Crossing The Streams

Apparently Vietnamese men never learned the valuable lesson taught to us in Ghostbusters: NEVER CROSS STREAMS!!!

A month ago, on our way to Quan Lan island, our bus stopped at a highway rest stop. Immediately everyone from the bus stream lined for the bathrooms. We had been stuck in traffic for a long time and clearly everyone, including me, needed to pee. I followed the crowd into the mens room and didn't have enough time to care how utterly disgusting it was (imagine a football stadium bathroom in the fourth quarter...times ten). There was one urinal open and I darted for it. I unzipped my fly and began the amazing feeling of relieving myself....until I was interrupted by a Vietnamese guy trying to share the urinal!!!!

Yes, a stranger tried to cross the streams with me. Apparently a few tour buses arrived at the rest stop right after ours did. There was a stampede towards the bathroom and instead of waiting in line, the men were doubling up at the urinals. I quickly glanced around the room and saw that I was the only person not sharing my toilet. The man gave me a look like, "Move over you selfish bastard!!!" as he basically elbowed his way into my urinal. I'm cool with a lot of things but frankly, I'm not cool with sharing a urinal with a stranger for the simple reason of inevitable "splash back." I gave the dude a look, shook my head frantically and gave him a chest high elbow. Thank goodness that this was enough for him to stand back and let me finish my pee.

Come on, Vietnam! Never cross the streams!

Cicadas

There is a new layer to the soundtrack of Hanoi -- cicadas. All across the city is the loud singing of the insects. On normally quiet streets, the cicadas songs are almost overwhelming. On main roads, the hymns can be faintly heard underneath the roars of motorbike engines.

The other night as Huyen and I walked home from dinner, I commented to her about the loud sounds of the cicadas. Huyen told me that all students in Vietnam love the sound because it means that the school year is about to finish.

Book Review: The Making of the President

Jim, my personal library, recently gave me an American classic: "The Making of the President: 1960" by Theodore H. White.

The book chronicles Teddy White's experiences along the campaign trail with Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy during the 1960 presidential election. The writing is outstanding and the insights are second to none. There are countless political observations that are as true today as they were 50 years ago. However, none of those are what stand out for me. There are two paragraphs that are extremely eerie though the power of retrospection.

The first is on Page 372, when talking about Kennedy and The Oval Office: "When the windows are closed, the sound of Washington traffic, which hums as it passes by outside, is entirely locked out, and one is reminded that these windows are three inches thick of laminated glass, thick enough to stop an assassin's rifle bullet from beyond the grounds -- if the assassin gets time enough to sight."

The other disturbing reference is to a day in the life of John F. Kennedy. On page 375, Teddy White wrote: "Then the supreme and somber problem of war and peace: a long meeting of one and one quarter hours in the cabinet room with Secretary of State Dean Rusk; Secretary of National Defense Robert S. McNamara; Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Lyman Lemnitzer; Admiral Harry D. Felt, Commander-in-Cheif, Pacific theatre; two personal advisers McGeorge Bundy and Walter Rostow; and Vice-President of the United States Lyndon B. Johnson. Here at this meeting he considered, not for the first time but for the decisive [Whit's italics, not mine] time, American response to the newest thrust of Communist pressure on the changing world -- the movement of Communist guerillas over the jungles and ridges of Southeast Asia into the formless Kingdom of Laos. Could anything be done there, and if it could, should anything be done there? This was the ugliest of problems; and if his decisions were right the meeting would fade into history as unimportant; but if the decisions brought war, then this, indeed, was where the Americans chose war."

I think we can say that the president decided wrong that day.

License Plate

(PICTURE: The mysterious Lexus.)

Huyen and I were riding around the city the other morning when she pointed at a car and said, "Where is that car from?" I put on my best Mister-know-it-all voice and said, "That's a Lexus. It's from Japan." Huyen politely said something like, "I know it's a Lexus you idiot, but where is the license plate from?" I squinted my eyes and then shouted, "NO WAY! That car is from California!!!":

(PICTURE: 5SLP211. Anyone in LA missing an LS600hL.)

I think this car was a sign. Huyen and I have been talking about the states a lot recently and BOOM there was a car from California. Why this car was here, I have no idea. My first guess was that it was stolen. Do any cops read my blog that can run the plates?

Obama

I remember last year, Ryan came home talking about the new Obama karaoke shop in our neighborhood. If the Vietnamese know one thing, it's how to pick up on recent trends. Well, what's hotter than the name Obama these days? The other week, Huyen and I went to a friend's wedding in a small city about two hours from Hanoi. Right down the street from our friend's house was a clothing store called --- Obama.

