Vietnam: for every action there is...

Dear Reader,

Click here for Photos (also bare in mind that again, these were uploaded from a PC and are completely not in order): http://gallery.me.com/ericsutherland/100203

No sooner did I set fingers to keyboard in condemnation of Vietnam than it became one of the highlights of my entire trip...

We left off in Hoi An, I had just ordered a batch of suits and was awaiting their creation. The next morning I pry my eyes open and haul myself out of the HARDEST bed I've ever slept in and made my way to collect my new threads. Here's the amazing thing though, I was measured at 3PM the previous day, and was leaving at 2PM the next day. 10AM, I roll downtown, get lost then find my way to the tailor stall in the back of the covered market. There I was greeted by my tailor lady friends with "Okay, we have your clothes! Try them on." I was stunned... they really had a tight operation running there. After a few quick checks and measurements, they said "Okay, come back in one hour, everything be ready."

Sure to their word, it was. And the shoes that I had ordered the night before. And the post office officials came down with a box to send it all home. For how disorganized everything seemed, it all worked like clockwork. The shoe maker lady said "These took longer because I have no light in my house, I had to wait until morning to finish them." These people never cease to amaze me. The suits looked great, the leather jacket is awesome and I can't wait to try them all on when I get home.

After this frantic episode of productivity, I was bus bound to Hue. I sat next to two Aussies and their mother, one 9 and one 15. I swear, if I was that well spoken and outgoing when I was 9, I'd be in a very different place now! What rad kids.

Hue is the place where an family friend lives, meet some very good friends and the place where I would have the most in depth cultural experience to this point in the trip. Hue is a beautiful city, with an square, inner section known as the citadel where some great king chilled out doing Confusicm or animism or whatever. The square is surrounded by a more modern, yet charming city, big enough to feel metropolitan, small enough to navigate easily.

I checked into my hostel and proceeded to take a wander through the streets. Almost immediately I met Van; short, brown-eyed, black haired, precocious Vietnamese girl (go figure!). She was passing out flyers to the bar she worked at, promoting some kind of buy 1 get 1 free happy hour thing. After talking with her for a while, she invited me out to coffee for the next day, and not thinking anything of it, swapped emails and headed on my way.

The next day, true to her word, she came by the hostel and actually picked me up on a moto. This was an odd maneuver to me, but I thought, whatever! and headed to the Perfume River to drink some strong as hell Vietnamese coffee. It was strange, because unlike everyone else to that point, she didn't want to take all my money or cheat me in anyway; this young student working at local bar for who knows what abysmal wage started taking me around the city, tasting new foods, trying new things, paying for everything and generally taking very good care of me. I kept waiting for the other shoe to fall, waiting for the catch. Yet none came. I was introduced to Vietnamese student life, introduced to her friends who are all studying things like economics, finance, and political science. I was treated like a celebrity, given food and drink, answered a million questions, and given the best seats in the house. What was amazing to me was the tiny rooms they lived in, all smashed right next to each other and with hard beds, no mattress, squat toilet and tiny space for a portable burner stove. The entire place is smaller then my room in Seattle. We tried strange, sweet bean and coconut concoctions and weird noodle dishes. It was a fantastic time.

I also had the opportunity to visit someone who I had not seen in 17 years, a man working with NGOs in Vietnam and who married a Vietnamese woman and now lives in a beautiful house with his 7 month year old son. We had great conversations over beers and curry. I played with his little boy and once again realized that I'm going to be a GREAT dad whenever that happens.

The next day, Van, a friend of hers (Le) and myself went to a small mountain where the highest pagoda in Vietnam is said to be. It was a scorching hot day, and of course the girls covered themselves in head to toe to avoid the sun and potential browning that might occur therein. Climbing what felt to be thousands of stairs, I almost had to carry poor Le up to the top, where we found an old man sitting and reading, and occasionally ramming a large, suspended log into an even bigger metal bell object which made an amazing sound that echoed all throughout the valleys below. Here we observed butterflies and dragonflies and the city of Hue below. There was a distinct lack of tropical and palm trees in the area,which I found to be interesting... instead, there were pine trees and shrubs all over. A family wandered by and the monk (I guess he was a monk) let a little boy of about 4 whang on the bell for a while, much to his delight. After the mountain pagoda, Van and Le invited me and a Brit to a festival that their university was holding; an event in which students created little ornately decorated booths (of which function they had, i had no idea) and their teachers went around judging who had the best booth. In return, the winner got good grades (actually I have no idea what the prize was, if any). I was at once, mobbed by tiny girls and treated like a celebrity, asked a million questions and posed for god knows how many photos... the only thing I wasn't asked to do was sign any autographs! Finally I had to unwillingly pry myself away from the festivities and head to Hanoi... But Hanoi would prove to be short lived, as Sapa was the next place I'd find myself.

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction... the terrible time in South Vietnam was completely reversed and coupled with the adventure that was yet to come, Vietnam would become the highlight of my trip.

more later,

-e