Tag: Vietnam (Page 1 of 2)

Project Vietnam – Phong Nha – March 2017

March 26, 2017 / terry

9 March 2017 – Perth to Saigon via Kuala Lumpur

An early flight on Air Asia saw us heading off to Kuala Lumpur and a 2 hour stop over before going on to Ho Chi Minh City. Ahead of us was a two week sting on a Project Vietnam work site in Phuong Nha, a small town in the mountains inland of Dong Hoi on the Central Coast. We looked forward to a comfortable flight because we had been granted an extra seat for the small payment of $24. However, when we boarded the plane we found that there were so few passengers that we could have easily had as many seats as we wanted without paying the extra. It was a 300 seat aircraft and I estimate there were about 120 passengers. So nice to be flying outside of school holiday times.

We passed the time with watching movies, reading, snoozing and eating the tiny little meals that they serve you. The flight across from KL to Ho Chi Minh City was a bit of a sardine tin squeeze but fortunately it was a shade under two hours. The luxury of a pre-booked car at the airport got us into the Saigon traffic jams quickly and easily and the next 45 minutes was spent being surrounded by motorbikes. I really don’t understand why we rarely see any form of collision but somehow all the vehicles avoid actual contact. Later, we did notice that a lot of the young back packers around had serious bandages on legs and arms, signs of less fortunate experiences on motorbikes. With so much at stake and the state of the hospital services here, it defeats me why the young people do it yet they continue to think they can manage like a local. The fact is that most can’t.

We stayed at the iPeace Hotel in the Pham Ngu Lao district, or “Backpacker Street”. It has been 5 years since our last visit and little has changed. There are definitely more tourists but the chaotic streets and pushy street vendors are still a feature. The cheap eats and beer are still available but the variety has increased, with more western food and pizza type things invading the scene. Across in the central park, a big new shopping mall and modern food hall has opened, a far cry from the old Ben Thanh Markets where Asia’s most aggressive sellers still ply their trade.

With bags dumped and our thirst driving us, we hit the streets, only to discover Brendon, Roger and Anne-Marie in the Bee Saigon Restaurant. They were to head off to Phuong Nha the next day so we spent some time catching up and downing a few beers, some excellent chilli squid and a plate of amazing tempura vegetables. A trio of young German girls provided further entertainment before we returned to the hotel to crash for the night.

Our day in Saigon was mostly spent just wandering the streets, seeking the odd refreshment, buying some SIMS for our phones and relaxing. We continued to run into Aussies, including a couple from Bruce Rock, so proving that the World is a rather small place after all. A trip to the Ben Thanh Markets was the usual run of the sales girls, “I have shirt for you Mista. We have shirts. How many you want? Etc etc”. We were actually looking for a cheap Chinese fitness watch, like the $22 one I am wearing. Christine has a nice Garmin job on her wrist but somewhere in an airport transit it vanished. It was probably ripped off while putting on a backpack. However, it seems that the “FitBit” craze has yet to hit Vietnam and there was not a fitness band to be seen anywhere.

For our airport transfer we used an airport taxi service again, this time organised by the hotel. We paid them and were given a voucher for the driver. “Pay no more,” said the hotel girl. The said taxi arrived at the appointed time of 6:15 am and we set off, having a limited conversation on broken English. The driver was incredibly skilful, he had to be or he would have killed a great many people the way he drove. For some reason, we took a maze of back streets and alley ways, quickly being swallowed up by the teeming masses of life away from the tourist areas. One tends to forget just how many very poor people there still are in the big cities. The car came to a grinding halt and a plastic bag appeared through the window. The driver grinned and we set off again as he explained that he had diverted to pick up his breakfast from his “good wife”.

Approaching the airport, he asked us if we would pay the toll for him as a way of tipping him. This was a bit rude because we had already paid the toll in our fare but since the 30,000d ($1.80) was not going to break the bank we agreed. The cheeky guy then proceeded to park outside the airport control and walk us into the domestic area, meaning he got to pocket both the toll supplied to him through our fare and the “tip” we had given him. It’s called enterprise.

Arriving at Dong Hoi

The flight to Dong Hoi was uneventful, if one discounts the extremely violent landing that had the aircraft slewing sideways for a while. There was much gripping of seats and many white faces, even though most passengers were of an oriental colouring. However, we all survived and our little group of six PVI participants were met by a driver and we were soon off into the mountain area. Here the mountains are not high, but very spectacular, being more in the nature of rugged heavily weathered limestone pinnacles called Karsts. Our destination, Phong Nha, is nestled on the banks of the Song River deep within the mountain system. The limestone system house a number of cave systems, the largest of which was discovered as late as 2004 and has proved to be the World’s longest cave system, clocking in at a little over 35km long.

The town is basically a one street affair, between the mountains and the river. The single street houses a great many small hotels and guest houses, along with the usual collection of restaurants and bars. However, the incredible beauty of the town’s location provides a completely different aspect. The surrounding karsts loom over the village and in the morning, charming mists thread their way between the peaks.

The caving attracts backpackers, which in turn downgrades the cuisine on offer from delightful local to “Western and chips”. However, if one is discerning, some good little eateries can still be found. The PVI contingent of around 33 was booked in at the Paradise Hotel, a newly refurbished but basic establishment. The staff proved very accommodating and the rooms were basic but clean and comfortable. We spent much of the weekend catching up with friends from past projects and getting to know the newcomers. A fair bit of effort was also put into sampling the food and beverage of the surrounds.

Around Phong Nha

The PVI Project

Our work centres around a small school in the hamlet of Thanh Binh, about 7 kms down river from Phong Nha. The original plan involved the demolition of the two room school, which is very prone to flooding and the building of a replacement. However, the project has proven much bigger than anticipated, with the new structure now being a two storey building on an upraised platform. This will need a lot of work before it is ready for our team and a lot more money than we anticipated. Hence, the plan has now changed into a two or even three year plan. This year, PVI will pay for the major formwork and structure to first storey level and next year aim at completing the rest. Meanwhile, we will renovate the old structure using our extensive labour resources so that it can be used over the next three years or so while the new school is being built. As a team, we are good at renovation, which in this case will involve lots of scraping, painting and cleaning along with the installation of ceilings and a full electrical upgrade.

Because we have a large team of 35, we have also agreed to renovate the kindergarten at another nearby school. It is basically in good repair but could do with a damn good lick of paint. Later in the project, we took on yet another job, repainting a block of four classrooms at a primary school a kilometre of so from our main job.

Each day, both teams pile into a couple of mini buses and bump our way across a winding mud filled road to the work site. The road generally follows the Song River, which provides rich growing opportunities along a narrow flood plain. Numerous houses are strung out along its length, surprisingly modern and well constructed. Remnants of the old bamboo and woven grass structures can still be seen but new structures abound. The area is strongly Catholic and we pass several huge churches, one with an incredible blend of traditional and an oriental architectures. Beyond the road, the country generally rises steeply into forested mountains with few houses. Once on site, we are pretty much stuck out there for the day.

We work hard, have plenty of laughs, and somehow manage to communicate with the teachers and local construction workers. The kids are relentless with their waving and calling out “Hellooo”. There are just so many times one can reply. You can be engrossed in a task to find a child at your elbow who will announce their presence with a “hello”. This will be followed a few minutes later by another greeting, then another and so on. The children who used to come around the kindergarten site were lovely and even joined in the work at ties, painting and using the “Gerni”. The local security man was far less tolerant of children. He would chase them around with a stick, sometimes dabbed in paint. The children fled in all directions when he appeared. The kids up at the primary school were different. They seemed to act in a pack and mobbed us on several occasions. Their demands for money were the first I have ever heard from children in Vietnam. The staff at the kindergarten were wonderful, full of good cheer and laughter. They often worked with us and liked to cook us some little treats for afternoon tea. Up at the Primary School, the children were still in attendance while we worked and so the teachers were still busy, yet they seemed more distant than the kindy staff.