With a little help from my friends...

My favorite song growing up was Joe Cocker's version of, "With A Little Help From My Friends." Well, with a little help from my friends, we built a family a house!!!



(PICTURE: The house.)



(PICTURE: Our placard on the house.)

As I mentioned a long time ago, although I physically built a house last summer, Habitat hadn't used our specific donation money until recently. The money we raised helped out this family:



(PICTURE: The Family.)



(PICTURE: The Family inside the house.)

Thank you once again to all the 70+ people who helped to make this possible!!!

Blasphemy

Last week I was shocked twice by things Vietnamese teenagers said to me in regards to Ho Chi Minh. The first came after I gave a private student an essay with the topic: "If you could meet any dead person from history, who would you want to meet?" The student immediately said to me, "Ho Chi Minh." I was expecting this because 90% of my students in Vietnam have always given that answer. What I wasn't expecting was his follow reason: "I would want to meet Ho Chi Minh so I could stop him from winning the war." I was shocked and said, "Really?" He nodded and said, "Yes, if America won we could have Harvard in Vietnam." The student began to explain to me how he wished Vietnam had become part of America (most Vietnamese I have met think that America was trying to colonize Vietnam) and had they been successful would have built up Vietnam in America's own image. Needless to say, this was pretty blasphemous for a Vietnamese person to say.

However, less than 48 hours later another teenager said this to me, "I don't think Ho Chi Minh is a good role model. He lived very poorly. As the head of the country he should have lived a richer life." Again, blasphemous.

I don't think these two kids' opinions are in anyway indicative of people's thinking as a whole. However, it was still shocking to hear and in some respects, refreshing. It's nice to know that the younger generation isn't afraid to speak their mind. Perhaps the future of Vietnam will have true Freedom of Speech.

The craziest part of this is that both these remarks were made the day before and the day after Ho Chi Minh's birthday!

800TH Post!

800! 800! 800! 800! I don't know why I keep typing 800 except to wrap my head around the fact that I've sat in front of my computer 800 times to write posts!!!

I'm doing the rough calculations in my head and it seems that my 1000th post will be pretty close to my wedding...which sort of makes this 800th post totally insignificant. That said, it at least deserves a video montage...

It sure has been a good ride...and it's only gonna get better!

Random Things I See In Traffic

I often find myself laughing at random things I see in traffic that I know nobody else in the vicinity gives two thoughts about. Today I was riding my motorbike and this guy blazed by me. On the back of his shirt in big letters it said, "NEW YORK." Underneath those words in slightly smaller letters was written, "GARDEN STATE."

I'm pretty sure this t-shirt falls under the category of: "Misprinted T-shirts Shipped Across The World."

Walking On Water

This may sound crazy, but I've seen a prophet in Hanoi. On more than one occasion I've seen a man walk on water...

...and apparently the guy now has some disciples:



It turns out that Hoy Tay (West Lake), the largest lake in the city of Hanoi, is very shallow even about 100 feet or so from shore. I've done more than my fair share of head turns as I've seen men seemingly walking on water...

Animal Noises

One thing that sort of blows my mind is that people around the world impersonate animal noises totally differently. If you try to teach a kid the word D-O-G by saying, "Roof Roof" he'll have no idea what you're talking about. Apparently our animals in America make different noises than animals here in Vietnam.

Sometimes when Huyen or I see an animal we'll do our own animal call. Huyen and I always laugh at each other's impersonations which sound ludicrous. Well, in Mai Chau we were walking along a rice paddy when we encountered a rooster. The rooster wouldn't shut up...until I took out my camera to film it. Well, loyal viewers, watch this video and tell us whose animal call is correct:

Long time reader...

(PICTURE: Putting a face with a name...)

Huyen and I recently had the pleasure of meeting a long time reader of Ahoy Hanoi -- Marcus!

Marcus has been a frequent commenter on the blog for quite a long time. A couple of weeks ago Marcus let me know he was gonna be in Hanoi so we made plans to meet up. Marcus, like me, is an expat. Marcus has been living in Europe for I think around a decade (correct me if I'm wrong Marcus). He has lived in both Paris and currently in Germany. Marcus has an unbelievable skill for language and speaks four languages fluently. He also is a jack-of-all-trades and besides his career in Germany, finds the time to run film festivals. He was actually running a German film festival in Hanoi the week we met up with him.

