The Honeymoon is Over

This is my last night in Hanoi, which means that the orientation is over, my new found family is being splintered across Vietnam and I am about to go off on my own. It’s part excitement and sadness. 10 of the 15 ETAs have left (10 goodbyes in 2 days is intense) and the other 5 of us depart tomorrow. We have all grown to depend on each other and we deeply care about and support each other especially after seeing each other everyday for a month. Now I get to restart the process in Cao Lanh. However, this time I won’t have 14 other equally disoriented, hot, and minimal Vietnamese speaking Americans to bond with. In the coming weeks I will relay on the training I have received and continue to be open to new people and experiences.

The Fulbright office celebrated the completion of orientation with an elaborate dinner at Brother’s Café on Friday. It’s an open courtyard surrounded by traditionally carved buildings and canvased by tons of Christmas lights and Gingko trees. The buffet was outstanding and the wine was free and never ending. The waiters refilled our glasses the minute they were half empty…I lost count of how much Chardonnay I consumed. Suffice it to say I left feeling happy and I was zinned on the train to Sa Pa.

Chi Diu and the 5 guys. Chi Diu is the assistant for the ETA program so she was the one handling all of our frantic emials in the months before we arrived. She's a saint!

We (me and 9 other ETAs) took the sleeper train overnight to Sa Pa. The train was 20 cars of sleepers, which are cabins with 4 bunks called berths. It should be noted that these berths are built for a Vietnamese sized person. As such I wedged my 6’ American frame corner to corner and stretched the equally short comforter tip to tip from my nose to my great toe. The cabins did have AC but the restrooms didn’t. Instead the restrooms featured a huge window extending from the toilet beyond to the sink and given that it was nighttime it was like being a fish in a bowl. Since I was coming from dinner was not dressed in comfy sleeping clothes appropriate for a 9-hour train ride. Thus I tried to discreetly change in the bathroom….it didn’t work. I was jostled back and forth and fumbled in and out the clothes tripping over the toilet and constantly slamming into the sink. Thus Hanoi got an excellent view of my front side and backside, the whole package. When the train stopped I peeled myself up off the floor to find that we had stopped on a bridge overlooking the night market when I proceeded to very quickly yank up my shorts. Is this what the State Department meant as American ambassadorship? It surely wasn’t cultural exchange…beyond the bruises I got nothing in return for my little show. I entered the bathroom feeling hot, I left feeling a different kind of hot; hot and bothered. At 5 am the next morning we arrived in Sa Pa.

Sa Pa is located in the northwest corner of Vietnam on the boarder with China. I know I have raved about this country but this takes the cake (at least so far). Imagine mountains thousands of feet tall…so tall that they disappear in the clouds. Along the sides of the mountains rice terraces step back and up past the clouds and from a distance they appear like a fingerprint, perhaps a cosmic or an omnipresent fingerprint if you know what I mean. FYI I’m not religious though I was raised Christian; Presbyterian more specifically, and I am scientist by training but it makes you think and ponder. These pictures don’t do it justice because it surrounds you in all dimensions and the scale is absurd. The mountains reach skyward and the valleys disappear into raging torrents of rivers and waterfalls. All of this is wrapped in terraces dotted by farmers, huts, bridges, villages and the ever-present high voltage power lines.

Two baby goats. So cute.

The yellow building is the local school...I don't know about you but I would've spent 12 years lookin out the window.

The only downside is oddly the people. They are very kind but there entrepreneurial spirit borders on harassment. When you leave the main town 2 or 3 local women/girls dressed in ethnic clothes (per member of your group) tell you that they will lead to the village. Along the way they share stories about their town, their lives and inquire if you are married, dating, or single. Then they may offer you a fine lady to correct the emptiness on your ring finger. Once you get to their village they surround you and split up the group and start shoving their goods in your face. They tell you that they have led to the village so you must buy. Or they are hungry or poor (though some have iPhones), or their ethnic group is discriminated against, etc. If you say no they keep on going, it doesn’t stop. You can be polite, say no thank you, find the most polite and creative way to say no and it doesn’t work. Our tour guide did say they would be persistent and that we were under no obligation to buy…but he grossly understated the lair we were walking into. I was able to extricate myself without buying anything. But toward the end of our meal at the restaurant they came to our table and specifically targeted us and me. This time I was done being polite and done being harassed for my wallet. I looked squarely at the women, gave her my big city don’t F**K with me look and very firmly raised my voice and said no. It scared her off.

To be clear what these women are doing is illegal, but there are not enough police to enforce the laws that protect tourists from this harassment. But if police do see women or men hawking their products to tourists and following them the villagers are beaten to make an example. Personally I didn’t like the attempt to pull the wool over my eyes and being treated like a dumb westerner. If you want to lead me to your village with the intention of me reciprocating by buying a good from you, then tell me up front because what we entered into is a contract. Don’t ad hoc in a ridiculously overpriced and under made goods at the end attempting to guilt and or distort me of my money. What’s interesting about this is that these ethnic minorities never did this until tourism to Sa Pa exploded. Prior to the 2000s the minorities only wore traditional clothes for wedding, holidays and funerals. They worked in the fields and sent their children to school. Once tourism began the government gave each minority a shop in the major town to sell goods and made laws against harassing tourists. This worked well until 1 ethnic group (and there’s debate about which one) started following the tourists and getting the sales, so then everybody else started to follow the tourists to get the sales. It’s the steroids argument; if I don’t do it I will lose out so I must do even tough it’s wrong and illegal.

What was more enjoyable was going to the Bac Ha Market on Sunday. Here all the minorities have stalls and you can bargain for the goods without being entrapped by a gang. They have a textiles section, a section to buy fruits and vegetables and a section to buy animals (water buffalo, chickens, ducks, pigs, dogs, cats and birds). We finished our time in Sa Pa with a river ride down the Red River and a quick glance at China.

Duck anybody?

You have three options. Light, medium and dark brown. FYI this was the most fragrant section of the market. I didn't linger.

Upon my arrival back in Hanoi Monday morning I returned to work at the AC and taught Monday and Wednesday and attended one final day of orientation on Tuesday. I am off to bed to get sleep before my flight tomorrow to HCMC and then onward to Cao Lanh. Goodbye Hanoi and good night readers.