After work, most people head for the comfort of a warm shower before moving around the town to shop for supplies, find a place to catch a drink or sometimes just find solitude with a book for a bit. We had a few favourite little establishments where we would have a beer and chips or spring rolls. Our favourite haunt was the Tuan Ngoc Restaurant, named after the couple who own it. The food was enjoyable but the most pleasure came from talking with them and learning a little about life in Phong Nha. Tuan had been raised here and Ngoc had come from nearby Dong Hoi. Tuan work overseas in Taiwan, Thailand, Kuwait and Qatar to raise enough money to start a restaurant. Both speak good English and expressed the gratitude of the local people for the work that PVI is doing in the district. I was horrified when Tuan told me that flooding is an annual occurrence, with five floods coming through last year, two in October and three in December. They get a little warning, with around a day and a half of rain being enough to cause flooding. Last year, he cleared out the restaurant, moving everything to a multi-storey hotel across the road. The floods filled the restaurant to a height of about 1.5m. He cleaned up, brought everything back, put out the open sign, then the next lot came. The resilience of the people is amazing.

As the evening wears on, people head out to eat in small groups, although one time twenty of us descended on a small place that probably only catered for four or five. The panic was on and it looked like an episode of “My Kitchen Rules” as a young girl ran around trying to keep up with orders and the Aussie demand for a beer supply. They handled the episode remarkably well and the food tasted great. There were certainly plenty of smiles at the generous tips that were thrown around.

After dinner, the more adventurous ones on the team head down to the “Backpackers”, the Easy Tiger Pub, where beers are double the price of a restaurant but Happy Hour offers 2 for the price of of 1. Some go to dance, some (like us) go to dance by proxy, and others go to listen to the music, which is average but buoyed up by one of our team members playing on a drum with great finesse. We always went home before the headache stage arrived but some, both young and not so young, failed in this regard and occasionally over-indulged.

The work went well enough to be able to afford time off on the middle weekend. Most went caving, completing two or three caves over two days. We had done three of the caves last year on a visit here from Hue so we elected to head to Mooc Springs for a swim. A strong stream of clean and clear water issues forth from the base of a cliff face, suggesting the presence of yet another un-explored cave system within. The first part of the springs opens into a good sized pool that has been developed for swimming. The stream flow is strong so wearing of life vests is compulsory. A suspension bridge hangs across the pool at a height of around 4 metres but the middle part of the bridge is missing, meaning that one has to jump. A surrounding net ensures that being swept downstream on surfacing is prevented. I climbed up to have a go and to my absolute dismay, Christine followed. Somehow, she managed to negotiate the suspension bridge, a feat made all the more remarkable by the fact that the foot rungs were spaced about two feet apart. I was even more amazed when she made the jump after only a small hesitation. This action signified the end to around 5 long standing phobias. Next up – skydiving! Because I was in the water, I couldn’t video the event so she opted to take another jump, followed by yet another when I found my video effort had failed. Truly an achievement.

Views of Mooc Springs

Click here for Video of Christine Jumping

The work went well, completing more than we set out to do. We left three schools with bright and fresh buildings and the work on the new flood-proof school is well advanced. The completion of the new building and its fitting out will form a large part of next year’s project. Everyone seems enthusiastic about the prospect of more work in Phong Nha, such is the friendliness of the people, the importance of the work and the exceptional beauty of the area.

View of the Song River from the work site.

Dong Hoi

At the end of our time in Phong Nha, we opted to spend a night in Dong Hoi, from where we would catch a flight back to Saigon. Dong Hoi is a small city of around 100,000 people situated on the mouth of the Song River. The ocean side sports some glorious white sand beaches and the locals hope to develop a tourist resort industry. The city itself is mostly low-lying, quiet and relaxed. Little of old Vietnam remains. The city was levelled by the US in 1965, with the only four structures remaining being a church bell tower, two gates to the old walled citadel and a clock tower.

Dong Hoi Views

We stayed at the Nam Long Hotel near the river front. The area provides a good variety of eateries and even a little night-life at the nearby Buffalo Bar. We walked the length of the foreshore to the local markets but the smells and odours of the vibrant wet market had us moving on before long. Dong Hoi is unspectacular but a lovely little spot to rest up and take it easy without the hustle and bustle of either Hanoi or Saigon. Quite a few tourists were using it as a base to visit the caves at Phong Nha but it would be more economical to stay in Phong Nha itself.

Saigon

Our final days of the trip in Vietnam were spent back in Ho Chi Minh City at the Bee Saigon Hotel in Phạm Ngũ Lão. It is impossible to get sick of the attractions of the “backpacker” part of this bustling city. The street vendors, the bars, eateries and market stalls add a colour and vibrancy that almost rivals Hanoi. Unfortunately, for us it is the only part of Saigon that is exciting. The rest is just hot, busy and unremarkable by Asian standards.

Tomorrow, our European adventure begins, with a flight to Frankfurt in Germany via Moscow. The excitement is building.

Nanning, Hanoi and Phu Ly – China to Vietnam

August 31, 2016 / terry

Nanning is a modest Chinese city at with a population of a mere 8.5 million, around the same as Singapore. It has a decidedly tropical climate and is situated in a large basin amid surrounding mountains. Situated on a picturesque river, the city is quite pretty, sporting the usual array of high rise buildings. Traffic is bad, with many cars and a lot of motorbikes, which tend to park all over the footpath in places and make walking difficult. E-bikes are less common than further north for some reason. A subway system is currently under construction and should ease some of the traffic issues.

The long train trip from Shanghai was comfortable enough, although I had to put up with a small boy behind who liked to slam the footstool (which was attached to the back of my seat) and another young man who liked to put his feet against the back of my seat and push. The scenery was more reminiscent of Vietnam, with small rice paddies on terraced hillsides and lots of small hamlets dotting the countryside. The regular appearance of a smoke spewing coal fired power station burning vast amounts of Queensland coal kept the atmosphere grey and clogged. Our arrival at Nanning Dong Railway Station was quite late, around 10pm and with another 40 minutes of driving into the city centre ahead of us we took the rare step of using one of those private car services.

The Vienna Hotel

One job we had to do while in Nanning was to pick up the train tickets to Hanoi, something one can only do in Nanning and Guilin. We had pre-booked them online through www.chinatripadvisor.com but still needed the tickets in hand. We showed a taxi driver the address but it didn’t register too well so he rang and sorted it out with them. After negotiating many traffic jams, he stopped and pointed to a shabby high rise and indicated that the journey was done. We paid and got out to search further, trying a number of places before being directed around the side alley to the rear of the building, through a security gate and into a small and very smelly lift, along with more people than the lift was ever designed to carry. Our destination was Room 1616 so we sailed up to floor 16 of the 32 and got out, followed a dimly lit and grubby corridor for a bit to Room 1616. Luckily, the door was open and two girls sat at desks, both beaming at our sudden appearance. They produced the tickets and all appeared in order but the whole thing was quite creepy.

View from our window

We wandered the fashion area of the city for a while and decided to do Japanese for lunch, having come across a nice looking sushi restaurant. Negotiating the menu was almost impossible, with no less than three waitresses pointing at things and trying very hard to communicate without luck. It took 10 minutes to order two beers with the girl writing down 1 every time we indicated that we wanted one each. When they did come, two ice cold mugs of Asahi, we noted with dismay that the bill still had a 1 on it. Finally, we realised that one bottle served two mugs. Of course, this meant that we were entitled to another. Choosing the sushi flavours was harder. Google Translate kept popping up things like “golden lady bent pipes” so we gave up and just pointed and hoped. Each order came out as two pieces of sushi arranged like a work of art on the plate, artistically plated with amazing dressings and delicate toppings. It was a shame to disturb them but the taste was sensational. We ordered another round. One waitress persisted with us and hovered a lot and when Christine produced a little kangaroo keyring for her she was beside herself and rushed off to show the others what the crazy Americans had given her.

All around our hotel is market country, with wonderful vegetable markets and seafood displays. The usual pungent odour of wet markets is absent and wandering around and looking is a delight. Most of the seafood is sold live, including the crabs, prawns and lobsters, all existing in large troughs with recirculating filtered water. When I see a large live coral reef fish like a coral trout swimming in a tank far inland in Southern China, I find myself wondering just how many people and how much effort has been involved in getting it there. One hopes that the poor village fisherman who caught it in the first place was well compensated.

