Mekong Delta Trip

Today, our class just returned from a trip to the Mekong Delta. We left early Friday morning to go to Can Tho. We arrived around noon and ate a really good restaurant with food from the Southern region. I have sampled a variety of interesting foods in Vietnam so far and I definitely added a few to the list this weekend. Prior to this trip my list included: water buffalo, ostrich, snail, wild boar, pig intestines, and deer. After this weekend, I can add frog, rat, eel, and snake to that list. And to think that I spent the past five years as a vegetarian...

After lunch, we walked around the city a bit and went to a few stores. We again had a huge feast for dinner; food seemed to be a pretty big theme for the weekend. In the morning, we woke up obscenely early to leave for the floating markets at 5am. We got to see the sun rise over the water and the buying and selling of produce at the floating markets.

The sun rises over the Mekong River

A woman cuts pumpkin on top of her boat while the pumpkin on top of a pole indicates to buyers what fruit she is selling

After going to the floating markets, we took a 3 hour boat trip to Vinh Long where we had lunch and visited a brick factory. Apparently the Mekong Delta region has very clay rich soil and is good for making bricks. We got to see the enormous kilns cooking the bricks and other pottery for export to other countries.

Our lunch: The enormous "elephant ear" fish

One of the giant brick kilns

We then traveled to our homestay where we spent a relaxing afternoon riding on boats, hanging out, and of course, eating. We even got to help the family that we were staying with cook dinner. Here is Loan singing a song as we meander down the river in our conical hats.




The next day, we went to see how different specialty foods of the Mekong Delta are made such as rice paper, puffed rice, and coconut candy. We also went on a beautiful hour long bike ride through a village. It was amazing to see what life was like in a new place and enjoy such a peaceful and beautiful setting. Overall, it was an extremely relaxing and enjoyable trip.


Hôm nay, chúng em mới về nhà từ Dồng bằng sông Cửu Long. Sáng thứ hai, chúng em đi Cần Thơ. Chúng em đi lòng vòng và ăn nhiều đồ ăn vừa lạ vừa ngon. Chúng tôi dậy sớm quá để đi xem chợ nổi. Sau đó, chúng tôi đi Vĩnh Long bằng táu. Chúng tôi có dịp đi xem nhà máy gạch, cơm, và nước mắm. Chúng tôi ở nhà ở Vĩnh Long và nấu ăn với gia đình ở đó. Chúng tôi ăn chuột! Ngày hôm sau, chúng tôi đạp xe một tiếng. Chuyên này vui lắm!

Little Rose Shelter

Tuesday and Friday, I taught a singing class for the girls at the Little Rose Shelter. I was thinking of doing something by the Grateful Dead or the Beatles but the teachers at the shelter felt “If you’re happy and you know it” was more appropriate. To spice up the lesson a little, and because I’m a bit of a hippie, I borrowed Vi’s guitar and learned how to play the song. The teachers wanted me to come at six instead of two, like I usually do, so I got to experience a truly packed bus and I stood out even more than usual. After getting the guitar to the shelter safely, we learned how to sing the song. The girls seemed to like it a lot and even offered to do duets and solos. They taught me a Vietnamese song as well and one girl showed off the other English songs that she knew. Afterwards, I taught the girls who were interested a few chords on the guitar. I felt really happy when I came back the next time and the girl who let me into the gate greeted me by singing, “If you’re happy and you know it.” Another particularly rewarding moment was when I talked to one of the girls after the class. She looked very sad throughout the class and was singing extremely quietly. Afterwards, I went up to her and asked her if she was alright. She said no. I asked her if she was sad or tired and she said no. She was about to do some homework so I talked to her a little bit about her classes in school. Even though we just talked for a few minutes, and even I she looked noticeably happier after our conversation, as I was about to leave, she started singing, “If you’re happy and you know it” quietly at first, then louder and she started to smile.

