The monsoon season is upon us now and when it rains, it rains HARD. I always associated rain with winter and early spring and if it rains in the morning, it rains all day. Here, the monsoon season is a late summer/fall phenomenon. It can be beautiful and sunny with out a cloud in the sky and 15 minutes later be pouring down rain. I've always loved rain so I enjoy it, but I definitely have to pack a rain jacket every time I leave the dorm!
We air dry all of our clothes here so as soon as it starts raining, we scurry out to push the racks of drying clothes into the kitchen. It often takes a few days for our clothes to try because 1) we often don't get them inside soon enough and 2) in addition to rain, we also have humidity and clothes don't dry well unless the weather is dry!
Southeast Asia relies on these monsoons for a variety of reasons. Rice needs constant rain to prosper because rice paddies must be several inches deep in water for the rice to grow. It's also really hot during this time so the afternoon showers cool everything down a bit. It's not nearly as hot as Vietnam was- that was horrendous, but it's still in the 90s.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
I never would have imagined...
How much this trip is reshaping my life. I've now completed a week and a bit as a Leadership Resident at Harpswell and it's wonderful and amazing in so many different ways.
When I was a volunteer in Vietnam, I enjoyed teaching but found it frustrating that I rarely taught the same class twice and the students constantly talked during my classes. It was also quite difficult to get more than 5% or 10% of the class to participate. Here, my classes are only a few students and the girls are eager to participate and are very respectful. I can use my degree because I'm teaching them geography, history, English, critical analysis through journal articles and anything else they are interested in learning. We'll start a new curriculum in September but for now I'm mostly teaching things I'm familiar with from my knowledge base.
They've decided that I must like housework because I cook almost every day and I like to help them clean up the kitchen and do dishes. They are funny. Most leadership residents eat with the girls, and I do as well, but the main thing they eat is meat. I've been buying my own food at the western supermarket and making high-protein dishes with plenty of vegetables. I'm spoiled for choice on both fruits and vegetables. Unfortunately I think the lack of iron and B vitamin-rich foods here has made me anemic, so I've started taking iron/B supplements. When I cook, the girls come up and ask me the names of different ingredients and I try to explain not only what they are, but their nutritional value. I'm planning to hold a nutritional seminar because the girls seem really interested in learning about food and why different types of food are good for them. They mostly eat rice with some kind of meat and fruit on special occasions. The meat is sometimes cooked with vegetables, but they don't eat raw vegetables. Their budget is $30 per month per girl for food from Harpswell, supplemented by what they might make at a job.
Harpswell was founded by Alan Lightman, an MIT professor and writer, to provide housing, some scholarships, food, English instruction and mentoring for female Cambodian college students. Many studies have demonstrated that the best way for a developing country to advance is to educate the women of the country. The organization selects about 15-20 girls each year from around the country based on aptitude (as shown by high school exit exams and grades), ambition and other factors. My role as a Leadership Resident is to live with the girls, teach English, creative writing, history, geography, critical thinking/analysis, and leadership. I'm also here to mentor them and be a role model. I live with three other girls in a 12x15 (approximately) foot dorm room with two bunkbeds, four desks/chairs and a dresser. The bathroom with cold showers (which I'm very used to at this point) is down the hall next to the kitchen. On the opposite side is the lounge with computers and a TV. The Boeing Trabeck is 3 stories and about 32 girls live here. There is another dorm on the other side of town called the Teuk Thla dorm, which is quite new and houses about 50 girls. The girls are 18-23 and either studying at a university nearby or are starting their first jobs. They are from all over Cambodia and their parents mostly work in agriculture, growing rice, corn, or other food products, or work in service industries.
Yesterday, I went to visit my other new volunteer project, called A New Day Cambodia. There was a huge garbage dump in the outskirts of the city near Street 271 and many women and children (not many men) would scavenge in the dump for things to use and for food. A New Day Cambodia was started by two New Yorkers who initially took in two girls from the dump and later rented two houses and now provide food, clothing and education for 100 children who were former scavengers. I will be teaching English to the oldest kids on Saturdays. Many Harpswell girls serve as mentors to the New Day kids, providing a great connection for both.
Phnom Penh is a NUTTY but great city. There are neat markets filled with clothes, fruits, vegetables, food booths, CDs, DVDs, electronics and many other things. On hot days the smell of meat pervades the market, seeking out every enclosed space. The Cambodians don't notice and after almost 5 months in Asia, I rarely notice it either. It's amazing how much you can get used to things that only months before would have had a very different effect. The first time I walked into the meat section of the market, I gagged with nausea. Now I can walk through that section with no problem. I see chickens defeathered but still whole, lots of different cuts of meat and other things that I formerly couldn't stand. Now, it's just part of this crazy life I lead.
The city is pretty dirty, but there are beautiful parts as well. I like going down to the waterfront to the delicious restaurants. There are also great cafes all over with wifi, western food and "designer" coffee. Phnom Penh is trying to remake itself into a tourist town, with some success. There are still many kids and mothers begging in the streets and poverty is evident elsewhere. I've joined a gym, about a kilometer from my house and the number of Lexus, Mercedes, Toyota, Honda and other nice cars assures me that there is plenty of wealth in the country as well. I go to the western supermarket because I'm worried about whether the fruits and vegetables at the outdoor market are safe for me to eat. I'm probably just paying a lot more for the same vegetables, but I want to take some precautions. Knock on wood, I haven't been sick yet, but there's always a first time for everything!
Every day I teach at least one, if not two or three classes. Right now I'm teaching Rina, Kuntaea and Savary a reading and speaking class and we'll also study geography and writing later in the week. Savary is an accounting major attending the National University of Management. She is from Kandal Province and she came to university on her own but didn't have enough money to pay for it and she didn't have a safe place to live. A teacher told her about Harpswell and now she will be able to finish her degree. I'll tell you more stories about the Harpswell girls in upcoming editions of my blog.
Arkun! (thank you)
When I was a volunteer in Vietnam, I enjoyed teaching but found it frustrating that I rarely taught the same class twice and the students constantly talked during my classes. It was also quite difficult to get more than 5% or 10% of the class to participate. Here, my classes are only a few students and the girls are eager to participate and are very respectful. I can use my degree because I'm teaching them geography, history, English, critical analysis through journal articles and anything else they are interested in learning. We'll start a new curriculum in September but for now I'm mostly teaching things I'm familiar with from my knowledge base.
They've decided that I must like housework because I cook almost every day and I like to help them clean up the kitchen and do dishes. They are funny. Most leadership residents eat with the girls, and I do as well, but the main thing they eat is meat. I've been buying my own food at the western supermarket and making high-protein dishes with plenty of vegetables. I'm spoiled for choice on both fruits and vegetables. Unfortunately I think the lack of iron and B vitamin-rich foods here has made me anemic, so I've started taking iron/B supplements. When I cook, the girls come up and ask me the names of different ingredients and I try to explain not only what they are, but their nutritional value. I'm planning to hold a nutritional seminar because the girls seem really interested in learning about food and why different types of food are good for them. They mostly eat rice with some kind of meat and fruit on special occasions. The meat is sometimes cooked with vegetables, but they don't eat raw vegetables. Their budget is $30 per month per girl for food from Harpswell, supplemented by what they might make at a job.
Harpswell was founded by Alan Lightman, an MIT professor and writer, to provide housing, some scholarships, food, English instruction and mentoring for female Cambodian college students. Many studies have demonstrated that the best way for a developing country to advance is to educate the women of the country. The organization selects about 15-20 girls each year from around the country based on aptitude (as shown by high school exit exams and grades), ambition and other factors. My role as a Leadership Resident is to live with the girls, teach English, creative writing, history, geography, critical thinking/analysis, and leadership. I'm also here to mentor them and be a role model. I live with three other girls in a 12x15 (approximately) foot dorm room with two bunkbeds, four desks/chairs and a dresser. The bathroom with cold showers (which I'm very used to at this point) is down the hall next to the kitchen. On the opposite side is the lounge with computers and a TV. The Boeing Trabeck is 3 stories and about 32 girls live here. There is another dorm on the other side of town called the Teuk Thla dorm, which is quite new and houses about 50 girls. The girls are 18-23 and either studying at a university nearby or are starting their first jobs. They are from all over Cambodia and their parents mostly work in agriculture, growing rice, corn, or other food products, or work in service industries.
Yesterday, I went to visit my other new volunteer project, called A New Day Cambodia. There was a huge garbage dump in the outskirts of the city near Street 271 and many women and children (not many men) would scavenge in the dump for things to use and for food. A New Day Cambodia was started by two New Yorkers who initially took in two girls from the dump and later rented two houses and now provide food, clothing and education for 100 children who were former scavengers. I will be teaching English to the oldest kids on Saturdays. Many Harpswell girls serve as mentors to the New Day kids, providing a great connection for both.
Phnom Penh is a NUTTY but great city. There are neat markets filled with clothes, fruits, vegetables, food booths, CDs, DVDs, electronics and many other things. On hot days the smell of meat pervades the market, seeking out every enclosed space. The Cambodians don't notice and after almost 5 months in Asia, I rarely notice it either. It's amazing how much you can get used to things that only months before would have had a very different effect. The first time I walked into the meat section of the market, I gagged with nausea. Now I can walk through that section with no problem. I see chickens defeathered but still whole, lots of different cuts of meat and other things that I formerly couldn't stand. Now, it's just part of this crazy life I lead.
The city is pretty dirty, but there are beautiful parts as well. I like going down to the waterfront to the delicious restaurants. There are also great cafes all over with wifi, western food and "designer" coffee. Phnom Penh is trying to remake itself into a tourist town, with some success. There are still many kids and mothers begging in the streets and poverty is evident elsewhere. I've joined a gym, about a kilometer from my house and the number of Lexus, Mercedes, Toyota, Honda and other nice cars assures me that there is plenty of wealth in the country as well. I go to the western supermarket because I'm worried about whether the fruits and vegetables at the outdoor market are safe for me to eat. I'm probably just paying a lot more for the same vegetables, but I want to take some precautions. Knock on wood, I haven't been sick yet, but there's always a first time for everything!
Every day I teach at least one, if not two or three classes. Right now I'm teaching Rina, Kuntaea and Savary a reading and speaking class and we'll also study geography and writing later in the week. Savary is an accounting major attending the National University of Management. She is from Kandal Province and she came to university on her own but didn't have enough money to pay for it and she didn't have a safe place to live. A teacher told her about Harpswell and now she will be able to finish her degree. I'll tell you more stories about the Harpswell girls in upcoming editions of my blog.
Arkun! (thank you)
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Remapping my life
I've been corresponding with a former leadership resident, Anna, and she asked me if I'm doing a lot of remapping my life. I realized that's a perfect term to use. I feel like this trip is making me think (even more than usual) about where I want to go and what I want to do.
When I left on my trip in April, I was all set to take my GRE in November, apply to graduate programs in December and start my PhD in international education, focusing on creating educational structures to promote sustainable development in developing countries, in 2011. However, after visiting four developing countries I'm starting to question whether this is the right degree for me. Part of it is realizing my own hubris: what makes me, a 27 year old, fairly privileged, white girl from California qualified to march into developing countries and tell them how to run their education systems? I love research, but if I do research, then I also want to work on implementation. I don't want to just write articles for academic journals for the sole sake of publishing in academic journals. I love teaching, but I want to teach people who have fewer opportunities than I had. I want to contribute to developing countries, but I'm not sure of the best way to do that.
