Our final days in Thailand

Well we finally made it to the beaches on Koh Samet after an unexpected delay in Bangkok. We had arrived in Bangkok on the Friday afternoon, intending to leave by Sunday to the coast. After a fun day out on the town with another family we had met (from California), Pippin, Kai and I (Ronato) came down with a wicked bout of food poisoning. It took until Tues to extract ourselves from our beds and make it down to Koh Samet and we are happy we made the journey. We are all slowly mending but still struggling with food in the general sense. Most of us gave up on eating for the last few days, realizing that it was too hard on our systems. Skye managed to dodge the bullet thanks to her very fastidious ways with soap and water. She landed up being Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy and was pretty fried by the end of it all.

Before going to Vietnam we had met Denise, Paul, Ruby, Ani and Noah (the family I spoke of above) and we were thrilled to run into them again in Bangkok on our return. They are a fabulous family and we are sure to see them again in the future seeing that we live on the same coast line. Pippin really got on well with Ruby who is also eight years of age. See photo below.
So here we are in Koh Samet and it has been a little strange for Skye since she was here 18 and a half years ago with Gord. She has been struggling to recognize any of it from the past. A lot has changed over the years. That said, we came here determined not to have expectations because we knew from stories that it had changed a lot from the past. We just want 4 days of sunshine before we go back to colder climates...
We have found a lovely spot on the island that is perfect for these last days. There will be lots of swimming, reading and kicking back before our long flight next week.
We return to Bangkok on Saturday, giving us two days to do some last minute things and pack for the long journey back to Canada. Then we will be there for 6 days before heading off to Europe. Wow! Talk about jet setting!

Speak soon

Skye, Ronato, Kai and Pippin

Goodbye to Vietnam

Well it is our last night in Vietnam and so we thought we would make a final post. We spent our last day trying to do some local excursions but came up against a little bit of bureaucracy that changed things a little. For one thing, we tried to go see Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum but our timing was off and we missed the viewing times. We were okay with that. Dead bodies are not high on the kids list to see...

The huge Soviet style complex was interesting to take in for us all. Officially Vietnam still puts on a good show that it takes it's communist roots very seriously, however, it seems to us to be more of a free market economy than Canada. That said, pictures of Ho Chi Minh cover every home, store, street, building . . . in the land. The same for old style propaganda posters showing brave Vietnamese soldiers and families doing their part for the cause of the nation. So it was very fitting that we spent our last day here taking in the rhetoric and the official party line. It was interesting for the kids who had lots of questions about why there were wars with the French, the Chinese, the Americans?... and what was Communism?... and why did people get tortured in prisons...? What was colonialism?...etc, etc. Actually those are difficult questions to answer to a young mind who has little in the form of a reference point. None the less, we did our best and the kids tried to get it as best as they could. Lets just say it is a starting point in ther broader worldly education.

Here is a picture of Kai and Skye on the mausoleum grounds - a vast complex with a serious military presence. There was a very colourful hourly changing of the guard with lots of goose stepping with flashy weapons. All very entertaining...
I have been waiting for one of these shots of bicylcles transporting birds for a while! People here have a real obsession with birds in cages and sadly many seem to be birds from the wild (we were hoping they were at least born in captivity). We saw many young Hmong men in the mountains of Sapa with birds they had trapped to be sold to the Vietnamese. They are often lovely song birds with beautiful sing song voices. A little hard to take for the Western eye!
After the Mausoleum we tried to go look at a military museum but got irritated by them trying to avoid us taking in our backpacks. We would have accepted it but when we looked inside all the other tourists had their bags. The logic made us feel a little confused and we had all our passports, money, credit cards etc ... So we opted out! Instead we went and looked at one of the many famous Communist statues littered throughout the city. Mr. Lenin himself...
Next we took a cyclo to the "Hanoi Hilton" known to the locals as Hao Lo prison. It was very educational and most definately very biased in how it presented some of the exhibits. That said, the French did a real number on the Vietnamese - which was how the prison was started. The French executed anyone who opposed their colonial rule in a very brutal manner. Some of the exhibits were dedicated to the American experience as POWs in Hanoi and based on their portrayal one would think it was almost a vacation for those soldiers. We had to discuss the concept of "propaganda" with Kai and Pippin in a lot of detail.
Here is one of the murals depicting French rule. Clearly that was a much bigger portion of recent Vietnamese history, and as a result it was depicted in a much more substantial way.
The individual pictures of the many American soldiers held at Hao Lo was far more telling than the glossy propoganda videos, and the cheery Christmas dinner pictures that were on display. These pictures, somehow, captured the mood more realistically.
All and all it was a very informative and educational fieldtrip for us and the kids. We will be a little sad to say goodbye to Vietnam tomorrow. It has been quite the experience!
Until next time...