Thứ ba và thứ năm tôi dạy hát ở Mái Ấm Hoa Hồng Nhỏ. Tôi muốn dạy một bài hát bằng “The Grateful Dead” hoặc “The Beatles” nhưng các cô giáo ở đó nói tôi nên dạy “If you’re happy and you know it.” Tôi mượn guitar của Vị và học chơi bài này. Vì tôi không đi lúc 2g mà 6g, xe buyết đông người và chắc là người thấy tôi hơi lạ với guitar của tôi. Sau đó, tôi và các em ấy học hát bài này. Các em ấy rất thích bài này và hát một mình hoặc với một đưa con nửa. Các em ấy cũng dạy tôi một bài hát bằng tiếng Việt và nghe những bài hát khác mà các em ấy biết. Sau đó, tôi dạy những đưa con chơi guitar. Tôi thấy vui lắm vì khi tôi đi Mái Ấm Hoa Hồng Nhỏ thứ Năm, một đưa con gài mở cửa cho tôi và hát “If you’re happy and you know it.”

Cần Thơ

After returning from Đà Lạt, I went South to Cần Thơ in the Mekong Delta. Somehow, half of Michigan State is currently in Cần Thơ so I had a lot of people to visit! First, I went to visit one of my mom's student's family. Her student, Hiep, has a lot of family members in Cần Thơ and I stayed at their house for a night. They were extremely hospitable and made an amazing Vietnamese dinner for me. I can't remember the last time I ate so much! After that, Hiep's nephew, Triet, showed me around Cần Thơ. Though much smaller than Saigon, Cần Thơ still is a very lively town and there were a lot of people out at night. The next day, we went to visit Cần Thợ University, where Triet is a freshman. The campus was very large and beautiful. I had a great time looking around and got to meet many of Triet's friends.

Some students playing soccer on campus

Later that day, I went to meet with the second set of Michigan State people living in Cần Thơ who happen to live just four houses away from me in East Lansing, Michigan. Small world! Reade and David are a retired couple who are doing some work for Cần Thơ University teaching English and working on public health projects. We had lunch at their hotel where we, amazingly, met up with another Michigan State alumnus. We had fun reminiscing about Michigan and sharing the highlights and challenges of living in Vietnam. After that, Hien, another one of my mom's former students, came to pick me up and take me to his house where I would be staying and where Anna would later come to join us. Being the extremely friendly and kind person that he is, he invited everyone present on a sightseeing tour the next day. So much Michigan! We then went back to Hien's house where I met his wonderful family. I had a lot of fun playing with his daughters and talking to him and his wife.

Hien and his family, note the Spartan gear :)

The next day, we went on a sightseeing tour. In the morning, we went on a boat trip down the Mekong River. We got to see the amazing floating markets. They are truly an amazing sight. Basically, it's like a market but everyone is in a boat! The vendor boats all have a giant pole sticking up that has a pineapple, a cabbage, or whatever that person is selling on top of it to let the other boats know. If you want to buy something, you just pull up to the boat in your boat and buy what you want! I think this is mainly for wholesale buyers (not everyone just has a boat, probably) but they have some stuff for tourists or locals who just want to buy some produce. I had the opportunity to wittness one of these water sales up close too! David bought a bottle of water from a mother and her child in a small motorboat. It was really quite remarkable. The boat just went alongside it, the child grabbed onto our boat, and the transaction was made!

A boat on the Mekong River

Making a purchase at the floating market

After that, we walked around a park in the city and had dinner at a wonderful restaurant on the water. We got to meet some of Hien's students and see a bit more of the city. It was a fantastic trip and I'm so happy that I've been able to see some more of Vietnam!