The street food in Nanning is excellent and we made a habit of buying out and eating in. Our favourite was a large flat pancake type thing with a few spicy toppings, much like a pizza without the cheese. One stall sold these but then used them as a wrap around lettuce, chicken or other less identifiable ingredients. They were delicious in any form. One night we went to a small eatery in a lane near the hotel and picked out what we thought was a single pork dish. Instead we received a big plate of roast duck, a claypot of pork belly in a rich onion sauce, a huge plate of delicious greens and two bowls of rice. We felt obliged to eat it all, much to the delight of the owners and the other diners. One gets used to having an audience during a meal.

Farewell to China.

Getting onto the train to Vietnam was a long drawn out affair. Nanning Station is near a street where subway excavations are going on so the taxi ride was slow. Access through the usual security screening was also slow, made more so after they found a knife in Christine’s backpack, the same knife that has been through countless other screenings but this time it was confiscated. Then we sat around Waiting Room 2 before eventually re-reading the main board and moving to Waiting Room 3. Finally, we boarded the train at 6pm, along with what looked like several hundred other people. We shared our 4 sleeper compartment with a Vietnamese girl and her father, both returning from a business trip to China. Nga Mi spoke excellent English and was obviously gifted that way because she could also speak Chinese and a smattering of some other languages. She entertained us with stories of her time in China, including the year she had spent living there to learn the language. She now works for her father, who has a business selling and supplying equipment for presentations and shows.

We all settled down to sleep quite early, knowing that we would be woken before midnight for border formalities. The first stop came around 11 pm (Vietnam time) and it was a matter of taking all luggage and our passports off for Chinese immigration to exit us from China. Then the train sat around for ages, before moving off once more and then stopping at the Vietnamese Immigration and Customs about an hour later. These processes were a lot quicker than they could have been, because most of the other passengers had left the train earlier in China and only one carriage of passengers remained for the crossing.

Once through and in Vietnam, the train rattled on and continued south towards Hanoi. This was not one of the ultra fast, smooth and quiet bullet trains that we had been using in China. This was the old type of compartment carriage with a single diesel locomotive. The carriages jolted and banged along the tracks but we had very little trouble getting back to sleep and even had to be woken by the guard as we approached Hanoi. The track finishes 10 km short of Hanoi itself at Gia Lam because that is as far as the Chinese standard gauge goes, the rest of Vietnam using a narrower gauge rail.

Fortunately, we had done our homework on taxis from Gia Lam and we steadfastly refused the demands for 300,000VND to take us into the Old Quarter of Hanoi, holding out for the 100,000VND we knew it was worth. Of course, it wasn’t a real taxi anyway, it was just a young guy with some stickers on his car and a great sob story about he is studying law and his grandfather is still working to support him. He looked so forlorn at being beaten down to 100,000VND that we gave him 200,000VND anyway and let him drive off with a smile.

By the time we arrived at the 3B Hotel in Hanoi, it was barely 6am and the night staff were still clearing away their floor mattresses so we dumped our bags and went off to join the early bird crowd exercising around Hoan Kiem Lake. This is a sight to behold, hundreds of people of all ages performing all manner of exercise routines, some to music, some in groups and others just doing their thing. A few pelotons of the brightly coloured lycra set rode bicycles, one of the few times of the day it would be possible on the normally crowded roads. We contented ourselves with a brisk circuit of the lake, enough to shake off the train journey.

Dawn around Hoan Kiem

Back at the hotel, we had a spot of breakfast, actually feeling hungry for the first time in weeks because we had not had any food on the train. Somehow, I think we had plenty of reserves. The 3B Hotel is a small boutique hotel that we have not used before, but our usual stay in Hanoi has changed ownership and gone a direction we don’t like. This one seems wonderful, with very chatty and friendly staff, who happily made some arrangements for us to use the hotel as a transit point and then arranged a car for us to head south to Phu Ly, where we had spent time some years back working on building projects with Project Vietnam. The main reason for going was to catch up with our young friend, Van Quynh. The drive south showed the developments that have taken place since our last visit, back in 2013, with a fast efficient expressway replacing much of the old Highway 1.

We booked into the Hoa Binh Hotel, which felt strangely empty without all the other PVI members there with us. The weather was hot and humid, hardly conducive to wandering around on foot much but we went for a short walk and found the town has changed considerably in the last few years, with an abundance of electronics stores and a definite air of prosperity. There were a lot of cheery “hellos” on the streets and smiling faces, a far cry from our first visit when we were stared at or even avoided.

The Bia Hoi (Beer Hoi) in Phu Ly, an old friend.

Van arrived later on her scooter, a modern beautiful young woman who has grown and developed so much from when we first met her as a young student. Now she displays a strength and confidence that has taken her to a position of manager at her work. We were thrilled for her when she told us that she was now expecting and she looks very much the healthy mother to be. She took us to one of her favourite coffee places, where we revisited the excellence of really good Vietnamese coffee over ice with condensed milk. It is unbeatable.

Phu Ly is famous for its flowers and Van brought some for Christine..

Travelling around Phu Ly with Van is a great experience. We sampled some wonderful street food and had an amazing breakfast called Bánh cuốn chả, a dish made from a thin, wide sheet of steamed fermented rice batter filled with a mixture of cooked seasoned ground pork, minced wood ear mushroom, and minced shallots with the dipping sauce which is fish sauce called nước mắm. and a vinegar based beef soup, not our usual breakfast fare but it really worked. The version we had was a true Phu Ly speciality. We felt honoured.

Ah! Street food in Phu Ly

We visited Van’s parents’ restaurant, the one that the PVI members used to call “The Rice Restaurant” and everyone was pleased to see us. It was also a chance to meet Van’s husband, a very nice young man who works as a policeman in Phu Ly. He is the cook in the family and jumped in to help cook up a wonderful meal of fried rice, beef, quail eggs and delicious slices of fresh coconut. He had to eat and run, however, as he was on night shift so we headed out with Van to eat a little more in the form of Bahn Xeo, wonderful crispy pancake sliced and rolled with lettuce inside a rice paper sheet. They are very tasty. We strolled through the streets down to a large lake, Hồ Chùa Bầu which is the site of a large Buddhist Temple. In the lingering heat, the shores are a popular spot to seek some cooling air and we sat outside at an excellent coffee shop and had some delicious smoothies, finally leaving feeling very full indeed and catching a taxi back to Van’s restaurant. She and her husband have their own house in Phu Ly but she tends to stay with her parents on nights that her husband works.

Our two days in Phu Ly were wonderful, bring back many fond memories of our projects there with PVI. Even better was the time spent with Van, who was an excellent guide to her home town. Wandering around a foreign city with a local guide really adds an extra dimension to the experience. With Van’s baby due in April next year, we have an excellent excuse to make sure we return.

We caught the train back to Hanoi, a pleasant trip of a little over an hour. Van came to see us off, bringing with her some amazing baguettes (Bánh mì) filled with sliced vegetables and fine slices of pork in a spicy sauce. They were amazing, but then we have come to expect the amazing when it comes to food in Vietnam.

The famous restaurant at 69 Ma May St, Hanoi, now the Blue Butterfly

Our final couple of days in Hanoi were wet, very wet at times, with persistent tropical rain soaking everything and spoiling the night markets. At least it was warm and we found ourselves without a raincoat or umbrella. Ignoring the many offers to sell us something, we just put up with the downpour and walked the streets while getting soaked through. Along the way, we managed to catch up with another friend from previous visits, a man named Qyngh who works at a souvenir stall on Beer Hoi Corner. He works hard to support his family and we always like to catch up with him.

We love catching up with Qyngh.

An early morning drive out to Hanoi Airport gave us a scare when we realised after setting out that the hotel still had our passports. Fortunately, the driver understood the problem and managed to turn around in time, the early hour helping with light traffic and we retrieved the passports with enough time left to make the flight. It did give us a scare to think of the consequences of reaching the airport without a passport. It is the stuff of nightmares.

A seven hour layover in Kuala Lumpur was too much for us so we organised a room at the Tune Hotel, a budget location attached to KLIA2. It is joined to the massive Gateway Shopping Plaza by a covered walkway, which takes some finding but provides easy access to an almost endless variety of shops and eateries. We booked at night but checked out at 10pm but at $62 it was money well spent and we got on a midnight plane feeling relaxed and refreshed instead of exhausted and grumpy.

The final boarding

Another indulgence was a couple of tickets on Air Asia’s Premium Lie Down Seats, a Business Class-Like seat that gives full flat out accommodation at a fraction of the cost of other airlines. It meant we slept the whole way to Perth in comfort. Landing in Perth at 5:45am was a bit of a shock with a 4 degree temperature but our back neighbour Julie was there to pick us up, a great end to a fabulous month. TIme to see the family!

