Living that hotel life

For my last 4 nights in Hanoi, I'm treating myself (does $10 a night really count as treating?) to a shared hotel room with my friend Katie. In America, spending 4 days in a hotel would generally be pretty boring. But if you haven't figured out already, this is not America.

The hotel staff has gotten to know us pretty well. So well that we get asked personal questions daily, i.e. "You have boyfriend?" "What your address?" "You want to go on a date with my nice friend?"

Wednesday, my Vietnamese friend, Bich, promised me she would take me to the best hairstylist in Hanoi. When I asked how much it would cost she told me four dollars. FOUR DOLLARS. I was both excited and terrified.

I described the haircut I wanted, and Bich translated to the hairstylist. I was nervous--who knows if she was accurately translating the words for "layers" and "shoulder-length". The hairstylist seemed to understand what I wanted. But when I unleashed the beast (took my hair out of the ponytail) the look on her face clearly said "what have I done to deserve this". The humidity has not been kind to my curls.

So I was nervous that she wouldn't be able to work with my hair. It's four times as thick and a hundred times less manageable than perfect Asian hair, so that would be understandable. But the haircut turned out to be exactly the same as what I would get back home, just $40 less expensive!

Never doubt a Vietnamese hairstylist

We've spent this week treating ourselves in other ways as well. The sweat, dirt, and pollution have been wreaking havoc on everyone's skin, so my friends and I bought $1 mud masks and did them at the hotel. 

However, no one told me that they make skin products way more potent here--they probably use ingredients that are illegal anywhere else. Usually face masks make your face feel a bit stiff, but this mask legitimately froze my face into one expression. I couldn't move my mouth or cheeks--kind of like what you would imagine botox to feel like. It was a bit scary.

What have I done

 Halfway through Wednesday night, I woke up to a loud, intermittent tapping. I spent five minutes groggily trying to figure out what it was before realizing that the air conditioning unit next to my bed was dripping. It was Chinese (Vietnamese) water torture. I put a towel on the floor to try to muffle the sound, but that didn't work. Eventually I just put a pillow over my head until I fell back asleep.

The next day there was a puddle next to my bed. We told the people at the front desk that it was leaking a bit and they said they would send someone to fix it, but 2 days later it was still dripping. Friday night was really hot, and we woke up to find our entire floor covered in an inch of water. Thank goodness none of our stuff was on the floor or it would have been ruined.

We went back down to the front desk and they sent a Vietnamese man up to fix it. It took twice as long as it should have because he kept asking us if we had boyfriends, where we were from, and telling us we were beautiful. I was a bit cranky --all I wanted to do was take a shower, but this man was determined to teach me how to say "pretty" in Vietnamese.

Mr. Fix-it

I have one night left in the hotel, and tomorrow my flight leaves at 11:30pm for Tokyo. Then I'll spend 10 hours in the Japan airport before a 12 hour flight to Chicago.

Travelers make the best friends

I never thought I was a traveler. I love being home, hate driving & flying, and don't have very exotic taste in food. People would say "I love to travel". And I would think "that will never be me".

That was until this trip. Never in my life would I have seen myself eating snake, taking a sleeper bus to a 15 mile hike, walking into a hectic flow of motorbikes without looking left or right. I would never have thought that I would love traveling as much as I do. As of today, I'm already planning my next trips to Europe and Southeast Asia. And something else I've learned along the way is what fantastic people travelers are.

They've Got A Story

Most people you meet while traveling have a reason they're there, a sequence of events that led them to that country, that city, that exact place. You meet people who quit their jobs and sold their possessions to explore the world. People who are backpacking through every country in Asia. People who hadn't even planned to be where they are, but ended up there all the same. It teaches you to close your mouth and listen to the amazing things the people around you have to say.

They're Up For Anything

It takes a certain type of person to eat snake, ride a motorbike taxi helmetless, or sleep 5 to a hotel bed. 

They Invite Interesting Comparisons

On of my favorite things about living in close quarters with 36 non-Americans as been comparing how things are done and how people act in their country with how we do things in America. 

For example, an Australian girl I share a room with continually said "I can't be bothered" when she didn't want to do something. At first I thought she was acting like a total princess, but eventually I figured out it's their way of saying "it's too much trouble". Other fabulous Australian phrases: "I reckon...", "mozzie" (mosquito), etc.

Often, I've been embarrassed by other Americans. Many of the most vocal complainers I've met here have been Americans. But that's another good thing about travelers: they usually don't make first judgments based on what country you're from.