Sau khi đi Đà Lạt, tôi về nhà và ngay chuẩn bị đi Cần Thơ. Nhiều người mà đi trường bang Michigan đang ở Cần Thơ nên tôi đi thăm nhiều người! Thứ năm, tôi đi thăm gia đình của cựu sinh viện của mẹ em. Cựu sinh viện của mẹ em tên là Hiệp. Tôi ở nhà của gia đình Hiệp một đem. Gia đình Hiệp thân thiện và hiếu khách. Chúng tôi ăn tối ngon quá! Sau đó, cháu trái Hiệp, tên là Triết, và tôi đi lòng vòng ở Cần Thơ. Tuy Cần Thơ nhỏ hơn Sài Gòn nhưng nhịp sống về đêm vẫn rất sôi đông. Ngày hôm sau, Triết và tôi đi trường Cần Thơ. Tôi có dịp gặp các bạn của Triết và đi lòng vòng trường.

Sau đó, tôi đi ăn trưa với hai hàng xóm ở East Lansing, Michigan! Chúng tôi ăn ở khách sạn của ông bà ấy và gặp một cựu sinh viên trường Michigan nửa! Hien, một cựu sinh viên khác của mẹ em đi khách sạn để đưa tôi đến nhà của Hien. Anh ấy mời ba người đi lòng vòng với chúng tôi. Sau đó, chúng tôi đi nhà của Hien và tôi gặp gia đình Hien. Hien có hai con gài dễ thương và vợ thân thiện.

Ngày hôm sau, chúng tôi đi sông Cửu Long và đi bằng tàu. Chúng tôi xem chợ (Tôi quên "floating markets" là gì bằng tiếng Việt!) và đi lòng vòng Cần Thơ. Tôi có một chuyến vui lắm.

Tết Trung Thu và Dalat

There is so much to update on! This will be a long post guys... Maybe the Vietnamese post will be a little shorter today.

Saturday was Tết Trung Thu, or the Vietnamese mid-autumn festival. This is a special festival in Vietnam. It takes place on a full moon and people give children mooncakes with an egg yolk in the middle to represent the full moon. Lanterns and traditional stories are also part of the festival. On Friday, I brought mooncakes to the girls at the Little Rose Shelter. We had a great time eating the mooncakes. talking, and playing with various lanterns that they had. After that, I got to help the staff members translate some educational videos about preventing sexual abuse in children from English into Vietnamese. They are working on developing some educational videoes in Vietnamese and hopefully I will be able to see more of that process during the rest of the semester.

The girls at Little Rose with lanterns

Later that night, Hanh showed us a slideshow about how mooncakes are made and we all got the chance to eat mooncakes and light lanterns outside our dorm.

Anna and me with our lanterns

The next day, Anna, Vi, and I participated in a moon festival performance. The performance was part of an event for children with HIV/AIDS. Smile Vietnam is an organization that organizes fun activities for children with HIV/AIDS to improve their mental well-being throughout their medical treatments. This event had carnival games, food, a magic show, a fire swallower, and some performances by students at VLS, the place where I take my Vietnamese classes. First, we put on a play called "Sự tích chú cuội cung trăng." This story is about a man who discovers a magical tree with healing powers. He uses it to bring dead people back to life. One day, he uses the tree to bring the daughter (played by me) of a rich man in the village back to life. Of course, after that we get married and take care of the tree together. Unfortunately, as I am sometimes in real life, the wife was very forgetful. One day when her husband was gone, the wife forgot to water the tree with clean water and used the leftover water from her laundry instead. The tree was so unhappy with this foolish action that it flew into the sky. Mr. Cuội tried to grab the roots and stop the tree but the tree simply took him to the moon and even now, when it's a full moon, we can see the silouhette of Mr. Cuội sitting under the tree. The children really seemed to enjoy the performance and we all had fun putting it on. Later in the night, Vi, Anna, two of the teachers at VLS, and I sang a song call "Em thấy mình là hoa hồng nhỏ." This is a very sweet song called "I am a little rose."

Me in my costume for the play

Early the next morning, Anna and I were off for our fall break adventure to Đà Lạt. Đà Lạt is a city in the highlands of central Vietnam. It is a very popular tourist destination for both Vietnamese and foreigners and is famous for its beautiful mountains and cool climate. The weather was a huge draw for Anna and me. Although, as in Ho Chi Minh City, it rained for a couple hours every afternoon, the temperatures were very pleasant. They were in the 60s and 70s as opposed to the 80s and 90s of Saigon. I think the Vietnamese might find the city a bit too cold even as huge parkas and wool sweaters were sold on every street corner... and actually worn by many people!

