Good Morning Vietnam!

One thing that we have found common in South East Asia so far is the large numbers of people who are always trying to sell you something, whether it be food, transport, or any manner of useless junk.  This is not surprising, but it can certainly be challenging and frustrating if you are not prepared for it and if you approach the situation with the wrong attitude.

In Hanoi, it was a common sight to see women carrying
their wares on bamboo poles as they travel the streets in
search of buyers.

Aside from the ubiquitous street vendors, Hanoi also had many other sights that were common in the streets.  The streets themselves are often cluttered with traffic.  But unlike cities in North America, there are relatively few cars that contribute to the traffic.  Everyone here has a bicycle or a motorcycle – one of our tour guides at one point joked with us that there are more motorcycles in Vietnam than people, as some people owned more than one motorcycle.  At any rate, as two-wheeled vehicles are the primary mode of transportation for the majority of Vietnamese, you would often see all manner of things being carried by said vehicles.

Baskets, hats, and all manner of straw objects.  You want
it, this man is probably carrying it.

A woman transporting some plants around the
backpacker district of Hanoi.

Yes, it’s a cow on a motorcycle.  Yes, it’s also alive.  Some
may cry foul, but I have three words:  Pot, Kettle, Black.
Livestock back home aren’t exactly living a life of luxury.

Vietnam will forever in my mind be associated with certain images.  Anything and everything on a motorbike is one of them.  In fact, there’s an interesting book that we came across during our travels, called Bikes of Burden by Hans Kemp, which is full of amazing photos detailing all the things you might imagine on a bike, and then plenty more that you wouldn’t imagine as well.

Along with these bikes of burden, I will also forever think of Vietnam whenever I see a conical straw hat.  Not just for the benefit of tourists or for aesthetic reasons, locals wear these hats for very practical reasons – the scorching sun and the constant rain.

Women wearing the traditional conical hats.

In Hanoi, some of the street vendors can be very assertive.  They’re not exactly militant, but they can be very much in your face as one after another, they continue to approach you and ask you to buy something.

A street vendor gave Jen her fruit and hat for a photo-op.
And of course, we bought some fruit from her – great
selling technique!  The fruit was delicious!

I was always polite in declining their advances.  But once I decided to forgo a purchase, I never thought anything more about them.  That was before I visited an exhibit telling the story of street vendors.  Upstairs from the Women’s Museum, there was a very interesting series of photos and stories of street vendors of Hanoi.  It really made me think about each of the people I encountered and how hard they were trying to give their families some food, and their children an education.  The vendors were of all ages, some as young as 15 or 16, others well into their 70s.  The exhibit highlighted such issues as the vendors’ home lives, their hopes for the future, reactions from both vendors and buyers, and several other salient topics.

The exhibit was not large, but each story and each photo
told the tale of someone struggling to make ends meet.

An excerpt from the exhibition:

Most of Hanoi’s street vendors are from rural areas.  They come to the city not because they enjoy the work of selling at the curb, but because they and their families are unable to survive on farming alone.  Many of them will not be able to do this job much longer.

On January 9, 2008, the people’s Committee of Hanoi passed Resolution 02/2008/QD-UBND, which puts constraints on the buying and selling activities in the streets of Hanoi.  According to the Resolution, 62 major streets, historic and cultural beauty spots, as well as other tourist places, will become off limits to street selling.  So how will this resolution affect on life of migrant street vendors and their families?

In the first nine months of 2008, a study group of the Vietnamese Women’s Museum held numerous meetings and interviews with 97 migrant street vendors.  From this group, 33 people agreed to tell us stories about the difficulties and misfortunes of their trade, their desire to earn a living and make a financial contribution to the family, and about their hopes and expectations of a better future.  We followed in their steps through the narrow streets of Hanoi, we went with them to their rented houses, and then travelled back to their villages, to see with our own eyes their hard lives, and discover the reasons that pushed them to become migrant street vendors in Hanoi.

Street vendors are nothing new and the exhibit illustrated
some photos of vendors past.

Images of War in Hanoi – Women and Propaganda

We arrived in Hanoi, Vietnam from Kuala Lumpur – finally ready to travel overland down Vietnam, into Cambodia, through Thailand, and up to Laos. (We’re now in Ho Chi Min City – Saigon – and our plans have changed… but when we were in Hanoi we thought we’d be heading up to Laos….)

Using Hanoi as our jumping off point for the next couple of excursions, we visited Hanoi several times over the following week.  During our numerous sojourns in the capital we were able to see a variety of sights, including the Women’s Museum and Hao Lo Prison Museum.  As a brief side note, our past year in Mongolia was well spent as we were well prepared to cross the streets in Hanoi – there’s nothing quite like inching your way across a street as swarms of motorcycles weave around you from both directions.

