Cem and Tam's Trip

4/11/03 - 4/13/03

We landed into Chao Doc, our first stop in Vietnam around 3pm. Our original plan had been to go straight on through to the larger Mekong city of Cantho. But we were both a little tired and since I was just recently coming over a cold, we decided to take a pit stop here.

I enjoyed our stay in Chao Doc, because unlike many of our recent stops, this was definitely not a big tourist destination. And although right on the border with Cambodia, this was a very Vietnamese town. Chao Doc is situated along the Mekong River and several of its smaller arms. The river is flush with boat traffic traveling up and down, and across the river to the other side. The river banks are filled with floating houses of all sizes. Although people live in them, these “houses” are actually fish farms and have nets and/or cages underneath them. Our guesthouse had a good view of the river and the town itself also made for some great pictures.

Some Initial Observations:

The Market for Mopeds / Infrastructure: Pretty much everywhere we have been in Southeast Asia has had a lot of moped traffic, but Vietnam takes it to the next level. This must be a dream for a CEO of a moped company. The number of cars to mopeds on the streets seems something like 50/1. When you look around, Vietnam is still definitely a very poor country. But one thing I will have to give credit to the government is that they seem to have done a pretty good job with the country’s infrastructure. Most of the roads actually seem pretty par with those of Thailand’s (and those of smaller towns in Turkey), a much wealthier country.

Economic Vibrancy: There is a lot of energy in Vietnam today. None of the sleepiness that we saw in Laos and even more energy on the streets then in Thailand and Cambodia. I see a lot of economic potential in Vietnam, of course unless the government starts to impede it even more. But since the end of the cold war, Vietnam seems to have started taking a much more pragmatic approach to its economy, although there hasn’t been any let up of the authoritarian nature of its government.

English Speaking Cyclo Drivers: A cyclo is basically a bike with a one or two person carriage on it for passengers. The minute you step out of your guesthouse, restaurant etc or just walk down the street, there are tens of them trying to catch your attention by waving, whistling or just cutting you off. Many of the older cyclo drivers have a very high level of English. According to the Lonely Planet, this is because many of them were doctors, bureaucrats, teachers etc. during the South Vietnamese government and are now not allowed to return to their old jobs or own property. So now they have become cyclo drivers for tourists as well as the locals. I guess that still beats being in a reeducation camp somewhere.

Hammock Cafes: An interestingly common sight in smaller towns/areas of Vietnam are café’s that have 10-30 hammocks in them for their customers. You don’t have to pay anything extra for them, all you need is to order a drink or some food. Many of them are located in places overlooking a good view. We actually had started seeing a couple of these in Cambodia, but Vietnam is definitely where they are most common.

Great Food and Variety: I have been looking forward to the food is Vietnam and it has not disappointment. Filled with fish farms and fishing fleets, this area is specially good for sea food. I also had my first avocado shake here, which was actually very good and unlike my fears, did not taste like guacomole (spelling?) juice! Unlike I’m sure what Tam will do later, I am not going to write pages about the food, but it looks like I will probably be putting on some pounds here.

Besides just walking around the busy town, we took a trip to Sam’s Mountain (on a cyclo) which is about five km outside of Chao Doc. Since we are in the Mekong Delta now, the geography is extremely flat… except for this one hill that sticks out on the border called Sam’s Mountain. We went to Sam’s Mountain mostly for the views but also to visit some of the temples on its foothills. The temples were interesting because they were, well, very colorful and seemed to hold a mish mash of images from the Chinese, Indians and Christians. Since we were there on a Sunday, the area was also packed with local tourists/visitors. We ended up walking up the concrete steps to the top of the hill (unfortunately during the hottest part of the day) to check out the view of the area. Basically the entire way up is filled with cafes (most of them of the hammock variety I mentioned earlier) and small temples. This place is definitely geared towards local tourists. Along the way its filled with Disneyeseque statues of mermaids, ponies and other weird images. And its packed with camera man taking pictures of Vietnamese children, couples and families in front of them. A pretty funny sight really. The view was not really spectacular from the top, but a interesting to see all of the rice paddies and just how flat it is all around us.

