Oh the Places I've Been

I’m back in Tam Ky City after what feels like a long time away. When I first arrived in Vietnam almost four weeks ago, I thought I would be spending almost all of my working time here. Instead, we’ve been on the road the past few weeks, interspersing work time in IDE’s Hue & Hanoi offices, out in the field in Tien Phuoc, Than Hoa and Thuong Xuan interviewing the beneficiaries of our project, and squeezing in weekend fun in Hoi An and Sapa. Tam Ky has oddly felt like home base and yet next week we set out again for Hue for the final week of our consulting project with IDE Vietnam. Here’s a brief synopsis of all the places I’ve been over these past few weeks…

Tien Phuc
We left Tam Ky on August 3rd for Tien Phuoc where we conducted two days of interviews in the field. You may recall the photos of us standing on village streets interviewing pig feed providers and sitting in modest homes interviewing pig raisers while motos zoomed past outside. We’re likely very shiny in these photos as the temperatures were quite high and the air conditioning very limited. Everywhere we went, the interviewees greeted us with smiles & small cups of lukewarm green tea.

Hue
From Tien Phuoc we went to Hue, a city that hovered on the southern border between north and south during the “American War” as they call it here. If you recall the Tet Offensive of 1968, Hue was one of the cities that suffered considerable damage. Although I was in Hue to work in the IDE office, it was my first look at a tourist city in Vietnam. We stayed on a street with lots of restaurants and shops and I must confess we enjoyed French & Italian food for a break from the local cuisine. Hue was the site of my birthday extravaganza where I was crowned either Miss America or Miss USA by the jovial IDE employees. The beautiful birthday photos taken by the head of IDE Vietnam made it into an earlier blog entry.

Hoi An
Me, Julie, Supriya, and Vijay made our way from Hue to Hoi An, a coastal town with winding streets and tailor shops on every corner. Our hotel had a swimming pool, which was quite a luxury, but our swimming was interrupted by circling bats up above. We ate fantastic food in Hoi An & spent way too much time shopping. I’ve never been to a place where you pick out an outfit from a magazine, select your fabrics, get measured, and have the tailor stitch you exactly what you want – for a fraction of what you’d pay in the States. The concept of privacy was a little lax and the women in the shops would forget to pull the dressing room curtain back as they wound their measuring tapes around your waist and thighs. Trying on wool coats when you are drenched in sweat is also not something I would highly recommend. While Hoi An was a little less relaxing than I had hoped for, it was a wonderful little town & we had a fun weekend – with lots of things to bring home to show for it.

Than Hoa
From Hoi An we traveled to Danang where we caught a flight up north to Hanoi. Then from Hanoi we got a car to Than Hoa. On our way we stopped off at the equivalent of a truck stop for dinner. It was later than we usually eat, we were exhausted, and the place left much to be desired. The stray dogs hanging out in the restaurant were one thing…but the truck full of live dogs stuffed into tiny cages in transport to become food…that was just too much for me. I can still hear their mad barking and see them squished into those little cages. We spent the next day working out of our hotel and interviewing the IDE Than Hoa office staff where we contracted a terrible case of the giggles during our interviews. (Advice: do not use Skype chat with your interview counterparts while conducting interviews.) Our Than Hoa visit ended with a lovely meal outside where the waiter brought a sliced up raw chicken to the table & then dropped it in a broth and let it cook on a mini-stove atop the table.

Thuong Xuan
Then we were back in the field with more interviews to be had. My “interview notes” blog entry came from one of these two days. I must admit, I was feeling a bit worn out from all the travel and heat. The hotel options in TX were very limited and while IDE staff did an excellent job finding us a place, it was the kind of place where you slept above the covers and busted out the pack towel rather than use the towels provided by the hotel. We ate at the same restaurant for so many meals in a row that I lost count. We did a stellar job of making the most of the situation though. In the evenings, we lit a candle in our room, played music from the computer, drank wine, and played cards. I learned to play Spades with some success – despite my Spades partner enjoying too much Vietnamese wine (they call it happy water) one evening & losing her rao (vegetables) in our bathroom. During the days we conducted many interviews and despite feeling run down, I enjoyed meeting the people and seeing their homes. One day we even got to hang with the local leaders of the Communist Party. We sipped tea at a large boardroom table beneath a golden bust of Ho Chi Minh and chatted with the Party leaders.

Hanoi
Next was Hanoi. It was great fun to be back in a bigger city for a change of pace. My favorite thing about Hanoi are the motos and the adorable couples and families piled onto them, zipping around the city. Our hotel was in the old quarter near a small lake and we taxied it to the IDE office each day. We had the most amazing dinner at a swank place downtown. The atmosphere was lounge-y with red fabric billowing from the ceiling & beautiful artwork lining the walls. We met up with a few students from Kellogg who happened to be traveling in SE Asia & we completely cracked ourselves up with tales from our past few weeks. We had the wonderful misfortune of losing electricity in the Hanoi office the next day. After literally sweating it out in the dark while our laptops lost battery power, we had the brilliant idea to move our workday to a hotel. And man, did we pick a hotel. We hit the Intercontinental where we set up shop in the Ambassador Lounge. Despite having zero affiliation with the hotel, they treated us like honored guests and we enjoyed an entire day of glorious air conditioning, iced coffees, and Paninis. These conditions were very conducive to work and we had one of our most productive days yet.

Sapa
We left Hanoi Friday night on the overnight train, headed for Sapa in the northwest of Vietnam and practically on the border of China. The four of us had our own cabin on the train which was quite nice. I learned to play Canasta & despite less than perfect conditions, I managed to have a decent night’s sleep. We arrived at 4:45 in the morning groggy & confused. (We thought the train would get in two hours later.) After an hour bus ride from the train station, we arrived in the town of Sapa which would be our launching point for our two day trek. A group of ethnic minority women and girls greeted us upon arrival (metaphorically speaking) and they followed us on our trek throughout the weekend. Our tour guide was a sweet 18-year old girl named May whose English was excellent & whose cooking was even better. My last blog posting included a link to photos from this trek, so I will spare you all the details. The landscape was breath-taking (as the pictures just couldn’t fully communicate) and the tribal women who accompanied us made very useful companions. The terrain was pretty rugged and quite slippery (especially on the second day), and without them holding our hands, I would definitely have landed on my behind a few times. I knew that my friending of these ladies meant I would need to shell out cash later on by buying their handicrafts, but I just couldn’t help myself. I wished the friendship didn’t have to be synonymous with the cash outlay – but hey, these women spent hours helping us clumsy foreigners experience their villages. We stayed in a home stay with two other travelers from Holland and enjoyed the company of the lady of the house during a delicious dinner.

And Now
Back in Tam Ky – at home base – kinda. Have my own shiny hotel room again, a decent hot shower, and a familiar walk to the office. The food options are limited here, but I ask the Food Fairy from up above for help & tonight she delivered. Ky, our host at the IDE office in Tam Ky treated us to a wonderful vegetarian dinner & then took us to a local coffee shop in the evening. He requested American music & we heard lots of soft rock favorites from past decades. They just love Simon & Garfunkel here. One more full day in Tam Ky & then we are off for weekend travels & then to Hue for our final week of work. Oh, the place I’ve been – and the places I’ve yet to go…