hanoi to ho chi minh city in two and a half weeks

After enjoying our time in Vietnam's northern capital of Hanoi, we made our way to the southern metropolis formerly (and mostly still) known as Saigon, stopping along the way in various towns and cities. It was interesting to watch the landscape and atmosphere change as we made our way south. It got a lot hotter, the rice was taller, the houses were a different style, and the focus on the American War became more and more intense as we entered regions where most of the fighting took place. We pushed ourselves to go to interesting places and see and learn as much as possible. Then we hit the beach and took a vacation. :) Here are some photos from our journey to the south of Vietnam:

First up was Hue, the former capital of Vietnam with lots of history. We visited royal tombs, the citadel, and other important monuments from the age of the Nguyen emperors. Some of these also had connections with the war, as Hue is not far from the former demilitarized zone that separated the north and south. Jesse took a DMZ tour with a former South Vietnamese officer, and saw a lot of the important war sites.


Next we detoured inland to Bach Ma National Park, where we hiked around, swam in cool mountain pools, gazed at beautiful waterfalls, and picked up a leech or two.

Hoi An was just a little bit south, famous for its tailor shops and old preserved buildings. We enjoyed both of these very much. But as someone said to us, “In Hoi An, the Vietnamese are the minority.” Not exactly what we were looking on this trip.


So we went even further inland and off the tourist trail, this time taking a 12-hour public bus to a dusty town in the central highlands called Kontum. For the first time, we actually had to learn some Vietnamese phrases to get by. As Vietnam is home to 54 different ethnic groups (the Viet people making up 84%) we were especially interested in learning about some of the ethnic minorities in the area. We visited several villages with a local guide and even spent the night in one of them, in their central town hall-type building.

Time was going quickly and we planned to spend one night in the beach town of Nha Trang before rushing on to Ho Chi Minh City and then to Cambodia before our visas expired. But after spending a couple hours on the beach looking out at blue, blue water and enjoying inexpensive full-body massages on the beach, we decided to get our visas extended and finish our time in Vietnam a little more leisurely.

Our final stop on the way to Ho Chi Minh City, Mui Ne, was one of our favorites. We stayed at a nice little resort right on the beach for only $6/a night. The best part was that there was also great scenery around. We rented a motorbike and rode out to a red canyon, some sand dunes, and a place called the "Fairy Stream,"which was, actually, quite enchanting.


And that brought us to Ho Chi Minh City!

mishaps, involving leeches

Jesse and I brought a first aid kit with us on the trip, but I honestly didn't think we'd ever use it. How wrong I was. We've actually run out of bandaids. We've both been burnt by motorbike exhaust pipes (Jesse twice). Not surprisingly, we've also had our fair share of welt-like bug bites, sunburn, and poison ivy (or something like it).

But by far the most interesting of all our mishaps was the one that occurred while we were staying in a national park in central Vietnam, hiking to some waterfalls. Towards the end of the day, I was sitting down admiring a really beautiful waterfall. When I stood up, I noticed a large amount of blood covering the front of my pants! I didn't feel any pain so couldn't figure out what it might be. I finally found a tiny spot on my leg that all the blood was coming from. And then I remembered that I had read that there were a lot of leeches in the park, and figured that must be it. We tried to stop the blood with layers and layers of gauze, but hours later, it was still bleeding as hard as ever!

At dinner, I asked one of the park tour guides about it and he said, no problem, he'd get me something to stop the bleeding. Jesse and I waited for him to come back with a tube of ointment, but instead, he showed up with a tree stump that was covered in orange hairy moss and started pulling some off. When I got back to the room, I covered the spots with the moss and within minutes the bleeding slowed down and then stopped. WIERD!

halong bay

We took a three-day trip from Hanoi to Halong Bay and it was beautiful! Large limestone karsts (whatever that means) jutting out of blue-green water. We went to a cave, went kayaking and spent the night on a boat. We also met a really nice couple from Sweden and another from Australia, two French guys, and our silly tour guide Doan . . . who all made the trip especially enjoyable.

hanoi streets (for rachel:)