Skye, Ronato, Kai and Pippin

Saying goodbye to Sapa

Today was our last day in Sapa and in the end it was a little difficult to say goodbye. When Pippin woke up this morning, she said, "Oh, do we HAVE to leave today? This feels like home!" Our time in Sapa has been an amazing and eye-opening experience for us all. Once again, the addage that building relationships is what it is all about has rung more true than ever here.

On our first day in Sapa we met a young woman named Pla (in our last post we called her Bla, we have learned otherwise, since then.) She was immediately warm, friendly, and full of fun. As with most of the Black Hmong women and Red Dzao women in Sapa, she makes a living for her family by selling various traditional goods: purses with local embroidery designs, jewelry, traditional belts, pillow covers, etc. We were new to town and were mostly just trying to see the sights, but she just kept walking with us, coming on one of our hikes for quite a long distance. Pla chatted with us and joked around with us and at some point we promised we would buy some bracelets from her if she could sell us some good quality ones. She promised she would get some and see us later.
Pla on the first day we met her...

True to her word, when we climbed back up out of the valley from our small hike, there she was with some pretty copper bracelets. We bought them from her and she kept walking along with us until we reached our hotel. We all seemed to strike a connection with her, and so the next day when we were out and about, we were really happy when we saw her again. This time our interactions were more about just having fun together and getting to know things about each other. We also talked to Pla about maybe guiding us for a fee on a longer hike to her childhood village of Lao Chai. She agreed and since we had already also talked to Ma, another woman we had befriended, they agreed to split the fee. They seemed fine with this, since they were friends.

A picture of Tao, a fourteen-year-old girl and friend of Pla's who we met in Lao Chai.

We had an amazingly clear day for our hike. As you have seen with our previous post about it, the scenery was spectacular and the two women were great company. That was on Sunday. On the subsequent days we sought each other out and had many more good visits. On our last day, we ended up spending a good part of the afternoon with Pla walking and talking about life for the Hmong people in Sapa. Pla talked more about the realities of their day to day life -- how what money does come in immediately goes out. She talked about how expensive it is for schooling for the Hmong children. Apparently, when they are educated in their village it is free -- but it only covers the primary years. If they want their children to have further schooling they must send them in to Sapa, and in Sapa it is very expensive to send their children to school. With the prohibitive cost, it is nearly impossible for most Hmong families to afford schooling for their children beyond the primary years. As a result, most minority people are illiterate.
Pla also told us about other challenges they face. Apparently 15 young hill tribe women have disappeared in the last year from the Sapa area. She told us that they are smuggled into China and land up being kept against their will by pimps in different parts of China. The local Vietnamese authorites do not (according to her) seem to be doing very much about it. One of the women who disappeared just 4 months ago was her sister in law. Her brother now faces life alone and they had a young child together. It made us sad to know that these warm people are so vulnerable. Our lives in the West are so very predictable in comparison. Once again, both Kai and Pippin learned a lot from these interactions with Pla. All that said, she was by no means feeling sorry for herself. Her general sense of happiness and playfulness radiated (we feel the same can be said about most of the locals in these mountains).

We have been debating about including the next picture in the blog. Dog meat (and many other curious delicacies) are eaten throughout the region. So, of course that means that one can buy dog meat in the local markets. To our western eyes it can be a little jarring -- this kind of sight actually made Kai and Pippin want to avoid the market altogether! The vendors at the market seemed to have a good chuckle when tourists came by and saw the meat on display. So here it is:
We will depart from that image with a more friendly one of an elder Red Dzao women with Pippin. The locals really enjoyed the kids and grabbed them at every opportunity for a little interaction. We have certainly found that traveling with children has many hidden benefits. Locals are so much more receptive seeing us as a family. They see us less as just a "meal" and more in a holistic manner. It seems their family connections are still so strong and intact that they identify more (with us as a traveling family) and feel like they have something to talk to us about.
Another local woman who agreed to have her picture taken. I think we became well known in the few days we were there for all our chattiness (and of course for buying all those bangles).
Our last day in Sapa -- we spent the afternoon hanging out with Pla. The kids had gotten very attached and were sad to say goodbye.
One of the local kids sporting a lovely smile.
We are back in Hanoi now, having arrived this morning on the night train from Lao Cai. We all slept well but the train arrived at 5h15 am and so we had to wait awhile for our hotel room. We have two days ahead in Hanoi and then on Friday we fly back to Bangkok at noon.

So until later...