I think another thing worth mentioning about this city is that it has a really big and dense daily (mostly food but also other products) market right in the middle of it, which made for interesting walks. We woke up early after our second night to take a minibus to our next stop: Cantho.

4/13/03 - 4/14/03

Unfortunately, our trip to Cantho started off with probably the worst minibus rides we’ve had on this trip. And trust me, we have been some pretty bad ones. They ended up stuffing the vehicle to the brink of explosion (at some point there were 30+ people on it). Plus we struggled to keep track of our backbacks. After one of the woman on the minibus almost had her bag yanked out of her bag at one of the stops, we decided to be even more diligent about this. I wish we could have found a way to make the trip down on a boat instead. If this is what transport is like in Vietnam, I think I may want to see the rest of the coutry with with tours…

Cantho, again on the Mekong river and several of its branches, was a much bigger city then Chao Doc. Our main interest in coming here was to do a boat trip up the river and visit a floating market. We arranged a trip with a woman for the next morning. (It seems that a disproportionate number of captains are actually woman.) Not a whole lot to see in the city itself. We walked around town some, but called it an early night since we had to wake up around 5:30am to take our boat ride.

It took us about an hour’s ride up the river (small boat with not a very powerful engine) to get to the floating market. The trip up was fun in itself but the market was incredibly interesting. The market is basically hundreds of boats, both small and large, congregated in a wider part of the river. Once you go into it, its very difficult to get out. There is definitely a lot of bumper boat action going on in the middle of it. Some boats are anchored, others float from one to the other. It seemed to be mostly a bulk buyers market. I think most of the fruits and vegetables that you see in the day markets in Cantho are purchased in the floating market. Then there are the even smaller vendor boats selling anything from noddles soup to refreshments that pull up to next to you. There was even one that only seemed to sell only lottery tickets (more to come on this subject later). Definitely a very worthwhile experience.

We left in the afternoon to take another minibus ride, this time to Saigon. The experience, compared to Chao Doc, was definitely better, but still somewhere at the bottom of the list.

Traffic: I had mentioned earlier that I was impressed with the better-then-what-I-expected road infrastracture in Vietnam. However, Vietnam also has some of the worst traffic conditions I have ever seen in my life. Its makes driving in Turkey seem like Switzerland. Even intercity roads are still filled with tons of people crossing the roads on foot or pushing their carts across, mopeds, tractors and anything other motored and sell-powererd vehicle that you can imagine. City traffic is another complete mess. Intersections are total chaos with people coming and exiting from every conceivable direction. Hardly any of them have traffic lights to help guide the flow. And who ever thought that roundabouts would be appropriate for Vietnames cities has a zero IQ.

(Tam: And the drivers here are even crazier than Thai, Italian and Turkish drivers! No discernible road rules. As long as you avoid getting hit, that’s what determines where you go. And not everyone avoids getting hit. Animals, even people, just walk right in the middle of the roads! People drive on the wrong side of the street against oncoming traffic. They flip a U-turn whenever they feel like it and think that a measly hand signal entitles them to do so since they had signaled their intentions. And Vietnamese drivers are severely addicted to speed! – which makes for very dangerous travel conditions.)

It Could Be You: There is a big lottery ticket craze going on in Vietnam. The streets are full of people of all ages (5-70) selling them. Thankfully, we generally seem to be exempt from the sales process here but any Vietnamese sitting at a Café will often be berated every 2-3 minute or so. But don’t get me wrong, there are definitely a fair number of sales going on here.

