All Alone In A Cave

(PICTURE: Me opening the gate to the cave.)

One morning in Babe, Huyen and I set off to visit a famous cave. When we got to the base of the cave, the cave caretaker wasn't there. However, there was a man across the street who had a key to the cave. The guy waved us over and gave us the key.

Huyen and I then walked up a path on a mountain to the entrance of the cave. There was a gate in front of the entrance and I unlocked it. Inside was an electrical box with a few switches. We flipped all the switches to "on" but only three lights came on inside the whole cave. Huyen and I had a flashlight with us but it was hardly illuminating. We decided to put our fear aside and started to walk down the path in the cave. A few times we stopped when we thought we heard noises in the darkness. I usually don't get scared, but I was kind of nervous in the cave. We tried to talk ourselves out of being frightened and agreed to walk to the next light. We did this twice until we thought we got to the end of the cave. However, we could see another light in the far distance that had been obscured by a rock. Huyen and I both looked at each other and said, "lets get out of here."

We quickly walked back up the path and exited the cave. Just as I locked the door a group of about twenty people came walking up. Huyen and I thought about going back into the cave with the group but were a) exhausted b) realized that that was just what the monsters wanted us to do.

Boating

(PICTURE: Oot preparing our boat.)

On our second full day in Babe, Oot took us out for a day on the lake. She told us we had two options (she always seems to have two options):

Option 1: Go on a fast boat with all the tourists.

Option 2: Go on her wooden boat.

We chose option two. To call her boat a boat is slightly pushing it. It's really more of a hallowed out tree trunk shaped sort of like a canoe.

The advantage of Oot's boat was that it was extremely relaxing. Huyen and I drifted off to sleep a few times while Oot worked her butt off. The downside of Oot's boat was that it was slow as hell. We were out on the lake for about four hours, hence why we kept falling asleep.

As you've read, Huyen isn't much of a swimmer. Shockingly our guest house had a lifejacket Huyen borrowed. Also, Oot brought along with us two life-preservers....which turned out to be great neck rests.

Our destination was a waterfall. To get to the waterfall, Oot brought us to shore and then pointed us down a trail in a cornfield.

(PICTURE: Our trail.)

The trail had a few obstacles along the way but finally led to the waterfall...where all the fast boats were parked.

(PICTURE: Huyen and I in front of the waterfall...which you can't really see.)

Overall, it was a great day out and a fantastic way to relax our muscles after the long trek the day before. By "our muscles" I of course mean Huyen and I. Oot, a grandmother, did the trek the day before and rowed us all day without breaking a sweat.

Trekking

(PICTURE: One of the villages we hiked to.)

Huyen and I got to Babe at 7PM on Thursday night. We found a local guest house that my friend Van recommended and checked-in to our room. By "our room" I mean a bed with a curtain around it. All of the guest houses in Babe are basically the same. The houses cram as many beds into a room as possible and separate them with curtains that would almost give you some privacy if they were long enough to actually form a complete wall and not leave foot and a half gaps at the edges.

The next morning Huyen and I went trekking with a woman named Oot who is the Aunt of the guest house owner. My friend Van from school told me Oot was her second mother and that she would take care of us. Oot led us on an amazing trek into the middle of nowhere. We followed a dirt path through a small village, past rice fields, up a mountain, down a mountain, through corn fields and finally towards a small ethnic village completely isolated from civilization.

(PICTURE: This is the dirt path that started the trek. It was also the most defined path the whole way.)

A couple highlights of the walk:

1: The countless make shift bridges that we had to cross. Watching Huyen balance on them makes me giggle every time I think about it...and now you can watch too:


2: Me saying to Huyen before the hike, "I wish I brought shoes that had some traction." I then proceeded to slip on nearly every wet rock.

3: Seeing a dead snake on the path within the first thirty minutes of the hike. I asked Oot if it was poisonous and she said that if it bit us we'd be dead in ten minutes.