Skye, Ronato, Kai and Pippin

Our walk to Lau Chai village

Well, all I can say is that we had a stunning day! Our guided walk with the two young Mong women was a 10 out of 10 experience. The total loop we did must have been about 16 kilometers and we enjoyed very minute of it. The views were spectacular, making me think a lot about my trekking days in Nepal, with stunning terraced mountain sides and wonderful villages dotted around the landscapes. Pippin and Kai were nothing short of miraculous in how they embraced the challenge of the long walk. There was just so much to take in and admire that there was little time to complain. The best part of all were our two wonderul guides, Ma and Bla (don't ask me for the correct spelling) who spoke great English and filled our day with all kinds of interesting anecdotes about the valley. They were so warm with the kids that both Kai and Pippin stayed engaged for the whole time. They also learnt a lot about what life is like for the locals. Ma took us to her mother's house and it was a real experience of how people live in the developing world. I am sure the kids will remember it for a long time. It made me proud to see that Kai and Pippin could handle themselves so well. They never seemed to look down at the impoverished circumstances of the locals. They just go right in there!
I will leave it there for now, in terms of the writing, and let you take the rest of the experience in through the pictures.

Bla showing off the stunning rural scenery with orchards and bamboo in the backround.
The local terraced landscapes speak for themselves. I kept wondering how many generations had to work to create all these amazing terraces. Having done some gardening myself over the years I know what it takes to build just one retaining wall...
Finally a picture of one of the local Mong men with his baby. Men are more easily seen in the countryside rather than in the town of Sapa itself.
More terraced hillsides!
It is amazing to see the constant variety in head dress... Sometimes from fabric, other times from natural materials.
Kai and Pippin would have watched this scene for hours. A water buffalo at work in a rice paddy is better than any show one could ask to see. Of course, Pippin loves mud and would have liked nothing more than to jump into one of those paddies -- too bad her parents are so uptight!
Pippin with Ma (who was full of hugs and affection for the kids all day).
Villagers at work in the fields, getting the very muddy soil broken up for the up and coming rice planting about a month away. Ma told me it is still too cold to plant the rice.

And finally... one of the local women showing off her hands from all the clothes dying. She enjoyed learning that Pippin's middle name is Indigo.
Until our next post...

In and around Sapa

We have now been in Sapa for three days and have had some very good luck weather wise. We have met numerous people who had been here in Sapa over the last few weeks and they all reported that the fog was so thick that they never saw the mountains. Some said it was hard to see beyond a few meters. Since we got here the days have been getting warmer and warmer and the visibility has been great. Of course, the reason for all the cloud and fog is that the elevation here is really high.

Geographically we are literally a few kilometers from the border with China. These mountainous regions stretch across China, Laos, Thailand, Myamar and Vietnam -- and all the regions are inhabited by indigenous hill tribes. All of the countries mentioned have a history of not treating the hill tribe people very well. In fact, since we have been here we have heard many complaints about how the local minorities feel poorly treated by the Vietnamese. The main complaints are that the Vietnamese shut the hill tribes out of economic opportunities. For example, all the local businesses are owned by the Vietnamese and there are many ways in which money is taken from tourists (to be in this region) but none of it gets funneled back to the minority population. They clearly are much more impoverished than the Vietnamese. Schooling seems to be another issue. Most minority children get little to no schooling (most are illiterate) whereas education is a major priority for Vietnamese children. When I went to China over 20 years ago the issues were very similar there in the hill tribe regions.
One of the things that really strikes one as a tourist here is how different the personalities are of the minorities relative to the Vietnamese. As we have mentioned many times in our blogs, the Vietnamese are very guarded and maybe at times one feels like they really are not that interested in outsiders (of course this likely stems from their history with meddling foreign countries). This is in stark contrast to the minority groups here. They literally gush all over tourists and are almost on the other side of the spectrum. Personally I have been loving the interactions, but like Skye previously said it can at times be a little overwhelming.
Many of the locals have hands that are permanently dyed from all the clothing they are making. One sees the plants (indigo for one) being grown in the country side for use in making the clothing different colours. Beans, as seen in this picture below, are a big part of the local diet. It is fun watching them trade all the different beans in the markets. They seem to discuss and inspect each variety for hours before making their purchase.
Yesterday we all went on a lovely walk into the countryside. We will likely be doing that for the days ahead until we go back to Sapa. Kai and Pippin really seemed to enjoy the experience and never complained once about the steep ups and downs. I think that the constant stream of locals interacting with us and all the animals were a major source of fascination for them. There were many baby chicks, piglets and calfs to observe. Kai and Pippin also have never really seen people living so close to the land before. Kai in particular loves the country side and struggles more in the big bustling cities. He is a boy after his grandpa's heart. Maybe a life in the Kootenays does lie in his future. The picture below reflects quite well what the landscapes look like over here.
One of my struggles right now is choosing pictures for the blog. It is so incredibly ideal here for a photographer that I could post a million pictures. I am sure that a small taste will be just fine. I am really loving the fact that the locals are quite okay about being photographed. They must know how beautiful they all are. Note that most of the pictures are of women. Men seem to be out in the fields most of the time tending the crops and animals.
The jewelry worn is also stunning to look at, especially those worn by the older generation. Most of it is silver. The stuff they try sell to tourists is mostly from other less appealing metals. Some locals even try sell their old jewelry (for much needed cash) but I have resisted since I think it is not ethical. Their heritage will be stripped away from them in no time if unscrupulous tourists buy all their old wares.
This is a picture of a little girl at the Saturday market. It seems that only the girls are dressed in the elaborate ethnic dress style.
Well I will leave it there for now. We are going on another long hike again today with one of the local women we have befriended. It could be an interesting experience for us all. Maybe I will add some images of our day later on.
We hope this finds you all well.