They're Impulsive

This is one I've had a bit of trouble with. If you know me, you know that I am the ultimate Planner. I like to know my plans way in advance, I hate making snap decisions, and unexpected changes drive me crazy. But some of my best nights here have been the result of an impulsive decision, and I've loved every minute.  

Perhaps I can't call myself a true traveler yet, but I really hope I'm on my way there.

Uniquely Hanoi

It's been a while since the last post, and that can be explained by the fact that not too much exciting has happened. Of course, if I had experienced a week like this at the beginning of my trip, I would have been bursting with stories. But by now I am so used to the culture that it takes a moment to discern what I would have considered "strange" before coming here.

That doesn't mean there aren't occurrences that still take me aback, things that are so blatantly different that they stand out. Things like...

The Vietnamese Taste in Celebrities

Exhibit A, one day I turned a corner and came face to face with a giant Nicolas Cage.

I laughed at this for 5 minutes. No one else found it funny.

At the summer camp in Hai Phong, we asked the kids to name somebody they looked up to. Roughly half the kids said they idolized Michael Jackson because "he is so talented and very, very handsome". A couple things with this:

1. I think it may be because he was super duper white toward the end of his life. Given how much value they put on white skin, this must make him a hero of sorts.

2. Do they know he's dead? I'm leaning towards no, but I wasn't about to break the news to them.


The Unique Pick-Up Lines

Most of the people I go out with are young white girls. This is pretty typical at the ex-pat and backpacker spots, but when we venture into areas more frequented by locals, we get a lot of attention. On the upside: we get a lot of drinks bought for us by the wealthier locals. On the downside, being inconspicuous is a challenge.

For a culture that I've heard described as "flirtier than America", the men certainly need to work on their pick-up lines. Some of my favorites include:

-"Your smile is very fresh"
-"I like it when you sit there like that"
-"I hear you have a lovely voice"
-*no words, just swerves at us on a motorbike*
-"I WILL EAT YOU"

Dogs Raised for Food

RUN WHILE YOU CAN LITTLE BUDDIES!!

I thought the concept of Asians eating dogs was a racist generalization, but it truly is considered a delicacy here. Every day on the bus we drive past multiple stands with roasted dogs hanging by their hind legs. I would post the picture but I think my little sister Amy would have a legitimate heart attack.

Children Oblivious to the Risky Fashion Choices they are Making

Oh.

Wow.

**side note--these weren't poor children who had to make do with whatever vulgar hand-me-downs they received. These were children from reasonably rich families whose parents apparently didn't understand the insinuations of the clothing they bought their children. Let's hope nobody else got the point, either.

Absolute Silence on Public Transportation

You better believe this was a silent ride

In America, anything goes on public transport. The train in Chicago is typically 95% loud people, 5% me. But here, even though the bus is loud and creaky and blares its horn, you get glares if you speak. The exception to this rule is if you're speaking on the phone in Vietnamese. Then by all means, scream as if you are trying to communicate through a brick wall rather than a perfectly functional mobile device.

On another note, ten days left in Hanoi!

The longest blog post on earth

It's been a busy week, and I haven't had time to update. But the public (aka my family) has been demanding blog posts, so here it is:

 I spent part of this week at the BoDe orphanage, where I will be working for my remaining 3 weeks. I had originally intended to work in the disabled room of the orphanage, but only lasted 45 minutes in the room before I had to go to the bathroom for a proper cry. While the main orphanage isn't exactly the best place to grow up, those kids are at least given the stimulation and care they need to grow up healthily. The disabled room, on the other hand, is one of the most appalling things I have ever seen in my life. Not only do the caretakers not know how to give the children the proper physio they need for development, they are often actively cruel to the disabled children. Part of this is cultural: disabled people in Vietnam are seen as a burden that will never contribute to society. But to see a nanny slam a child with spine issues down on a bed like a sack of flour is something that will shake me to the core for the rest of my life.

The orphanage is run by monks who devote most of their time and energy to the pagoda attached to it. So they allow visitors to come in, see the desperate conditions of the orphanage, and then solicit donations which are then directed to the temple rather than the orphanage.

Most of their bullcrap publicity involves pictures like this, showing the monks "taking care of" the children

No one at the orphanage has ever seen a monk go near the children in real life

The reality of the situation is this: a disabled child tied to a bed

On some level, it's not the nannies' fault. They have not been trained properly, and they work 24/7 with no time off. They are understaffed and the pagoda won't hire more people, because that would take resources that they instead devote to the glorification of the temple. However, they will not allow children to be moved to a different orphanage. The worse BoDe looks, the more donations they get.