4: Being told that we could take two different routes. Route one was a circle. Route two would be through the heart of the forest and come out to Lake Babe where a boat could pick us up. I emphasize "could". We would have to get in touch with the boat and since there is no cell phone service in the middle of nowhere that would have been a problem. The other problem would have been that Oot said we'd probably each get a bunch of leaches on us if we went that way. (Note: To be honest, I wanted to get a leach on me. How cool of a blog would that be?)

(PICTURE: A good way to get leaches. Stand By Me anyone?)

5. Being invited into an ethnic villagers house and eating a corn dish with broth. Huyen explained to me that the villagers were so poor that they couldn't afford to eat rice despite the fact that they grow rice themselves. They sell their own rice in the market for meat.

6. The fact that Oot -- a grandmother mind you -- was not only was less tired than us the whole time, but that she also carried a log with an orchid on it for 75% of the trip.

(PICTURE: Oot and her Orchid)

7. Huyen's ridiculously big walking stick.

8. The fact that I carried a watermelon for maybe five miles so we could eat it for lunch. Yeah, it wasn't worth it.

Overall the trek was great. When we got back all we wanted was a hot, powerful shower...but those things don't exist in Babe. We settled for some drips of warm water while being swarmed by gigantic mosquitos.

A Rough Start

(PICTURE: I'm going to miss green rice fields.)

This past Thursday was Independence Day in Vietnam. To celebrate the Vietnamese beating the Americans, Thursday and Friday wer a national holiday.

Huyen and I decided to take a road trip to Babe Lake which is located about 250 KM north of Hanoi. I told Huyen we should take my motorbike since it was a rental and well, the people who I rent from charged me an arm and a leg to keep the bike for 8 more days (an arm and a leg costs $24 when usually I pay $30 for a month).

There are always two problems with road trips in Vietnam:

Problem 1: The highways are scary as hell and frankly not fun to drive on.

Problem 2: My butt/anyone with nerve ends in their butt begins to hurt immensely after about thirty kilometers on the road.

For this trip, Huyen and I solved both problems:

Solution 1: I borrowed an extremely detailed map of nearly all Vietnamese roads from Long (where this map was on our bike trip I don't know.) Huyen and I took the highway for about an hour total during our 12 hour trip to Babe. Once we left Hanoi we saw nothing but gorgeous moutains and green rice fields.

Solution 2: Huyen sewed together His & Her Butt Pillows for my bike:

(PICTURE: Our butt pillows and luggage for our four day trip.)

That said, our trip got off to a rocky start. Just minutes after getting onto our first country road, I heard a POP. I chose to ignore it until Huyen said, "Stop! We have a flat." Sure enough we had a flat tire. Luckily we were literally 8 feet down the road from a repair shop. The shop fixed my inner tube and tire. He also tightened my brakes. My bike was as good as new.

(PICTURE: My bike getting its back tire fixed.)

The second rocky part of our trip happened a few hours later. Huyen and I were on a road that the map key classifies as a "dirt road." We were literally on a path in the middle of nowhere that was even tougher to drive on because 40% of it was muddy. Huyen and I finally got through the narrow path and emerged on a four foot wide paved road...where three cops were waiting for us.

The cops waved me down with a baton and I pulled over on to the side of the road. The head cop saluted me, which I thought was a way of saying "You're a foreigner so no problems here." Yeah, it didn't mean that. Instead it meant, "I'm going to try and blackmail you for money." The cop asked for my driver's license and passport. Luckily I was carrying my driver's license for the first time ever. Literally I had never actually carried it before because it's too big to fit into a wallet and nobody actually carries their license with them here. After I surprised the cop with my IDs he asked to see the motorbike registration/ownership papers. Since I rent the bike I don't have those papers. The cop shook his head and then showed Huyen his official notebook. By "official" I mean he had a notebook you can buy at any convenience store anywhere in the world. On the back of the notebook he had HAND WRITTEN some sentence with numbers next to them. He told Huyen these were the official fines for our offenses. Yes, offenses. Apparently we had two. Not only didn't I have registration papers BUT he said our license plate was on crooked. Yeah, it wasn't. The cop wanted 350,000 Dong. He said that was the fine or they would take my bike and hold it for thirty days. Huyen apologized to him and gave him 50,000 Dong. The cop quickly pocketed the money like he was doing us a favor.