Hue, Hanoi and Kuala Lumpur

March 26, 2016 / terry

Hue, Hanoi and Kuala Lumpur 14-24 March 2016

The second week of the PVI project in Hue provided more work than the first. Enough progress had been made at the Hope Centre to allow a painting team to get started. It proved to be hard work. Many of the walls were newly rendered and the cement was still wet. The builder supplied some very cheap, thin white paint but no sealer so the paint simply soaked into the walls as fast as it was applied. Three and even four coats were still not enough to give a good finish. Still, we did the best we could and worked hard to try to complete as much as possible. Past projects have always been completed on time, or at worst, a few bits of painting remained for a skeleton crew to finish off after hand-over. This time, the time-line has been set by the local builder and the job will not be complete. Our contribution has been considerable but the main responsibility lies with the Vietnamese team, who would not be as concerned as us if the work is finished a few days late.

Work on the Hope Centre

Members of the team came and went, some took a trip over the mountains to Hoi An to scope out some possible work for 2017 and others took overnight trips to various locations. The dreaded illness also seemed to strike some down, not the usual tummy wog experienced in these parts but more of a cold/virus thing. We seem to have avoided it so far.

It seems as though we have been in Hue for months rather than a bit more than a week. Negotiating the hustle and bustle of the city streets is second nature to us now. Food wise, we have explored most of the tastes and places on offer around our area and have even given in and had pizza and a few chips. It is amazing how good mundane western food tastes after a diet of noodles and rice. One thing we will miss when we get home is the coffee. Vietnamese coffee does not suit everyone’s taste but we love it, either cold or hot, along with a good dose of sweet condensed milk. It is strong with a heavy mocha flavour. Our attempts to replicate the taste back in Australia, using the same equipment and imported Vietnamese beans, never seem to work for some reason.

It will be a wrench tearing ourselves away from the amazing breakfasts every morning. We have had daily access to all kinds of yummy pastries and tiny sweets, as well as pancakes. The egg chef has been kept busy and the home made yoghurt is the best ever. Despite all the walking and hard work, there seems to be a kilo or so added to the frame so it will be cold porridge and thin gruel for the next few weeks.

Friday was the deadline day and when it finally arrived, it was surprising just how well everything had gone. The Hope Centre was ready for occupation, with the painting not finished to our standards but certainly good enough. The Lotus Centre looked terrific and the changes that have been made, with increased sheltered areas, are certainly appreciated by the group of disabled folk who rely on the centre for support.

Handover Ceremony

The handover ceremony consisted of an inspection of the completed work and the usual speeches, along with a spread of food and drinks at the Lotus Centre. It was quite a large crowd by the time the clients of the centre, the local workers and the remaining PVI members all joined together. With a few beers down, it occurred to us that the whole job may have gone better if we had started out with a party to get to know each other. It was one of the better after work parties we have been to in Vietnam and it was satisfying to see just how pleased the users of the facility were with their new buildings.

We said our farewells to all the other PVI workers, most of who would have departed Hue by Sunday, and made our way back to the hotel to pack ready to move on.

We caught the Friday night train out of Hue at 9pm with a 15 hour trip to Hanoi ahead of us. Our four berth compartment was already occupied by a young British guy travelling on his own. By coincidence, he had just come from WA for a friend’s wedding in Yallingup. We chatted for a while and learnt that he was a vegetarian, which is definitely not a problem in Vietnam, but also allergic to nuts. I’m not sure how one would cope backpacking with a nut intolerance, especially in a country where people will answer “yes” to any question they don’t understand. Around 11:30pm, the train stopped in Dong Hoi and a local girl joined us to complete the set.

Dawn saw an overcast sky with a lot of mist and light drizzle, typical for this time of year. We have done quite a few train trips through the northern parts of Vietnam and enjoy them. The never ending rice paddies are broken up now and then with small villages and the occasional provincial town. Having worked in similar surroundings, the scenery is familiar. We relaxed, read and dozed until the train neared Hanoi. We had a moment of nostalgia when we stopped at Phu Ly station. Everything looked so familiar, even though it has been a couple of years since we were last there. The town looked much the same, with a few new buildings going up, although we heard from our friend Van later that the big market had burnt down, causing quite a few problems for those who relied on it for business.

As we left the station in Hanoi, the usual taxi tout rushed over and bullied us about taking a cab. Looking around, there did not seem to be a well organised rank like in Danang and Hue. He assured us that he had a metered taxi, and led us to an unmarked four wheel drive. We refused that and insisted on a meter so he took us to marked cab, which did sport a meter on the dash. There was no sign of the driver but the tout bundled our bags into the passenger seat, covering the meter up and shouted over the crowd for the driver. The driver eventually turned up, grabbed the offending bag and put it in the boot, but then moved another bag to cover up the meter again and we took off. When we got to the hotel, the final bill was 376,000dong, about $22 for what should have been a $4 trip. I was quick to get the bags out of the car before we refused to pay. He opted for 200,000d but we stood firm and gave him 100,000d, still generous but enough to shut him up without a brawl in the street. Gotta love Hanoi!

An easy re-wiring job

The Old Quarter of Hanoi has undergone a few changes in the last few years but mostly for the better. On weekends, the Ma May area and surrounding streets are now closed to traffic from 7pm onwards. In practice, this means the traffic eases between 7 and 8pm before the streets become totally clear. Lights have been strung above all the streets and the atmosphere is fabulous, buoyed up by the presence of a few market stalls and some street performers. Fortunately, the el cheapo fresh beer (Bia Hoi) and the street food vendors remain. There were a few other PVI people in Hanoi so we enjoyed a wonderful BBQ together, cooking little strips of chicken and vegetables over hot plates with a beautifully spiced marinade. The weather warmed, we ate, we drank, we walked, all as one should do when in Hanoi.

With Van in Hanoi

Our main reason for coming north to Hanoi was to catch up with Van, the lovely young girl from the Rice Restaurant in Phu Ly. Although we had not seen her for nearly three years, we had kept in touch via email and Facebook. We brought her a wedding present of an Australia themed table cloth, about two years late, but better late than never, and spent a fabulous morning with her wandering the Old Quarter. Van did not know this part of Hanoi well so together we worked out where we were with a map and found our way to the markets. Having a local with you in the markets cuts out all the hard work of settling on a good price of being forced to buy things you don’t want. We had loads of fun wandering the markets and buying bits and pieces for the grandkids. Then we went to a restaurant and shared lunch before saying our farewells, with Van facing an hour’s drive home to Phu Ly. She is still studying and commutes to Hanoi on weekends for study. On weekdays, she teaches accounting at the University in Phu Ly. It was wonderful to catch up with her and see how she has grown into a very sophisticated young woman.

Our friend Quyng

On our final night in Hanoi, we headed down to Bia Hoi corner to have a drink with Quyng (the shoeshine man). He is a very likeable guy who always greets us warmly and asks after other members of the PVI team. He lives in a village about 100km out of Hanoi and returns home for a few days every couple of weeks. The rest of the time is spent finding ways of earning a living on the streets of the Old Quarter. He could be so much more, with his obvious intelligence and good levels of English. We always enjoy catching up.

We have noticed that the various small eateries have really expanded around the Bia Hoi corner. Where once there was two or three kerbside beer kegs going, now most places run a Bia Hoi, selling draught fresh beer at prices as low as 16 cents a glass. It must be having an impact on the larger restaurants and bars because the security patrols now turn up at regular intervals and throw everyone off the streets. Quyng told us that they were not police but security, employed by the Government. They will stand around and do little for a while then suddenly order all stools and tables removed from the roadside areas. Sometimes, they will confiscate the stools and tables, later selling them back or selling to the larger establishments. While we were having a meal later on, they came through and we had to scamper for cover as the eateries rearranged the furniture, meals and all. The whole process is mystifying but fun to watch. I guess I can see the larger restaurant owners’ point of view but one feels for the little guys too.

Bia Hoi

An early morning flight out of Hanoi bound for Kuala Lumpur brought our Vietnam trip to an end, a welcome return after missing a few years. We will be back.