4/14/03 - 4/19/03

Ho Chi Minh City (or Saigon as most people in the south still call it) for me was an interesting city. Unfortunately, we ended up staying there probably three days too long. At fault was mostly my need to get a U.S. tourist visa to visit some of the MBA programs I has been accepted to in May. It's always a hassle being a Turk! We also weren't able to get flights on the day we wanted to go to Phuc Quoc. All of this would have been fine, if Saigon had not turned into a city looking to rip off tourists at almost every turn. Without an active tourism police like the one in Thailand, it even easily surpasses Bangkok. I think this bothered Tam even more then me. I was determined not to let the actions of a few effect my judgement of the entire country. (I am really glad about this too, because since then I have really liked the people in the rest of the country.)

Another really annoying thing we had to deal with was my visa to Vietnam. Tam and I had both applied for a one month visa in Cambodia. For some reason, unbeknownst to me at the time, the embassy gave me a different class of visa that only permitted me to stay in the country for 15 days. And this particular type of visa could not be extended and required me to get a new one which cost $55 and took a week! So we had to leave my passport in Saigon, which means at the end of this trip, I need to return there to pick it up. It's also a hassle traveling without a passport since they ask for it at all airports and hotels. At some point, I got frustrated enough with the whole visa situation to just say forget it, let's just leave. In the end, I decided to work through the problem, and in retrospect, I am glad I did.

I think one of the best things we did in Saigon was a day trip to the Cu Chu Tunnels and the main Cao Dai Temple in Tay Ninh. When we woke up in the morning to catch our tour, we found out the Caodai temple part of our trip had been cancelled due to lack of demand. (Tam: Bad business....when will the Vietnamese learn...) We were pretty ticked off and demanded a refund for our trip. Fortunately, we were able to negotiate with a taxi driver to do a private tour. Our driver turned out to be really nice and although he didn't speak any English, Tam acted as the translater and was able to get a lot of local information out of him.

The Cao Dai religion is a new one, having recently been started in the beginning of the 20th century. It's estimated to have about 3 million followers, mostly in the south of the country. Cao Dai seems to have blended the universal components (and many of the customs) of the main eastern and western religions (Christianity, Buddhism, Taoism etc.) prevalent in Vietnam. What you get is somewhat of an odd mis-mash of beliefs and traditions. About the same time of our visit, I was reading Graham Green's book Quiet American , whose description, although pretty cynical, is difficult to disagree with:

Cadoism, the invention of a Cochin civil servent, was a synthesis of the three religions (he is refering to Budhism, Confucianism and Christianity). The Holy See (the Vatican of Cadoism), was at Taynin. A Pope and female cardinals. Prophecy by planchette. Saint Victor Hugo (no really, Victor Hugo has been considered a saint ever since he started showing up frequently to Cad Dai spiritual seances). Christ and Buddha looking down from the roof of the Cathedral on a Walt Disney fantasia of the East, dragons and snakes in technicolor.

I think one of the other interesting symbols in Cadoism is the eye set inside a triangle with rays coming out of it. It eerily resembles the picture on the back of the dollar bill. Which, as the Lonely Planets asks, brings about the unanswered question why is therea Cao Dai symbol on the back of the U.S. dollar! At noon, we were allowed to observe the daily mass, when the monks and nuns pray together. It was pretty interesting, although not that distinguishable from many of the Budhist ones I have seen to date. (Tam: It's definitely a very colorful temple - somewhat surreal.)

In the afternoon, we drove to the Cu Chu tunnels. These tunnels are remanants of an extensive (280 km long in the Chu Chi area alon) network of Viet Cong (VC) tunnels about 30 km outside of Saigon. "The network, parts of which were seveal storeys deep, included innumberable trap doors, specially constructed living areas, storage facilities, weapons factories, field hospitals, command centers and kitchens." The Americans felt the VC threat in the area serious enough to build a large base to clear the area of their influence. It took them some time for them to realize that they had built their base on top of a portion of the tunnels - right smack in the middle! It cost the Americans many lives, bombs and time before they were able to eradicate the VC from the area. By the time they did, it was already too late, the U.S. had begun to decrease its military commitment to Vietnam.