Up in Sapa with the hill tribes

Well here we are in yet another Vietnamese destination. Sapa is way far north in Vietnam, not far from the border with China. To get here, we took the night train from Hanoi -- we were in the "hard sleeper" section, this name gave us some trepidation before we left -- how hard was hard going to be? The train ride turned out to be totally fine, the hard sleeper actually had a thin, but comfortable mattress with a sheet, pillow and duvet, so we were pretty set up for comfort -- we all managed to get some sleep, though maybe not quite as much as we would have liked -- the train ride arrived a few hours earlier than we thought, and there was some sort of pump to the sinks near our compartment and it made a ka-chunk-ka-chunk noise all night! The train took us to a place called Lao Cai, which is literally only about 100 metres from the Chinese border.

To get to Sapa from Lao Cai we had to negotiate a price for the minibus ride, which is about an hour up into the mountains. That is where having a travel guidebook can be pretty handy in terms of giving you a ball-park figure about how much something 'should' cost vs. what they quote you (something like 4 - 5 times more than it should be!) The mini-bus ride to Sapa was very beautiful -- unbelievably steep terraced hillsides where rice and other crops are grown, bamboo growing in large sprays beside the road and up the hillsides everywhere in between, and lots of Hill Tribe people walking up the road in traditional dress. Stunning! The extremely twisty road was a bit of a challenge -- we all arrived in Sapa feeling pretty queasy.
Sapa from the balcony of our hotel room...

Sapa is quite a trip -- the various hill tribe women come here to sell their wares and they are very, very aggressive in their selling tactics -- we literally stepped off the bus and were met by at least three beautiful women in traditional garb who then attached themselves to us chatting away with us and trying to sell their things until we managed to find a hotel with a room. At first it can seem kind of fun and funny, but it has quickly become a bit overwhelming -- you can't go anywhere without at least 4 - 5 of these women attaching themselves to you. One has to work really hard to say "No thank you!" over and over again without getting frustrated or irritated, trying to just keep a smile on our faces while we move onwards.
Even when one is sitting and having a meal at the market, they will stand behind us and keep trying to engage and sell us something. They just keep pulling out new items to try to sell, lacing their sales pitch with questions about where we are from, how old the children are, etc.



We'll try to describe Sapa itself, or the small part we have seen so far -- it is again this crazy mix of European style, some local Hill Tribe flavour, and then a good dose of Vietnamese sense and style. Toss in a few cows mucking about in their manure, some chicken blood and mud on the street, and a few dogs in baskets in the market and you've got the idea. Tall pointed mountains surround the town and so far have been shrouded in clouds and mist since we arrived. In the stores, markets and roadside stalls there are everything from apples, to foreign sticks and herbs, to pig's penises/testicles for sale to the most amazing looking french pastries in pretty little bakeries. All of the buildings are clustered closely together, kind of tumbling over the hillsides with streets winding up down and around -- many of them only really stones and dirt cobbled together in some areas and then regular concrete in others. There is the usual honking and roaring of motorbikes and trucks, lots of nursing dogs nosing around for scraps here and there are lots and lots of little children and babies! Boy are the babies and children beautiful -- I mean really, really beautiful -- I just want to scoop them up and cuddle them, they on the other hand are not sure what to make of us!
Kai and Pippin are still getting lots and lots of attention -- it is really hard to know what really goes through their minds when their cheeks get pinched and their hair gets stroked. One day I'm sure with some distance and perspective, they'll be better able to articulate what it has been like for them on this trip.
The people have been remarkably open to being photographed by Ronato. As a result he is in his element snapping away. The people are individually all like works of art to behold. All ages of these people are stunning to look at. Their colourful ethnic dress and jewelry is wonderful to see in this modern age. These truely are sights that are disappearing in our modern "generica" world. I am glad the children still have an opportunity to see this.
Well on that note we will leave you with a few more images.
Until our next post....

Skye, Ronato, Kai & Pippin