Turnbull Family Pacific Tour 2015

We just left Vietnam today en route to Singapore. It's as good a time as any to reflect on our time spent in Vietnam. It seems visitors either love or hate their stay. I suppose it's easy enough to have a bad time or opinion. Just don't keep an open mind to other ways of living, or just focus on the lower standard of living. We were in the developing world after all without all the comforts and amenities of home. There would be a lot to complain about if one were so inclined. It was hard to communicate with the local people most of the time. The traffic was tough. It was often hard to walk on the street let alone cross it. We spent weeks walking in single file most of the time like we were holding a rope up the mountain. There was the constant beeping from motorcycles, mopeds and cars passing by at close quarters. There was the lack of safe work practises in the street. Just yesterday Catheleen was crossing the street when a wire from above fell on her feet; I don't kno...

John started wearing a face mask in Laos when he wasn't feeling well. He said he wanted to "keep the germs away". He has recently focused on the fact the tourists usually pay more for things than locals, and so he wants to get local prices by going undercover. When he explained this to a fellow tourist from Australia I was speaking with, she hinted to John that his hair may still be a giveaway. I see local ladies riding their motorcycles and mopeds completely covered with no skin showing. They'll wear cloth masks, jackets and even coverings for their hands. I'm told lighter skin is a sign of beauty here, and so women are trying to avoid getting a tan. This might explain why I see so few locals on the beach. Maybe they are on to something since too much sun is damaging. I'm always amazed by what I witness everyday on the back of a motorcycle. Everything I could possibly imagine and more is carted around on the back of them. Just yesterday I saw a live pig in a ...

Last night as we walked around the old city after dinner we saw a game of Bai Choi being played in a square. It was a bit like bingo but with music, singing and dancing. Each contestant received cards with Chinese chess pieces on each card, and the dealer randomly drew bamboo sticks from a box which bore the name of one of the chess pieces. The dealer or his assistant would then sing a folk's song about the piece.  I learnt later that the songs conveyed values like love, friendship or patriotism but with some fun mixed in. When a contestant had a match they called out and received a yellow flag, and when someone was the first to receive enough flags they won a small prize. The people playing the game seemed to be having fun and it was quirky to see the performances. There was another game down the street that anyone could play since it needed no Vietnamese language skills. Players would put on a mask so they couldn't see and would take a whack with a stick at a small hanging...

We went to An Bang beach today, and as I arrived I felt immediately at ease. The ocean front was very beautiful with its fine tan coloured sand, refreshing ocean, cool breeze, and views of islands ahead and the skyscrapers of Da Nang in the distance to the north. But what struck me the most is how undeveloped the beachfront was. Besides lounge chairs, sun umbrellas and some really basic looking restaurant buildings made with bamboo and straw façade over correlated sheet metal roofs, there wasn't much else here. I'm sure that will change soon enough but it was a nice change from the usual built up beaches we've visited over the years. As we left the taxi and walked onto the beach we were greeted by someone from one of the nearby beach restaurants who wanted us to use her lounge chairs and sun shades in return for having lunch and drinks from her restaurant. We agreed and spend a good day at the beach. The kids stayed nearly the whole time in the ocean enjoying the waves. On...

Yesterday we flew south from Hanoi to Da Nang and took a taxi to Hoi An , which is a much smaller place than Hanoi or Da Nang. The town name translates to "peaceful meeting place". It's a UNESCO world heritage site for its well-preserved South-East Asian trading port dating from the 15th to the 19th century. Not too many of these old cities remain that haven't either been rebuilt as a more modern place or destroyed by one of the many wars. The reason for its preservation is a combination of factors, including the silting up of the local river, which made the city a sleepy place for a couple of centuries. On the way to our hotel by taxi from Da Nang, I spotted locals harvesting rice from the paddy fields. The fields were golden coloured from the ripe crop and had been drained of water to make for an easier harvest by people and machines. The machines on the field were being used to cut the stalks, and the people were carrying large bundles of yellow stalks laden with...

