced in the diverse architecture that remains today. Hoi An, spared the ravages of war, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

I found Penny, Jenny and Caroline having breakfast at a virtual oasis of tropical paradise near the Old City.








The Vuon Trau Family Resort was lush and serene, complete with hibiscus, frangipani, fishponds and singing (or talking) tropical birds in large bamboo cages. How cool is this to rendezvous with my friends on the other side of the planet? We had breakfast in the garden and I caught my breath briefly before we headed off to cooking school and a tour of the market.

Penny and Jenny are part of the Moosewood Collective in Ithaca, New York. They cook for a living. I knew that going to cooking school with them would be fun. Our destination was the Morning Glory Cooking School. Here’s an analogy - My Vy : Hoi An : : Stephen Starr : Philadelphia. Both have influenced and elevated the food scene in their respective cities by opening many successful restaurants.














Today, Ms Lu would be filling in for Ms Vy who is taking a maternity leave from the day-to-day business at the restaurant and cooking school. First stop was the market: Ms Lu pointed out the local produce, spices, noodles, rice crackers and seafood. Our young teacher had boundless energy and we were on the go weaving our way through the bustling stalls! I’m sure you know by now how much I enjoy taking photos in the market! As we were leaving, Ms Lu “confessed” that the woman who was cutting pineapple was her mother.

Back in the kitchen at the Morning Glory cooking school,



we donned our aprons and got to work. Ms Lu was a great teacher and our results looked almost like hers!
















We made spring rolls, learning the fine art of handling rice papers; crispy Vietnamese pancake with shrimp, mastering the frying of the crepe, green papaya salad and a barbeque grilled chicken (my absolute favorite) to die for!













We were on a tight schedule but wandered through the old city on the way back to our “piece of paradise”.



It was hot and the beach was calling.



We decided to get some exercise and pedal our way seeing the sights along the way. It was a relatively flat ride with beautiful scenery at each bend in the road. A slipping chain required mechanical assistance.













Swimming in the South China Sea – "delicious" is the adjective that my sister often uses to describe perfect water!









The beach was great, complete with umbrellas and lounge chairs. We hung out for a while before continuing our loop on the back roads through small villages where the farmers grow herbs and greens.









They are the most beautifully manicured vegetable gardens. (Mr Bill was having fun as well.) This felt like full circle in reverse, as the herbs and greens in the fields were what we saw at the market this morning.

The owners of our bungalow invited all the guests to a “family” dinner in the garden courtyard. We were a cast of characters right out of a John Irving novel: Penny and Jenny, restaurant people from upstate NY; a retired Canadian couple who spend quite a bit of time in Vietnam volunteering their time to assist NGO’s, a Dutch family with 3 year old son, who were traveling with her mother and a friend; a young couple (university professors) from Utah with 10 year old son, my roommate, Caroline, French by birth currently living in Amsterdam who has traveled to Vietnam 20 time over the past 10 years, and me, the school nurse on an educational sabbatical from Philadelphia. Does Hotel New Hampshire sound familiar? It was interesting dinner conversation, but jet lag caught up with me and I turned in early when my eyelids would not stay open.

And the adventure continues (after a night of sleep in a real bed)…

Sapa: Mountain Peaks, Amazing Women, Fog and Rain

I heard the rain and thunder during the night and remember thinking, as I fell back to sleep, that maybe the storm would pass through the mountains and clear with the rising sun in the morning.

At daybreak it was obviously NOT to be. The hotel was shrouded in the grayness of low hanging storm clouds. The discussion at breakfast was “what to do?” It was telling that Penny, who never needs protection from the elements, had acquired an umbrella from the hotel staff.

Our planned destination was Cat Cat, a village about 2 miles to the south. The distance wasn’t the problem; the terrain was. It was a very steep and rocky trek. Add the rain and mud and it would be treacherous. Without a view, it was a no-brainer!






Phung decided that ponchos were in order if we were going to venture outside.


We headed out and for a brief moment, the clouds settled below the mountain peak – it was very cool.



We decided to go to the market and see the handicrafts of Red Dao.

The daytime market doesn’t compare to the folklore of the former Saturday evening market. As the story goes, Sapa was famous for its “love market”. This cultural highlight used to be the place for tribal locals to find a partner and get married.