One of the cool things about meeting blog readers is that I can finally put a face with their name. When Huyen and I arrived at the bar to meet Marcus, I started to write him a text message letting him know we were there. Well, just as I hit send, a friendly voice beamed out, "Huyen!" Sure enough, Marcus recognized us (or at least Huyen)!

One interesting anecdote from that night: Marcus told Huyen and I that he is becoming a German citizen. In order to do this, he has to give up his Vietnamese passport. Upon hearing this, I could sense some anxiety in Huyen. Marcus quickly calmed her down though and said something to the affect that, "Even though I won't have a Vietnamese passport anymore, I'll always feel Vietnamese."

Of course Huyen and I have talked a hundred times about moving to America but the idea of her having to drop her Vietnamese citizenship never crossed our minds. I'm not 100% sure how this works with America. I'm assuming if you just have a green card then you never have to get rid of your country's passport. However, if and when Huyen becomes a citizen, I'm fairly certain she will have to declare herself to be only American. I can imagine that that is very tough psychologically.

Anyway, it was great to meet Marcus and hopefully we'll see him again in the not to distant future.

Eat your greens...

I've been working part time at a private school recently and was quite entertained when I saw this:


(PICTURE: That's water spinach in a urinal.)

I guess some kids everywhere in the world don't like to eat their veggies.

Quan Lan: Odds and Ends

Here's a bunch of odds and ends from Quan Lan Island:

The island had the oddest looking pineapples I've ever seen:


At the port to go to Quan Lan were dozens of fishermen and little raft-taxis bringing people to their boats:


Check out all the shrimp in the truck behind these two vendors:


This was my favorite "guest house" on Quan Lan. This place is called Robinson and only costs about $8 a night to rent this "three sided tent" right by the water:



On a very serious note, on the last day I saw a familiar site -- the local war memorial. The girl on the first day told us that Quan Lan had around 4,000 people living on it. Huyen and I drove the whole island and it seemed that 4,000 was a huge stretch. I'd say the real population was a fraction of that. Regardless, there are a lot of names on this memorial for such a small place. It was another reminder of how everyone in Vietnam -- even those on a remote island -- paid a terrible price in the war with America:

Broken Door

As I mentioned the other day, immediately after checking in to our guesthouse on the first day in Quan Lan, we had to go to the Army office to be extorted. Huyen and I basically threw our stuff down in our room and headed out. After being extorted, we headed out to explore the island and didn't return to our guest house until the early evening.

When we got to the guest house we went straight upstairs to our room. I placed the key in the door, turned the key and quickly realized that something was wrong -- the door wouldn't open. I tried the door a couple more times but it wouldn't budge. Huyen went downstairs and got the landlady who also gave the door an unsuccessful try. She then hollered towards her husband to come fix the door. He gave it his best shot but alas, it wouldn't move an inch.

At this point I realized it was going to be a pain in the ass to open the door. It was by far one of the heavier, sturdier doors I have ever felt. I asked the landlady if we could go in the opposite room to wait. She agreed and let us in. After a few more moments I started to think how this situation could make for an entertaining blog so I whipped out my camera. After another twenty minutes or so it just became annoying. Finally a locksmith of sorts came and nailed the door handle with basically a sledge hammer and a screwdriver. The door finally opened but I could tell the problem wasn't really solved. I quickly grabbed our bags from the room and told the landlady we would switch to the room across the hall.

Well, I'm glad we switched rooms. The guest house ended up being full and later that night Huyen and I were woken up around 11Pm to loud bangs. Turns out the people who took that room got locked out. The locksmith had to be woken and basically broke the door.

My favorite part of this whole experience though was when Huyen overheard the male owner of the house (the man smiling at me at the end of the video) say in Vietnamese: "I told my wife not to let foreigners stay here." Somehow the lock breaking was my fault because foreigners apparently don't know how to open doors.

Quan Lan: The Good Side

(PICTURE: Some pretty shells on the beach.)

Over the last few days I've made a considerable effort to bad mouth Quan Lan Island. My goal has been to help dissuade potential visitors from going there. This may seem harsh but if I could save one person from being extorted by the Army, swindled by a guest house owner or robbed by the locals, I'll feel I've done a noble deed.

Now that said, there are obviously some good things about the island. For one, the beaches were nearly empty which made the island quite romantic. Secondly there were some good people on the island. Specifically, I really like these guys who invited me to play volleyball with them:

There were also some really cute kids. In fact, Huyen and I kept jokingly saying to these kids in English, "Please be nice to tourists when you grow up."