Yesterday evening on the boat we had another excellent meal with a wide variety of seafood, including local oysters served in the half shell and warmed briefly with fried and dried onions and garlic on top. The prawns were interesting since they were served with shells, heads and tentacles intact. Catheleen is pretty good at removing the shells and everything else, but I find I'm not in the mood for shrimp once I've witnessed this carnage. When the tour guide asked us if we had any food restrictions, Elizabeth piped in that, while she is not allergic to seafood, she doesn't care for it. John only likes shrimp and tolerates fish, so after a few courses of seafood, while Elizabeth was getting substitute chicken and beef courses, John wished he had also made the same request as Elizabeth. At dinner we spoke to two Canadians named Cory and Luke, the only Canadians we've seen for quite a while. They were on a ten day trip to Vietnam, and had just returned from trekking to a ...

Today was day two of our cruise within Ha Long Bay. I started the day with Tai Chi on the deck. I can't say I did it any justice, but I followed the instructor's moves as best I could. It was good to start the day with a little light exercise. In the morning we took a day boat through the bay past some of the two thousand islands that cover the area. Our destination was Cat Ba Island for some biking and touring. On the island we took a newly built road five kilometres inland to a nearby village - the old lower road was still under water. There was a lot of rain and flooding in the area about two months ago that has yet to subside completely. The last time it happened was about 90 years ago, and it has really hurt the villages on the island, who are only now getting their houses and rice paddies back. We took three bikes out, with Elizabeth on the back of our guide's motorcycle on the way out and John on the way back. Riding on a motorcycle was again a highlight for the kid...

We took the overnight train from Sa Pa to Hanoi, and then travelled by bus to Ha Long Bay to start a two-night cruise. Our guide Nam was very friendly and informative, and tried to give us a sense of life in Vietnam in general and Hanoi in particular. He said people in Hanoi might wake at 4 or 5 AM and begin the day with some exercise. On our taxi ride from the train station in Hanoi around 4:30 AM we saw this first hand, with runners and cyclists dominating the street traffic before the sun rises. After exercise, people might have a noodle soup called Pho for breakfast. At the hotel this morning, while we waited for the bus to pick us up, I watched the scene across the street, where two ladies had set up shop on the sidewalk for the breakfast crowd. A mother arrived with her young child and ordered something that looked like porridge, and sat down on one of the ubiquitous small plastic stools that are everywhere. She fed herself and her child while a school age girl ordered the same...

As we ate breakfast I peered out the hotel window, past the mist and dragon flies, and saw the same group of hill tribe ladies sitting down on the side of the road as usual for this time of day. They were chatting with each other, some sitting on the ground, and a couple sitting on overturned wicker baskets that they carry on their backs when walking around the town. They passed the time talking, laughing, and making their handicrafts. Even when strolling they are not idle. Rather, they stretch and wrap yarn from rough pieces of hemp, all the while on the lookout for prospective customers. I usually see them with blue hands, since they dye the yarn themselves, and the dye comes off easily. I've heard that if you buy a bandana you'll likely end up with a blue forehead. Catheleen had purchased a couple of small hemp purses and tried soaking and drying them to set the colours. I wouldn't normally pay attention to something like this, except that the bathroom sink was full yest...

Today we visited Cat Cat village, a small village down a mountain slope, well set up for easy tourist access with good stone steps all the way down the village and along a river. Catheleen and Elizabeth had already been there yesterday but I talked them into joining John and me today. The kids wanted to take a motorcycle taxi ride to the place but I insisted on a car taxi. It was a moot argument as it turned out. After a one kilometre car ride the road was blocked and we needed to switch to motorcycles or walk. I enjoyed the short motorcycle ride with John and I on separate bikes. Once Elizabeth heard a motorcycle ride was back in play, she and Catheleen agreed to join us, and they took a motorcycle ride down to meet us. We later took motorcycles back up to Sa Pa. Zoom zoom. The village was worth the trip for the views of the terraced rice fields alone. I had no knowledge of how rice was grown or harvested before this trip. I had some vague notion that rice grains grew in the root of ...

Today John and I visited a large park which ran along the side of a mountain, in search of a geocache. While we sat down to rest, a young girl in a white dress sat down on our bench next to John and smiled. John smiled back awkwardly and the girl then inched closer. Then I noticed her mother smiling with a camera in hand. She took a picture of the two of them together, and then the girl put her arm around John for another photo. After a few more photos the girl sat next to me for another shot, and then the father replaced the girl for a final picture. Catheleen was touring the nearby town of Cat Cat at the time with Elizabeth, and they had a similar experience when two girls each took selfies with Elizabeth. I find it very strange to be a tourist attraction when we ourselves are tourists, but most of the tourists are Asians so I suppose we are an oddity around here. I find it exasperating that there are no price tags for most items in the stores I visit. It appears that the price for j...