Without getting too specific, I and some other volunteers are initiating a project with the local NGO to contact the child protection services of Vietnam and get the disabled children taken from the orphanage and put someplace where they receive the care they need and deserve. The healthy children at the orphanage will at least have a shot at normalcy, but the track the disabled children are heading down is not a good one. Hopefully myself and the people I am working with will be able to affect some type of change in the 3 weeks remaining.

It's been strange going to the orphanage. Some of you may know that I have two disabled younger sisters. One of them, Georgie, recently underwent a very serious surgery to try to correct some of her disabilities in her legs. It was very painful and the recovery will be tough. On Skype yesterday I asked her how physical therapy was and she said "They do terrible things to me!" I know it's necessary in the long term, but it's all very painful and I feel terrible for her.

bravest girl I know

But the relativity I've experienced here is really messing with my head. Like I feel bad for Georgie having to go through these surgeries, and for the fact that she will always be a little bit different. But then I look at her compared to all these children in the disabled room who will probably never receive the full care they need and deserve. And in that sense, she is beyond lucky. It's very strange to look at the same situation in the context of two different cultures.

Outside of the orphanage, I have been having an interesting time exploring the city of Hanoi. The night life is not as terrible as I had originally imagined. There's a lot of clubs, with foreigners and locals alike. You meet so many people from Germany, Belgium, France, countries that are Western but still so different from America. It''s interesting to hear their take on Vietnam.

Of course, Hanoi technically has 11:00 curfew, where policemen come around in trucks speaking Vietnamese in stern voices. The other day I was with a Vietnamese girl and I asked her what they were saying. She listened for a second and said "They're saying you should go to bed."

Last night we were getting street kebabs at 11:30 after celebrating the fourth of July Vietnam style (going to an Irish pub and watching Australian rugby). We had met a Belgian guy and were standing around the cart eating when suddenly the kebab ladies starting pointing down the road and freaking out. Apparently the police were coming to shut down all the food stands and tell everyone to go to bed. The lady flicked off the light on the stand and started frantically waving us off the street, telling us to sit in the plastic chairs behind the cart. Everyone sprinted toward the tiny plastic stools, but there were 4 of us and only 3 chairs. So I ended up perching on my friend Paula's lap, on a tiny little unstable plastic stool in the dark, for several minutes while we waited for the police to pass.

fugitives from the law

the kebabs were amazing, by the way

BIG MAMA KEBABS

We also found an amazing store called Hanoisenberg ( a play on Heisenberg from the show Breaking Bad). The t shirts and posters at this store were hilarious, they definitely have a good read on Western humor.

"I am the one who woks"

Again, sorry for the length of this blog post. I will try to update more frequently to prevent monstrosities like this one.

Angela

How I almost died for real

Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, I took a trip with 2 guys from Texas to a place in Northern Vietnam called Sapa. It's a lovely place for hiking and to experience more rural, traditional Vietnamese culture. We were scheduled to take a nine-hour sleeper bus up to Sapa, get off and immediately hike to our homestay. Apparently, this sleeper bus also doubled as a mail truck, because my seat buddy was a car door.

The conversation was riveting

It was raining in Sapa but we chose to hike anyway. And it was definitely as beautiful as everyone said.

backpacks under poncho, let's get this trend going

Unfortunately the shoes I had brought didn't have very good tread on the bottom. That coupled with the accumulation of mud made it hard for me to even stand still without falling. The local women walking with us found this hilarious. Scratch that, everyone thought it was hilarious. 

I was having fun sliding around in the mud until we did a steeper climb with an actual drop-off in to the rice paddy fields on one side. I slipped and my legs were hanging off the edge of the narrow path, and I was holding on for dear life in the mud. My life literally flashed before my eyes. More specifically, I imagined the banana crepes I had been promised for breakfast the next morning. There was no way I was missing out on that just because of a pair of crappy shoes. Thankfully the guy behind me grabbed my arm and pulled me back onto the trail. After that the slippery shoes seemed more of a danger than an annoyance.

the only part of the hike where I didn't fall

Of course, the women and children walking the trail with us were doing so in order to promote their own handicrafts for sale. "You buy from me? You buy from me?" was all we heard at every rest stop. This was occasionally coupled with "you very beautiful!" or "you very handsome!" in order to butter us up and loosen our wallets.

"You buy from us?"