Yummies in KL

Kuala Lumpur was unchanged, not surprising considering we were here only two weeks ago. We made our way back to the Hotel 99 and checked in. This time, we had given ourselves an extra day in KL and needed an activity to fill in the time. Despite the fact that we have been to KL many times, we have never fully explored the city, tending to just wander the markets and eat wonderful food. We stopped in at the travel desk in the hotel lobby and booked a half day tour of the main sights of the city, then went out to wander the markets and eat wonderful food. After a plate of Bee Hoon, some excellent crispy squid and six pairs of sox, it was back to the hotel to watch a Jackie Chan movie (appalling).

The next morning, we had a rare sleep-in, followed by a lazy morning, before setting off in the afternoon for our city tour. There were only ten on the tour, yet they still took us around in a large tour coach, quite a feat of driving in the congested roads of Kuala Lumpur. The driver new all the short-cuts and work-arounds to avoid the many traffic jams. The tour was excellent and we certainly saw a lot of sights that we otherwise would never see. The National Museum was very well presented and we would have liked to have more time there, exploring the excellent exhibits portraying Malaysia’s colourful past. The chocolate factory was the usual selling stop but at least they gave plenty of tasting samples and we did end up buying some for family anyway. Batik is a craft form we both admire. The Batik Centre had some fine examples and we could watch people at work on some amazing creations. There were photo stops at the famous twin towers, a war memorial, the King’s Palace and other points of interest. It was after 7pm by the time we got back to the hotel, somehow managing to be the last drop-off.

Petronas Towers

The King’s Palace – KL

The Batik Centre

Our last night in KL was spent having a beer (surprise) and searching out some Murtabak, our favourite straits food. We have sampled this delight in Singapore, Melacca, Langkawi and Penang and always try to experience it when in Malaysia. Unfortunately, the Murtabak we found in Jalan Pudu was acceptable but not up to our exacting standards. Christine can do better. The pancake was thin and the filling too thick. Oh well, we’ll just have to try again another time.

The 7am Star Shuttle Bus had us heading back to the airport the next morning on our way home again. It was great to catch up with old friends, make some new ones and touch base again with our beloved Vietnam.

Phong Nha Caves

March 15, 2016 / terry

Phong Nha Caves 12-13 March 2016

The weather in Hue turned bad at the end of the first week of our PVI project and prevented our work team from completing the outside work. A small crew could still work on the electrics and ceilings at the Hope Centre but with so many of us looking for work, we decided to head off on a sight seeing trip for the weekend. One group headed off on Friday afternoon to Phong Nha, a bus trip of around 200kms. We were too tired to face a four hour mini-bus trip so we elected to go on our own on Saturday morning.

We had an early breakfast to be ready for the mini-bus, which arrived half an hour late anyway. We squeezed ourselves into the back seat, where the bumps are magnified but the leg space is better. I hate mini-bus trips. It wouldn’t be so bad if one couldn’t see ahead. I favour painting over the windscreen. It wouldn’t make any difference to the driver because they don’t seem to worry about other vehicles anyway. They are incredibly skilful but still terrifying. We shared the back seat with a Belgian couple who were only travelling as far as Dong Hoi. They were good company and I managed to understand 80% of the conversation.

Our cosy little mini-bus

The bus followed Highway 1 as far as Dong Hoi then turned inland to the mountains. The countryside south of Dong Hoi is very different to other parts of Vietnam being largely sand dune country with low-lying sparse scrub. Except for the difference in plant species, one could mistake the scenery for parts of Australia. Once in the mountain foothills, the rice fields returned, and later, fields of corn and peanuts dominated. The bus we were on was actually part of a tour which would normally depart Hue and return in the same day. That makes for 400km of travel in a mini-bus, a very unexciting lunch at Phong Nha and a one hour tour of Paradise Cave. One hour of touring one cave hardly seems worth the effort and risk to life and limb but plenty of people do it. The guide did convince us to join their tour of the cave for a small fee and it made sense to agree. Following that, they would drop us off at our hotel in Phong Nha.

Along the way to Paradise Cave, a group of four back backers were dropped off at the Dark Cave, where they could engage in a series of adventure activities, including sailing a flying fox across a gorge, cavorting in a mud pile and falling into rivers. We thought we had fared much better when we got out of the bus at the Paradise Cave to be transported in electric buggies the 1km to the entrance. Then the truth came out. It was a further 520 steps up a mountain to the cave entrance. It was a hard slog.

The Paradise Cave

The cave itself was staggeringly beautiful. The Paradise Cave is the final 1km of a 31km long cave system through the mountains, the longest cave system in the World and discovered as recently as 2005. In places, the cave ceiling is more than 80metres above the floor and yet stalactites seem to nearly reach the floor from the top. These are caves that put the others we’ve visited to shame.

The walk down the 520 steps from the cave was probably harder than the climb up, certainly for Christine who’s knees appreciate stepping up far more than a downward motion. Once back in the bus, we stopped again at the Dark Cave to pick up the backpackers. A young German couple joined us on the back seat and immediately became entwined like a couple of snakes. The girl must have assumed I liked her because she had no issues about spreading herself evenly between her friend and me. She just had ways of taking over space with her body. Fortunately, it was only twenty minutes or so back to Phong Nha and we surrendered the whole back seat to the Germans.

Our hotel, the Mountain View, was a small family run business and very good value at $14 a night. The room was basic but spacious and clean. A highlight was the way the network cable ran in through the bathroom window, disappeared into the wall for a metre or so then emerged again to cut through into the bedroom. The view from the windows was wonderful, with a single row of buildings across the road backed by the sheer rise of a line of limestone mountains. In the morning, the mist pouring down the mountains created a picture postcard view. We wandered down through the small town and found some food, washed down with a glass each of Vietnamese Dalat wine. Either the Dalat Wine has improved or our tastes have deteriorated because we have not been able to drink it before. Now it is passable without being great.

The wonderful morning view from our hotel window

In the morning, we endured the hotel breakfast of flat omelette and baguette. Once we had figured out that the butter was rancid and scraped it all off the baguette, we at least managed to eat something. A banana was the highlight.

A short walk took us down to the dragon boat area where we could purchase tickets to tour the Phong Nha Cave and Tien Son Cave. The price of the cave entrance was cheap enough but to get to them meant hiring a dragon boat at 400,000 dong ($23). The boat took up to 14 people so it meant forming our own group. A few more people came along and Christine went into tour guide mode, gathering money from four young Spanish guys and a father and son French pair. Sharing costs between eight brought things back to a good price and together we made a cheerful group, especially since the others had a standard of English far surpassing our French or Spanish.

Entrance to Phong Nhu Cave

The boat trip was a noisy half hour affair down a river full of life and activity. Many small boats were engaged in raking the river boat for weed, which was piled up on the boats. The final purpose of this venture is to provide food for fish farming and fertilizer. Eventually, our boat turned into a smaller stream and deposited us on the bank near the point that the stream disappeared into the cliff face. We followed the signs to Tien Son Cave. Mostly, the signs pointed upward and we followed a tortuous set of steps worse than the climb up to Paradise Cave. Reaching the top was an achievement in itself. The cave was glorious, far smaller in scale than the Paradise Cave but even more spectacular for its amazing formations.

The Tien Son Cave

We explored the interior of the Tien Son Cave for a while then made our way down the steps. The Spanish guys stopped halfway for a beer but we didn’t trust ourselves to make the bottom in one piece so resisted and opted for an icecream at the bottom instead.

When the whole group was at the bottom, we got on board the boat again and entered the Phong Nhu Cave with the engine off and the two crew paddling using long flat oars with rope rowlocks. The girl at the bow weighed about the same as one of my legs but still managed to labour on the oar for the next hour or so as we glided through the beautiful cave. It was so restful that at one stage the soft creaking of the oar and gentle surging of the wooden craft lulled me off to sleep.

Rowing the boat into Phong Nhu Cave

Eventually, we were dropped off on a sandy shore within the cave and we followed the well-made walkways back to the entrance and daylight. By Vietnamese standards, entrance fees to the caves are quite high but they reflect the effort and money that has gone into providing safe and secure infrastructure. The walkways are superb and can cater for the large crowds they get. The lighting in the cave is excellent and is aimed at providing a natural looking enhancement of the features rather than a gaudy light show. Work is underway to open up more of the 31km of the Paradise Cave system and the people of the area can only benefit from the increased employment opportunities that such a wonderful natural feature provides.