Long story short, I'm now thinking about postponing my PhD until I'm REALLY sure what I want to do. My plan right now is to apply for jobs relating either to education or international development/policy in 7 cities in the US: Washington DC, Boston, New York City, Seattle, Portland and San Francisco. I'll go to the city where I find the best job to accomplish my goals of better understanding international education and policy.
I'm only 4.5 months into my trip, and I have a feeling my plans will change multiple times over the next 9 months, but on August 19th, 2010, this is where I am.
When I left on my trip in April, I was all set to take my GRE in November, apply to graduate programs in December and start my PhD in international education, focusing on creating educational structures to promote sustainable development in developing countries, in 2011. However, after visiting four developing countries I'm starting to question whether this is the right degree for me. Part of it is realizing my own hubris: what makes me, a 27 year old, fairly privileged, white girl from California qualified to march into developing countries and tell them how to run their education systems? I love research, but if I do research, then I also want to work on implementation. I don't want to just write articles for academic journals for the sole sake of publishing in academic journals. I love teaching, but I want to teach people who have fewer opportunities than I had. I want to contribute to developing countries, but I'm not sure of the best way to do that.
Long story short, I'm now thinking about postponing my PhD until I'm REALLY sure what I want to do. My plan right now is to apply for jobs relating either to education or international development/policy in 7 cities in the US: Washington DC, Boston, New York City, Seattle, Portland and San Francisco. I'll go to the city where I find the best job to accomplish my goals of better understanding international education and policy.
I'm only 4.5 months into my trip, and I have a feeling my plans will change multiple times over the next 9 months, but on August 19th, 2010, this is where I am.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Thailand and now on to Phnom Penh
The last six weeks have been a wonderful experience. I was a little nervous traveling on my own but that quickly abated as I met more and more travelers like myself. I was afraid it would be lonely but with only one or two exceptions, I’ve actually traveled with people more often than not. I met Nuphar from Israel; Brett and Lucy who are British but teach in Kuwait; Corinne from France; Shane from Ireland; Inge, Mark, and Pete from Australia; Claire from Scotland, Eric, Anthony and Kelly from New York… and many others. They each had a fascinating story to tell and many of them were on the same sort of self-discovery journey that I’ve undertaken. As much as I love going from place to place, it’s a relief to put down my backpack for a few months and spend more than one night in one place. But before I tell you about Cambodia, I must fill you in on Thailand.
The last time I wrote to you, I was in Vientiene in Laos. Vientiene is the capital of Laos but I think it’s the smallest capital I’ve ever seen. There are no skyscrapers and it resembles Napa more than San Francisco. Vientiene has a quiet charm and was the first place I could enjoy a bagel and real whole wheat bread with my delicious coffee. I spent probably 8 hours over two days in one coffee shop called the Scandinavian bakery. I partook of their baked good in quantities I don’t want to admit to, but after four months of white bread and rice, the freshly baked sesame bagels and honey wheat bread were a welcome respite. The fact that it rained about 80% of the two days I was there didn’t exactly encourage much exploration. The second day I tried to buy a train ticket from Vientiene to Bangkok at a travel agency. They were writing up the ticket when the train company called to say they didn’t have any tickets left. I later found out that there hadn’t been tickets available for days. I’m not sure why, but that left me with the option of taking the bus. I bought a $25 bus ticket to Mochit Station, took a sleeping pill, and tried to get comfortable on the two seats I’d claimed. There were only about 15 people on a bus with 50+ seats so this wasn’t difficult. I woke up when we were in Bangkok, and was still rubbing my eyes when the bus driver announced, “everyone off”! I’d bought the cheapest ticket available but other people on the bus had spent an additional $3.50 to go to Khao San Road and others had bought tickets all the way to Phuket in the south of Thailand. We all got off at the same intersection whether we’d spent $25 or $50. I would have been pretty upset if I had purchased a ticket to Phuket only to be told to get off the bus at Bangkok with no transfer instructions, but I was one of the lucky ones.
I managed to find my way to the Sky Train and then, following the instructions my cousin Nicki gave me, I took a minibus up to Suphanburi where Nicki is teaching English at a combined junior/senior high school. We had a great visit and I was impressed with the amount of Thai Nicki has learned since October. We went for massages but the women who gave us the massages misunderstood that we wanted full body Thai massages and gave us foot massages instead. We didn’t realize this until they had already started the foot massage so we just went with it. The next day I took another bus up to Kanchanburi in the middle of Thailand. I only spent one night there initially, because the place where I stayed had what seemed like cardboard for walls: I could literally hear everything my neighbors were doing and saying. The bedbugs also kept me company for the duration of my stay. It was not a fun night, but those happen every once in a while.
Kanchanburi is known both for waterfalls and for the bridge over the River Kwai, and the movie of the same name, which was built during World War II by prisoners of war. The bridge was part of a railroad constructed from Burma (present day Myanmar) to Thailand by the Japanese. Thousands of POWs died during the building of the railroad so it is known as the death railway. The waterfalls are 65 or 70 kilometers away, and I had already visited at least 20 waterfalls in the course of my travels, so I decided not to do those on this trip.
The next day I took a bus five hours north to the border of Burma and the little town of Sangkhlaburi. The town overlooks the Mekong River and a village that was flooded and destroyed many years ago in the course of building a dam further up river. During the dry season, you can still see the top of the temple and a few other remaining buildings. This is the rainy monsoon season so I wasn’t able to see any of that, but it was still neat. Sangkhlaburi is also known for having a Mon Village, two beautiful temples and a wooden bridge crossing from one part of the town to the other. Apparently kids jump off the bridge but it was so high that I wouldn’t dare. Because Sangkhlaburi is near Burma, there are also several refugee camps nearby. There was a wonderful bakery with delicious homemade granola and WIFI up the road from my guesthouse, which was operated as a non-profit to benefit Burmese refugees. The woman who ran the bakery was a Burmese refugee learning English and other skills so she could live outside of Burma.
The people in the Mon Village had great smiles and the kids happily posed for photos and then giggled when I showed them their faces on camera. I found it fairly hard to meet people here, so I didn’t spend a lot of time in Sangkhlaburi, but I visited the major sites and walked all over the town. Many Buddhist worshippers come to meditate in one of the temples along with a huge number of both female and male monks. I received some strange looks from various people while visiting the temple, but because I couldn’t speak Thai and they couldn’t speak English, I wasn’t sure why they were staring. Who knows, maybe they were wondering, as others have before them, if I have some strange disease all over my body in the form of little brown dots. Many Asians have apparently never seen someone with freckles so mine attract significant attention and many funny questions. No, I don’t have a disease, no I didn’t get them in Asia and yes, I’ve had them all my life. No one has asked yet if my freckles are contagious. If I’m in a joking mood, I might tell them yes and see what kind of response that will elicit.
After two days is Sangkhlaburi, I decided to check out a small town about two hours south called Phum Tom Tum. I got off the bus and tried to find a guesthouse but I could only find one person- a police officer- who spoke English and one guesthouse was quite expensive and another seemed pretty dirty. The town is stunningly beautiful and surrounded by huge limestone mountains. However, I decided it wasn’t the place for me, so I flagged down another bus and returned to Kanchanaburi. Once there I checked into a much better guesthouse with lots of adorable kitties, got a massage and enjoyed a gin and tonic.
I had walked around so much that day carrying my 40-pound backpack and 20- pound front pack that I had big red painful grooves in my shoulders. When I was planning this trip, I took the advice of the not always correct Rick Steves, who said in a presentation that travelers should always try to take the smallest bag possible. Well the smallest backpack I could find at 40 liters was not as great of a fit to my body as the 65-liter backpack I had previously purchased. When my Mom comes over in November, she will bring the 65-liter backpack, a waterproof camera and a new Ipod. I’ve decided that as much as I love my Canon Rebel, I worry about it too much here and after my small camera’s two dunkings in waterfalls, I think a waterproof one is in order! My Ipod was another unfortunate waterfall victim so that also needs to be replaced. Oh well, all part of the journey.
I spent only one night in Kanchanaburi and then took a local bus down to Bangkok. I spent two nights in a very nice hostel in the Sukumvit district and visited the Grand Palace and the Siam Discovery Center and Paragon. The Grand Palace is quite expensive to visit, about $12, and I’m not sure I would do it again. It was a national holiday so not everything was open. The previous day was the Queen’s birthday and mother’s day, but both days counted as national holidays. I had heard that a must-do in Bangkok is to visit the Sky Bar at Sirocco at the LeBua Hotel. I met a guy from Washington DC on my Grand Palace tour and spent the day with him. It took well over an hour but we finally reached the Sky Bar only to be turned away because my flip-flops were deemed “not fashionable”. I tried everything I could think of to get in but was assured that with my footwear choice (I only had flip-flops and running shoes with me); I was not eligible to enter the bar. Needless to say, my opinion of this bar plummeted. Oh well.
On Saturday, I flew from Bangkok to Phnom Penh to visit my fourth country in Southeast Asia and my fourteenth country overall. The flight was easy and I made it to my very nice guesthouse, which coincidentally was in the little Vietnam section of Phnom Penh. I treated myself to a room with air conditioning, a TV, wifi and a big comfy bed for $15.
This morning Kim, the volunteer coordinator for the Harpswell Foundation, picked me up from my guest house and brought me to my new home for 10 weeks at the Boeing Trabaek dorm off Monivong Boulevard in Phnom Penh. Last February I applied to be a leadership resident for the Harpswell Foundation, a non-profit NGO founded by MIT professor Alan Lightman. Dr. Lightman wrote an international bestseller called Einstein’s Dreams and has joint teaching appointments in physics and creative writing. The Harpswell Foundation was created to offer housing; leadership training; English and current events instruction and mentoring to female Cambodian college students. Approximately 85 students and four leadership residents live in two dormitories in Phnom Penh. I am the leadership resident for the smaller Boeing Trabeck dormitory.
I’ve already met at least 20 of my 32 residents who are from all over Cambodia. Many study law at a nearby university while others study politics or English. My home for 10 weeks is an approximately 12x12 square foot dorm room with three other students. There are two sets of bunkbeds, several fans, four desks and chairs, a dresser and a massive amount of clothes, books, toiletries and other necessities crammed into every nook and cranny. There are bathrooms down the hall with cold showers and western style toilets and a kitchen and “living room” on each of the three floors. We teach classes in the “living rooms” which are also equipped with libraries, two computers and a TV/DVD player each. There is 24 hour security for the gate, which is locked all the time, and a fence around the dorm. I feel very safe and secure here. Phnom Penh has an amazing number of great restaurants, markets and cafes, which I look forward to visiting in the upcoming months. I’ve already visited the local supermarket, which clearly caters to westerners with all prices in dollars, to buy peanut butter and jam, toiletries, soymilk, oatmeal, bread, vegetables and coffee. The girls do all the cooking and the cleaning, although I will help where I can. While I’m not the first leadership resident to be vegetarian, it is still a somewhat foreign concept. I thought it would be better to be safe then hungry. I made a salad with local lettuce, tomatoes and bell pepper but the girls weren’t sure what to make of it. They had never tried any of those things and were wary of uncooked, unflavored vegetables. I think I might offer a class in nutrition too. Every meal is made with rice, some cooked vegetable and meat. My food is whatever they have minus the meat. There isn’t a refrigerator in the dorm, but they have an icebox, which is simply an ice chest filled with ice blocks. Anything I need refrigerated can go in there.