The Women’s Museum was very interesting, if a bit biased. The bottom floor highlighted the efforts of Vietnamese women during the war. We found it quite interesting that women were portrayed as important players in the struggle for independence.

We visited a special exhibit at the Vietnam Women’s Museum that 
displayed propaganda posters featuring Vietnamese women. 

In one exhibition, there were many posters that encouraged the Vietnamese people to struggle for independence and freedom.  There were all manners of posters, from those that promoted armed conflict, to those that simply advocated for a good work ethic to improve the economy or grow more crops.  Some had no reference to any specific enemy, but there were also those that made it quite clear that the Americans were to be on the other end of your gun barrel.

Baby in one hand and gun in the other – the caption on
this poster read “Protect and Defend Each Village.”

As for the Hao Lo Prison Museum, the exhibits painted a very clear picture.  During colonial times, the French and the “puppet government” used this place to torture and execute patriots.  By contrast, during the American war, the Vietnamese used this place to hold American POWs in strict accordance with the Geneva conventions.

 A memorial for all the patriots who suffered at the prison.

The caption reads:  ”The French colonialist executes and
displayed the heads of patriotic soldiers who participated in
‘Ha Thanh poisoning’ case on 8 July 1908.”

Ostensibly, the American POWs were given regular physical activity, being allowed to play basketball, volleyball, and other sports.  They were able to decorate and celebrate Christmas, and they grew their own animals, right in the prison!!  When they were released and returned to America at the end of the war, they were even given souvenirs so that they could remember the great times and generous hospitality of their stay at the prison.  Many photos documented how much the Americans felt just at home here!!

There was great effort to demonstrate how all the American
POWs were treated humanely and in accordance with the
Geneva conventions. 

While this really has nothing to do with the prison that we visited, we couldn’t leave our post about Hanoi without mentioning the rain that we encountered in the city. Back in November 2008, the city of Hanoi experienced the worst flooding they had had in 35 years. Streets were closed down, shops and restaurants closed up, the power went out, and 18 people were killed in the city.  The rain that we encountered was not nearly that bad. It was over pretty quickly but it did leave an impact on a couple of the streets. 

This motorbike driver made it through the flooded street.
Others just turned around and looked for an alternative route. 

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

On our way out of Indonesia we flew through Kuala Lumpur and had a two day stopover. With a short stay in the country, we tried to make the most of our time in Malaysia. 

Here we are in front of the Petronas towers, arguably
Kuala Lumpur’s most iconic structures.

It is currently the rainy season here, so we do get a fair bit of rain.  Luckily for us, it hasn’t hampered our traveling too much.  During our initial explorations of KL though, the weather did give us a reason to take a twenty-minute break. 

While most people waited for the rain to pass under
overhangs, shelters, and anything that would  provide
some respite, this man ventured out to close the shutters
to his building. 

Kuala Lumpur has some amazing pieces of architecture throughout the city.  All the different styles that are apparent here give the city a very distinctive character, which is certainly a reflection of the people here.

Dataran Merdeka (Merdeka Square) where the Union Jack
was lowered and the Malyan flag was flown for the very
first time on August 31, 1957.  This is where the British used
to play cricket.

When walking down the street, one could see a woman wearing a full burqa exposing nothing but her eyes.  She would be walking by a woman who covered almost nothing at all in her short shorts and midriff-bearing tank-top.  Behind her would be woman draped in a traditional sari.  And next to her you would see a woman dressed in the latest, hottest fashions.  A sight like this was not uncommon on the streets of KL.

Not far off, just outside of KL, in Gombak district, Selangor, are the Batu Caves.  Natural caves in a limestone hill, the Batu Caves are a Hindu shrine that receives about 1.5 million pilgrims each year.  After taking the 272 stairs (they advertise this like it’s a really big deal, but it’s not that many…) to the caves, we were greeted with dozens of macaques wandering around and scavenging the garbage bins.  They can be quite aggressive and when they think they can get food, they will assert themselves without hesitation.

Not thinking that the caves would be full of macaques and forgetting that we had some snacks in our pack, we were surprised when a macaque climbed onto Jen’s side and began pulling aggressively on Jen’s pack.  Seeing Jen in distress, I quickly acted and used my camera as a club and bashed the macaque off of Jen.  It was none too happy with my actions.  Having landed on the ground next to Jen, it quickly forgot about the food and focused its entire attention on me.  Eyes wide.  Teeth bared.  Muscles cocked and ready to spring.  It was on.