Quan Lan: Robbers

(PICTURE: Huyen standing in the doorway of our ATI beach bungalow.)

Before we went to Quan Lan, I read a review of ATI Resort from a foreigner who wrote about having all of his possessions stolen and the authorities/resort doing nothing to help him. Well, Huyen and I were booked to stay at this resort on our last night so I was extra paranoid about someone stealing our stuff and especially the ring! All day and night I carried a backpack with anything of value; there was no way I was gonna be robbed on the first night I met Huyen and then again on our engagement night!

After a long day at the beach and a celebratory dinner, Huyen and I went back to our bungalow around 8:30 PM. It was already pitch black near our place but we were able to see a man approaching us with a flashlight. The man, who was probably in his sixties, turned out to be a security guard. The guard walked from bungalow to bungalow checking up on things. I wish I had some pictures of the whole resort complex but I don't. Basically from the two farthest bungalows to each other was probably 150 meters. It was a long distance for one security guard to cover by himself. On top of that, the resort wasn't fenced in. Actually, during the day a bunch of locals and tourists strolled up around the bungalows while we were hanging out on the beach. In fact, a group of eight tourists hung out on our porch because they thought nobody was staying there. The point is, security wasn't so tight.

Well, sure enough, at 11PM Huyen woke me up because there was a lot of commotion outside. A whole bunch of Vietnamese tourists in the bungalow next to ours were looking for the security guard. Turns out someone robbed their bungalow and took off with all their stuff (which I'm assuming includes the very expensive cameras that they were taking photos with on the beach during the day).

In case I'm not doing a good job in helping you put two and two together -- this resort is clearly cased out by the locals and robbed on a regular basis. This was the cherry on top for why I will never go back to Quan Lan.

Quan Lan Island: Jellyfish

If the people and garbage doesn't dissuade you from going to Quan Lan, perhaps this will: The beaches are covered with jellyfish!

Actually, I should say, they are covered with the BIGGEST JELLYFISH I HAVE EVER SEEN! The good news is that supposedly the jellyfish don't sting. The bad news is that if you're scared of jellyfish (like me) they are really freaking scary.

The locals aren't scared of the jellyfish at all though. In fact, Huyen and I watched as a bunch of local boys picked up jellyfish from the beach and threw them on each other. To be honest, with my affection for the locals combined with their abuse of marine life, I was hoping the jellyfish did sting when I witnessed them tossing the creatures at each other.

Quan Lan Island: Clean Beaches?

Not every Vietnamese person litters, but my goodness, too many do. Those who don't need to start taking it upon themselves to say something to those who do. Seriously, it pisses me off in Hanoi when people throw trash on the ground but it really really really pisses me off when people throw trash on the beach or in a park or forest. I have no doubt that Quan Lan had perfectly clean beaches a year ago before tourism started to pick up there. However, now there's trash everywhere.

It's vile how on every beach there's a line of garbage and debris that is washed up with the tide.

Check out this photo:



I've finally come to this conclusion: If you want clean beaches don't come to Vietnam. Thailand is a hop, skip and jump from here and the beaches there are exponentially cleaner. Come to Vietnam for the culture and the food and the people (except the ones who litter) -- not for clean beaches. I'm officially done with Vietnamese beaches.

Quan Lan Island, Vietnam

(PICTURE: Don't let this nice picture deceive you...read below.)

For about a year, I had heard from many foreigners how great Quan Lan Island was. Quan Lan is a small island on the outskirts of Halong Bay which supposedly has the cleanest beaches in all of Vietnam. I had been aching to get there for a long time and thought, from what I had been told, that it was the perfect scenic place to propose to Huyen.

Well, reason #18,552 that I know Huyen and I are a perfect match is that we were able to have such a great time on the island which, having now been there, I can claim is THE WORST PLACE IN ALL OF VIETNAM!

Here's reason #1 that you should never go to Quan Lan Island: The people suck. Yes, all of the people. Every single person we met there was trying to scam us. Okay, that's a slight exaggeration -- 90% of everyone we met was dishonest. Here's a little anecdote:

On the bus ride from Hanoi to the port of departure to Quan Lan, Huyen overheard a girl talking on the phone about Quan Lan. Huyen struck up a conversation with this girl who told us that she worked for the government in Quan Lan. Huyen and I had left on Thursday night so that we could take the first boat to the island in the morning. We didn't have a place to stay so the girl said we should stay at her friend's guesthouse by the port. The guesthouse was a SHITHOLE and cost us probably twice what it should have.