The girls are wonderful and very talkative! They are excited about the things I can teach them and have many ideas about potential topics, which is a plus for me. Over the next two weeks, there is a lull in classes, so I’ll be doing a lot of tutoring and small classes. We will also meet several times a week to read and discuss the Cambodia Daily newspaper and there is a weekly leadership seminar, which I will lead several times over the course of my residency. At the beginning of September, we will begin a new curriculum instituted by Kim, the volunteer coordinator, based on an English Language Teaching program. I am very excited for my leadership residency and all the things I will be learning and experiencing. If you’d like to learn more about the Harpswell Foundation, go to www.harpswellfoundation.org.
The last time I wrote to you, I was in Vientiene in Laos. Vientiene is the capital of Laos but I think it’s the smallest capital I’ve ever seen. There are no skyscrapers and it resembles Napa more than San Francisco. Vientiene has a quiet charm and was the first place I could enjoy a bagel and real whole wheat bread with my delicious coffee. I spent probably 8 hours over two days in one coffee shop called the Scandinavian bakery. I partook of their baked good in quantities I don’t want to admit to, but after four months of white bread and rice, the freshly baked sesame bagels and honey wheat bread were a welcome respite. The fact that it rained about 80% of the two days I was there didn’t exactly encourage much exploration. The second day I tried to buy a train ticket from Vientiene to Bangkok at a travel agency. They were writing up the ticket when the train company called to say they didn’t have any tickets left. I later found out that there hadn’t been tickets available for days. I’m not sure why, but that left me with the option of taking the bus. I bought a $25 bus ticket to Mochit Station, took a sleeping pill, and tried to get comfortable on the two seats I’d claimed. There were only about 15 people on a bus with 50+ seats so this wasn’t difficult. I woke up when we were in Bangkok, and was still rubbing my eyes when the bus driver announced, “everyone off”! I’d bought the cheapest ticket available but other people on the bus had spent an additional $3.50 to go to Khao San Road and others had bought tickets all the way to Phuket in the south of Thailand. We all got off at the same intersection whether we’d spent $25 or $50. I would have been pretty upset if I had purchased a ticket to Phuket only to be told to get off the bus at Bangkok with no transfer instructions, but I was one of the lucky ones.
I managed to find my way to the Sky Train and then, following the instructions my cousin Nicki gave me, I took a minibus up to Suphanburi where Nicki is teaching English at a combined junior/senior high school. We had a great visit and I was impressed with the amount of Thai Nicki has learned since October. We went for massages but the women who gave us the massages misunderstood that we wanted full body Thai massages and gave us foot massages instead. We didn’t realize this until they had already started the foot massage so we just went with it. The next day I took another bus up to Kanchanburi in the middle of Thailand. I only spent one night there initially, because the place where I stayed had what seemed like cardboard for walls: I could literally hear everything my neighbors were doing and saying. The bedbugs also kept me company for the duration of my stay. It was not a fun night, but those happen every once in a while.
Kanchanburi is known both for waterfalls and for the bridge over the River Kwai, and the movie of the same name, which was built during World War II by prisoners of war. The bridge was part of a railroad constructed from Burma (present day Myanmar) to Thailand by the Japanese. Thousands of POWs died during the building of the railroad so it is known as the death railway. The waterfalls are 65 or 70 kilometers away, and I had already visited at least 20 waterfalls in the course of my travels, so I decided not to do those on this trip.
The next day I took a bus five hours north to the border of Burma and the little town of Sangkhlaburi. The town overlooks the Mekong River and a village that was flooded and destroyed many years ago in the course of building a dam further up river. During the dry season, you can still see the top of the temple and a few other remaining buildings. This is the rainy monsoon season so I wasn’t able to see any of that, but it was still neat. Sangkhlaburi is also known for having a Mon Village, two beautiful temples and a wooden bridge crossing from one part of the town to the other. Apparently kids jump off the bridge but it was so high that I wouldn’t dare. Because Sangkhlaburi is near Burma, there are also several refugee camps nearby. There was a wonderful bakery with delicious homemade granola and WIFI up the road from my guesthouse, which was operated as a non-profit to benefit Burmese refugees. The woman who ran the bakery was a Burmese refugee learning English and other skills so she could live outside of Burma.
The people in the Mon Village had great smiles and the kids happily posed for photos and then giggled when I showed them their faces on camera. I found it fairly hard to meet people here, so I didn’t spend a lot of time in Sangkhlaburi, but I visited the major sites and walked all over the town. Many Buddhist worshippers come to meditate in one of the temples along with a huge number of both female and male monks. I received some strange looks from various people while visiting the temple, but because I couldn’t speak Thai and they couldn’t speak English, I wasn’t sure why they were staring. Who knows, maybe they were wondering, as others have before them, if I have some strange disease all over my body in the form of little brown dots. Many Asians have apparently never seen someone with freckles so mine attract significant attention and many funny questions. No, I don’t have a disease, no I didn’t get them in Asia and yes, I’ve had them all my life. No one has asked yet if my freckles are contagious. If I’m in a joking mood, I might tell them yes and see what kind of response that will elicit.
After two days is Sangkhlaburi, I decided to check out a small town about two hours south called Phum Tom Tum. I got off the bus and tried to find a guesthouse but I could only find one person- a police officer- who spoke English and one guesthouse was quite expensive and another seemed pretty dirty. The town is stunningly beautiful and surrounded by huge limestone mountains. However, I decided it wasn’t the place for me, so I flagged down another bus and returned to Kanchanaburi. Once there I checked into a much better guesthouse with lots of adorable kitties, got a massage and enjoyed a gin and tonic.
I had walked around so much that day carrying my 40-pound backpack and 20- pound front pack that I had big red painful grooves in my shoulders. When I was planning this trip, I took the advice of the not always correct Rick Steves, who said in a presentation that travelers should always try to take the smallest bag possible. Well the smallest backpack I could find at 40 liters was not as great of a fit to my body as the 65-liter backpack I had previously purchased. When my Mom comes over in November, she will bring the 65-liter backpack, a waterproof camera and a new Ipod. I’ve decided that as much as I love my Canon Rebel, I worry about it too much here and after my small camera’s two dunkings in waterfalls, I think a waterproof one is in order! My Ipod was another unfortunate waterfall victim so that also needs to be replaced. Oh well, all part of the journey.
I spent only one night in Kanchanaburi and then took a local bus down to Bangkok. I spent two nights in a very nice hostel in the Sukumvit district and visited the Grand Palace and the Siam Discovery Center and Paragon. The Grand Palace is quite expensive to visit, about $12, and I’m not sure I would do it again. It was a national holiday so not everything was open. The previous day was the Queen’s birthday and mother’s day, but both days counted as national holidays. I had heard that a must-do in Bangkok is to visit the Sky Bar at Sirocco at the LeBua Hotel. I met a guy from Washington DC on my Grand Palace tour and spent the day with him. It took well over an hour but we finally reached the Sky Bar only to be turned away because my flip-flops were deemed “not fashionable”. I tried everything I could think of to get in but was assured that with my footwear choice (I only had flip-flops and running shoes with me); I was not eligible to enter the bar. Needless to say, my opinion of this bar plummeted. Oh well.
On Saturday, I flew from Bangkok to Phnom Penh to visit my fourth country in Southeast Asia and my fourteenth country overall. The flight was easy and I made it to my very nice guesthouse, which coincidentally was in the little Vietnam section of Phnom Penh. I treated myself to a room with air conditioning, a TV, wifi and a big comfy bed for $15.
This morning Kim, the volunteer coordinator for the Harpswell Foundation, picked me up from my guest house and brought me to my new home for 10 weeks at the Boeing Trabaek dorm off Monivong Boulevard in Phnom Penh. Last February I applied to be a leadership resident for the Harpswell Foundation, a non-profit NGO founded by MIT professor Alan Lightman. Dr. Lightman wrote an international bestseller called Einstein’s Dreams and has joint teaching appointments in physics and creative writing. The Harpswell Foundation was created to offer housing; leadership training; English and current events instruction and mentoring to female Cambodian college students. Approximately 85 students and four leadership residents live in two dormitories in Phnom Penh. I am the leadership resident for the smaller Boeing Trabeck dormitory.
I’ve already met at least 20 of my 32 residents who are from all over Cambodia. Many study law at a nearby university while others study politics or English. My home for 10 weeks is an approximately 12x12 square foot dorm room with three other students. There are two sets of bunkbeds, several fans, four desks and chairs, a dresser and a massive amount of clothes, books, toiletries and other necessities crammed into every nook and cranny. There are bathrooms down the hall with cold showers and western style toilets and a kitchen and “living room” on each of the three floors. We teach classes in the “living rooms” which are also equipped with libraries, two computers and a TV/DVD player each. There is 24 hour security for the gate, which is locked all the time, and a fence around the dorm. I feel very safe and secure here. Phnom Penh has an amazing number of great restaurants, markets and cafes, which I look forward to visiting in the upcoming months. I’ve already visited the local supermarket, which clearly caters to westerners with all prices in dollars, to buy peanut butter and jam, toiletries, soymilk, oatmeal, bread, vegetables and coffee. The girls do all the cooking and the cleaning, although I will help where I can. While I’m not the first leadership resident to be vegetarian, it is still a somewhat foreign concept. I thought it would be better to be safe then hungry. I made a salad with local lettuce, tomatoes and bell pepper but the girls weren’t sure what to make of it. They had never tried any of those things and were wary of uncooked, unflavored vegetables. I think I might offer a class in nutrition too. Every meal is made with rice, some cooked vegetable and meat. My food is whatever they have minus the meat. There isn’t a refrigerator in the dorm, but they have an icebox, which is simply an ice chest filled with ice blocks. Anything I need refrigerated can go in there.
The girls are wonderful and very talkative! They are excited about the things I can teach them and have many ideas about potential topics, which is a plus for me. Over the next two weeks, there is a lull in classes, so I’ll be doing a lot of tutoring and small classes. We will also meet several times a week to read and discuss the Cambodia Daily newspaper and there is a weekly leadership seminar, which I will lead several times over the course of my residency. At the beginning of September, we will begin a new curriculum instituted by Kim, the volunteer coordinator, based on an English Language Teaching program. I am very excited for my leadership residency and all the things I will be learning and experiencing. If you’d like to learn more about the Harpswell Foundation, go to www.harpswellfoundation.org.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
What a trip
I'm now on my last full day in Laos and what a trip it's been! I think Laos is my favorite country so far: it's beautiful, there aren't as many tourists as other countries and the people are wonderful. I've had some hard experiences- my small camera and Ipod both fell victim to waterfalls and I saw a few things that I really didn't want to see.