Whoops.

We both stood there, staring at each other as the seconds slowly passed by.  It bared its teeth and hissed several times.

Luckily, no longer feeling threatened and satisfied that he had made his point, the confrontation ended.  It quickly jumped back onto Jen.  Snatching the food out of the outside side pocket of the pack with great speed and dexterity, it scampered away to enjoy its spoils.  Close call.  Whew…

 

Jen’s ready to make the trek back down.  Below, you can see
the world’s tallest statue of Lord Murugan, a Hindu diety.

The pigeons visited the Batu Caves for a different reason.
A man was throwing bags of crumbs into the air, with each
handful thrown out came a new flurry of action from the
pigeons. 

One thing that was great, after our time in Indonesia, was the great variety of food that could be had in KL.  Other than the local Malay fare, there were great Chinese and Indian options.  Our hostel was located in Chinatown and was also within easy walking distance to little India.  So other than all the interesting sights, we were also treated some great food in KL.

Jen being a tourist and taking photos of the Petronas
Towers. 

We didn’t really know much at all about the Petronas Towers when we arrived in KL.  We definitely didn’t think that there was a gigantic shopping centre inside.  It was a pretty overwhelming experience.  After spending the past year in Mongolia, then traveling through Indonesia for a couple of weeks, it was a bit of a shock to suddenly be surrounded by such intense corporate commercialism.  All of the shops were very upscale.

The shopping centre was one of the biggest I’ve seen in
a long time. 

Two days wasn’t a lot of time, but it was enough to get a taste.  It didn’t take long for us to get comfortable in the city and I could see us coming back here one day, maybe for a good chunk of time.

Not wanting to get back at to the airport too late, we
didn’t wait around until it was dark to take the typical
night photo of the towers.  Fortunately, this one turned
out ok.

 

I Like Donuts

Mmmm.  When Jen and I thought of Dunkin’ Donuts back in North America, we always thought of it as a more trashy donut shop, but once we moved to Korea, its image pulled a complete turnabout.  In Seoul, Dunkin Donuts was as ubiquitous as Tim Horton’s back home, but they were always fancy and more upscale.  Since that time, we’ve encountered many other Dunkin’ Donuts around Asia and they always remind us of our time in Korea, so when we arrived at the Medan airport early in the morning, I was pleasantly surprised to see our favourite shop just outside the departure terminal.  Breakfast of Champions!

Danau Toba, Indonesia

After a long trip back to Medan from Bukit Lawang, a night’s stay in hot Medan, and a long trip to Parapat, we hopped on a ferry for the island in the middle of Danau Toba (Lake Toba). 

Danau Toba was formed from a series of massive volcanic explosions 67,500 to 75,500 years ago.  Scientists estimate that the amount of material ejected from the eruption was about 2,800 km³.  Contrast that with the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, which ejected about 1.2 km³ of material.  Ostensibly, this explosion was so large that it covered the entire Indian subcontinent in at least 15cm of ash, and some parts of Malaysia received up to 9m of ashfall!!

After the eruption, the subsequent collapse of the volcano (the crust of the mountain no longer had all the stuff inside it for support) formed a caldera, which, once filled with water, then became Danau Toba.

The island, Pulau Samosir, is a resurgent dome, which
means that the floor of the caldera is rising due to
movement of the magma underneath.

 At 505 meters deep, the lake is one of the deepest in the world. Pulau Samosir is about the size of Singapore and absolutely lovely.  On the boat we met many locals who work to bring guests to their hotels.  We ended up at a small place called Bagus Bay.  It was probably the nicest room we had up to that point.

The view from our room at Bagus Bay.

 Tuk Tuk is a small town on the island, it’s the place where most people end up staying since it’s where the ferry stops. We only spent 3 nights on the island, but if we could have, we would have stayed longer.

The Batak people who originate from this area used
to live in houses with roofs shaped like longboats
and many of the guesthouses have constructed their
rooms to look similar.

 

If we did it again, we’d skip Bali and Lombok and head straight up to Sumatra. Tuk Tuk is quiet, but there are still things to see and do. We spent the first couple of days just chilling, as Jen tried to get over a cold that she picked up from our night in the jungle. The next day Jen made a trip to the post office and we took a cooking class.

Heddy was the cook who taught us some of her special
recipes.  The food at Juwita Café truly was delicious.

Jen grating coconut for our dishes.

Jen at the stove.

Here’s Jeff crushing chilies and ginger among other
ingredients.

We made three dishes – Urap urap, Lodeh, and some
other dish who’s name we can’t remember now (oops).