(PICTURE: Don't be deceived -- this room had no hot water, no mosquito net, no towels, a light that wouldn't turn off all night and I'm pretty sure bed bugs.)

We arrainged to meet the girl the next morning to take the boat together. The girl was twenty five minutes late and eventually showed up without an apology. Despite her tardiness, I bought her breakfast. She didn't say thanks. The girl then told us that it was going to cost 100,000 VND to take the boat. Despite her thanklessness a minute earlier, I gave her 300,000 VND. Again, she didn't say thank you. Oh, and the boat tickets were stamped with a price of 80,000 VND (but in her defense, I think they were just old tickets).

When we got to the island, the fun really started. As soon as we got off the boat I saw two Army Officers. One of the guys locked eyes with me -- the only foreigner on the boat -- and darted towards me. He started to say something which amounted to me having to register and pay a "fee" for being on the island. The place to register was at the end of the dock. Huyen, the local government girl and I got into a tuk-tuk and told the officers we would stop at the office to register. The second Army guy came over and reiterated what the first guy had said. The local girl told us that she knew both guys. Wellllll, the tuk-tuk driver decided it wasn't important for me to register so he blew by the army office. The local girl said it was no problem and took us to her Aunt's guest house to stay (her Aunt later tried to scam us on the agreed upon price).

About thirty minutes after dropping off our bags, the local girl called Huyen. She said that the Army officers were really pissed off at us and that we'd have to pay a fine -- on top of the fee -- for not registering. She asked us to go back to the dock and talk to the army guys. Oh, and then she aid that in her haste to go talk to the army people she ran out of gas and asked us to pick her up some (I should say now that gas on this island is quite expensive since they have to bring it all by boat). Well, Huyen and I bought some gas for the girl, rented a motorbike for the day and headed back to the dock. As we drove we kept wondering how close to the dock the girl would be with her gas-less motorbike. Turns out she was at the dock already. Staying true to her character, she took the gas WITHOUT A THANKS!

Anyway, we now had to talk with the Army guys who, long story short, said they'd only charge me the fee and not the fine. What nice guys, huh? The fee only cost me 200,000 VND or roughly 200,000 VND more than I've ever had to pay to visit anywhere in Vietnam. The officers couldn't have been friendlier once I paid them the money. Gotta love corruption.

This was all within the first hour of being on the island. It wasn't an anomaly though -- people on this island just couldn't be trusted. So, if you're a random web surfer who just googled "Quan La" and came upon my blog, take my advice and don't. If this post isn't enough of a reason to persuade you, check back in tomorrow for another reason.

And random readers, if you decide to ignore my warning at least listen to this: If you see the girl next to Huyen in the picture below, don't trust her, her family or anyone she works with.

The Ring

(PICTURE: Ring shopping with Chi!)

The first time I knew I might marry Huyen was a long long time ago. It was actually within the first few months of us dating. I remember distinctly that we were walking around Hoam Kiem lake and I asked her some cultural question about marriage. I asked if Vietnamese men gave engagement rings and she said yes. I asked how much they spent on them and she said like 2,000,000 VND...which is just over $100. Coming from Los Angeles where women wore diamond rings worth more than the car I drove, this was, music to my ears!

Sooooooooo about two months ago I decided I was gonna pop the big question on our anniversary. I asked Huyen's sister if she could help me ring shop but unfortunately she was too busy (she literally works as an accountant for four different companies on top of being a mom). My back up ring shopper was my good friend Chi. Chi was really excited to help me out and within two hours of sending her my initial text asking if she could give me an assist, we were in our first jewelry shop. I felt quite confident shopping with Chi even though she freely admitted she knew as much as I did about getting engagement rings.

Chi and I went to a few jewelry shops and saw some rings that we liked. We ended up at a very nice shop that had diamond rings. Here's one thing that makes sense but hadn't really crossed my mind: Diamonds are the same price in Vietnam and America. I thought about getting Huyen a diamond for about ten minutes...until I called Huyen's sister. Huyen's sister gave me the best advice I've ever gotten, "Get a cheap ring!"

This was all the encouragement I needed to end any thoughts of emptying my Vietnamese bank account. Chi and I went back to a shop where we had spotted a nice ring earlier in the day and made the purchase. The ring has a white gold band with a small mounted stone on it. I have no idea what kind of stone it is but from a few feet away it actually looks like a diamond!

(PICTURE: That smile on my face was for the very real prospect of getting married...while still having the majority of my previous two months salary in my wallet.)