I really enjoyed all of the places I've been to with the exception of Vang Vieng. I realized again how many backpackers are heavy drinkers when I went there. Vang Vieng is in a beautiful setting with karst (limestone) mountains set by the river but there's very little to do except drink and inner tube down the river. I got into town at 4:00 p.m., took one look at the scene and got out as quickly as I could. I've been struggling a bit lately because I'm taking doxycycline as an anti-malarial (the areas I've visiting have many problems with malaria, dengue fever and other tropical diseases). Despite liberal and frequent applications of sunscreen, I am still getting sunburned and I wake up in the middle of the night almost every night not knowing where I am or thinking I am somewhere else. In Luang Prabang, I spent about an hour thinking I was outside when I was actually just sitting on the floor of my room. After several nights of this, I was so tired that by the time I reached Vang Vieng, I just about lost it. Thankfully, 12 hours of uninterrupted sleep made me feel much better. I think I may need to switch to another form of anti-malarial treatment.
Luang Prabang was beautiful, and I enjoyed exploring it with my new friends: Nuphar from Israel, Eric from New York and Shane from Ireland. We went to the vat set high on a hill and explored the most incredible waterfalls I've ever seen. They also had an Asian bear preserve next to the waterfall and the bears were really well treated, which made me happy. Unfortunately someone bumped me when I had my camera out and it went flying into the water. I was able to recover my photos and I know the internal mechanics are still working, but I can't get the lens to retract. Hopefully a camera shop will have more luck.
Last week, I had several people tell me that I MUST visit Muong Ngoi, a town reachable only by river. It meant backtracking from Luang Prabang, but I decided I should do it and I'm glad I did. I met a couple, Kelly and Anthony, who grew up in California but now live in New York city. We did everything together for four days and it was great. I've traveled with many people by now but these two were definitely a highlight. Muong Ngoi is stunningly gorgeous, surrounded by mountains and tiny. We stayed in little bungalows right on the river. My bungalow was 25,000 kip, or about $3 per night with double bed and hammock. The town only has power from 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. and no internet. The one main road is unpaved and half naked children play with each other and the variety of dogs, cats, chickens and ducks that roam the street. There was one vat, or temple, at the end of the street and four of five novice monks stood around joking and smoking (?!). The monks in the larger towns are very stoic and solemn but in some of the smaller villages, they seem just like any other young boys.
The day after we arrived in Muong Ngoi, we went inner tubing and cave exploring. First we went upriver to a small Hmong town where I bought a scarf and looked at the massive number of scarves and skirts displayed by the villagers for sale to tourists. Next we went to the cave, which was cold and dark and deep, but we were led by our tour guide and flashlights. The cave is filled with water, so we went in on our inner tubes. There were thousands of mud-covered stalactites throughout the cave and it opened up into many different deep, dark passageways. I was freezing by the time we reached our destination but when we finally reentered the river after our foray into the cave, it felt like we were entering hot springs. We floated down the river on our inner tubes until our guide told us that it was time to go (no drinking involved by the way). I loved looking up at the beautiful scenery while being gently conveyed by the river. Back in the village, we changed out of our wet clothes and enjoyed dinner before heading to bed early when the electricity went out for the night.
The next day, we signed up for a trek to a waterfall and Hmong village. I enjoyed the trek but there were several difficult parts of it. The waterfall was stunning but it was about an hour and a half to two hours each way through slippery leech-infested mud. We also walked through several streams and up the side of the waterfall. I only fell 3 or 4 times, which was a vast improvement over the 15 times I fell on the last hike in Luang Nam Tha. Leeches attempted to attach themselves to us multiple times but each time we were able to get them off (after the perfunctory shriek) to get them off before they latched on. We had to do leech checks about every five minutes and I think we were getting a bit paranoid by the end. When we got back to the boat we were offered the option of taking a road to the Hmong village or going through the forest (slippery/leeches). Guess which one we chose.
When we got to the village, which was actually two villages (Hmong and Khmu), we wandered around
and enjoyed the smiles of the locals. The villages are right next to each other, but the houses are very different. A "chief" is chosen every four years for the two villages and alternates between a Hmong and Khmu. The children play together, the adults drink and eat together but they do not intermarry. Hmong marry Hmong and Khmu marry Khmu. The little children here, as in other places, were either wearing only a shirt, were naked or were wearing split pants. They don't use diapers in the villages, so toddlers and little children don't have full pants. We tried some delicious guavas near our "hut" and had a few shots of Lao Lao, the local whisky, next to the village store. Our guide, Ping, joined us after a while, and said something about eating dog. I didn't realize what he was talking about until I saw a dog's head in a pot a little way up the hill. He was explaining that they drain the blood, which they also drink, and then were going to roast it. I also, unfortunately, saw the dog on the spit. This was not something I wanted to see and I needed a few more shots of Lao Lao to get the image out of my head. The villagers were also eating small birds, still completely intact. My desire to remain vegetarian has strengthened immeasurably after this experience. We left the village to return to our hut and had Lao Lao and dinner (no meat because both Anthony and I are vegetarian and Kelly felt like being vegetarian that night) before heading to bed.
The next morning we had noodle soup and coffee, took photos with the locals and headed back to the river to take a boat to Nong Khiaw and then a Sang Thew to Luang Prabang. When we were getting off the boat, some villagers were transporting to big pigs up a long flight of stairs to a waiting truck. They did this in the most inhumane way possible and we could hear the screams of the pigs for blocks. I didn't watch I plugged my ears but I could still hear them. I know animals are inhumanely treated in the US too, but it's very different to know it, versus seeing it.
We got back to Luang Prabang and met for dinner and the night market. Kelly and Anthony went on their way to Vientiene and I went to Vang Vieng (in hindsight, I should have done the same as they did).
A few notes about Lao culture: we saw mostly young boys and very young girls in the villages because the older girls are required to carry water and help with child rearing and household responsibilities. Boys frequently spend a few years in the monastery but most do not continue as monks for their lives. In each of the towns I visited, I could watch the "morning alms ceremony" where monks come out from the temples to collect food for their meals. Women swarm around the tourists selling food for us to give them. I bought some small parcels of food wrapped in banana leaves as well as sticky rice and kneeled on a small mat. As the monks came by, they opened what looked like hollow drums made of metal and I put food in each of them. Women are not allowed to touch monks so I had to be very careful to just put the food in the drum.
One of my tour guides explained marriage to us. His name is Savong and he's 21. I couldn't tell if he was already married or soon to be married but he referred to his significant other as his "w" because he didn't like the word wife. Savong is/was marrying a girl who is 15 and she came to meet us when we met at the night market for dinner. She was very quiet and pretty. He explained that when couples marry they spend the first year with the bride's family and the husband has to cook for her parents. The second year is spent with the groom's family and the bride cooks for his parents. After those two years, they can live on their own. The other tour guide, Nok, said he wanted to marry but he had to help his family pay for his sisters to marry before he could. He was 25 and clearly worked very hard.
In one of the villages, we spent time with the mediator of the village. If people or families have a dispute, they go to this guy to work it out. They only bring in the police or the law if something can't be worked out in the village. There was only one school for two or three villages so kids had to walk 8km. per day to get to and from school. There were SO many little children in all of the villages. Most children only attend school until they are 10 or 12 and very few progress to high school or college. 80% of Laotians are in some sort of agriculture but things are slowly starting to change. When I visited the Butterfly Project, Leila said doctors were being trained in Vientiane but there are no medical texts in the Lao language so they learn without textbooks. I can't even imagine.
Now I'm in Vientiene, the capital of Laos, which is quite small for a capital city. I'm still feeling a bit drained, so I'm taking it easy and enjoying uninterrupted time to upload photos and update my blog. Tonight I'll head to Bangkok and then to Suphanburi to visit my cousin. After that, I'll head to Kachanaburi for a few days and then back to Bangkok for a few days. On Saturday, August 14th, I'll fly to Phnom Penh to start my leadership residency at Harpswell Foundation. In my capacity as a leadership resident, I will be teaching English and current events and mentoring Cambodian female college students. I will live with them in a dorm and provide whatever guidance I can for 10 weeks. I will also be working with an organization called "A New Day Cambodia" teaching street kids in Phnom Penh. I'm excited!
Keep the comments coming, I love reading them!
I really enjoyed all of the places I've been to with the exception of Vang Vieng. I realized again how many backpackers are heavy drinkers when I went there. Vang Vieng is in a beautiful setting with karst (limestone) mountains set by the river but there's very little to do except drink and inner tube down the river. I got into town at 4:00 p.m., took one look at the scene and got out as quickly as I could. I've been struggling a bit lately because I'm taking doxycycline as an anti-malarial (the areas I've visiting have many problems with malaria, dengue fever and other tropical diseases). Despite liberal and frequent applications of sunscreen, I am still getting sunburned and I wake up in the middle of the night almost every night not knowing where I am or thinking I am somewhere else. In Luang Prabang, I spent about an hour thinking I was outside when I was actually just sitting on the floor of my room. After several nights of this, I was so tired that by the time I reached Vang Vieng, I just about lost it. Thankfully, 12 hours of uninterrupted sleep made me feel much better. I think I may need to switch to another form of anti-malarial treatment.
Luang Prabang was beautiful, and I enjoyed exploring it with my new friends: Nuphar from Israel, Eric from New York and Shane from Ireland. We went to the vat set high on a hill and explored the most incredible waterfalls I've ever seen. They also had an Asian bear preserve next to the waterfall and the bears were really well treated, which made me happy. Unfortunately someone bumped me when I had my camera out and it went flying into the water. I was able to recover my photos and I know the internal mechanics are still working, but I can't get the lens to retract. Hopefully a camera shop will have more luck.
Last week, I had several people tell me that I MUST visit Muong Ngoi, a town reachable only by river. It meant backtracking from Luang Prabang, but I decided I should do it and I'm glad I did. I met a couple, Kelly and Anthony, who grew up in California but now live in New York city. We did everything together for four days and it was great. I've traveled with many people by now but these two were definitely a highlight. Muong Ngoi is stunningly gorgeous, surrounded by mountains and tiny. We stayed in little bungalows right on the river. My bungalow was 25,000 kip, or about $3 per night with double bed and hammock. The town only has power from 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. and no internet. The one main road is unpaved and half naked children play with each other and the variety of dogs, cats, chickens and ducks that roam the street. There was one vat, or temple, at the end of the street and four of five novice monks stood around joking and smoking (?!). The monks in the larger towns are very stoic and solemn but in some of the smaller villages, they seem just like any other young boys.
The day after we arrived in Muong Ngoi, we went inner tubing and cave exploring. First we went upriver to a small Hmong town where I bought a scarf and looked at the massive number of scarves and skirts displayed by the villagers for sale to tourists. Next we went to the cave, which was cold and dark and deep, but we were led by our tour guide and flashlights. The cave is filled with water, so we went in on our inner tubes. There were thousands of mud-covered stalactites throughout the cave and it opened up into many different deep, dark passageways. I was freezing by the time we reached our destination but when we finally reentered the river after our foray into the cave, it felt like we were entering hot springs. We floated down the river on our inner tubes until our guide told us that it was time to go (no drinking involved by the way). I loved looking up at the beautiful scenery while being gently conveyed by the river. Back in the village, we changed out of our wet clothes and enjoyed dinner before heading to bed early when the electricity went out for the night.