The post office was about five kilometers away from our hotel and we didn’t have enough time to walk it so, one of the locals, Ben offered to drive me on his motorbike to the post office. I jumped on with all our stuff to send home (some things from our bag that we just wanted to get rid of, and some souvenirs too!) and made my way to the post office. When we arrived, we discovered that the post office did not have any boxes or tape, so we went off to find some. Luckily, it wasn’t too difficult.

After finding a box, getting everything packed, and completely covering the entire box in tape, it was ready to go.  All that needed to be done was to pay and then we could be on our way.  We were quoted a price that seemed reasonable (especially compared to the cost of sending things when we were in Mongolia!!) and I was about to pay it when Ben whispered to me that I should ask for a better price.  Huh?  Aren’t these set prices?  …apparently not.  So I started bargaining and I managed to save ourselves 8 dollars!  Who knew?

Dusk around Bagus Bay.

Bukit Lawang, Indonesia – Jungle Trekking

In Bukit Lawang, Jen and I went on a 2-day jungle trek to look for orangutans and other wildlife.

The first animal we spotted was the white-handed gibbon.

Ants!  There were so many colonies everywhere.  They
were so fascinating to watch, and they all traveled along
very specific paths, as if they were confined along a
miniature highway. 

After covering a good distance and working up a good sweat, we had yet to see any orangutans.  We had heard that some other groups had spotted some orangutans back where we had started our trek, but we had traveled so far by then that our guide had told us that it wasn’t worth it to return.  Finally though, while we were seated and on a break, one of our guides spotted an orangutan. 

Our first, and as it would turn out, only sighting of
an orangutan on the trek.

Our guides told us that this orangutan was a male and
he was likely only about 6 or 7 years old.

He had found a piece of fruit nearby and he seemed
content to just hang around and munch.

The orangutan actually stuck around for quite some time.
He also approached us and we could almost touch him.

We only saw one orangutan on our two-day trek.  Some other groups we had encountered told us that they had seen five or six.  But that’s the luck of the draw and I was happy to have seen any.  The trek itself was also a lot of fun.  It wasn’t extremely challenging, but I did enjoy the physical exertion of the climbing and there were some parts that involved a little more care as we moved through some steep inclines and declines.

We stopped for lunch at a nice little spot where there was
a tiny waterfall and a little pond. 

We had some fried rice for lunch and our guides threw
our leftovers into the pond for the turtles.  The turtles
made a beeline for the rice and the larger turtle chased
the smaller one away, claiming all the spoils for him/herself.
 Who knew that turtles liked rice so much? 

Here we are climbing down a steep slope.  It’s a good
thing that there were so many roots and vines around
to use as handholds. 

We had trekked for about six or seven hours on our first day, with plenty of breaks.  After our fist day, we stopped at one of several camp sites along the river.  Even though we were protected from the heat of the sun all day as we trekked through the jungle, the humidity made us dripping with sweat after the first 15 minutes of walking.  So it was nice to get into the river and cool down (not to mention wash away some of the grim and mud too).

At our campsite, we saw many long-tailed macaques. 

With regular visitors to the camp site, the macaques
knew that there would often be food for them to take. 

In November 2003, a massive flash flood tore through Bukit Lawang and killed 239 people.  It was a devastating tragedy that affected everyone in the small community.  They have since rebuilt and reopened many of the guesthouses and restaurants, but the night before we departed for our trek, the skies opened up and Jen had visions of another flood.  It poured all night.  Luckily, by the time morning came around and we started our trek, the rain had stopped, but it did make some of the paths quite slippery.

Later that day, after we had settle into our camp, it started to rain again, and it continued well into the night, so we spent our night sleeping in the jungle under heavy rainfall.  We stayed mostly dry though as the camp site had some tarps set up for us to sleep under.

Here is our dinner.  I was pretty impressed with it,
considering we were in the middle of the jungle -
a vegetable curry, a tofu and tempe dish, a chicken dish,
and, of course, lots of rice!

Here was our transport back to the village.  Two days
trekking through the jungle and it took only about 20
minutes back downstream in our little raft.  Not exactly
the largest rapids around, but it was still pretty fun. 

The park has a rehabilitation centre for the orangutans.  There are some feeding times for the orangutans to help supplement their diets as they attempt to become self-sufficient.  There are no enclosures or anything that restricts the orangutans’ movement, so they are free to come and go as they please.  The orangutan we saw was semi-wild, and was accustomed to human contact, which is why it was so comfortable getting close to us.  To see the truly wild orangutans, we would have to go deeper into the jungle on a six- or seven-day trek.  But that adventure will have to wait for another day…

Ever Slept Outside an Airport?