I told Huyen that when we move to the states I'll get her a diamond ring if she wants one. Huyen smiled at this but said she isn't gonna want one...

...and that's why I will point to this blog a few years from now when she comes back from brunch with all of her LA girlfriends and says, "I want a diamond ring..."

Looking Into The Past Before We Embark On Our Future

Ryan sent me a great email today referencing one of my first blog posts about Huyen. It's really funny (or prophetic as Ryan says) to go back and read it now -- especially the closing line.

I'm gonna cut and copy that post below and write some corrections in the text:

Friday, May 16, 2008

Um, yeah, I might have a Vietnamese Girlfriend

(PICTURE: Huyen wearing a traditional Vietnamese dress in front of The Temple of Literature)

So Huyen (the girl who asked me if I "was going to make water") and I have hung out a couple more times recently [NOTE: She still jokingly asks if I'm making water from time to time]. She and her sister came over on Tuesday night and cooked an amazing house-warming dinner for Ryan and I [NOTE: This was the house we ended up being evicted from because I was dating Huyen]. Then yesterday she swung by during the day to talk for a little while and to drink fresh melon shakes [NOTE: Huyen never made me a fresh melon shake again. Hmmmm, I'm gonna have to inquire about this].

Now the question is, how many times does it take for a boy and a girl in Vietnam to hang out before they are considered boyfriend and girlfriend [NOTE: I'm still not sure of this answer. I now know the answer to getting engaged though]?

In case you're wondering here are Huyen's stats:
Age: 23 [NOTE: Because of the crazy way Vietnamese date birthdays -- and my terrible skills in Math -- I'm still not sure how old she was when we met]
Occupation: College Student at the University of Hanoi; finishing her thesis in economics. [NOTE: She is now a merchandiser for a company importing/exporting socks and will hopefully be a university student again when we move to America. My hope is Huyen can get her MBA in the states.]
Languages: Vietnamese (A+), Russian (A+) [NOTE: Despite winning the National Prize for Russian in Ha Nam Province, Huyen's Russian skills are about as good as my Vietnamese skills. I'm lowering her grade to C-] , English (B) [NOTE: Thanks to her phenomenal English tutor she's now up to an A-], French (C+) [NOTE: The first night we hung out she said a few words in French which made me give her this grade. It didn't take me long though to realize she doesn't know much French at all. Grade update: D-], Japanese (C+) [NOTE: See the French note. Grade update: D-]
Height: 5'7 or 5'8. She's a giant out here. [NOTE: Huyen is a giant out here but after finally figuring out the height metric application on my phone I can report that she's just under 5'6]
Extra Curricular Activities: Badminton [NOTE: She's really good at Badminton...so good that she beat me the last time we played], Cooking [NOTE: I think she's an amazing cook although she claims she is the worst in her family], Riding her motorbike [NOTE: Now she likes letting me drive all the time], going to the movies, hanging out with family [NOTE: This is still as true as ever].

One negative about Huyen is that she literally might kill me [NOTE: It hasn't happened yet but she's threatened me a few more times since this incident]. Yesterday I made a joke about her bothering me and she started to strangle me and said, "You are so mean!" I'll keep you posted on this budding romance. If it does turn into marriage, I expect everyone to fly out for the wedding. [NOTE: I still expect everyone to fly out for the wedding!!!]

Two Years...and one very big moment

For two years, I've smiled every time I've seen Huyen...
For two years, I've felt like the luckiest person in the world...
For two years, Huyen has made me laugh like nobody else ever has...
For two years, Huyen has made me feel special every time we're together...
For two years, I've cherished every moment we've spent with one another...
For two years, we've had countless adventures...
For two years, I've believed in fate...
For two years, Huyen's been my best friend...

For all of those reasons, watch till the end of this video:



Here's the engagement story:

For our two year anniversary I took Huyen away to Quan Lan island near Halong Bay. The two of us spent three days together on this isolated island enjoying the peace and solitude and just being together. On the day of our anniversary, we checked into a bungalow on the beach and spent the whole day lounging around with about a half kilometer of white sandy beach to ourselves. After hiding the ring box in a pair of socks all day -- which Huyen had pulled out of my bag at some point but didn't realize was in there -- I decided the time was right.

The tide was coming in and although the sun hadn't set yet, the scene felt perfect. I told Huyen I wanted to shoot a video for the blog and asked her to go stand a little far from the camera. I had previously decided that I wanted to share the moment with everyone but I didn't want everyone to be able to hear what I said; I wanted to keep that between us. Once the camera was rolling, I joined Huyen and we started to make a video about our anniversary (which I edited out of the clip for time sake). After talking for a minute, I gathered my nerves and said my speech....the rest is history.