My friend Rachel lived in Hanoi a while back, and when I knew I was going there, it was fun to find out from her what she had enjoyed about the city. I found myself doing all the things she mentioned were nice and enjoying all the things she said she had enjoyed . . . especially the food, bikes, and people. I thought Hanoi had great atmosphere. I loved the tiny street stalls with little plastic tables and little plastic stools where we could buy spring rolls and other treats. I loved the ladies selling fruit from baskets hung from a bamboo rod on their shoulder, bouncing with every step. I loved the conical hats, motorbikes, cafes, yellow plaster-peeling walls, leftover French architecture, and the smiles of the people we met. It was a really great introduction to Vietnam. Here are some pictures:

china highlights

Jesse and I spent a couple of days in Shenzhen, China, a place with not much to do. But we still enjoyed our time there. We ate a lot of great (cheap) food. We felt like true travelers as we couldn't communicate with anyone (as an untouristed town, there was very little English). And I learned a valuable lesson: children doing cute little tricks on the street are not doing them for fun. After I paused to admire the talents of a little girl doing this cool thing with a board, cylinder and cooking pot, her little sister chased me down and wrapped her arms around my leg until I gave them some money for the pleasure of watching them.

We spent a lot of time on the train in China. We inadvertantly bought tickets for a night train on the Chinese New Year's Eve, so we missed any celebration there might have been. But we shared a compartment with a little Chinese girl and her parents, and we played together all evening (while the parents sat off to the side eating BBQ chicken feet). On another train, we were in the party car. We were surrounded by a crazy family of 15-20 adults and kids. They were verrrrrry happy to be traveling together and the whole six hours was a mess of laughing, talking, card-playing, noodle-sloshing, musical chairs. We cycled the whole family through dinner time by moving from seat to seat to make room at the little table. We couldn't communicate easily, but we got lots of snacks and made a little small-talk with the couple who originally sat across from us.

The highlight of our time in China was the scenery in the Guilin area, the main "sight" we were stopping to see while crossing overland from Hong Kong to Vietnam. The best part was renting bicycles to ride around the countryside, then taking a bamboo raft back down the river for two hours. It was dusk and we were the only ones on the river for most of the two hours. Here's a picture:

slow start

We've officially been on our Asia trip for over a week now, but we're off to a slow start. We didn't expect to stay in Hong Kong so long, but by the time we were able to get our Chinese and Vietnamese visas, it had already been a week. In the meantime, we got travel vaccinations, I sent off one last grad school application, and we did some final shopping for our trip. In some ways, we were still preparing for the trip, not really on it. On another level, it didn't even feel like we were traveling, since Hong Kong seems to be more Westernized than Japan. We watched American TV almost every night, we ate at Pizza Hut, and we enjoyed being able to speak English everywhere. It was actually a good transition time.

Now, we've had a bit of a hold-up. Yesterday, we crossed the border into China, hoping to catch an overnight bus to a place called Guilin. But after a couple hours walking from bus station to bus station, we think we found out that there were no seats available until the 21st. The Chinese New Year is in a couple days. When we found out we would be here for that, we were pretty excited...but we didn't know how much it would affect our plans. We eventually got train tickets for tomorrow, so we are just spending a few days in Shenzhen while we wait. We are half expecting that to happen a couple more times before we leave China. Oh well. It's keeping us relaxed anyway. :)

in hong kong...

We decided to fly to Hong Kong for a few reasons: we got good tickets and we knew we could get visas and travel vaccinations there. Other than that, we knew little else.

The first day there, we went to the tourist information office and a couple hours later, we were on a free boat tour around Victoria Harbor to view a "360 degree skyline." It was pretty amazing. That evening, we took a tram up to the peak to overlook the harbor. It wasn't hard to find things to enjoy about the city. Over the next few days, we took a guided architecture walk, visited one of the outlying islands, went to the goldfish and flower markets, and walked around a lot. Of course, we also got poked in the arm and sat in line at embassies. But we really enjoyed our time there. Here are a few things we especially enjoyed about Hong Kong:

...the amazing harbor.
...an 800-meter outdoor escalator running downhill in the morning and uphill the rest of the day.
...bamboo used as scaffolding.
...learning that much of the land (including the airport) has been "reclaimed" (i.e., the sea filled in) AND that almost all of the land is government-owned, most of it on 99-year leases.
...diversity (especially compared to Japan).
...the beautiful outlying islands.
...seeing Jesse's cousin who lives in Hong Kong.
...the ferry you can take across the harbor for 25 cents.
...the public service announcements (everything from cover your mouth when you cough to keep your windows in good repair so they don't fall to the street).

Here are a few pictures:

An old boat in the harbor.

The harbor lights viewed from Victoria Peak.

The outdoor escalator.

A fishing village on Lamma Island.