Anna and I arrived in the afternoon and greatly enjoyed walking around the city. Although the city was extremely touristy, it was nice to go somewhere less crowded and in a bit more of a natural setting. Also, because it was the rainy season, the often crowded city was actually quite peaceful. The disadvantage of this was that we, especially me, were even more of a target than usual for the constant yell of vendors and motorcycle taxi drivers. At times it was quite overwhelming. We were scared to even stop to look at the map sometimes because if we did, about five motorcycle taxis would come up to us and offer to take us somewhere, often quite agressively. We did have fun though walking around the lake and visiting the very touristy, but actually kind of fun "crazy house." The crazy house is basically a huge house with multiple levels, twisted staircases, and random rooms and towers. We also went to the night market that had many stalls selling wool sweaters, Dalat strawberries and artichokes, and other assorted souveniers. I definitely came home with a much fuller bag then when I left.

Me standing in front of "Crazy House"

The city center at night

The next day, we went on a day-long hiking and climbing expedition in the mountains, which was really the highlight of the trip for me. We went with two guides that the owner of our hotel reccomended. I was a little nervous about following two strange men through the mountainous jungles of central Vietnam and trusting them to use safe rockclimbing equipment, but they were extremely nice and very safety oriented. They picked us up on their motorbikes in the morning and drove us to a place near Dalat. We were told that we would hike up and down one peak, then hike up the second peak and hike and abseil (repel) down the other one. Our hike began through some farms and grasslands and we passed by many grazing horses. The scenery quickly changed to pine forests that reminded me of home a little bit. The forest seemed like it could be in Colordao or upstate New York. The only difference was the distinctive reddish-orange color of the soil. The climb was beautiful, but very steep and tiring. It took us about two hours to reach the top and the view was breathtaking. We could see the city of Dalat and beautiful scenery in every direction.

Horses grazing near the start of our hike

One of our guides, Kha, observing the view at the summit

It did make me very sad, however, to see how much litter was at the summit of the mountain. Even though the only way you can reach this summit is by taking a two hours walk on an extremely challenging and narrow mountain path, people still managed to litter styrofoam containers and water bottles everywhere, ruining an otherwise breathtakingly beautiful location. In fact, despite being a beautiful natural setting, I noticed that many places in Dalat have a huge trash problem. The lakes and streets of Dalat had so much trash in them that I felt disgusted, despite the natural beauty everywhere. I think that perhaps Vietnam's tourist economy has grown so quickly in recent years, that certain considerations, such as waste management, have yet to become a major public concern, though I believe it will soon be a huge one. A quote in a tourism magazine in our hotel was very telling of this issue. The magazine, written in both Vietnamese and English, was covering a new race up a mountain near Dalat. Though the translator may not have fully understood the conotations of his words, I think the message is still there. The English version of the article said,

"It must be wasteful if we can not take advantage of the location and favorable environment to exploit as a picnic service combined with climbing. This will contribute to develop the local tourism which has a lot of unwaken potential."

After climbing the first peak, we started our trek up the next peak. The amazing thing about the second peak was that the vegetation changed completely. This mountain was covered in jungle whereas the mountain directly next to it was covered in evergreen forest. I'm sure I learned how this is possible in my freshman ecology course but it is not coming to mind right now... This trail was even more challenging and we had to use our hands to grab tree roots and pull ourselves up the trail almost the entire way up. It was hard to capture just how hard this trail was with a camera but I think this shot of Anna gives you a pretty good idea.


After a delicious lunch at the summit of the second mountain (fortunately, our guides were very environmentally concious and followed leave no trace principles) we practiced repelling. We each practiced a few times on a smaller rock face before hiking a little further down the mountain to the 25m cliff that we would descend. Repelling down the cliff was extremely fun and not as scary as I imagined.