The next day, we signed up for a trek to a waterfall and Hmong village. I enjoyed the trek but there were several difficult parts of it. The waterfall was stunning but it was about an hour and a half to two hours each way through slippery leech-infested mud. We also walked through several streams and up the side of the waterfall. I only fell 3 or 4 times, which was a vast improvement over the 15 times I fell on the last hike in Luang Nam Tha. Leeches attempted to attach themselves to us multiple times but each time we were able to get them off (after the perfunctory shriek) to get them off before they latched on. We had to do leech checks about every five minutes and I think we were getting a bit paranoid by the end. When we got back to the boat we were offered the option of taking a road to the Hmong village or going through the forest (slippery/leeches). Guess which one we chose.
When we got to the village, which was actually two villages (Hmong and Khmu), we wandered around
and enjoyed the smiles of the locals. The villages are right next to each other, but the houses are very different. A "chief" is chosen every four years for the two villages and alternates between a Hmong and Khmu. The children play together, the adults drink and eat together but they do not intermarry. Hmong marry Hmong and Khmu marry Khmu. The little children here, as in other places, were either wearing only a shirt, were naked or were wearing split pants. They don't use diapers in the villages, so toddlers and little children don't have full pants. We tried some delicious guavas near our "hut" and had a few shots of Lao Lao, the local whisky, next to the village store. Our guide, Ping, joined us after a while, and said something about eating dog. I didn't realize what he was talking about until I saw a dog's head in a pot a little way up the hill. He was explaining that they drain the blood, which they also drink, and then were going to roast it. I also, unfortunately, saw the dog on the spit. This was not something I wanted to see and I needed a few more shots of Lao Lao to get the image out of my head. The villagers were also eating small birds, still completely intact. My desire to remain vegetarian has strengthened immeasurably after this experience. We left the village to return to our hut and had Lao Lao and dinner (no meat because both Anthony and I are vegetarian and Kelly felt like being vegetarian that night) before heading to bed.
The next morning we had noodle soup and coffee, took photos with the locals and headed back to the river to take a boat to Nong Khiaw and then a Sang Thew to Luang Prabang. When we were getting off the boat, some villagers were transporting to big pigs up a long flight of stairs to a waiting truck. They did this in the most inhumane way possible and we could hear the screams of the pigs for blocks. I didn't watch I plugged my ears but I could still hear them. I know animals are inhumanely treated in the US too, but it's very different to know it, versus seeing it.
We got back to Luang Prabang and met for dinner and the night market. Kelly and Anthony went on their way to Vientiene and I went to Vang Vieng (in hindsight, I should have done the same as they did).
A few notes about Lao culture: we saw mostly young boys and very young girls in the villages because the older girls are required to carry water and help with child rearing and household responsibilities. Boys frequently spend a few years in the monastery but most do not continue as monks for their lives. In each of the towns I visited, I could watch the "morning alms ceremony" where monks come out from the temples to collect food for their meals. Women swarm around the tourists selling food for us to give them. I bought some small parcels of food wrapped in banana leaves as well as sticky rice and kneeled on a small mat. As the monks came by, they opened what looked like hollow drums made of metal and I put food in each of them. Women are not allowed to touch monks so I had to be very careful to just put the food in the drum.
One of my tour guides explained marriage to us. His name is Savong and he's 21. I couldn't tell if he was already married or soon to be married but he referred to his significant other as his "w" because he didn't like the word wife. Savong is/was marrying a girl who is 15 and she came to meet us when we met at the night market for dinner. She was very quiet and pretty. He explained that when couples marry they spend the first year with the bride's family and the husband has to cook for her parents. The second year is spent with the groom's family and the bride cooks for his parents. After those two years, they can live on their own. The other tour guide, Nok, said he wanted to marry but he had to help his family pay for his sisters to marry before he could. He was 25 and clearly worked very hard.
In one of the villages, we spent time with the mediator of the village. If people or families have a dispute, they go to this guy to work it out. They only bring in the police or the law if something can't be worked out in the village. There was only one school for two or three villages so kids had to walk 8km. per day to get to and from school. There were SO many little children in all of the villages. Most children only attend school until they are 10 or 12 and very few progress to high school or college. 80% of Laotians are in some sort of agriculture but things are slowly starting to change. When I visited the Butterfly Project, Leila said doctors were being trained in Vientiane but there are no medical texts in the Lao language so they learn without textbooks. I can't even imagine.
Now I'm in Vientiene, the capital of Laos, which is quite small for a capital city. I'm still feeling a bit drained, so I'm taking it easy and enjoying uninterrupted time to upload photos and update my blog. Tonight I'll head to Bangkok and then to Suphanburi to visit my cousin. After that, I'll head to Kachanaburi for a few days and then back to Bangkok for a few days. On Saturday, August 14th, I'll fly to Phnom Penh to start my leadership residency at Harpswell Foundation. In my capacity as a leadership resident, I will be teaching English and current events and mentoring Cambodian female college students. I will live with them in a dorm and provide whatever guidance I can for 10 weeks. I will also be working with an organization called "A New Day Cambodia" teaching street kids in Phnom Penh. I'm excited!
Keep the comments coming, I love reading them!
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Lovely Laos
Sabadee everyone,
I've just spent the last, really fun, week in Laos and finished off my second week in Thailand as well. I'm having a wonderful time here and meeting lots of interesting people from all over the world.
I just returned from my first "trekking" experience in Luang Nam Tha, Laos, which included one day of hiking and one day of kayaking. The kayaking was a lot of fun with a great group and a few good rapids. The trek was not fun because it was straight up and straight down a very steep mountain with slippery clay the entire way. I slipped and fell (but thankfully never hurt myself) at least a dozen times. By the end, I was just praying that I would stop sliding! Note to self: trekking in muddy places during the rainy season is NOT recommended. That being said, I had a fun group of people with me: an American (rare to meet another one), a few Ozzies, a French family, a German woman living in Australia and our two Lao guides: Nick and Seveng. We spent the night in a hut in one of the villages near Luang Nam Tha and had an interesting conversation (translated by our guides) with the "mediator" of the village. Girls in the village begin to marry at 18 and people live to 70 or 80. They are mostly farmers and weave beautiful scarves and skirts. They also receive 30% of the money we paid for our trek for the use of the hut, food, trail maintenance etc. There isn't a school in the village, so kids walk 4km. each way to the next village, Monday through Friday, for school. They have few opportunities for education outside of primary school. Laos is one of the poorest nations in southeast Asia, if not the poorest.
Prior to my trekking trip, I spent five days in Muang Sing, about 12 km. from the Chinese border. Muang Sing is quite remote, with only one place to check internet in the town. I spent the first two days hiking on my own with Shane (pronounced She-an), an Irish guy from County Armagh. We both stayed at a great place 7 km. outside of the town with bungalows for about $6.50 per night and gorgeous views of rice fields and over the valley. We were trying to find some more remote villages, but the map at Adima House wasn't great and we kept running into the river. Nonetheless, we really enjoyed the hiking. We did encounter a few villages where the people all shouted "sabadee!" (hello) and the children ran up to us with big smiles. I have never seen such big smiles anywhere. The children are beyond adorable. The little children either wear split pants or just wear a shirt and go pants-less because they don't use diapers. Several times I saw girls who were quite young, perhaps as young as 6, carrying toddlers or babies. Other girls were carrying very heavy buckets of water balanced on sticks that they held across their shoulders. The boys played with slingshots or ran around. As in Vietnam, the girls and women work extremely hard.
The highlight of Muang Sing was visiting the Butterfly Children's Development Project. This project was started by my Mom's childhood friend Kenna's pediatrician, Leila Srour and her husband, Bryan Watt. Kenna had posted a link to the Butterfly project on her Facebook and my Mom saw it and suggested I contact Leila. I spent two days with the children, teaching English and playing with them. The first lesson was a bit of a challenge because I've never taught brand new English-language learners, but we got by! The children came up and held my hand and gave me big beautiful smiles to welcome me. They are very small; many of them were malnourished as babies and continue to be today. Some of the girls sell scarves, skirts and bracelets in the town that they make themselves. I wish I had more room in my bag so I could have bought a lot more!
There wasn't a school in the village, so the village people built a school out of bamboo sticks with a leaf roof. Bryan and Leila fundraised and gave a lot of their own money to build a school made of cement with big windows and lots of places to learn and play! The building is up but they are working on putting in windows, doors, and other parts now. I could tell the kids were really excited to visit the school, when I visited the school with Leila and a few of the little girls.
I know many of you have asked how you can contribute to one of the projects I'm working with and this would be a great one. Now that the building is underway, they need textbooks, pencils, etc. for teaching. A set of books is about $5. If you would like to donate to this cause, maybe consider donating money for several sets of books. You can learn more about the Butterfly Children's Project and donate at: http://www.butterflychildren.
Below is an update on my trip to Thailand, which I didn't get a chance to send out before:
______________________________
I really enjoyed Thailand. I didn't think I would because I had heard it was really touristy. I spent about 6 days in and around Chiang Mai, and then took a bus north to Chiang Dao.
I didn't realize how much I had missed nature. After growing up in Angwin, with a population of about 2,500 so, living in Da Nang was, well big. I'm not sure how else to describe it. Chiang Dao is spectacular, with beautiful trees, an amazing limestone mountain and a temple built into the mountain. It's 510 steps to the temple and they have signs throughout with little pieces of wisdom in both Thai and English. My favorite was: "There is a chance to get refreshed, once you are tired. But there's no chance to re-live your life, once you are dead" - Tham Pha Pong Monastery. This is my motto right now and very apropos for my trip. Chiang Dao has a few nice guesthouses and I spent two nights at Malee's Nature Lover's Homestay. There are thousands of butterflies and other little creatures running around, beautiful bungalows and a little pool set in the shadow of the mountain and huge trees. I would highly recommend it. I went to the Tuesday market, which was noted in several of the guidebooks as being a great place to buy things from the hill tribes, but it turned out to just be a sort of flea market with lots of random things for sale. The taxi drivers had this racket going where they would charge a certain (outrageous for Thailand) amount to take tourists to each of the guesthouses. I suppose I acclimate to the money very quickly and 150 baht seems like a huge sum, even though it's only about $7. This same trip would only cost about $2 anywhere else. Oh well.
In Chiang Dao I met some interesting people, including a girl from Spain, a heavily pierced guy from Sweden and a girl from Denmark traveling with her British significant other who is living in Thailand and teaching scuba diving. I traveled with the Danish girl and British guy for a few days, first going to Tha Ton, about an hour from Chiang Dao, and then we took a boat ride down the Mekong River to Chiang Rai, where I spent a night. The boat ride was beautiful, with rice paddy fields, limestone mountains and forests. Just outside of Chiang Rai is a temple called the White Temple, which is an incredibly garish white/silver temple. When you walk to the entrance, there are gray hands reaching up to you and ornate mirrored figures on either side of the walkway. I had to wear a white wraparound skirt that they gave me at the entrance, because my shorts were deemed too immodest for the temple. It was an interesting place.
After Chiang Rai, I went north again to Chiang Khong, where I stayed in a lovely guesthouse on the Mekong River for two nights and relaxed. They had two cats, and one sat on my lap while I watched a movie. It rained almost all day, so there wasn't much I could have done anyway. The guesthouse was owned and managed by a Thai woman, Malewan and her retired American partner, Don. Don was an engineer in Florida but retired to Thailand several years ago. Boy could he talk! It was a great place to spend a few days before heading to Laos.
From Chiang Khong, I went across the border to Laos. Tomorrow, July 28th, I'm heading to Luang Prabang, and then to Vang Vieng and Vientiane. I'll take the overnight train on August 5th to Bangkok to see my cousin Nicki.