A fruit stand.

sayonara japan

Since the fall, I’ve been spending a lot of time working on grad school applications, planning our trip around Asia, and preparing to leave Japan. While the former two items were really important (especially applications) it is the latter that has really been the focus of almost all my thoughts. The two years I spent in Japan were really special in so many ways. I went there knowing next to nothing about Japan, and started out not knowing how much I’d like it. After a few months, I started seeing things that I really liked, and by the end of the year, I was enjoying my time there a lot. But I think it was the second year that my love for the place really grew. We made good friends. I started learning the language a little better. Things became more and more accessible as I understood more about the culture. I grew really attached to Japanese style, and appreciated it every day in many ways. I became really comfortable with the daily interactions.

Which is what makes leaving so sad.

BUT. I want to be closer to my U.S. friends and family. I want to go to graduate school. I want to get settled in somewhere where I know I’ll stay for a while. And because of that, I have had a stronger and stronger sense that it was time to move on. The last few weeks in Japan, Jesse and I kept saying how satisfied we were with our time there. It was fantastic, really. But because it had been so great, we both felt like we could leave and be happy. It was hard in many ways. Some sad goodbyes. Lots of “lasts.” And a bit of a panic when they took away my resident card at the airport. I have loved being a foreign resident, and it was sad to let that go. But overall, I have a really warm feeling when I think about the past two years.

MY FRIEND'S ON JEOPARDY!

Watch Nate Metcalf on January 31st!! This is the guy who came to my wedding in a white pin-stripe suit and told everyone that he was my Uncle Nate! That personality combined with a another snazzy suit he's said to be wearing (purple this time!) are going to make for an awesome show! Nate and I worked together for a couple years in St. Paul at NBC General Contractors, and he definitely did have a load of trivia stored in his brain, which we enjoyed over Grand Shanghai and Acme Deli lunches. If you go to the Jeopardy website, you'll find him in this week's contestants! GO NATE!!

two sides of tokyo

We were in Tokyo last week to get some vaccinations for our upcoming trip and stopped by a couple other places while we were there . . . one familiar and one new. They were quite different from each other, but both were lots of fun.

Place #1: Tsukiji Fish Market (a 1st for us)
We were definitely in the way at this market, which is mainly a commercial market for restaurant owners and such, although it's open to the public. Lots of people, carts, buckets of water being thrown around, and, or course, loads of fish and other sea life. One of the highlights is being able to see all the big tuna that end up as sushi all over Tokyo (and probably elsewhere). When we got there around 9:30am, most of the tuna were in pieces, but there were still lots of cool things to see.

Frozen tuna on a cart.
(Jesse had the camera that day and a disproportionate number of pictures are of fish heads and eyes . . . I'll spare you.)

Place #2: Harajuku and Aoyama
Although places we've been over and over, we always see new things to enjoy. These are modern fashion districts with lots of great buildings and good people-watching.


We've really come to enjoy hanging out in Tokyo, especially just wandering around back streets. I love the interesting shops, the edgy architecture, the hidden restaurants . . . and I just love the combination of traditional and modern. Spending the day wandering around the city will be something I miss. I'm still hoping to go back one more time before we leave in February, but when we got on the train to head home that day, we both knew it might be our last time . . . for now anyway.

hello emperor

We went to see the emperor on January 2nd, one of only two days in a year that the public is allowed to enter the imperial palace grounds. The emperor and his family come out periodically to wave to the cheering crowds and for about five minutes, you get to yell and wave the Japanese flag and watch the royal family smiling and bowing. For me, the coolest part was crossing the bridge that is usually gated and guarded. There were sooo many people, and a lot of energy.

The imperial palace from the normal viewing point.

On the "other side."

I didn't have the best view. :)

Jesse's view through the zoom lens. Nifty, eh? The emperor and empress are in the middle, with their sons on either side.

new year's

I think it would be accurate to say that New Year's, or Oshogatsu, is the most significant holiday in Japan. It's all about time with family, special traditions and rituals, and starting the new year off clean and refreshed. At the end of the year, many groups of friends and co-workers have bonnenkai, drinking parties to forget the troubles of the past year. Houses are cleaned from top to bottom, and nearly everyone visits a shrine or temple to pray for the new year.

We were privileged this year to join our friends, Mio and Tetsuo, and Mio's family, at Mio's mother's house for New Year's. They were perfect hosts. We had a great time experiencing many New Year's traditions, relaxing, playing games, and chatting. Mio's family is so down to earth and relaxed that it was easy to feel comfortable.

We took a lot of pictures, so here they are, along with some descriptions of a Japanese New Year's. Much of what we did was pretty traditional, but then there were some more Western elements too. For example....

New Year's Eve dinner was sashimi . . .

. . . and pizza and chips & salsa. It was a global dinner, as Tetsuo called it.