Getting read to descend the 25m cliff

We then hiked the rest of the way down the mountain (this was not as much fun because it began to downpour). At the end of the hike, we went to see a nearby minority village. This one was a little done up for tourists which I found a little disturbing, but was nevertheless interesting. Our guides were at least honest about this part of the tour and didn't have any pretenses. They showed us a traditional minority house and then explained that they don't actually live there anymore. We went home muddy and exhausted, but very satisfied with our trip.

A muddy but happy pair of hikers finished with our trip

The next day, despite being incredibly sore, we set out for some more sightseeing. We ended up getting in a fair amount of exercising as the sights in Dalat are very spread out. We walked around the lake and saw the Dalat flower gardens, then headed over to the cable cars. The cable cars were very pretty and offered great views of mountains, lakes, and agriculture. At the other end of the cable car was a group of Bhuddist temples with beautiful views of the mountains and lakes.

The Dalat flower gardens

The cable cars

The temples

Then we took a trip to Datanla Falls. The falls were very pretty, but Ithaca has spoiled me too much. The falls were very touristy and I couldn't help but think "This waterfall is about the size of the one that was ten feet from my dorm last year." The falls near my dorm were also free of admission and did not have souvenier shops everywhere.

Datanla Falls

We finished the day with another trip to the night market where we had a great time picking out Engrish t-shirts. I am modeling mine below.

Betrer said

The Twigay ENTHUSIAST YOU JUST SUPPOSEDLY

Today, we finally returned home from our exciting trip. The bus ride was also fairly exciting. The road to Dalat is a little terrifying and we got held up a couple times when a herd of water buffalo crossed the road, but everyone made it home safely. Now to bed before my next big adventure in Can Tho tomorrow!

Chào các anh các chị. Hôm qua tôi đi Can Thơ và bây giờ tôi ở nhà của bắc Hiên. Tôi có thời gian trước Anna đi Can Thơ và ăn tối nên tôi sẽ bất đầu viết blog bằng tiếng Việt. (I hope the characters show up on this computer. Some of them are not showing up but maybe it will be okay in the final post. If not, I'll correct them when I get back to Saigon).

Từ Chủ Nhật đến Thứ Tư Anna và tôi ở Đà Lạt ở miền trung Việt Nam. Đà Lạt nói tiếng ở Việt Nam vì có cảnh đẹp và trời dễ chịu. Nhiều người đi du lịch ở Đà Lạt nhưng vì mùa mưa nên Đà Lạt không đông người. Anna và tôi rất thích trời ở Đà Lạt nhưng chắc là những người Việt thấy trời lạnh quá. Nhiều người bán áo len và áo khoác và tôi thấy những người Việt mặc!

Anna và tôi ở khách sạn mini. Chủ khách sạn rất thân mật và tập nói tiếng Việt với chúng tôi. Chủ ông nói nếu chúng tôi thích léo núi thì nên đi tua với bạn ông. Chủ ông gọi điện thoại bạn ông và sang mai chúng tôi đi tua với hai người hướng dân.

Typhoons and trips

Hi everyone. Some of you have expressed concern about Typhoon Ketsana so I wanted to let everyone know that I am out of harms way. We've had some heavy rain but Ho Chi Minh City should not experience any major problems from the typhoon.

Also a lot of you tell me that you like reading my blog but no one ever comments! So please do, I'd love to hear from you.

In other news, I had two very interesting class field trips recently. The first was to an orphanage in Ho Chi Minh City. The orphanage had mostly children with special needs, such as children with Down Syndrome. Another one of Alyce's great contacts was able to get us into the orphanage. Vi wanted to work their previously as her service placement but they didn't want anyone from America working there because they thought we might have swine flu. When we went, at first the guards wouldn't let us in but the woman we went with bought them breakfast and promised that we would wear face masks and they eventually let us in. We played with the children and helped feed some of the smaller ones breakfast. The children all wanted to be picked up because they are taken care of, but there are so many that they don't get many chances to be picked up. It was so sad because I'd give a piggy back ride to one kid but then all the other ones wanted one, but the first child wouldn't want to let go. After playing with them, we went to visit the babies in the nursery. Most of these babies did not have developmental problems. Some did, but most of them were abandoned at the nearby church's doorstep. We helped feed all the babies their bottles and held them and played with them. They were so cute and I had such a difficult time leaving. Our program director had to tell me that we were going several times but I felt terrible leaving the baby that I was feeding before her bottle was finished.