Visiting the tunnels themselves really makes you see the determination of the VC to fight off the Americans. The tunnels, although extensive, are tiny crawl holes and most have offered terrible living conditions. The feeling of clastrophia hit me immediatly. I can't imagine what it would feel like to be inside when B-52 bombs were being dropped overhead, or when pressured water and napalm like burning chemicals were sprayed inside, etc. This was a nightmare situation for many American soldiers as well. The army sent in what were colloquially known as "tunnels rats" (mostly people of smaller frame to be able to effectively move underground) inside the tunnels. Not only were causalities really high among them, but these people suffered some of the most traumatic psychological problems in the war afterwards...

Anyway, besides the history lessons (Tam: and the war seen from Viet Cong perspective) we learned, the Cu Chu tunnels also offer tourists the opportunity to shoot AK-47s and M-16s ($1 a bullet). Surprisingly, even Tam was game for this. (Tam: my first time ever shooting a gun! if you're going to do something, do it in style....) Although promoting gun tourism was not an idea either one of us were very keen on, when again would we ever get the chance to do something like this again. Unfortunately I must admit, although my first inclination was to hit the ground, there was something attractive in seeing Tam take aim and shoot an M-16. Unlike the Turkish army, they actually provided us with DJ like ear muffs. But I still walked away feeling like I had just left a rock concert.

Another visit worth mentioning was the War Remnants Museum, recently renamed from Museum of American and Chinese War Crimes, to I suppose be more politically correct. The museum consisted mostly of gruesome pictures (many of them were actually from U.S. journalists and sources) and some left over U.S. weaponry. Still it was a good place to see the horrific effects and events of modern day warfare.

Change in Saigon (Tam) Vietnam has changed significantly since my first visit 5 years ago. Take Saigon for instance. Saigon now has skyscrapers! High-rise commercial buildings and luxury hotels. Five years ago, Saigon was about 3 or 4 stories high and one of the nicest hotels in Saigon was the Continental (as it was 30 years ago when the Americans were here). Now, many top international hotel chains have been or are staking out their territories, such as the Sheraton and Hilton. Citibank has opened an office in "downtown" (yes there is now a "downtown") Saigon and many other top interantional corporate banks have opened a Saigon branch. There’s also venture capital firms here too. It was quite a weird feeling for me to see so many high-rises, so many commercial high-rises, and even luxury condominium high-rises (presumably for expats). Five years ago, Saigon was a massive construction zone. I remember seeing many signs with pictures of what the construction firms were building and estimated completion dates. Many were joint ventures with Japanese firms, which I had thought was interesting, since I had come straight from a semester abroad in Japan studying economic development. One more interesting thing I notice was how many people there were! Five years ago, I remember reading the statistic that 10 million people lived in Saigon and I remember thinking to myself, where are "these 10 million" people. This time around, there was such a buzz of activity – buying & selling – a buzz of hustling & bustling, of people trying to make money. Before I felt that people were trying to eke out a living rather than trying to make money. Things have change quite dramatically. I had a long coversation with our taxi driver during our day trip to Cao Dai temple and Cu Chi tunnels. He told me that standard of living has definitely risen since America lifted its trade embargo on Vietnam – roughly 10 years ago. Living conditions have definitely improved.

I also noticed the effects of tourism in Saigon. Before the budget accomodations area, Pham Ngu Lao, was quite small – now it’s grown. This is where most "Westerner or Foreigner’" stay if they are not staying in a luxury hotel. There’s much more choice now in the budget accomodation bracket – we stayed at a nice two star hotel room with air condition for $10. Many of the guesthouses have grown to mini-hotels, a uniquely Vietnamese phenomenon. Basically the plots of land are quite small and Vietnamese people are used to building 3-4 story homes with a store front on the bottom story. These homes have been demolished and 6-10 story skinny rectangular mini-hotels have sprung up in its place in the budget accomodation areas.