Hope everyone is well. Photos to come soon.
I've just spent the last, really fun, week in Laos and finished off my second week in Thailand as well. I'm having a wonderful time here and meeting lots of interesting people from all over the world.
I just returned from my first "trekking" experience in Luang Nam Tha, Laos, which included one day of hiking and one day of kayaking. The kayaking was a lot of fun with a great group and a few good rapids. The trek was not fun because it was straight up and straight down a very steep mountain with slippery clay the entire way. I slipped and fell (but thankfully never hurt myself) at least a dozen times. By the end, I was just praying that I would stop sliding! Note to self: trekking in muddy places during the rainy season is NOT recommended. That being said, I had a fun group of people with me: an American (rare to meet another one), a few Ozzies, a French family, a German woman living in Australia and our two Lao guides: Nick and Seveng. We spent the night in a hut in one of the villages near Luang Nam Tha and had an interesting conversation (translated by our guides) with the "mediator" of the village. Girls in the village begin to marry at 18 and people live to 70 or 80. They are mostly farmers and weave beautiful scarves and skirts. They also receive 30% of the money we paid for our trek for the use of the hut, food, trail maintenance etc. There isn't a school in the village, so kids walk 4km. each way to the next village, Monday through Friday, for school. They have few opportunities for education outside of primary school. Laos is one of the poorest nations in southeast Asia, if not the poorest.
Prior to my trekking trip, I spent five days in Muang Sing, about 12 km. from the Chinese border. Muang Sing is quite remote, with only one place to check internet in the town. I spent the first two days hiking on my own with Shane (pronounced She-an), an Irish guy from County Armagh. We both stayed at a great place 7 km. outside of the town with bungalows for about $6.50 per night and gorgeous views of rice fields and over the valley. We were trying to find some more remote villages, but the map at Adima House wasn't great and we kept running into the river. Nonetheless, we really enjoyed the hiking. We did encounter a few villages where the people all shouted "sabadee!" (hello) and the children ran up to us with big smiles. I have never seen such big smiles anywhere. The children are beyond adorable. The little children either wear split pants or just wear a shirt and go pants-less because they don't use diapers. Several times I saw girls who were quite young, perhaps as young as 6, carrying toddlers or babies. Other girls were carrying very heavy buckets of water balanced on sticks that they held across their shoulders. The boys played with slingshots or ran around. As in Vietnam, the girls and women work extremely hard.
The highlight of Muang Sing was visiting the Butterfly Children's Development Project. This project was started by my Mom's childhood friend Kenna's pediatrician, Leila Srour and her husband, Bryan Watt. Kenna had posted a link to the Butterfly project on her Facebook and my Mom saw it and suggested I contact Leila. I spent two days with the children, teaching English and playing with them. The first lesson was a bit of a challenge because I've never taught brand new English-language learners, but we got by! The children came up and held my hand and gave me big beautiful smiles to welcome me. They are very small; many of them were malnourished as babies and continue to be today. Some of the girls sell scarves, skirts and bracelets in the town that they make themselves. I wish I had more room in my bag so I could have bought a lot more!
There wasn't a school in the village, so the village people built a school out of bamboo sticks with a leaf roof. Bryan and Leila fundraised and gave a lot of their own money to build a school made of cement with big windows and lots of places to learn and play! The building is up but they are working on putting in windows, doors, and other parts now. I could tell the kids were really excited to visit the school, when I visited the school with Leila and a few of the little girls.
I know many of you have asked how you can contribute to one of the projects I'm working with and this would be a great one. Now that the building is underway, they need textbooks, pencils, etc. for teaching. A set of books is about $5. If you would like to donate to this cause, maybe consider donating money for several sets of books. You can learn more about the Butterfly Children's Project and donate at: http://www.butterflychildren.
Below is an update on my trip to Thailand, which I didn't get a chance to send out before:
______________________________
I really enjoyed Thailand. I didn't think I would because I had heard it was really touristy. I spent about 6 days in and around Chiang Mai, and then took a bus north to Chiang Dao.
I didn't realize how much I had missed nature. After growing up in Angwin, with a population of about 2,500 so, living in Da Nang was, well big. I'm not sure how else to describe it. Chiang Dao is spectacular, with beautiful trees, an amazing limestone mountain and a temple built into the mountain. It's 510 steps to the temple and they have signs throughout with little pieces of wisdom in both Thai and English. My favorite was: "There is a chance to get refreshed, once you are tired. But there's no chance to re-live your life, once you are dead" - Tham Pha Pong Monastery. This is my motto right now and very apropos for my trip. Chiang Dao has a few nice guesthouses and I spent two nights at Malee's Nature Lover's Homestay. There are thousands of butterflies and other little creatures running around, beautiful bungalows and a little pool set in the shadow of the mountain and huge trees. I would highly recommend it. I went to the Tuesday market, which was noted in several of the guidebooks as being a great place to buy things from the hill tribes, but it turned out to just be a sort of flea market with lots of random things for sale. The taxi drivers had this racket going where they would charge a certain (outrageous for Thailand) amount to take tourists to each of the guesthouses. I suppose I acclimate to the money very quickly and 150 baht seems like a huge sum, even though it's only about $7. This same trip would only cost about $2 anywhere else. Oh well.
In Chiang Dao I met some interesting people, including a girl from Spain, a heavily pierced guy from Sweden and a girl from Denmark traveling with her British significant other who is living in Thailand and teaching scuba diving. I traveled with the Danish girl and British guy for a few days, first going to Tha Ton, about an hour from Chiang Dao, and then we took a boat ride down the Mekong River to Chiang Rai, where I spent a night. The boat ride was beautiful, with rice paddy fields, limestone mountains and forests. Just outside of Chiang Rai is a temple called the White Temple, which is an incredibly garish white/silver temple. When you walk to the entrance, there are gray hands reaching up to you and ornate mirrored figures on either side of the walkway. I had to wear a white wraparound skirt that they gave me at the entrance, because my shorts were deemed too immodest for the temple. It was an interesting place.
After Chiang Rai, I went north again to Chiang Khong, where I stayed in a lovely guesthouse on the Mekong River for two nights and relaxed. They had two cats, and one sat on my lap while I watched a movie. It rained almost all day, so there wasn't much I could have done anyway. The guesthouse was owned and managed by a Thai woman, Malewan and her retired American partner, Don. Don was an engineer in Florida but retired to Thailand several years ago. Boy could he talk! It was a great place to spend a few days before heading to Laos.
From Chiang Khong, I went across the border to Laos. Tomorrow, July 28th, I'm heading to Luang Prabang, and then to Vang Vieng and Vientiane. I'll take the overnight train on August 5th to Bangkok to see my cousin Nicki.
Hope everyone is well. Photos to come soon.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Recharging my batteries
It's funny how life always gives you what you need, even if you don't know you need it. I loved Chiang Mai, it was a wonderful city filled with things to do and people to see and food to eat and things to buy (to stuff into my already bursting backpack). However, by Monday I was feeling like I needed to leave. I wasn't quite sure why but when I arrived in Chiang Dao, I understood. I'm a country girl. I grew up in a town of 2 or 3 thousand people and the largest city I've lived in was maybe 100,000 people. For the last three and a half months, I've spent all of my time in cities. When I reached Chiang Dao, I realized how much I had missed nature and natural beauty. I spent almost three lovely days at Malee's Nature Lover's bungalow, enjoying walks through the forest, hiking up to the monastery and remembering what it feels like to wake up to the sound of the rain on a tin roof. I realized I had also been missing Idaho- my family has a cabin in northern Idaho and my parents are there now. Chiang Dao is so much like our little spot that I almost couldn't believe it. There's no lake, but wildflowers, birds, butterflies and trees aplenty and I had a hammock right outside of my room.
The monastery was built into the limestone mountain and has 510 steps from the base to the top. They had words of wisdom posted at various points on the way up in both Thai and English. My favorite, and the one that currently defines me is "There is a chance to get refreshed, once you are tired. But there's not chance to relive your life, once you are dead." I take that to mean live life to the fullest. I plan to do just that!
The monastery was built into the limestone mountain and has 510 steps from the base to the top. They had words of wisdom posted at various points on the way up in both Thai and English. My favorite, and the one that currently defines me is "There is a chance to get refreshed, once you are tired. But there's not chance to relive your life, once you are dead." I take that to mean live life to the fullest. I plan to do just that!
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Walking home in the rain
There is something intensely satisfying about walking in the rain. I arrived in Chiang Mai, in Northern Thailand, today, and I've already fallen in love with the city. I got a bed in a dorm room (with no other occupants) for $3 per night and dropped off my things then hit the city. Within 10 minutes, I had already talked to Tony, from Vienna, Austria, who was extremely helpful, and four women who were working in an NGO down the street from my hotel who have invited me to visit a few places with them. One of them is from Santa Rosa and another from San Leandro, California. Small world!
The night market is amazing, with everything you could possibly want of Thailand and more. I passed several western food places charging fairly high prices and wondered why someone would go there, when in the night market you can visit a food stall and have freshly made curry or Pad Thai for $1 or less. I guess they must have a large Indian population because they sell a lot of Indian food, roti, naan, etc. I decided not to buy anything and was pleasantly surprised that I was allowed to browse without someone saying "you buy something?" over and over. I love Vietnam, but the sellers in the stores and markets can be a little too much at times. Apparently the real time to buy is during the Sunday night market when the locals buy things. The market I went to today is for tourists. I'm definitely staying through the weekend to experience that!
I found a great place for a 30 minute foot massage combined with a 30 minute back/shoulder/head massage for less than $5. It was heavenly. I will be enjoying many more of those in the weeks to come. I discovered it had started raining when I came out of the massage, but after 3 months of being hot most of the time, the rain was a wonderful respite from the heat. I decided to walk back to my hostel. Just because. It's a wonderfully liberating experience to decide what I want to do and just do it. I love traveling with other people too, but sometimes it's nice to have the option to set my own itinerary and decide what I want to do based on how I'm feeling that day. I think I could get used to this.
The night market is amazing, with everything you could possibly want of Thailand and more. I passed several western food places charging fairly high prices and wondered why someone would go there, when in the night market you can visit a food stall and have freshly made curry or Pad Thai for $1 or less. I guess they must have a large Indian population because they sell a lot of Indian food, roti, naan, etc. I decided not to buy anything and was pleasantly surprised that I was allowed to browse without someone saying "you buy something?" over and over. I love Vietnam, but the sellers in the stores and markets can be a little too much at times. Apparently the real time to buy is during the Sunday night market when the locals buy things. The market I went to today is for tourists. I'm definitely staying through the weekend to experience that!
I found a great place for a 30 minute foot massage combined with a 30 minute back/shoulder/head massage for less than $5. It was heavenly. I will be enjoying many more of those in the weeks to come. I discovered it had started raining when I came out of the massage, but after 3 months of being hot most of the time, the rain was a wonderful respite from the heat. I decided to walk back to my hostel. Just because. It's a wonderfully liberating experience to decide what I want to do and just do it. I love traveling with other people too, but sometimes it's nice to have the option to set my own itinerary and decide what I want to do based on how I'm feeling that day. I think I could get used to this.