If this wasn't ridiculous/infuriorating enough, a motorbike rode up to the three cops while we were stopped. On the motorbike were THREE MEN (three people on a bike is illegal). All three men WERE NOT WEARING HELMETS (not wearing helmets is illegal). Also I'm pretty sure all three men were DRUNK (I'm not sure if drinking and driving is illegal here). Yeah, the cops waved them through the checkpoint.

As we were leaving the head police officer told Huyen that there were two more police check points ahead. About fifteen minutes later we saw a checkpoint and did what any responsible person would do in that situation: we blazed through it while looking around obliviously. The cops didn't stop us.

On our way home Huyen and I were stopped by another checkpoint. I took off my helmet and mask and the cops saw that I was a foreigner. One of them said, "Let him go, he's a foreigner." They all laughed at me and waved me on. Man, why can't all cops be as cool as that?

Typical Day

(PICTURE: My 9AM class on my birthday.)

I thought I'd share one of my typical days with everyone:

7:00 AM Wake Up
7:30 AM Eat breakfast at the local market ($0.25)
8:00 AM Get to school, check my email (read about the Boston Bruins), and prepare my classes. Up until two months ago I didn't go to school until 3PM. However, I have taken on two classes recently to get some extra money before going home.
11:00 AM I finish my first class and go to the swimming pool. ($2.75 to swim)
12:30 PM Eat lunch ($0.85)
1:30 PM Teach a second class
4:00 PM Go to a cafe and write my blog(s).
5:30 PM Teach a family at their home.
7:30 PM Teach my final class at school.
9:00 PM Go to dinner with Huyen. (around $10 depending on where we eat).
10:30 PM Play pool or watch a movie with Huyen.

That is my schedule Monday, Wednesday and Friday. On Tuesday and Thursday I only work three hours and write/exercise/eat/nap the rest of the day. Yeah, it's a pretty good life.

Thank You!/Worst Brother-In-Law Ever/Happy Birthday Lippman!

Last night I got back from a four day motorbike trip with Huyen to Babe Lake. The trip was amazing and I'll post pictures as soon as I download them...which isn't easy since my camera has been on the fritz for months.

Anyway, when I opened up my email yesterday I had almost two dozen emails with donations towards Habitat For Humanity. I also had a couple emails from my mother about all the envelopes that had arrived at my house. After counting up the total, we're halfway to reaching my goal of $2,000!!! That said, we're only halfway. I hope those readers out there send a couple bucks in the mail. We wouldn't be anywhere close to the halfway mark if it wasn't for the small contributors as well as the big contributors.

I want to take a moment and apologize to my sister-in-law Kathy. I am the worst brother-in-law ever. Not only did I forget her birthday but I also posted my dog post on her birthday. Kathy is one of the biggest dog lovers in the world. Sorry, Kathy!...but all dogs go to heaven, right? That said, she got revenge on me: she taught Lilah how to crawl! How freaking cruel is that?! She couldn't wait one more week to start crawling. Thanks a lot, Lilah/Kathy.


(PICTURE: Rocky is pissed that he's now gonna have competition for scraps on the floor.)

(PICTURE: Crawling is tiring. Luckily Lilah's got a great pillow -- my dad.)

Finally, happy birthday Adam Lippman! Welcome to the now populated thirty club. Adam, is one of my oldest friends who recently got himself a great birthday present -- a fiance.

My favorite memory of Adam took place in my driveway about fifteen years ago. My friends and I were playing roller hockey and all of a sudden Lippman was in a fight with our friend Wishnia. Wishnia, mind you, is the biggest/toughest/strongest kid I have ever known. Somehow Lippman won the fight. After that Buster Douglas moment, I can't remember anyone ever fighting Lippman again.

(Adam and his fiance Erika.)

One Year

Things just haven't been the same since May 2nd, 2008...