Three notes on this video:
1. Huyen is actually really tall. However, I was standing on a slight hill which makes me look like a giant.
2. If you didn't notice, we weren't sure at first which finger to put the ring on. Whoops. You don't get to have two takes in these situations.
3. I decided I wanted to share this video on my blog since so many of you have followed our journey together for so long and have been so extremely supportive...

We hope many of you can join us at our wedding! Circle your calendars on December 19th!

The Drive Back...

(PICTURE: A local kid we met on the way.)

On our second day in Mai Chau, we spotted a road along a mountain pass. We asked a local about the road and he told us that it was a newly built way to go to Hoa Binh. In fact, he said the road was 16 kilometers shorter than the highway which meant it was time saving and scenic! I always love the prospect of taking new roads and asked Huyen if we could try it out. Huyen, always down for an adventure agreed...and well, it turned out to be quite an adventure.

Huyen and woke up early on our final day and headed out towards the road. When we got to the turn off of the road, there was a HUGE construction truck blocking the way. The driver of the truck started to speak to Huyen and said something I couldn't understand. Huyen then said, "Ta da?" which I could understand. That means, "Really?". The man said something else and then they both laughed. Huyen told me the man jokingly said the road wasn't finished and that we couldn't take it. After pulling our chain for a minute he said it was no problem and let us pass.

We drove for a few minutes before we encountered another little setback; a huge crane on the side of the road knocking out chunks of the mountains. The "chunks" or boulders it had scraped off were blocking the road. Huyen got off the bike and allowed me to carefully maneuver around them. Oh, should I mention again that this road was along the edge of a mountain?



(PICTURE: A small section of unpaved road that Huyen felt more comfortable walking than riding on.)

After getting around the rocky obstacles, we proceeded on the road. There were beautiful views everywhere we looked and perplexed locals wondering why a foreigner and his girlfriend were traveling in their neck of the woods. After a little bit, we rounded a corner and stopped right behind a huge bulldozer. All around the bulldozer were construction workers who started to tell us that we couldn't take the road. I once again heard, "Really?" from Huyen which was followed by lots of laughter. Everyone then waved us on as we drove along the six inches of the road which wasn't freshly tarred.

A few minutes more passed before we came to another terrible section of road. Huyen decided to get off the bike and allow me to drive it up the steep section of the hill. I obliged and shot up the mountain about a hundred yards ahead of her....until I came to a section of completely overturned road with another huge crane in front of it. The crane operator looked at us as if we were totally crazy for being where we were. I can only imagine what he was thinking, "Um, didn't any of the other construction workers along the way mention that the road isn't built yet?"


(PICTURE: The last section of "road".)

Yup, turns out the road wasn't passable. Huyen and I had to turn around and drive past everyone who had told us it was okay for us to travel on the road. One word comes to mind: DICKS!

On the positive side, we got to see some spectacular views for an hour an a half. In fact, on the way back we saw this waterfall which we somehow missed on the way forward:

My Birthday

On my actual birthday, I think Huyen sang "Happy Birthday" to me at least three dozen times. It was her goal that day to give me everything I wanted...which resulted in -- vegetarians stop reading now -- this :


Yes, that's a whole little pig laid out on a platter in front of me and my birthday candles. You see, the night before my birthday a group of students were having a bonfire party and roasting a small pig:



I commented to Huyen that it was like they were having a luau, something I've never partaken in. After explaining to Huyen what a luau was, I could see a light go on in her brain. The next day she asked the guest house if they could roast us a small pig. Later Huyen told me the woman said, "Just the two of you are gonna eat a pig?" The answer was yes...although it took us my birthday dinner and breakfast the following morning.

I'll be the first to admit that I'm filled with guilt over having to end the life of a pig to celebrate me turning one year older. However, it was by far the tastiest grilled pork I've ever eaten. Yes, Dad, ever!!!!

You'll notice in the picture a giant vase sitting next to me. Well, if you didn't notice, here it is on my head:



This vase was filled with fermented rice which makes a very sweet alcoholic beverage. Huyen and I bought the vase to celebrate my birthday. By celebrate, I mean drink half and pass out thirty minutes later. I didn't check the time that I fell asleep on my birthday but it was definitely no later than 9:30PM. Despite the early exit from consciousness, this was definitely one of my best birthdays ever. Thanks for the amazing weekend, Huyen!