The morning cave tour had taken up four hours and we didn’t have a lot of time to spare getting back to the hotel to pack, check out, have lunch and catch the mini-bus for the return to Hue. The drive back was a little worse than the outward trip because the last hour or so was in rain and darkness, which made it appear certain that many motor bike riders would die because of us. Somehow, the driver managed to avoid them all and we arrived back in Hue around 8pm, tired and stiff in the legs from all the climbing but well satisfied with our trip.

Hue, Vietnam for PVI Project

March 10, 2016 / terry

3^rd March to 5^th March 2016 – After a couple of years of missing the PVI Project in Vietnam, the stars have aligned for us again and we are off to complete another two week job. This time, the project has relocated to Hue, on the Central Coast. The job is a continuation of the one started last year, working with the Office of Genetic Counselling and Disabled Children, to upgrade and convert some old buildings into working facilities.

We left Perth for Kuala Lumpur, faced with two days of planes, busses, trains and seemingly endless hours of airport waiting. As every year progresses, the airports get classier, bigger and sometimes more efficient but somehow, the experience remains largely unchanged. In a way I suppose it has changed because when we were poor and untravelled, it was exciting and wonderful to walk around the duty free shops and have a poorly made and overly expensive coffee while filling out immigration forms. Now it is just a bloody awful time to endure.

Our previous entries into Malaysia have been quick and efficient. Things have changed. The areas between disembarkation and immigration are now heavily populated with people of Middle Eastern origins. There are masses of people just sitting in large groups, watched over by officials. I guess that a lot of immigration workers are tied up with refugees because the lines for tourist entry were very long. Getting through took an hour. Back in Australia, we think we have a boat people problem but we sometimes forget that we are relatively shielded compared to Indonesia and Malaysia, who are currently being swamped with refugees. Europe too gets a lot of publicity but perhaps we need to help our neighbours out a bit more and take the pressure off us that way.

We bussed from KL Airport to the Pudu Bus Station which left only a short walk to Hotel 99 in Jalan Pudu. We were thown for a bit until we realised that the bus station had relocated down the road a short distance since our last visit and we soon found our lodgings, not flash but good enough for a one night stand and cheap enough for us. After settling in and having a coffee, we headed off to wander around China Town and brave the cramped markets of Petaling Street. Asian markets are another thing that has lost their appeal, not only because we have been in so many but also because they seem to have popped up everywhere in Australia as well. The difference with the markets in Asia is now mostly down to clothes sizes. I just hate the thought of fitting into XXXL underpants.

The busy intersection near our hotel in KL

We settled down in a grotty looking food area that sold cheap beer and excellent street food, knocking off some of the best crispy squid (Fried Squit on the menu) and some equally delicious Thai Fish Cakes. Later, we stopped for another snack at a much more glamorous looking place and the food wasn’t a patch on the first. It is so often the way in Asia. If you can overcome the aversion to somewhat less than clean conditions, the food outlets that cater to locals will beat the tourist haunts every time.

With full bellies and another early start ahead of us, we headed home to bed,.

Kuala Lumpur is definitely in the wrong time zone. We rose at 6am but there was not even a hint of daylight and the first cracks of dawn did not appear until we were on the 7am bus and headed out towards the airport. An hour of driving through heavy traffic brought us to KLIA2, Kuala Lumpur’s second airport terminal. This huge structure is so enormous you need to factor walking times into your travel plans. Being unsure of how long processing would take, we checked our bags, got through immigration and finally settled down to breakfast at a Toast Box. This is fast food that we love, two barely boiled eggs, soy sauce, kaya toast made with thick sliced butter and honey all washed down with ultra sweet strong kopi (coffee). Bring on Toast Box Oz!

Toast Box at KL Airport. We need one in Perth.

The flight to Danang in Vietnam was only a couple of hours and went without a hitch. Amazingly, we left the airport at Danang and had to actually look for a taxi. There were no touts attacking us or trying to wrestle the luggage from our control. Everything was very orderly. Before we left, we organised a couple of local SIM cards for the phones. $12 bought us a card with unlimited 3G data for a month. I wish I had that in Australia. I could have bought 300Mb of Telstra roaming data for a mere $80.

With a five hour wait ahead of us in Danang, we settled in at a cafe opposite the railway station (Ga Da Nang) and watched the passing parade. It is impossible to tire of watching a busy intersection anywhere in Vietnam, with buses turning front of oncoming traffic, trucks travelling on the wrong side of the road and thousands of scooters acting like a school of bait fish. Unfortunately, you also don’t have to wait long to hear the wail of an ambulance siren as it heads towards the scene of yet another road accident, usually involving a motorbike.

Danang Railway Station

We had a delicious bowl of a local delicacy called Cao Lau, a rich broth filled with thick and thin noodles, slices of roast pork and topped with crispy pork crackling. A couple of Ba Ba Bas (333 Beer) rounded the meal off. Who needs to get on a train?

This was our first train trip in Vietnam in anything other than a sleeper compartment. It will be our last time. The seat in our “soft seat” carriage was comfortable enough but lacked leg room for an average sized westerner. The biggest problem is that every seat was taken and there was little opportunity to get up and move around. Fortunately, the trip was only two and a half hours so we emerged at Hue stiff and sore but not too shaken. The good news is that we had not been so cheap that we had booked the “hard seat” carriage.

Hue is a small city by Asian standards with a population of only 340,000 but it is rather modern and organised, with a bustling tourism industry supporting eateries and even some nightlife. As the Imperial Capital from 1804 to 1945, it boasts a number of UNESCO World Heritage buildings, mostly within the fortified old city (Citadel) or inner Forbidden City. What remains today is what managed to survive the Vietnam War, with heavy destruction resulting from a big battle during the Tet Offensive.

The Cherish Hotel, Hue

Once again, we found things had changed since our last visit. Back in 2011, we got off the train to have our bags whisked away by a taxi tout, before being forced into a dirty little cab that tried very hard to take us to the hotel of their choice, saying ours was no good. This time, a group of uniformed taxi men showed us politely to a waiting metered cab and drove us straight to the Cherish Hotel. The Cherish is certainly a cut above our last PVI lodgings in Phu Ly, with restaurants, bars, a gym and swimming pool. We were soon settled in for the night, safely arrived at last.

Saturday was a lazy day, exploring the immediate surrounds of the hotel and identifying good eateries, a laundry and various other useful spots. Over the course of the day, more and more PVI team members arrived and we had a great time catching up with what looks like a great crew. This year, there are a few new comers, some even new to Vietnam itself. Thinking back to our first visits here, it is easy for us to forget just how much of a cultural shock there can be, although living in the middle of a city like Hue softens the blow somewhat. As always, traffic negotiation is difficult for beginners. The congestion in Hue is nothing like Hanoi or the pace of frenetic Saigon but one still needs to vigilant for the rogue scooter going the wrong way or cutting across footpaths. Wandering around, we did find that we missed the simple experiences of our annual returns to provincial Phu Ly in earlier years, where the sight of a westerner is a rarity and greetings are often shy but warm and genuine.

By Sunday, the crew was assembled and we had all had time to catch up with those we already knew and meet those we didn’t. We helped a few of the newcomers find their way around and work out the tricks behind managing day to day in a foreign environment. We rely a lot on the iPhone. We find that bringing up a picture of what you are looking for helps communication. We have tried phrase books and translator apps but difficulty with the actual pronunciation defeats us every time.

In the evening, we showed a group of newcomers the way to the Hanh Restaurant for a meal. It specialises in “Hue Breads” which seems to refer to a variety of dishes incorporating little packages of a glutinous rice starch with various flavourings. All are delicious and beautifully served in tiny ceramic bowls or wrapped in banana leaf and steamed. Another dish consisted of a crispy pancake creation filled with a paste, mushrooms and other unknown ingredients. We broke off pieces into a bowl, covered with fresh and pickled salad then spooned over a brown peanut sauce. It worked! After trying a lot of different dishes, including crème caramels, and drinking our share of cold beer, the bill came to 60,000 dong a head ($3.80). With full bellies, we headed for home to rest up for the start of work the next day.

Shopping for morning teas in Phu Ly markets.