Monday, July 5, 2010
"Hard core" traveling
Yesterday I spent my last day in Vietnam (until Nov.) in Ho Chi Minh City. I took the overnight bus from Nha Trang last night and I actually slept the entire way. We left at 9:00 p.m. and I was so tired from the day that I crashed soon after we left the station and only woke up once or twice until 6:00 a.m. when we reached HCMC. I was warned that the sleeping buses were not very comfortable and I should take a train with a sleeping berth instead. The train was 380,000 dong, or about $20, compared to 170,000 or about $8.50 for the sleeping bus and the bus dropped me off in the middle of town whereas the train station was not nearly as convenient. I was really happy with my choice because the hotel I'm staying at with my friend Rebecca was only 1 km. from where the bus dropped off. Easy choice. After my trip from Tam Ky to Nha Trang, I was really grateful for a comfortable journey.
Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) is really fun and quite easy to "do" quickly. Rebecca and I visited the zoo and botanical gardens, Notre Dame Cathedral (modeled on the original) and French Colonial style post office, got some laundry done and ate at a really nice restaurant called Quan An Ngon recommended by both one of my friends (Jerry) and a volunteer (Benat). The post office is beautiful and has lots of old phone booths with names of various cities around the world and one labeled "California" as well. I guess California now qualifies as a city. I laughed at the translation for "postal life insurance". I guess if you are afraid your package is going to die before it reaches its destination, then you can purchase life insurance for it! I don't like zoos but the only thing that really bothered me here was some very small cages for the monkeys and an elephant tied to a post so he couldn't move. He kept stamping his feet with boredom. I did enjoy watching the orangutan, who was wringing out a washcloth and washing himself with it, and the goats and sheep. There was a new-born baby goat with his umbilical cord still attached. The otters were also really cute; they actually reminded me a lot of my cats!Last night we went to the Water Puppets show, which was a lot of fun but I quickly realized how tired I was when I couldn't keep my eyes open for the show. I got the gist of it and enjoyed what I did see, but found it just impossible to stay awake. We also went to the night market near our hotel
In Nha Trang, I went scuba diving for the first time, which was a blast. At first I was a little nervous because they go over quite a few instructions at first, but once I was in the water it all started to make sense. I had a lot of trouble "clearing" my mask but once I figured out that I need to tip my head back, press on the top of the mask with two fingers and blow out through my nose, it was okay. The mask gets foggy pretty quickly, so you have to allow some water in and then tip it back and blow out to get the water out. It's tricky. Vietnam is not known as an amazing place for diving, but it was still such a wonderful feeling to get up close and personal with fish I'd only seen in aquariums. I saw a moray eel, held a starfish and saw the most amazing sea creatures. I did two dives, one at about 5 meters for 45 minutes and the second at 12 meters for about 50 minutes. It was quite the high. Breathing with the oxygen was actually a lot easier than I expected and I felt really safe with the guide. I was lucky, because I was the only one doing the "discover scuba diving" course, I had my own guide. He was great to work with. I hope to get certified either with SSI or a PADI course sometime on this trip so I can continue diving. I can certainly understand the thrill now!
Sunday, I went on the "four islands" tour. It was $6 and included swimming, snorkeling, an all day boat ride, lunch, fruit, a "floating pineapple bar" and more. It was SO touristy but a blast. The lunch was pretty decent for the price, we went to an aquarium (not great, but not horrible), and I met a great group of people: Lisa and Anne from Holland, Kate and Matt from Australia and Darren from England traveling with Sabina from Wales. We had a wonderful time swimming together, watching the "Nha Trang Boy Band" made up of tour guides and staff from two of the boats, and attempting to snorkel. I don't think I've laughed so much in a long time.
Today I'm heading to Chiang Mai via Bangkok for several days of trekking, exploring and having fun. I'll keep the updates and photos coming.
Before I forget, the Vietnamese have an interesting way of kissing friends. They show affection not by kissing on the cheeks but by sniffing. They give you a "sniff" on both sides of your face and often say "I love you". It's wonderful how many people have said "I love you" to me (platonically) here. I feel like I've made so many great new friends. Now, time for Thailand!
The water puppets performance!
Outside the Water Puppets theater.Erika's update
Xin Chao everyone,
I haven't written in a while so I have a lot of updates! Bear with me. I'm almost 3 months into my trip (!) and having a blast. I'm currently in the coastal city of Nha Trang, about halfway between DaNang and Ho Chi Minh City. Yesterday, I took the train down from Tam Ky and I don't think I'll be repeating that experience again. I bought my ticket with a volunteer who speaks substantially more Vietnamese then I do, but we still managed to purchase a "2nd class, hard seat" instead of a "1st class, soft seat". I realized this when I boarded the train, which was already an hour and a half late. The seats are hard, slatted wood and very uncomfortable. I shared my seat with a family. The woman laid on the floor for much of the trip (on newspaper) so her kids could sleep on their seat. This didn't leave me much room for my legs, but I shifted position constantly anyway and sat on my traveling pillow for a lot of the trip. The kids were probably two and a half and seven and were very well behaved with big dark eyes and beautiful smiles. You could tell the woman was very poor. By the look of her bicep muscles, I'd say she was probably a rice field worker or did some heavy labor to earn her income. The ticket was about $6.50 (128,000 dong) and I should have guessed that the ticket was too inexpensive to be a first class ticket. 12 hours later, and with a very stiff neck/back, I arrived in Nha Trang. According to the schedule, we were supposed to arrive at 2:30 but we finally pulled in closer to 7:00 p.m. Oh well, TIV. I found a hotel on a road next to the beach with my own room for $5.50 per night with fan. It was $9.00 for a/c but I decided I'd rather spend that money on a massage today. I'll need it! The little map made the train station look very close to Hung Vuong road, where all the hotels are, but it turned out to be quite a ways. I needed to stretch my legs after that train ride but it was definitely a challenge to find! I was so happy to arrive and get a nice shower. I think next time I'll just take a taxi.
I spent the last two days visiting another GVN placement in Tam Ky. I had a great time visiting their orphanages, playing with little kids and disabled babies and teaching a class at a "fishing village" nearby. I was impressed with how eager the fishing village kids were to learn and participate. I hate to say it, but it was far easier to teach the kids then it was to teach the university students. Teaching a class for two hours where no one willingly participates can be a bit frustrating.
Last weekend, I visited Hoi An for the full moon festival and to visit friends. The festival was low key but fun. I went by myself because the other volunteers were in Hanoi/HaLong Bay/Ninh Binh and in DaNang. I went to a restaurant more popular with the locals than the tourist crowd and struck up a conversation with two expat Brits who left their jobs a few years ago and live all over the world. They are currently living in Hoi An for three months. This is actually quite easy to do in Asia because it's cheaper to live in Asia then it is in England or the U.S. The fact they don't have kids helped ;-) I also had a lovely 90 minute massage with my friend Van, and then we both went to my friend Mai's house for lunch. I was planning to take Mai and Van to lunch for Van's birthday, but when Mai's husband's family found out I was leaving, they drove from DaNang to take us all out for lunch. It was a really nice gesture. They also brought a single friend, and repeatedly told me he was single, but I assured them I'm not on the market. I think I'm going to start telling everyone I have a boyfriend in the US so they stop trying to set me up with all of their friends. I know it's just because they want to keep me here, so it's a compliment. It's still not going to happen (especially with their friend because he was NOT handsome in the least!) I love spending time with Mai and Van, even though we can't always communicate everything. They are wonderful people and great massage therapists! I'll be enjoying massages with them when I come back in November.
I'm done with my volunteer work with GVN for the moment. I still plan to return for a few weeks later in the year because I postponed my last two weeks. I want to switch to the orphanage program for my last two weeks and right now they have a lot of volunteers, so I'll do it later. The last two and a half months have been amazing. I have really enjoyed getting to know the students and teachers and I love DaNang. I received so many beautiful silk scarves as parting gifts that I'll never have to buy another scarf again! I've realized that this volunteer work really is more volun-tourism than volun-teerism, but I still feel like I made some impact. I know I've made some great friends and I got to see a lot of the country. I'm hoping that my next volunteer project is more volunteer than voluntour, so I can experience that too, and I think it will be. I've enjoyed the teaching program, but my heart is really in the children's program. I love playing with the kids, teaching them, working with the disabled ones and, most of all, seeing their smiles. Many of them will never be adopted because they are "too old" and I want to bring them all home with me. They have such wonderful personalities and they seem to be doing okay, considering their situation. At one of the orphanages, a toddler they call "Buddha" came right up to me, arms outstretched. I spent most of the morning holding him and playing with him. Children who don't have parents look for love anywhere, so it doesn't matter if they've never seen you before, they just want love. Before doing this program, I was pretty sure I didn't want children because of the cost of raising them and because I want to work internationally, and children can complicate that. Now I'm sure I do want children, but I want to adopt from another country. Vietnam and the US do not have an adoption agreement, but maybe I can still adopt from here someday.
Next, I'm heading to Ho Chi Minh City for two days of exploring with my friend Rebecca, then I'm flying first to Bangkok then to Chiang Mai (on the same day). I'll be in Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai and Chiang Dao for 10 days to two weeks and then heading to Laos for 2-3 weeks. While in Laos, I'll be visiting the "Butterfly Children" project and hopefully helping out there for a few days. The project was started by my Mom's childhood friend's pediatrician (how about that for degree of separation (!) and when I said I would be there, she invited me to visit. I'll be heading from Ventiane back to Bangkok to visit my cousin Nicki in August and then flying to Phnom Penh to begin my leadership residency on August 15th.
Thanks for all of the emails. I'm glad you are enjoying my updates. Photos to come shortly
Tam biet!
Erika
I haven't written in a while so I have a lot of updates! Bear with me. I'm almost 3 months into my trip (!) and having a blast. I'm currently in the coastal city of Nha Trang, about halfway between DaNang and Ho Chi Minh City. Yesterday, I took the train down from Tam Ky and I don't think I'll be repeating that experience again. I bought my ticket with a volunteer who speaks substantially more Vietnamese then I do, but we still managed to purchase a "2nd class, hard seat" instead of a "1st class, soft seat". I realized this when I boarded the train, which was already an hour and a half late. The seats are hard, slatted wood and very uncomfortable. I shared my seat with a family. The woman laid on the floor for much of the trip (on newspaper) so her kids could sleep on their seat. This didn't leave me much room for my legs, but I shifted position constantly anyway and sat on my traveling pillow for a lot of the trip. The kids were probably two and a half and seven and were very well behaved with big dark eyes and beautiful smiles. You could tell the woman was very poor. By the look of her bicep muscles, I'd say she was probably a rice field worker or did some heavy labor to earn her income. The ticket was about $6.50 (128,000 dong) and I should have guessed that the ticket was too inexpensive to be a first class ticket. 12 hours later, and with a very stiff neck/back, I arrived in Nha Trang. According to the schedule, we were supposed to arrive at 2:30 but we finally pulled in closer to 7:00 p.m. Oh well, TIV. I found a hotel on a road next to the beach with my own room for $5.50 per night with fan. It was $9.00 for a/c but I decided I'd rather spend that money on a massage today. I'll need it! The little map made the train station look very close to Hung Vuong road, where all the hotels are, but it turned out to be quite a ways. I needed to stretch my legs after that train ride but it was definitely a challenge to find! I was so happy to arrive and get a nice shower. I think next time I'll just take a taxi.