Orchids

Whenever I've gone to mountainous countryside areas, I've always noticed the abundance of orchids. Seemingly everywhere in Mai Chau someone is selling orchids. Here's a shop on one of the islands near Ba Khan:

I've always been a nature lover; a trait I've inherited from my Grandpa Leo. I don't often think to myself in Vietnam, "Grandpa Leo would love this" but I'm pretty sure he would love the botanical aspects of the mountainous areas of this country.

I really wanted to buy some orchids for my apartment but driving 131 kilometers back to Hanoi with flowers didn't seem like the smartest idea.

Lots of Pictures...

(PICTURE: The hand gestures means someone is 31!)


This isn't a photo-blog but I took lots of pictures that I want to post. So enjoy:

(PICTURE: An awkward attempt to time a jump with a camera timer.)

(PICTURE: Huyen buying me a throw blanket from a White Thai woman.)

(PICTURE: Huyen attempting to make her own throw blanket.)

(PICTURE: The pristine ground of the pagoda. The God of recycling is on another island.)

(PICTURE: Nguyen Atlas Huyen.)

(PICTURE: I call this one, "Fodder for my friends to make fun of me.")

Ba Khan Islands

NOTE: Today is Huyen and my 2 year anniversary! We're away on a four day weekend to celebrate. Those blogs will be next week. Now back to our Mai Chau trip...

(PICTURE: On the boat to Ba Khan.)

The first time that I went to Mai Chau, I explored some small back roads with my cousin Justin. While we were driving about, we came to gigantic lake in the middle of the mountains. I took this picture then:


Justin and I then drove down to a dilapidated port but unfortunately couldn't ask the locals what the deal was with the lake. Well, it took more than a year, but I now know what the deal is...

On our second day in Mai Chau, Huyen and I woke up early and went to the port. We asked some questions and found at that this is a man-made lake that is used for hydro-electric power for Hanoi. One of the people at the dock told us that the locals use the water to raise fish and that there are fish as large as 40 kilograms swimming in the water. That's a pretty big fish.

I had done a little research about the area and had read that there was an island you could take a boat to. Supposedly on the island were members of the Dzao Tribe, another ethnic minority tribe in the area. Huyen negotiated a ride on a boat with a few fisherman. As he led us to the boat we noticed that the dock was covered by giant tree trunks. The fisherman told us that this dock used to be a way for people to travel to the area but it was now shut down by the government since the big Highway 6 had been built. The fisherman then told us to get inside of the boat since he wasn't allowed to give anyone a ride or he might be fined.

After a few minutes the fisherman told us that we could sit in front of the boat and told us that he was taking us to a pagoda in a cave. That afternoon we ended up seeing three different pagodas that were located on the lake. One of the pagodas is actually quite popular with Vietnamese tourists and the place was jam packed. Everyone was coming on tour boats from Hoa Binh, a city to the northeast, while we were the only people coming from the Mai Chau area. In the end, there was no tribal village to see. We did meet some Dzao people at the third pagoda though so that is now checked off the list.

Check out this video of the boat and some footage from the pagoda. My favorite moments include a man smoking a cigarrette while praying and a woman speed reading other people's prayers into her microphone head-set:

Mai Chau: Day 1

Mai Chau is a beautiful village 131 kilometers from Hanoi. The village has ethnic White Thai and Muong people living there and is surrounded by mountains on all sides. I consider Mai Chau one of my favorite places in Vietnam and was excited to be able to go there with Huyen, who had never been before.

Huyen and I set off at 6AM last Friday morning and didn't get too far before we realized that it was freezing out. We pulled over to the side of the road and put on some extra layers of clothes. I actually had to wrap a towel around my neck to stay warm...hence this sweet fashion statement:

Riding to Mai Chau was another reminder of how quickly Vietnam is developing. There was a new major road on the way that probably shaved off 15 kilometers of the drive. Even more obvious though was that the actual road to Mai Chau had been widened to probably double the width. When my cousin Justin and I had gone there over a year ago, the road was probably about eight feet wide; now large buses are traveling down the road. The town is still as peaceful as ever but there were definitely a larger number of tourists this time than during my previous two visits.

Huyen and I headed straight for House Number 20, my favorite guest house in Mai Chau:

After throwing our bags into our stilt house, I took a nap on the same hammock I've passed out in a couple of times before:


At night, Huyen and I enjoyed some traditional White Thai music and dancing:


After dinner we headed for the soccer field for the nightly bonfire:

It was great to be back in Mai Chau!