Friday, December 21, 2012
travel 2012 travel 2013 neuage.org ALL TRAVEL
Vietnam December Blogs: First blog in Vietnam December 21; Christmas Day Hanoi December 25; Sapa Day 1 December 26; Sapa Trekking 1 December 27; Sapa Trekking 2 December 28; Cat Cat Village, Sapa December 29, 2012; Guangzhou January 02 2013
Slideshow of Hanoi photos. Photo slideshow of Sapa. For slideshow of 'on your bike' biking around Hanoi. Slideshow of Hội An
Videos: Hoian (youtube); Black H'mong tribal village of Sapa, (youtube); Hanoi (youtube); Christmas Eve in Hanoi (youtube); Cat Cat (on youtube); Sapa (youtube)
So quickly to find our life is
not as adventuresome as the next person to pass by. Everywhere we travel their
life is so unique and interesting but we no complain. Getting on our bikes this
morning to look at local house rentals; we had heard a house goes for about
$400 a month and who would not want to live here? We met a couple with a
ten-year old girl traveling the world for a year on bikes. From Denmark they
started last July coming down through Europe and the past several months biking
through Asia. The father and girl have a tandem bike with the girl in front and
all their belongings for a year with them. They are telling stories about how
Cambodia is the poorest of the Asian countries they had been through. They told
how large areas were just huge rubbish dumps and as they rode and
air-conditioned tourist buses went by they were constantly surprised at the
poverty and pollution. Of course we were those tourists flying around Cambodia
on air-conditioned buses a couple of years ago. I had some relatives that were
missionaries in Vietnam and Cambodia and growing up in New York I was drowned
with their stories of poverty in those places. This couple with the child will
be travelling for a year through Southeast Asia, Australia then South America.
Maybe that is what I should have done with my kids. Next time I see the
travelers I will grab their blog address and put it on here knowing their blog
will be so much more interesting than mine.
It is quite the change from -15 C when we left Dalian last Saturday to spend winter break in Vietnam.
Hanoi
was hot, like in the high 20s and I think around 32 the first day. That is
centigrade not Fahrenheit. We stayed at the Green Mango which we did not like
as much as last year’s place but breakfast was good and for only a couple of
nights it was not the end of the world. Actually speaking of the end of the
world; we have been in Hoi An for the past five days
and every evening there has been end of the world movies. Last night we watched the ending of the Body
Snatchers and the night before we saw some of The Day
of the Locust and before that there was some
desert thing and some climate and other snuff us out on the 21st of
December tales. Tonight we were are watching Hellboys
and Armageddon; unfortunately, I feel to sleep half way through Armageddon
though Narda said Bruce Willis saved the world by
exploding a nuclear warhead into an asteroid. Thanks Bruce for letting us live
to see another day.
When I
was in a cult order, 1969 – 1978, there was a lot of narrative about the Mayan
Calendar. One of our leaders even wrote the pope to alert him of the end times
saying it was vital to sync our calendars together to prepare us for when the
shit hits the fan sometime in the future; in 2012 on December 21. Then as an astrologer during the 1970s,
1980s, 1990s and up until 2003 (my son committing suicide put an end to such stupid belief systems)
I believed in this nonsense. So what
does one do after waiting for more than 40 years for an event to happen? Well
if it was not for some bloody roosters in the backyard I would have slept
longer but at 6 am I sat in a sort of naked state in front of my window and
posted Facebook photos of our trip so far. Outside the window another beautiful
day waiting for our exploration and as soon as Narda
wakes up and we have another breakfast of fresh fruit and museli
we will be off into the world around Hoi Ann. I think we will rent motorcycles
today. We rode bikes every day so far,
four days, and my butt hurts so something more comfortable will be great. By
the way, today, the 21st, the world did not end. What this should
tell everyone is that we can only live in the moment that no one has ever
predicted the future and no one ever will because the future is based on what
we do now and what we do now is always so changeable. Oh well such as life,
insecure people believe in and hang on to non-realistic teachings. The whole human
race is crawling forward at roughly the same speed and no one is really more
evolved than anyone else so believing that someone does is really detrimental
to one’s growth.
In Hoi An we are at the Orchard Garden homestay for a week. It had
top marks in trip advisor and we have not been a bit disappointed. We have a
bungalow on the second floor.
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View from the bedroom window |
Last
night they gave a party to all the guests, about 20 of us. People across from
us are from Adelaide, and just a suburb away from our home at that, some New
Zealanders, Dutch – lots of Dutch here; Narda being
from Holland and an Australian she got to be from the two main groupings in
this town, and a couple from Poland and some folks from Brittan. We had a full
meal and wine. The hospitality is really good.