Ben Thanh, central Saigon’s largest, market still looks the same. However the quality of arts and crafts in some of the stalls have definitely gone down as the Vietnamese take to producing mass-produced tourist souvenirs (junk really – I’m definitely not one for cheap mass-produced souvenirs). The area around Ben Thanh market has definitely seen a change in the type of shops – lots more souvenir shops than before. I also noticed that beggars and sidewalk peddlers (salespeople walking down streets with goods) have moved from tourist locations such as Notre Dame Cathedral to Pham Ngu Lao area. Unfortunately, Saigon has become like Bangkok – lots of aggressive and pushy salespeople (some quite mean and will curse you if you don’t buy), lots of people trying to rip you off, trying all sorts of scams on you. Basically, one has to be on one’s toes – which is not what you would want from a "vacation".

Some Random Thoughts/Information:

Tam is Thai, Tam is Laotian, Tam is Cambodian: But she may not be Vietnamese. Pretty much in every country we have visited in Southeast Asia, almost everybody immediately assumed that Tam was from the country we were traveling in. It has definitely brought about a lot of stares from people, as well as confused attempts at communication with her. But funnily enough, a good percentage of the time, people in Vietnam don’t think that she is Vietnamese. They have even asked her why she knows how to speak Vietnamese. I joke with her that maybe she was adopted from one of the other countries, but she doesn’t seem to find it very funny. Realistically, I think one of the main reasons may be that she is pretty dark right now from all the sun we have seen. The Vietnamese, like the Chinese, prefer "fair-skinned" (like my friend Jingles!) women and Vietnamese women go extra lengths to not tan.

Indian Influence in the Region: The influence of the Chinese in Southeast Asia is evident in every country that we visited. Being the giant up north, this was not surprising or unexpected. In the Malaysian peninsula, there is still a very large Chinese minority that have maintained their heritage. In Vietnam, many of the ethnic Chinese were effectively expelled after the Communist reunification of the country. However, the Chinese influence over the Vietnamese culture is hard to miss in the cuisine, architecture, etc. After all, Vietnamese history includes a very long period (1000+ years) of Chinese domination.

I think one thing I had not realized prior to this trip is the importance of the Indian cultural influence in Southeast Asia. This may seem pretty obvious just considering the majority of the population is Buddhist, which originated in India. However, the influence goes behind this. When you take a close look at much of the religious architecture in the region, there is a strong resemblance to Hindu temples. Not surprising I suppose if you consider that for instance, the famous Anghor Wat in Cambodia was originally built as a Hindu temple. Also the same with the original Cham culture in central Vietnam. Perhaps this is a well known sociological fact, but Tam and I found this to be interesting...

Disturbing Traffic Statistic for Saigon: The crazy Motorbike situation does have its toll on the population. Apparently approximately 6 people a day die on the streets of Saigon in motorbike related accidents…

Flight vs. Buses: After our miserable bus experience in the south, with domestic flights so cheap, and the distances between many of the Vietnamese sites so large, we have decided to fly more within Vietnam. Maybe it's just because we are at the end of this trip and we are getting lazy as well. But it’s definitely taken a tremendous amount of the traveling stress away…

SARS: The SARS outbreak, which we first heard about from Jason over a month ago, is something that has weighed down on our trip recently. (I get an email about this everyother day or so from my Mother, and less frequently from many of my friends.) We even strongly considered leaving out Vietnam altogether. Although the outbreak in Vietnam has been very limited and mostly in the Hanoi area, the scare has been that some of the good hospitals in the region have been quarantined. That, as the U.S. Embassy here warned, makes it difficult to get good medical attention for any condition. Anyway, we decided to at least go ahead with a visit to the south of the country, deciding on the north based on what happens with the outbreak. On April 28th the World Health Organization declared Vietnam to be the first country that has contained the outbreak. Obviously this may not be permanent. But I am glad we decided to not leave out the entire country all together.

4/19/03 - 4/23/03

Phuc Quoc Island is a beautiful in the south of Vietnam, in the Gulf of Thailand. It's actually closer to Cambodia then it is to Vietnam. (The Cambodians claim the island as theirs, which of course the Vietnamese disagree with. I assume because of this, although not a very big island, a significant part of the island is set aside for various Vietnamese military bases.)