"I'll probably die here"

We got to the homestay for a delicious Vietnamese meal. The homestay was a lot more modern than I was expecting (the beds were nicer than my accommodation in Hanoi). Also, Sapa was about thirty degrees cooler than Hanoi so it was perfect sleeping weather. The matriarch of our hoemstay brought us traditional rice wine and we had a lovely night getting to know all of the interesting people on our trek.

The second day of trekking was a lot drier and sunnier than the first, so I only fell twice. And it was even more beautiful, if that's possible.

I'm adventurous, I do things

the true gentlemen who laughed every single time I fell

Sapa also had these really aggressive huge butterflies that would just come at you and land where they pleased. They weren't scared like they are in the US.

I do what I want

The waterfall I was too scared to climb down

We hiked back to the hotel where we all had showers and a really good meal. I also discovered that my t shirt tan was revolting. Then we took the nine hour bus back, arriving at 3:30 am. Overall, a breathtaking trip to a beautiful place. 10/10 would visit again.

Angela

A $10 Luxury

First of all, this blog has officially received over a thousand views, so thanks for that.

This morning the water at the volunteer accommodations was officially shut off. This meant that when I really really had to pee at 11am, I had to find a shop on the street with a toilet. Do you know how hard it is to pantomime having to use the bathroom? There's no universal sign for "I have to pee". I ended up using the squat toilet at a cafe, which was just as delightful as it sounds.

We left around noon to check into our hotel, the Hanoi Guesthouse. All in all, each double room cost $20, meaning that I only had to pay $10. TOTALLY WORTH IT.

I actually broke down in tears at the sight of this

The type of thing my dad would love

not so much this though (shrimp chips)

I do feel bad staying in a hotel, even if it's only for tonight. I'm all for getting the full local experience. But the thing is, I'm leaving tomorrow night for Sapa, and really don't want to get on an overnight train after having neither showered nor brushed my teeth properly in 2 days. I think 1 hotel night in 8 weeks isn't going to ruin my experience.

After a glorious 45 minute nap, I think I am heading off to Old Quarter for dinner and shopping.

Summer in the City

Most of the people at the volunteer accommodation were doing sightseeing trips this weekend, so I had a pretty quiet weekend in the city. By this point, "quiet" includes getting lost several times, being harassed by men on motorbikes, and wandering in the rain for 3 hours.

Thursday night we went to a French restaurant, Cafe de Paris, for a change of pace from the usual rice and Vietnamese food. I really appreciate the homecooked meals we get for dinner, but the amount of rice this includes is making me a little bit sick. I'm a little desperate for Western food-- Wednesday I even went to KFC. I don't even eat KFC in America. (Vietnamese KFC is vile fyi).

So I thought the French restaurant would be a refreshing change. I really really miss raw vegetables--everything here is cooked and limp. When I saw the restaurant had an omelette & salad combo I had a happy little moment, imagining that the meal would satisfy the cravings I had been having for vegetables and non-Vietnamese fare.

The first sign of alarm should have come when my simple omelette and salad took wayyyyy longer than everyone else's complicated french meals. It looked pretty good when it arrived, though. I immediately ate the salad and then cut open the omelette. I took a couple of bites and then flipped over a piece to see a GIANT WATER BUG.

The ladies running the Cafe were very apologetic, asking if I wanted them to fry up another omelette. At that point, I had lost my appetite.

Saturday I took a trip into the Hoan Kiem district to meet up with some friends my parents had made when they went on their second adoption trip to Vietnam. Lisa was adopting one of her daughters around that time and they had a fun time together. Lisa, her girls, and Theresa were all very lovely and we had a wonderful time walking around the lake. They treated me to a (much appreciated) American lunch.

I came home to find this sign, with no explanation

The other volunteers were just as clueless as I was. We asked around, and apparently the entire Hoang Mai district will have no water Monday through Wednesday. I guess the district has trouble in the summer with maintaining steady electricity and water. So Monday and Tuesday night I will be in a $30/night hotel in Old Quarter. It will be nice to have aircon anyway.

I spent most of Saturday shopping in Old Quarter. The day was mostly uneventful, but the bus ride back was the best bus experience I've had so far. About halfway through the bus driver put in a tape and turned the volume all the way up. The song was this:

Immediately everyone on the bus perked up. A couple men started bobbing their heads, a woman tapped her foot enthusiastically, and several people started whistling and humming along. An old man began dancing in his seat. It was like this one particular song was the snake charmer song for the Vietnamese people as a whole. It was one of the most surreal and hilarious things I've seen on the bus, where people are usually reserved and proper.

I'm going to Sapa this week!

Angela