So
I found material I liked – to replicate a shirt I saw back in October when we
spent a week in Yantai; a shirt of two materials
doing alternate things, a plaid panel and a solid panel with opposite sleeves
and cuffs and collar.
The
tie I bought at a street shop for 60 dongs, about 3 dollars. I will make a
series of them – suits my thinking; swatches of patches sewn into a
non-coherent form making up a whole – it has always explained me now I can wear
my personality on my sleeve. Next I will go to more colour
and try for three then four swatches. “Clothes
created from multiple thoughts – some which even are capable of co-inhabiting.
Narda has a different approach; she is more organized and
fashionable and found her fashion in the same material market that I did.
She
drew out both our set of clothes so I suppose in the Narda-Terrell
slumber-assisted living over 65 sort of consciousness we possess she would be
the designer.
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Narda found some rock-the-boat material, designed it and showed
the chic chick the three layers she wanted for her over 55 party-poser win.
Of
course designing and having our clothes made does not take from our
–its-good-for-the-economy purchasing sprees we embrace in the local clothes and
jewelry markets. Not actually sure why I found 5 new shirts and some ties
in my shopping party bag when I lighted home, one flowery shirt of which Narda
claims if I wear she will not be privy to my existence, has taken my fancy.
We
were at dinner a couple of nights ago, the only ones at the restaurant when we
were asked if we were staying for the dancing. Of course we said we did not
feel like dancing we had just come for dinner. Though somehow we were
transferred from our balcony eating spot to the main dining room with a stage
and being the only ones there we felt most self-conscious when the dancing
started – apparently called cam dance, though I cannot find about it in Google.
It went on for an hour – four girls, who changed customs four times showed us
four dances. Another couple came in for a drink, from Queensland,
of course it is mostly Australians here, then left after one dance so it was us
wanting to leave but being too polite we stayed. I have no idea what the dances were about;
one they had water pots on their heads, and two they had big umbrellas and another
was something about a fertility dance that they seemed as embarrassed dancing
as we did watching.
Hoi
An, like all poorer places in the world sees tourists
as dollar signs. It is impossible to sit at a meal or have a coffee or even
walk down the street without the parade of people trying to sell beads and
trinkets. It is not as bad as some cities we have been to but it does wear on
you.
The
big way to hustle tourists here is through friendly banter; ‘where are you
from?’ of course we say China and some laugh and some walk away but we are from
China – it is where my drawer of socks and jocks are so that is home. The
second question is ‘do you have children?’ then if we are foolish enough to say
yes and start talking about them out comes the trinkets, or maybe we would like
a massage, or a boat ride or usually some clothes made. Already our suitcase is
double what it was when we came here and we get too much made for us back at
Campus Village as it is. My most recent big garment is a cape. The talk of the school. Even the guards stop and look and
second graders say I look like Batman, Count Dracula, and etc. I wore it to a
school dinner and fellow teacher, Pat Herding, asked if it was Narda’s – that hurt – for a half second – but I love it. It
comes down to my knees, has a hood and is wool with silk lining and even
pockets inside. With the material it cost $60 US. I will take a photo when we
get back and post it.
Last
weekend we were in Hanoi and we are going there tomorrow for Christmas then on
to Sapa on the overnight train for a few days, taking
the overnight train back to Hanoi for New Years and a couple of days later back
to Campus Village to work on Standards Based lesson plans. Talk about taking
the fun out of education and taking away creative learning. One thing I have
done is change my classroom from a table learning space to a more comfortable
interactive sphere of learning. I took out desks dragged in a couple of sofas –
of course without asking because administration only knows how to say no, and
put a rug in and a coffee table and I have a great space. I project on the wall
some clips that references our learning – I am teaching video broadcast journalism
in my high school course then we have discussions, and I bring in a laptop cart
of utrabooks and some kids sit on the sofa and some
go to a couple of tables I have in another area of the room and we get more
done than we use to. I still have to take my class to the computer lab some
days for programming work because the software is only on the desktops at this
time but I feel the learning environment supports a student centred
learning and I still manage to integrate the standards.
In
Hanoi last week we were there to hang with Narda’s
son Brendan and meet his girlfriend. The
weather was great. Apparently it had been cold and raining then the days we
were there it was so hot. It was all good. Now we get to spend Christmas with
them. Usually we go to Australia for Christmas so this will be our first one in
a while not there.
I
have taken heaps of video and photos but my laptop stayed home and I do not
have the programs on Narda’s so I will wait until we
get back to do videos and make a webpage for this trip, probably. When I do
everything will be at http://neuage.us/2012/vietnam after 6
January.
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