Vietnam

First, one for Steve, who will be arriving in a couple of days! Orange on orange!

(note the intense bambgoo scaffolding on the construction site in the background).













I have to leave and reenter Indonesia every 60 days or so for my visa, so I chose to go to Vietnam last month to visit my friend Elisa (from Evergreen). She was working on a research project involving Agent Orange, dioxins, and the state of things these days. I slept in the Kuala Lumpur airport on a layover.

This is where I slept, on the grass. My yardmates were Israeli and Polish.










If anyone ever needs an overnight layover in Malaysia, I highly recommend the KL airport. It's the best hostel in town! There must have been 300 of us overnighters milling about all night, from every corner of the world, sharing benches, yards, and alcoves.

I arrived in Saigon and went to the train station to buy a 12-hour trainride north to Hue, where Elisa was. I had to take a number for the line to buy tickets. I was number 390. "Now serving #290..."

I've always wanted to travel by overnight train! I've had my fill. Not a souls on the train that I met spoke English and Vietnamese is not a language you learn in a few days (tonal).

This was one of my bunkmates, an obnoxious boy who had no qualms about crawling all over, yelling, slamming the door, and periodically staring at me for 20-minute spells. He looks cute in a still photo doesn't he?

Upon arrival in Hue I went to the Hotel where Elisa was. I got a 4th floor room. My balcony overlooked the public pool. The pool played dance hall remixes from about 6am to 10pm every day. I awoke some mornings to "Who let the dogs out?!" Thumpety thumpety thumpety thump...

Hue is the old imperial city, in the middle of Vietnam. It is near the demilitarized zone, the dividing line between the conflicting regions during the War. It was hit hard, but much of the amazing architecture and relics still stand, plus a few War artifacts.

Elisa introduced me to Nyoc Mia. Sugarcane juice! These women have stands all over Hue and for about $0.50 switch on their machine and press sugarcane through it with a little lime or orange. By the end of my week in Hue I was up to 3 or 4 glasses a day. Oh, so refeshing.

Elisa and I at a Pagoda.

In the old imperial city, a semi-preserved section of Hue where the old dynasties sat, these big frog things are scattered about. I don't know their purpose, but they seem to have successfully bred themselves all over the grounds.

This is Tia, one of the workers at the hotel where Elisa and I stayed. She took a liking to both of us and one day she and her friend put us on their motorbikes and gave us a great little tour of the nearby pagodas and such. We all went to dinner and they showed us "how" to eat Vietnamese food (which is incredible...but confusing).

Elisa on the roof next to our hotel balcony; sunset over Hue. Hard to believe if I'd been born a few decades earlier I might have been dropping bombs here.

Chnese remnants in the imperial city.

It looks like a chicken, but it's a giant foam-and-metal phoenix. It's getting overgrown, but two years ago Australian and Vietnamese artists created this 20-foot tall bird and a matching dragon for a parade.

Tia and I, saying goodbye and the ubiquitous victory "V".

Her friend (whose name escapes me right now). She's so short that we could get a good framing for the photo.

Elisa and I bussed to Hoi An, east and south of Hue, near Da Nang. We rented a motorbike at left at 5am the next morning to fing the Myson ruins. We buzzed through a trickle of rain that became real rain and got drenched, but the moistness enriched the moss on these ruins.

The ruins were well preserved until the 60's, when Viet Cong used them to hide out in. So they were bombed. Craters are all around, overgrown, and unexploded mines are in the area still.

Some artifacts have been collected by anthropologists and housed in one of the better structures there. It was quiet and misty as we strolled around.

Sanskrit? Some of these obelisks are incredibly legible (if only I could read the language).

Still at Myson ruins, a rich path through the woods.

Then back to Saigon for a day befor I flew back to Bali! I bought an instrument called a Dan Nguyet, which means "moon instrument." It sounds beautiful and looks a bit like a 2 stringed banjo. This is the girl that sold it to me after I spent 3 hours playing every instrument I could.

Kacy leaves in a week, Steve gets here in 2 days and Mike and Tam are here in a week! We've been getting our hands in the dirt and learning acro yoga and permaculture. Potlucks and portraits are sure to come soon!

--Trav--