Project Vietnam 2013 – A Return to Hanoi

March 13, 2013 / terry

To be honest, we thought twice about returning to Hanoi this year because we have been here so many times over the last seven years and there are new adventures awaiting elsewhere. What has brought us back is the camaraderie of the whole experience with Project Vietnam (PVI) and a real pull at the heartstrings coming from the good friends we have made down South in the small town of Phu Ly. We just felt we had to return and see everyone again. Within an hour of landing, we knew we’d made the right choice.

Hanoi is its usual chaotic, bustling and frenetic self. We booked into the Hanoi Style Hotel (previously called Nam Hai 1) and delighted in being remembered from previous visits. The room was a wonder, an amazing long bowling alley style room utilising the unique narrow architecture so prevalent in Vietnam. A walk down Ma May St was an exercise in greeting old friends, with local street vendors and hawkers greeting us as old friends. Talk about how to feel welcome. It was a wonderful return. How could we ever have thought of missing this.

We did all the usual things;

visited a mobile phone stall to buy a local Mobiphone SIM card for the iPhone;
went for coffee and a snack at 69 Ma May St;
dropped into the Dong Xuan markets to buy a watch for Christine because she’d left hers home;
bought a cask of red wine from a local wine merchant;
ate some amazing deep fried thing made of sweet potato and batter from an old lady on a corner.
consumed copious amounts of weak, cheap fresh beer from a street-side Bia Hoi.
swapped yarns with a group of three young Brits who have spent the last couple of years teaching adult English classes in Bali and Hanoi whilst consuming even more beer at a roadside beer stall.
Our three young Brits in Hanoi

Increasingly, we came across fellow PVI members, most sporting their emerald-green shirts or Aussie colour caps. We all got together for a briefing in the Ghia Tinh Hotel and with both the building team and the medical team all together in one spot, the group was huge, around 50 in number. The group consisted of old hands, “middies” like us, and quite a number of “newbies”, courtesy of the free promotion the organisation received via the “Sunrise” segment last year. The meeting over, we split up into smaller groups to hit the streets at the various beer corners, then reassembled into different groups for meals in the various eateries and street food stall dotted around Ma May St. One particular delight was catching up with our dear friend Moon, who had worked with us last year on the Project helping out as an interpreter. She is now living and working in Hanoi.

The PVI mob assembling.

The next morning, everyone reassembled and most of us boarded a bus to head South to Phu Ly, leaving the medical team behind to ready themselves for a trip North into the mountains and some work near the Chinese border. A few of the committee members also stayed behind to commence the work of liaising with the government to source some future projects.

The bus trip South to Phu Ly and the process of settling into the hotel was routine stuff for us, but a fresh experience for the “newbies”. After a quick unpack, we gathered a group of new friends and crossed the main road and rail line into Phu Ly itself, showing people the ropes, introducing them to the basics of shopping in the small stores and crammed markets, or taking the chance to change a few Aussie Dollars into Dong. Christine had undertaken to organise the food and supplies for “smoko” out on the work site so we had quite a bit of shopping to do and patronised some old favourite merchants as well as the flashy “Russian Supermarket” down the road. The variety of goods available in all shops is increasing every year we visit but shopping in Phu Ly is still very much a matter of compromise.

Shopping for morning teas in Phu Ly markets.

Then it was off to the Bia Hoi for a serious introduction to the centre of our social life. Tony Boxmeer produced some rather high quality rice wine to use for drinking numerous toasts with a visiting Government official and some of the team learnt the hard way about getting too involved with the ceremony. There were some slow movers the next morning as we headed out to the first day of the building project. We led a contingent of 15 or so down to Anna’s Restaurant for a wonderful meal. They were expecting us and went to a lot of trouble to ensure a terrific evening. Our good friend Van is now working in Phu Ly teaching accounting and proudly presented three of her students to us. It was a touching reunion with a lovely family.

Dinner at Anna’s

Van and some of her students.

PVI Project 2012

March 24, 2012 / terry

Project Vietnam Inc – Building Project 11-24 March 2012

The Job

This year’s building team project for Project Vietnam was based in Phu Ly, the same as last year’s. Phu Ly is a small provincial town about an hour’s drive South of Hanoi in Ha Nam Province. The actual site was a small kindergarten in a small commune of Trung Luong, another 30 minutes South East. Originally, we were to upgrade two kindergartens, but by the time the job started, the decision had been taken to put all the resources into one and close the other. When we arrived, work was already well advanced, with Tony, our building supervisor having been on site for a couple of weeks and organised a local building team. They had already done the brickwork for two new classrooms, leaving our team to roof 4 classrooms, fix doors and shutters, install electricity, build some toilets, convert a room into a dining room and build a kitchen. With painting and cleaning, not too much to ask of 30 workers and a team of locals in a shade under two weeks. Shortage of storage space was an issue and we moved our main store several times throughout the job to make way for renovations as we proceeded. Piles of rubble were created, shifted and recycled, the Vietnamese letting nothing go to waste.

Last year, on the job at Ma Nao, the local team tended to come as we left. This year, we all worked side by side, creating some wonderful moments and developing a huge amount of mutual respect. The local women are amazing, often hefting weights that have us working in pairs. The language barrier often made for some puzzled looks, but luckily, we had the support of two excellent interpreters, Miss Hanh and Miss Moon, who worked tirelessly throughout the day. The teachers laboured too, carting bricks and mortar in their high heeled shoes and clean clothes. As the fortnight progressed, more and more workers could be seen wearing Aussie hats and shirts bearing Australian logos. Villagers would stop in to say hello, children would stop by after school to play games or try out their few English phrases and occasionally a University student would come by to practise their English conversation.

Christine took on the role of “organiser of smoko”, making many friends at the local markets and causing much merriment by riding a bike through the village. She weaned the workers off a steady diet of sweet biscuits and “choco pies” with fruit platters and tempting savouries. Lunches were provided in a nearby house by a committee of kindy mums. They tried very hard to please our palates, sometimes producing “oohs and arrhs” and at other times getting a polite excuse of “too full” or “funny tummy” when some of the more unusual local dishes were not so well received. Certainly, the appreciation of our efforts in the village was demonstrated over and over, with everyone making some great friends and feeling highly valued.

I laboured; dug ditches, laid drainage pipe, dug a sewerage tank, scraped walls, painted and moved rubble. I left all the thinking work up to a crew of people much better qualified than me. At the times, the body protested, at other times the work was slow and finding a job was hard while we waited for the next step in a process but all in all we were busy, and came home each evening exhausted.

The usual run of minor illnesses ran through the crew, less than last year but still enough to give a few the odd day off to be close to a toilet. Christine maintained a strict regimen with water supplies on site and I think this definitely lead to a reduction in tummy bugs.

This year, we were fortunate to have quite a few younger members of the team with us and their enthusiasm and energy with the local kids was a pleasure to watch. Impromptu games and singing sessions would break out and create a very happy feeling that spread across the work site. Even though we had a large team working in a small space, the peace was always maintained.

Recreation Time

Working hard means that we had a great excuse for a beer after work and the Bia Hoi right next door got our full attention. I’m sure they have been counting down the days until the return of the Aussies and rely on us to fund their next improvement. One night, we even surprised the other regulars with a St Patricks’ Day celebration, complete with green beers, green tinsel and green leaves adorning the tables and beers mugs. Green balloons festooned the keg and we printed out the words to “Danny Boy” so we could loosen the tonsils. The night was combined with a birthday celebration for Del. The birthday the Vietnamese could handle, and Del was swamped with men coming over to toast her good health but I think the St Pats thing passed over them completely.

The culinary opportunities in Phu Ly are a little limited. A few good street food offerings are to be found, everyone seems to adopt their favourite little Pho or rice restaurant and sometimes we went off to the only Pizza and hamburger joint in town. We made up our own names for places, like “Rice Heaven” or “Aunties”. We had some good meals, some not so good meals and even some inedible fare. Everyone tries so hard to please and most seem motivated by more than profit to earn approval. Unlike last year, when we were the only Westerners around, there seems to have been a regular trickle of Russians, French and even a group of 90 primary students from an International school in Singapore staying in our hotel for 2 days to work nearby in an orphanage. A flash new Russian-backed supermarket has opened up in town, complete with electronic scanning, although we tended to stick to the regular old small shops where we were known and had developed a kind of sign language for getting by. We did find that when we wanted to buy something different, using Google on the iPhone to get a picture up usually solved the problem.