I had never heard of this island until Tam started mentioning that she wanted to go there. It turns out that this island is apparently very famous among the Vietnamese. But not for what you would expect. The island is also the site of the famous Phuc Quoc Fish Sauce factory. I know, it's an odd reason to want to go there, right? But reading up on it and seeing some of the pictures at travel agencies made me agreeable. Besides, I also found out that you could now go diving on the island.

Well, the island was definitely very pretty. Unfortunately though, we realized that we are both getting really jaded about beaches. Other people we spoke with couldn't stop raving about how great it was there. But compared to the Perhentians and some beaches in southeren Thailand, I don't think either of us really thought the island was all that. One exception was Bai Sau beach in the south of the island. Unfortunately, it's somewhat difficult to find and there isn't many places to stay near by. But the white sands and the pristine waters here were pretty first class. (Tam: Bai Sau is one of the prettiest, if not the prettiest, beach in Vietnam and is one of the most spectacular beaches we have visited.) Still not sure if this pushes up the islands status for me though. But the island definitely had a much better vibe than Saigon. (I am starting to realize that almost everywhere in Vietnam has a better vibe than Saigon.)

We rented a moped for half a day and drove to the south of the island. With very little traffic on the roads, this was actually a good place to practice. (Tam: The last time Cem rented a moped, I ended up with a bad case of whiplash!) There is alot of construction going on along the beach front properties. I think both the island people and Saigon investors have woken up to the immense tourist potential of the island. I expect that it will be a much different place over the next several years.

I did not end up diving here when I heard that visibility was around 6 meters and that it cost $75 for two dives...

So all in all, I was glad we had made plans to only stay 2 1/2 days here. Although we actually ended up staying a day more when we missed our flight to Saigon. I am not going to point any fingers as to whose fault that this was... Lets just say that is wasn't mine. (Tam: Yep, it's all my fault. I cut it a bit close. However if the hotel didn't screw up the taxi order, we would have made it. So maybe not completely my fault. But I should have known better. After all, this is Vietnam. You can't expect much and I should have known better. Thus, all my fault....)

4/23/03 - 4/25/03

A day late, we flew to Nha Trang. I had been excited about this stop for some time, because it was also going to be where I did my last diving on this trip. Nha Trang is described in the Lonely Planet as being the "premier" diving spot in Vietnam.

Flying over the city as we prepared to land, it's easy to see why this town has become such a popular vacation spot. The town is surrounded on three sides by mountains and one side by a long beach/ocean front. The beach is wide and goes on for several miles. The bay is filled with many small islands. The water is a beautiful blue, and offers 20-30 meter visibility. Our first afternoon there, after signing up for a dive for the next day, we took a walk down the beach. The beach was relatively full, but more so with the Vietnamese than with tourists. I think SARS has a strong role in this. Since it's an ocean coast, there are actually pretty big waves. It was fun seeing the crowds of Vietnamese kids, couples, families, friends, etc. playing and getting tossed in the waves. It's unfortunate, but you don't generally see large groups of people in South East Asia having such simple, genuine fun very often.

Nha Trang beach is full of walking vendors. Normally, this can get very annoying. But here, the people were actually pretty nice. For example, neither of us were able to turn down an old woman selling some tasty, steamed crab on the beach. The cost was pretty much a joke - $2/crab.

My dive here was probably the only disappointment. The visibility was, as advertisted, amazingly good. But this doesn't do very much when there aren't too many fish to look at! It sounds like in the competition between dive shops in Nha Trang and the local fisherman, the fisherman have been able to more effectively keep the law on their side. Dynamite fishing, practiced legally here, doesn't do much to maintain a marine environment. (Tam: Besides dynamite fishing, there's cyanide fishing, drag net fishing, etc....and about half the catch isn't even edible. What makes dyamite fishing even more horrible than the other methods is that it destroys everything in the surrounding area, such as corals.) A shame. But the trip was still a good boat ride in itself, providing an opportunity to see some of the islands in the bay.