I spent the last two days visiting another GVN placement in Tam Ky. I had a great time visiting their orphanages, playing with little kids and disabled babies and teaching a class at a "fishing village" nearby. I was impressed with how eager the fishing village kids were to learn and participate. I hate to say it, but it was far easier to teach the kids then it was to teach the university students. Teaching a class for two hours where no one willingly participates can be a bit frustrating.
Last weekend, I visited Hoi An for the full moon festival and to visit friends. The festival was low key but fun. I went by myself because the other volunteers were in Hanoi/HaLong Bay/Ninh Binh and in DaNang. I went to a restaurant more popular with the locals than the tourist crowd and struck up a conversation with two expat Brits who left their jobs a few years ago and live all over the world. They are currently living in Hoi An for three months. This is actually quite easy to do in Asia because it's cheaper to live in Asia then it is in England or the U.S. The fact they don't have kids helped ;-) I also had a lovely 90 minute massage with my friend Van, and then we both went to my friend Mai's house for lunch. I was planning to take Mai and Van to lunch for Van's birthday, but when Mai's husband's family found out I was leaving, they drove from DaNang to take us all out for lunch. It was a really nice gesture. They also brought a single friend, and repeatedly told me he was single, but I assured them I'm not on the market. I think I'm going to start telling everyone I have a boyfriend in the US so they stop trying to set me up with all of their friends. I know it's just because they want to keep me here, so it's a compliment. It's still not going to happen (especially with their friend because he was NOT handsome in the least!) I love spending time with Mai and Van, even though we can't always communicate everything. They are wonderful people and great massage therapists! I'll be enjoying massages with them when I come back in November.
I'm done with my volunteer work with GVN for the moment. I still plan to return for a few weeks later in the year because I postponed my last two weeks. I want to switch to the orphanage program for my last two weeks and right now they have a lot of volunteers, so I'll do it later. The last two and a half months have been amazing. I have really enjoyed getting to know the students and teachers and I love DaNang. I received so many beautiful silk scarves as parting gifts that I'll never have to buy another scarf again! I've realized that this volunteer work really is more volun-tourism than volun-teerism, but I still feel like I made some impact. I know I've made some great friends and I got to see a lot of the country. I'm hoping that my next volunteer project is more volunteer than voluntour, so I can experience that too, and I think it will be. I've enjoyed the teaching program, but my heart is really in the children's program. I love playing with the kids, teaching them, working with the disabled ones and, most of all, seeing their smiles. Many of them will never be adopted because they are "too old" and I want to bring them all home with me. They have such wonderful personalities and they seem to be doing okay, considering their situation. At one of the orphanages, a toddler they call "Buddha" came right up to me, arms outstretched. I spent most of the morning holding him and playing with him. Children who don't have parents look for love anywhere, so it doesn't matter if they've never seen you before, they just want love. Before doing this program, I was pretty sure I didn't want children because of the cost of raising them and because I want to work internationally, and children can complicate that. Now I'm sure I do want children, but I want to adopt from another country. Vietnam and the US do not have an adoption agreement, but maybe I can still adopt from here someday.
Next, I'm heading to Ho Chi Minh City for two days of exploring with my friend Rebecca, then I'm flying first to Bangkok then to Chiang Mai (on the same day). I'll be in Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai and Chiang Dao for 10 days to two weeks and then heading to Laos for 2-3 weeks. While in Laos, I'll be visiting the "Butterfly Children" project and hopefully helping out there for a few days. The project was started by my Mom's childhood friend's pediatrician (how about that for degree of separation (!) and when I said I would be there, she invited me to visit. I'll be heading from Ventiane back to Bangkok to visit my cousin Nicki in August and then flying to Phnom Penh to begin my leadership residency on August 15th.
Thanks for all of the emails. I'm glad you are enjoying my updates. Photos to come shortly
Tam biet!
Erika
Monday, June 21, 2010
And on the road I go...
This is my last week in DaNang... for the moment. I know I will return here many times again in the future. I have to, I've made so many wonderful connections and relationships with people here. Last weekend, I went to Hoi An, but spent most of my time visiting my new friends there. I visited my Vietnamese "daughter" Ginger and "sister" Mai (Ginger's mother) and Minh and her daughter Nha and Van (who gave me an amazing massage) and Mai's family.Photos from top right: Vocational College teachers Tai, Lien and me. Center: One of the tailors with me with many bolts of fabric behind us. Bottom left: Tai and me on one of the bridges in Hoi An
Bottom right: One of the tailors showing me how they kill the silk worm to get the silk (my silk blouse wasn't looking so great as I watched the silk worm s wriggle in their cocoons in the hot water).
On Thursday, two teachers took Rebecca and me to Hoi An (yes, twice in two days!) and we had a wonderful afternoon there. They took us to the best place in the city for Banh Xeo (similar to Vietnamese spring rolls), which are a local specialty and took us to a tailor to pick out a gift as a thank you for everything we've done for their country. They kept saying it was so wonderful that we came to help their country, but I wanted to tell them that no, I should be thanking them! I've had such an amazing experience here. I can't wait to come back!
Next Sunday (6/27), I leave DaNang and head down the coast of Vietnam to Tam Ky, Tuy Hoa, Nha Trang and finally to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). I will be training volunteer teachers on a new spreadsheet system and a new teacher training job manual I created with input from Rebecca, who is a teacher trainer in New Zealand, and other volunteers. I'm excited to visit the other "placements" and meet other volunteers. I'll be in each city for about two days and then I'll meet Rebecca in Ho Chi Minh for two days before I fly out to Bangkok and Chang Mai in Thailand on July 6th!From July 6th-August 6th I'll be in northern Thailand and northern Laos. I plan to visit Chang Mai, Chiang Dao, Chang Rai and villages around them in Thailand and then will cross the border to Laos and go all over Thailand, hitting the major cities of Luang Prabang and Ventiane during my time there. I'll keep updating my blog regularly!
Here are a few photos from the last two weeks:
1) The amazing mixed fruit tart at Cargo Club in Hoi An. This dessert includes fresh kiwi, mango, dragonfruit and strawberries. It is to die for.
3) Several of the volunteers at Cargo Club. From left: Andrea, Kaye, Ellen, Andrea (2), Patrick, Lisa, Henry, Jessica and me. There are a few others whose names I don't know in there as well.
Hue Photos from Rebecca's camera
1) A spectacular Hue sunset after a storm
2) A volunteer dressed up during the Hue festival
3) My gargoyle. I call him Pete.
4) Tommy, a volunteer who was incredibly excited when he learned Rebecca and I teach at Duy Tan University, where he went to college. He asked us to take photos with him and send him the photos after. It was cute ;-)
5) They had this strange exhibit of technicolor Popsicle-looking things, lit up cartoon characters and Winnie the Pooh. TIV (This is Vietnam).
6) Rebecca and I went on a personal river cruise and watched a dragonboat race from the water. It was a lot of fun. This is Rebecca on the boat.
7) Me on the boat. This is also a family's home so there were lots of kids swimming up to the boat, hopping on for a bit then jumping back in the water.
8) The aforementioned family. The kids were cute but very energetic!
9) Go teal team go! (They won)
10) Dragon boats ahoy!
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Life in the fast lane
Photos: 1&3) Hoi An at night; 2) Me with my "niece" Ginger; 4) The view from our hotel (the Hoi An Pacific); 5) Our group at the beach; 6) Mai, Ginger and me; 7) A round fishing boat; 8) An Bang beach; 9) Our hotel pool; 10-13) our day at the beach with the kids from social support; 14-15) volunteers Brigette with Tam and Kaye with Khan at the beach
The photos below are from my trip two weekends ago to Hoi An, which is about 20 miles away from my house. I went with one of the other university volunteers, Rebecca, who works in New Zealand, has lived in Melbourne and Istanbul and grew up in England. We had a great time and were able to stay in a beautiful hotel for only $30 per night! My friends Mai and Jen arranged a special volunteer discount for us. It's usually $70-80 per night. The breakfast was amazing and so was the pool. We also received 50% off coupons for massages and I got a 90 minute massage for $15. You can't really
beat that! We had a great time visiting friends, including my friend Mai and her new baby Ginger, relaxing at the beach and exploring more of Hoi An. This is definitely my favorite place to spend my weekends! 
I am leaving in two weeks and the reality is suddenly hitting me... hard. Vietnam has become my home and now I am leaving. I decided to postpone my last two weeks of volunteer work to either November or January, partially because I don't want to face the idea of not living here again and partially because I want something I can return to if I become too exhausted from constant travel.
Tonight I went out to look for dinner and realized that I'm finally feeling really comfortable here. For a while I was nervous about going to get food without a Vietnamese-speaking person because as an "an chay" (vegetarian), I was worried about conveying that I don't eat meat. Tonight I went out on my own and got a banh mi (Vietnamese sandwich), banh bao (Vietnamese dumpling), an orange and a mango, all from people who didn't speak a word of English, and all for under $1.00. I asked for an an chay banh mi and the woman put two spreads on it then started to wrap it up. I asked her to put some cucumber and herbs on it, but she protested in Vietnamese. I told her I did really want them so she added a little. I got home, added some cucumber and tomato and some chili sauce (my Vietnamese obsession) and bit into it. It turns out my an chay banh mi had peanut butter, sugar and jelly. She was trying to tell me that the vegetables wouldn't work with it. Amazingly, the combination was absolutely delicious (nam qua)! The sweetness of the jam combined with the veggies and chili sauce created a really tasty sandwich.
I've discovered more Vietnamese dishes that I love. Banh bao are amazing. They are steamed rice buns filled with either mung beans (sweet beans), pork and egg or just solid dough. I love taking them apart and giving my meat-eating friends the meat inside and then eating the dough. I have to be careful about the calories, but oh my god they are delicious. Ban kiep, or Vietnamese pancakes are also really tasty. Last night, I had some of my friend's fried aubergine (eggplant), which was seasoned with garlic and spices and pan-fried. I don't usually like eggplant, but this one was perfectly flavored. I think I could eat my way through Vietnam very easily. I love to try the Pho (pronounced fuh-uh), in each city, because they all have a different combination. They all have broth, rice noodles and meat (which I eat around), but some have lots of veggies, some have none, others are spicy and some are more mild in flavor. The regional differences in food can be quite marked.
I decided last week that I'm starting to get burned out from the amount of teaching I'm doing, so for the next two weeks, I'm splitting my time between the orphanage program and the teaching program. Last Wednesday, I took some of the orphan kids to the beach with several other volunteers. We got caught in a torrential rainstorm but it was still a lot of fun. The giggles and smiles of the children were so wonderful. I don't think I've ever seen children so happy from something so simple. They frolicked in the water and jumped off a little pier. On Friday, five other volunteers and I took
three of the disabled kids from "social support" to another beach. One of them has cerebral palsy, one has down syndrome and the third has another mental disability and he never speaks. They were all clearly enjoying the water and the opportunity to be out of their home for a while. I love teaching, but spending time with the orphanage program makes me feel like I'm really contributing to the happiness of other people.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
About Me
- Erika
- My life goal is to visit a minimum of one country for every year of my life. If I live to be 100, then I hope to visit 100 countries! My first goal is to visit 30 countries by the end of my 30th year in February 2014. This blog will chronicle my journeys.