Tradition has it that young Red Dao used to come to Sapa and sing songs to find their partners. Girls, hidden in the dark, would sing, play panpipes and mouth organs. When found by a boy - if they liked each other - they would disappear into the forest for three days. Some of them got married after that.

With the development of tourism, the real love market no longer takes place. There is a representative performance of the singing and rituals on Saturday evening in one of the community buildings.

Sapa would be considerably less colorful and interesting without the H’mong and Dao people, the largest ethnic groups in the region. The H’mong are more numerous and resourceful. Their villages may look primitive but most will have mobile phones and an email address to stay in touch. Traditionally, they were the poorest of the poor but have rapidly learned the spirit of free enterprise. Most of the Montagnards have no formal education but the arrival of foreigners/tourists has made them well aware of the value of money and many of the youngsters have picked up a basic level of English, French and a handful of other languages.

The incursion of tourism has forever changed the local tribes. Their simple lives: the cultures and languages, customs and clothing, with a backdrop of mountainous beauty are the attraction. The local women’s pursuit of tourists down Sapa’s main street, bartering over colorful clothing and souvenirs, can be an annoyance for those hoping to be left alone.

The rain really didn’t stop business in town. Umbrellas and ponchos were selling briskly and the Black Hmong women seemed to have matching umbrellas as they walked up the main street pursuing sales!



The market where the Red Dao were working was bustling. The billowing red headdresses of the Red Dao are visible all over town.





It is a surreal sight amid the accelerating development; that translates into hand embroidery and using cell phones simultaneously.









There were heavy negotiations over some handicrafts; photographs were involved. And there were some angry Red Dao as well. We made our purchases and continued through the remainder of the market to check out produce (greens galore, banana flowers, and bamboo) and poultry (chicken feet) among other items. There is always a Kodak moment to be found!



















As the rained slowed we decided to make our way to the waterfall. Thac Bac (Silver Waterfall), with a height of more than 325 feet, is one of the highest waterfalls in the country.















It was a loop track, steep and scenic, and there were stairs all the way. Phung, Jenny and I decided to climb and we left Caroline and Penny with the vendors by the barbeques I’d taken on the role of stair counting: 473 to the top and 488 coming down the other side.


















We had a snack of roasted sweet potatoes and eggs, rice stuffed in bamboo, and tea before heading on our way. Mr Bill was right there with us; on the grill, almost in the fire!

We drove to Ta Phin Village, home to Red Dao and about 6 miles from Sapa. Our arrival coincided with a few other larger vans with many more tourists. This allowed us to slip through most of the gauntlet of red headed women and children anxious to have a conversation and a sale with the tourists.



The scenario repeats itself at most of the villages: “Hello…what is your name? Where are you from? How old are you? How many children do you have?“ Most of the woman speak just enough of many languages to make an instant connection. More amazing is that these language skills are acquired from speaking with and making contacts with tourists.

I must say that there is always something to see in each village. I loved this young boy riding the water buffalo.



It felt as though spring was in the air. There were babies everywhere: humans,



ducks,









and pigs.










Ta Phin is one of the villages that offers overnight community-based tours. They have upgraded some of the facilities and offer an “up close and personal” experience of living amongst the minorities.

We stopped to see the ruins of an old church that was beautiful in its decay. The building had crumbled, but enough detail remained amid the moss to capture a by gone era.















Leaving Sapa, one might see stunning scenery on the passes were it not for the hovering clouds and fog. Intermittent clearing gave us snippets of the magnificent mountain peaks and vertical rice terraces.



I was sad to leave the mountains. There were still places to see and treks to make. It had been a pleasant relief to leave the hustle and bustle of the city.



Enroute to LaoCai, we stopped by the Sino-Vietnam border; it was the closest I would get to China on this Asian adventure!













We saw all that LaoCai had to offer (which really was not much) while we waited for a very delayed overnight train to Hanoi.



We settled into our “deluxe” sleeper cabin and realized that a later departure was advantageous, as we would have a later arrival (6:30am) in Hanoi. I was lulled to sleep in the rocking cabin.

And the adventure continues in Hanoi…