That night we watched a really popular New Year's Eve program, a singing competition featuring famous pop bands/singers and traditional enka singers. Next to the TV is a New Year's decoration. Traditionally the white sections are mochi and the top a mikan (small orange).

This was not Japanese. :) Mio thought it was a Chinese tradition, but I don't claim to know for sure. Anyway, she bought us all new socks which we put on just before midnight. The idea was to stomp out bad luck for the new year.

And New Year's soba. The noodles are supposed to be long in order to symbolize long life.

We tried to visit a shine that night, but the line was waaaay down the street. I think we would have waited for several hours and it was already after midnight. It was pretty fascinating that that many people would come out in the middle of the night to pray. I am sure that many people do it out of honest devotion, but there is definitely an element of fun and superstition to it as well.

After Mio and Tetsuo dropped us off around 1am, we walked down to the temple in Yukarigaoka to see what was going on. There was a bonfire and people were lining up to ring the big bell. Most of the people hanging around were young people with their friends. We sort of hid in the bushes to observe, then snuck back home. We were up early the next morning to head back to Mio's mom's house for another full day of new traditions.

new year's continued

New Year's Day started with a special Japanese meal, called Osechi Ryouri, in the morning. It felt sort of like Christmas morning . . . the same sense of excitement and getting a meal together. Osechi is very time-consuming to make. Japanese women traditionally make it in the three or four days leading up to New Year's. It is all made to stay fresh for several days so that they can relax on New Year's Day with their families, with no meal to cook. Nowadays, many people buy osechi, or at least part of it. It can be very expensive. My guess is that the meal that we ate that day costed about $200.

Here are Jesse and Tetsuo getting ready for the meal. Osechi is kept in a stack of boxes . . . you can see two on the table here. These can be really elaborate boxes made of lacquer, costing several thousand dollars. I actually just received a set from my students, not one that cost a thousand dollars :), but really pretty. The box on this table is one that came with the food that Mio's mom bought.

From L to R, Mio's mom (Naomi), her brother (Yuto), Mio, Tetsuo and me. The Osechi boxes are separated and laid out in the middle.

Some close-ups of the food follow. There were both salty and sweet foods. This box included small dried fish, pink and white fish paste, egg cakes, kelp, etc.

Lotus root, vegetables in the shapes of animals (cranes and turtles for long life, a boar because that's the animal of the year), small octopi, shellfish in the shell, smoked raw salmon, persimmon, herring eggs, etc.

Squid, salmon eggs, mushrooms with crab, shrimp, rice paste balls, etc. Mio's mom also prepared two kinds of plant and flower bulbs. And we ate miso soup with rice cakes and chicken and vegetables, and drank tea with whole cherry blossoms in it. Everything we tried was really delicious.

After the meal, we all got in the car to go visit a shrine. The annual New Year's shrine or temple visit is called Hatsumode. There are line-ups, even at small community shrines. The temple in Narita, a city about 30 minutes' away, is the #2 most popular location for Hatsumode, with 3 million visitors in January.

In the picture above, taken discreetly :), you can see an elderly woman praying. While waiting in line, a person can wash their hands at a water fountain with bamboo cups. They then approach the shrine, throw in some money (5 yen is the most popular coin to toss), ring the bell, clap twice, and take a moment to pray.

After praying at the shrine, people deposit their charms and decorations from the past New Year's holiday.

In the shrine area, new good luck charms for the coming year and fortunes can be bought. Many people were grilling rice cakes and warming at the fire.

Most people were dressed warmly in regular clothing, but a few were wearing kimonos. I liked the picture of these two boys facing each other, looking so alike and so different at the same time.

Our last stop at the shrine was ringing a bell at the top of the bell tower.

In the afternoon, Mio made macha (powdered green tea) with a bamboo whisk, and we ate omanju, colorful New Year's sweets made with red beans and fashioned into perfect shapes (flowers, fans, bamboo, etc.).

Afterwards, we ran out to a couple shops to check out their New Year's sales, and try our luck at a few various drawings. (We got consolation prizes only.) Almost every shop does something called lucky or happy bags. Shoppers pay a certain amount of money (up to $100) to get whatever is in the mystery bag. It's really popular and you can get some really great stuff. Of course, it's all leftovers from last year, so not always what you might hope for. Back at Mio's mom's house, we took naps, watched TV (including the cable CNN coverage of the ball drop in NY!) played card games, and ate leftover osechi for dinner. It felt so good to be hanging out with a family, even though we still miss ours, and we were so happy to get a picture of Japanese New Year's, something that is so special to many people in our life here.