Although definitely a fun and relaxing stop, we decided at this point that neither of us really needed to spend more time at a beach. We decided to leave a day earlier then I had originally intended and flew to Danang. (Tam: Unfortunately I am getting a bit lazy about traveling these days. Since it's the end of the trip and since I've already traveled through this part of the woods, I am not as concerned to "hit all the spots" as I would be if I hadn't traveled through here. Thus, I am not reading "the bible" as much. It wasn't until we left that I realized that Cem missed out some pretty cool ruins, salt farms, and pretty overlooks that would have been interesting to have seen. Oops!)

4/25/03 - 4/28/03

4/28/03 - 4/30/03

4/30/03 - 5/02/03

5/2/03 - 5/4/03

Our last stop in Vietnam and my last trip in Southeast Asia. After our trip to Halong Bay, I actually started contemplating of leaving out Sapa. What a mistake that would have been. I think its safe to say that Sapa will be one of the highlights of my trip in Vietnam.

We signed up for a three day, four night (two nights in overnight train, one night homestay in a Red Dzao village, one night in a hotel with scenic view) trip to Sapa with Fansipan, the same company we had signed up for our Halong Bay trip. Our itinery consisted of first coming into Lao Cai (border town with China) after an overnight train from Hanoi. We took a soft sleeper train with AC. This would have overall been an unmemerable trip for both of us if it hadn't been for the fact that we both frooze because they jacked up the AC to freezer cold. Afterwards we took a 1 1/2 hour minibus ride up the mountains to Sapa. I started getting excited just on the way into Sapa because the views were already unbelievable and we started to seeing hill tribe people whereing their traditional clothes. That was one negative about our hilltribe trek in Thailand had been that so few of the villagers actually wear their traditional clothes anymore.

Tam and I were the only people signed up for our tour. Our guide, Tuan, turned out to be quite an interesting character himself.

Tuan was soft spoken and easily likeable. Some of the things we learned from Tuan:

Tuan grew up in poverty in a small village about 80km outside of Hanoi. He started working in his parent's farm by the time he was six. His parents however, believed in the importance of education and sent him to school. He said he never really studied until he was in high school when I decided to get his act together. He successfully finished school and was accepted to university in Hanoi. He studied social sciences and also learned Chinese and English (which was quite good). His first job was to work as a waiter in a "prostitute nightclub", a place he said where there were more than 200 working women with mostly a Japanese, Korean and Taiwanese clientale. He moved on to a more socially acceptable job by moving to Sapa to become a guide.

Our hotel was owned by a mafia. He said that if he quit, he would never be able to work in another hotel or start his own business in Sapa. He would just have to pack up and leave. Infact, our tour company tried to change the hotel it worked with but was unable to because none of the other hotels accepted. A couple of times the police came around asking questions about them, but they left summarily after being bribed by the hotel. Despite all this, our hotel was actually very nice with great views.

He actually dislikes doing the treks organized by our tour company! I think if it weren't for the fact that he was so likeable, I may actually have thought that this was kind of negative for him to tell us that. One of the reasons is because our trek actually does an overnight stay in a village that is very far away (6 hours hike), and that is still very, very undeveloped. (Most Vietnamese continue to really look down on the Hill Tribes people.) He said he always had a problem sleeping at night because of the fleas in the homes he stayed in. (This was the not so happy part of my trek when I realized that he didn't have any sleeping bags/or sheets with us.) And for all this additional discomfort to him, he was not paid anymore than all the other trip he had to do. People in Vietnam (especially in the north), view the "American War" as not being a civil war, but a war against colonilism.

Anyway, back to the trek itself. Trekking in Sapa was just an unbelievable experience. First the scenery. Basically a beautiful valley surrounded by high mountains. Since the area was filled with many different groups of hilltribes (the Hmong, the Dzao etc.), much of the area was set up as terraced farm land for rice. Add in some forests, water falls, beautiful views. But besides just the scenery, the best part was walking and coming accross the many villagers of the various hilltribes.