The next day went with a church group to two ethnic minority villages near the Cambodian border. We went to give food and money to the villagers and moon cakes and lanterns to the children for the mid-autumn festival. We saw the villagers do traditional dances and gave food to them. The priest who we went with talked about how he came every two months to give food to supplement the villagers' diets because most of them work on rubber plantations or farm and only make about 8000 đ per day, or about 50-60 cents. He also tries to encourage them to keep their cultural traditions such as traditional dancing and weaving cloth for traditional skirts. Many ethnic minorities try to emulate the Kinh, the ethnic majority in Vietnam and wear jeans and t-shirts instead of traditional clothing. The pastor was telling them that they should be proud of their culture and keep their identities.

The oldest woman in the village, at 86, sits with the bags of food an presents that we are about to give out

Some of the older women in the village play gongs to welcome us

After visiting the first village, we stopped for lunch at a restaurant that I think was owned by a friend of the priest. Our lunch included some interesting dishes such as a whole chicken (including the head), deer (though I've never seen a Vietnamese deer), wild boar, and fish ball soup, all cooked in front of us. A drunk guy also came to our table and started trying to get me and Anna to drink with him while Alyce was freaking out a little bit. He kept talking about how he didn't like Vietnamese girls, he liked Japanese girls and white girls. Then his friend came over and told him not to bow to foreigners because he was sort of leaning over the table that we were sitting at. All in all it was a pretty entertaining lunch.

Cooking the deer meat

After lunch, we went to visit a second village where we gave out more things and met with more people. This was an interesting experience because it made me think a lot about charity in Vietnam. So far, most of the charities I've been to have been Catholic and I have to say I greatly admire the work that they are doing. They provide many much needed services where public service is greatly lacking. I was especially impressed with the remarkable doctors that I met at the HIV clinic that we visited earlier. They were completely selfless and worked 13-14 hour days for extremely little pay. I was also impressed that despite being a Catholic charity, they gave HIV patients counseling on safe sex practices and how to use condoms. Now, all of this being said, there were some things about this trip that I was very disappointed with. Below is a picture of the church that the church group we went with helped build in the second village.

Now here is a picture of another church that they are building near the village

Alyce and I went away from the group and explored on our own and found some houses like this. It's basically some sticks in the ground with leaves for a roof.
I can appreciate that the church brought poor people food and that they are providing jobs through the church's construction, but sometimes I wonder if their priorities are in order. Sorry to end on a somewhat pessimistic note, but my next post will be about mid-autumn festival activities so that should be a bit happier!

Tôi mới có hai chuyên đi với chương trình CET hay lắm. Thứ ba, chúng tôi đi một trại mồ côi. Chúng tôi có dịp chơi với các bé nhỏ. Tôi thấy buồn lắm vì những đưa bé có sự tàn tật như Down Syndrome. Tôi tuy buồn nhưng vẫn thích chơi vơi các bé nhỏ. Tất cả các bé thân thiện và dễ tương. Tôi giúp những đưa bé ăn sáng. Khi giám đốc Alyce nói các sinh viện phải về nhà tôi không muốn đi vì muốn chơi với các bé nhỏ nửa.

Thứ tứ tôi phải dậy lúc 4g sáng để đi thăm một làng nghèo gần biên giới Camphuchia. Chúng tôi đi với một nhóm đạo Thiên chúa và cho người nghèo đồ ăn và tiền. Chúng tôi cũng cho các con ở làng bánh trung thu và đèn. Người ở làng múa truyền thống.