We took an overnight train north from Hanoi to Lao Cai , which is just on the border with China, and then took a bus up into the mountains to Sa Pa , a small mountain town about 1,500 meters above sea level. We are here for a few days to enjoy the scenery and weather mainly. Yesterday's high was 22 Celsius with sunny skies. Considering how hot it's been on our trip so far, this is a welcome reprieve. The bus ride up through the mountains was spectacular, with views of terraced rice fields on the mountain slopes. Some of the slopes looked to be on 45 degree angles, with each terrace only a few feet wide. Harvest time is in a couple of weeks, so the rice fields have long green grass stalks. Since it was cool here this morning, I had no excuse and went for a run around the town, something I haven't done since we left Vang Vieng in Laos a while back. I was reminded I do need to stay aware of my surroundings around here. Case in point, I was running along a walking path around a...

Over the last couple of nights in Hanoi we've walked around the local night market, where the neighbourhood had cordoned off some streets for pedestrians only. What a treat to walk around with some room around us, rather than being cheek-to-jowl with so many scooters and people. Most people were eating outside on the sidewalk on tiny plastic stools about a foot high, at little plastic tables about knee high. There must be at least seven million of these little stools in the city, one for every person. So the last couple of nights we joined the crowd of locals with a smattering of tourists at one of these outdoor places, and had our dinner on small plastic stools like everyone else. All the locals were out, some dressed well and others more casually. Small bones were on the ground from all the happy customers who had come before us and enjoyed some pidgins I believe, which were a speciality there. I gave that menu choice a wide berth along with frogs and other exotic items, and we s...

At our small hotel we interacted mostly with Bella, who spoke English pretty well and who provided us with friendly and efficient service throughout our stay. She also told me her take on life in Hanoi and Vietnam. She started off with a history lesson of the last 150 years in Vietnam and then moved on to a dissertation on their oral and written languages, both modern and ancient. A bit dry and along party lines no doubt. She eventually confided on daily life here. Her biggest concerns are the high cost of living relative to wages, lack of government services (especially health care), and graft - what she called black money . She revealed that the official monthly salary for all government workers and government funded private companies started at $200 USD per month, with increases over time based on seniority. But she said it is often hard to find these jobs and black money plays its role. She said everyone knows about black money but nobody is supposed to talk about it. She ...

Yesterday we went to see the National Museum of Vietnamese History . The building itself was an elegant, ochre-coloured structure completed in 1932 by the French, and incorporated a blend of Chinese and French design elements. Some of the museum covered ancient history but we went through the recent history exhibits which described the French colonial period, and the wars and insurrections with the French, Japanese, French again, and Americans. The exhibit had a large collection of artifacts over this period, including the flight jacket from a U.S. F-4 pilot named Colonel Norman Cagadixo who was captured when his fighter jet was shot down on May 12th, 1967. I found this disturbing and tried looking him up on-line to see what happened to him, but I couldn't find any information. The Vietnamese people I've interacted with fall into three groups so far - people beeping at me to get out the way or at least not veer into their vehicle, hawkers trying to sell me something which I don...

We flew from Vientiane to Hanoi yesterday. After sorting out our visas with some difficulty at the airport, we purchased new SIM cards for our phones and took a taxi to our hotel. My first impressions of this city of seven million were of a new clean airport; impressive highways without much traffic; beautifully landscaped surroundings along the way, tended by workers in straw cone hats; flags flying over billboards celebrating the 70th anniversary of the communist party's declaration of independence; and a fabulous modern bridge on our way into town. Then I saw a different side. I noticed a heavy smoggy haze hanging over the city. As we drove onto the smaller streets, I saw brightly coloured colonial buildings in various states of disrepair. and packed crowds of scooters and people making their way along crowded streets. This city is so different from my experiences. The shops along the streets are often six or eight feet wide with goods spilling out of them. People wo...