Correction:  Jen and I are now OUTSIDE the airport.

We have been kicked out of the terminal due to fogging (what the heck is that???).  Jen thinks it might have something to do with precautions about the avian flu…

Ever Slept in an Airport?

It is currently 00.35.

Jen and I are currently in the Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

We have been here since 22.00, so only about 2 and half hours.

Our flight to Hanoi leaves at 06.30.

It’s going to be a long night…

Bukit Lawang, Indonesia

Medan is the third largest city in Indonesia and most tourists visit the city not for any of its own attractions (it’s a very rough city – industrial, polluted, noisy…), but because it has an international airport and it is close to several of Sumatra’s best destinations, including, arguably, its top two.  Bukit Lawang is one of those.  It is home to “Taman Nasional Gunung Leuser” where people go trekking in search of orangutans.

The becak is a common form of public transportation
in Indonesia.  We used it to get from our hotel in Medan
to the minibus that would take us to Bukit Lawang.

Bukit Lawang is only about 50km away from Medan, and yet it takes a good 4 hours to get there.  Why?  Well, some of the roads are in decent condition, but some stretches rival what we’ve experienced in Mongolia.  Potholes aren’t exactly an appropriate term anymore when the area covered by the potholes exceeds the area of paved road.  The ride is bumpy and long.  And in our case, hot and crowded too – think about 18 people crammed into a minibus that is designed for maybe 11 or 12, no air-conditioning of course, and locals who, for some unknown reason, don’t like to travel with the windows open.

Here we are enjoying our first becak ride, still in Medan.

The long trip was worth it though, as upon arriving at Bukit Lawang, we were greeted by a small village right on the river and nestled in the middle of the jungle.

Jen and I took a little stroll up river.

Back at the village, some children were playing in the
river while their mothers washed clothes and bathed
their little siblings – apparently chicken fighting is a
universal water sport practiced by children around the
world.

Besides the main attraction of the orangutans, Bukit Lawang is a nice place to spend some time because of the peaceful atmosphere.  As Jen liked to put it, “this place has a good vibe.” 

Hot and humid, we put our feet in the river to cool
down and watch the locals go about their daily
routines – washing clothes, bathing, playing games.

The bridge that we crossed many times throughout our stay.

Kuta, Indonesia

Kuta. Oh, what can I say about this place? It was certainly a change from Gili Air. A fast paced city full of people trying to sell things to the throngs of foreigners (mostly Australian) who invade the city.

Kuta is famous for it’s surfing. This beach was full of
wannabe surfers who were trying their best to stay on
their boards – some were better than others. It was
pretty cool to watch.

Kuta is the city where the 2002 and 2005 bombings took place. Jeff and I didn’t like it too much. It has a different vibe than what we’re looking for. The people visiting Kuta are there on vacation, looking for sun, surf and good times. Club music blasts late into the night every day of the week giving no rest for the weary (unless you are lucky enough to have ear plugs). The restaurants along the main drag are pretty swanky and charge outrageous prices for not great food. We ended up eating at the local mall for much cheaper (we were also lucky enough to enjoy some live music outside the mall). We’re looking to travel, not really to vacation.

 

Mmm… we found a most delicious bakery at the mall.
Bread Talk was full of baked treats. A wonderful discovery.

Our time in Kuta was spent mostly fending off offers for things to buy and trying to avoid being run over by the motorbikes that drive everywhere. You can buy anything in Kuta, it’s a shoppers paradise. Bootleg DVDS for a dollar, bathing suits, fake Coach purses, real Billabong gear, and marijuana are all available for a price. Some shops are more legit than others – the guy offering us weed was whispering from behind by a tree on a dark street.

A surfer in training – a young boy tries his hand at
boogie boarding.

Kuta is the place that made us ponder why we are on this trip. Why travel? While Gili Air was nice, it seems like a far way to go for such a short trip. We could have gone and hung out at Sable Beach in Ontario for way cheaper and it would have been a fairly similar experience (aside from the fish and the turtles). We’re hoping that the following weeks will provide us with opportunities to figure out why people travel. You can’t even begin to scratch the surface of a culture in two weeks – after spending a year in Korea and Mongolia I still can’t even begin to comprehend the cultures. The environmental impact of our trip is high. Our bank account will take a beating. Are we really seeing things so different than what we would see back home? This sounds pretty pessimistic, but it’s something that both Jeff and I have been thinking about over the past couple of days.

I’ll start by asking you: Why do you travel? What’s the purpose?