Local Gems

It is really amazing what wonderful sights there are out in the rural countryside. The area we are in is known broadly as the Red River Delta. The Red River flows down from the highlands of China and spreads out over an enormous floodplain, providing the basis for a flourishing civilization of many thousands of years. Water is everywhere, the villages really being built on little more than the narrow dykes and earth lanes that divide the rice paddies. Houses are extremely narrow, often rising 3 or even 4 stories to conserve ground space. Churches are very common, with Catholicism being strong (around 15%). Many of the churches are grand, built in the French style and far bigger and more majestic than buildings rated as cathedrals back in Australia. Buddhist temples and pagodas also abound, and we were privileged to be shown through some wonderful examples near where we were working. One was an incredible all-wooden building which dated back to 1310. The timber was in superb condition. The structure was supported on massive solid posts over a metre in diameter. The roofing timbers were also solid and intricately carved, with joints neatly morticed and held with wooden pegs.

A leisurely walk always produces a few surprises, whether it be a wonderful old pig sty or lean-to, some amazing handcart in use, local ingenuity in the use of a motorbike or bicycle or stopping and exchanging greetings with and ancient old grandmother complete with betel-juice stained gums and peg-like teeth. These are the sights and sounds of a Vietnam that one can never hope to fully encounter on the many “whistle-stop” tours that are on offer in the weekend travel section of the daily papers.

The Team

Our team was big this year, the building team alone exceeding 30 sometimes. A medical team also ran a project, largely out of Hanoi but sometimes joining us in Phu Ly for a day or so. People came and went, some staying for only a week, a few joining in after we had been in Phu Ly for a few days. The camaraderie is wonderful. The Sunshine Coast forms the mainstay of PVI but there is a smattering of others, with the Horsham crew (Vic), us West Aussies (3) and even one from Tassie. Many of the team will go on to join up with another project in Cambodia but events will bring us home. The committee has been hard at work reviewing prospects for jobs in 2013 and wherever they take us, we know that we’ll see lots of the same faces again and a few more new ones. We can’t wait.

Ninh Binh – Tam Coc

March 18, 2012 / terry

With Sunday being an official day off work from our PVI project, Christine and I organised to hire a bus and travel South to Ninh Binh, a trip of about an hour.We were only able to get a bus for the morning, Sunday being a very big day for weddings and the driver having already booked up an afternoon’s work. Ninh Ninh is a provincial city of around 50,000 and, like Phu Ly, is on Highway 1A and the main North-South rail link. We ended up with a group of 21, including Moon, one of our interpreters.

The most popular attraction around Ninh Binh is Tam Coc which translates as “Three Caves”. Tourist promotions often refer to Tam Coc as Halong Bay on Rice Paddies as the area abounds with wonderful towering limestone kasts jutting magnificently out from a sea of green rice paddies. The scenery is spectacular, and the best way to view it is by small rowboat. A steady stream of boats ply the narrow waterway that weaves its way through several kilometers of rice fields and through three caves, the longest of which is 127m long. Unfortunately, it was very misty when we went, even to the point of light drizzle. In places, the mist pouring through the breathtaking ravines was beautiful but in other places the reduced visibility spoiled the scenery somewhat.

With Moon’s help, we bought tickets for all the group and were then herded two at a time onto the tiny rowing boats, each with a rower at the rear and another paddler nearer the front. They will allow up to 4 Vietnamese passengers in the boats but only two Europeans; a combination of our bulk and our ability to pay. The rowers, propel the craft with their feet, using a unique action with legs and feet to move the oars in a constant rowing action. The front paddlers assist and also perform the function of “seller of embroidery”, a local handicraft. Along the way, various hawker boats approach and harrass, the camera people with their Nikons taking happy snaps that will be aggressively sold at the end of the trip. At the turn around point, refreshment boats get very insistent about buying their wares, either for the passengers or the rowers. It is hawker heaven. We had a couple of school students as rowers, a young girl aged 17 and her brother aged 12. He did not contribute his fair share of the work and we ended up paddling for a large part of the trip. The boy did his part by selling Christine an embroidered table cloth. At the end, we gave them both a tip, not through choice, but rather sheer pressure. It is more a case of tip or be “tipped”.

After sampling a few delights from some food stalls in the market, we headed back along Highway 1A to Phu Ly. By this time, the traffic was terrible, with much of the road being under reconstruction and large tour buses weaving dangerously in and out of the trucks and motorbikes. Fortunately, our driver is steady and careful and gave us little cause to panic. All in all a very touristy day out but loads of fun.

Central Coast – Vietnam 19-30 March 2011

March 30, 2011 / terry

We spent a week and a half on the Central and South Central Coast, taking in Hue, Danang, Hoi An, Dong Ha and the Demilitarized Zone. The travelling was done by a mixture of train and bus, the former being very pleasant and the latter at least bearable.

Train Trip Phu Ly to Hue

We rose early, settling up the last of the hotel check-out and catching a taxi to the “Ga Phu Ly” for the train to Hue. The train was on time and we boarded without hassle. At first, we shared the compartment with a young girl and her small child but when the ticket collector came along, she was moved down the corridor a few spots and given a top bunk for both of them to use. We felt sorry for her but after we could still hear the child screaming after 15 minutes our sympathy evaporated. We had the whole compartment to our selves right up until Noon, when we reached Vinh, and a young mum with two boys (aged 2 and 5) boarded. She was great company, with reasonable English and a sweet personality. The younger boy was a bit of a terror, but spent a lot of time asleep. The 5 year old was very bright, and spent hours drawing, trying to write numbers, cutting shapes or trying to match the simple origami shapes we showed him. He and Christine had lengthy conversation that neither could understand but it all seemed to work out.

At 12 hours, the trip was just long enough. The scenery was great and the weather clear by Vietnamese standards. We were amazed by the large number of towering cathedrals scattered throughout the rural areas. At most times, a spire or dome can be seen in the distance. Not all are a legacy of French rule because we saw some huge cathedrals currently under construction. The train itself is very comfortable and the line in excellent condition, reducing the rocking to a minimum. We did experience the occasional jarring jolt that trains seem to do, which usually set the Dutch kid next door into a protracted wailing session. People who travel with small children deserve a medal.

We brought some bread rolls, boiled eggs, cheese and jam with us as sustenance but there was plenty of other food available via the regular carts that went through the carriages. We had a meal of rice, pork on a stick, chicken leg, a sausage-like substance and spring rolls. Of course, we also managed a couple of beers.

On arrival at Hue, we had the usual fight with a taxi driver, who wanted 150,000VN to take us to our hotel when the local Mum from the train said it should be about 40,000VN. We finally settled on 60,000VN. Throughout the trip, he told us that our hotel was a long way out of town and that he could get us one for $US10 a night. We pointed out that we had already paid but it didn’t stop him. He showed us one that he claimed was really good, not like ours that was very far from the central area. We got huffy so he drove the extra 50 metres down the road to where our hotel was. Good try.

Hue
Hue is a bit of a surprise, bigger than I expected and the “old city” is less in evidence than I had imagined from the reading. It is the ancient capital of the Nguyen Emperors and is filled with some wonderful ancient buildings. It was also badly damaged during the war and some areas are still in poor condition.

Arriving at night, we were surprised by the dazzle of neon lights and large numbers of people out and about for al-fresco dining or drinks. After the drab and dreary Phu Ly, Hue was at the other end of the tourism scale and things were hopping.

However, along with the tourism comes the hard sell and street annoyances can be a little heavy for a while until you become a familiar face and the cyclo drivers and river boat sellers start to ease off. The old buildings of the fortress and the citadel are indeed awesome, but we have never been very much into temples and ruins so this aspect is largely wasted. We did succumb to booking a tour of the Palace and some tombs but Christine got sick the night before so we cancelled out. Oh well, another time perhaps.

Hoi An
We caught a bus to Hoi An for a few days, travelling through Danang. The bus trip itself was good, mainly because I insisted on sitting near the back so we couldn’t see the road ahead. Christine always enjoys the scenery but I don’t think much of the idea of watching motor bikes disappearing under the front of the bus or pedestrians being flung off into the road verge. The bus itself was plain and simple, with vinyl seats that at least reclined. The road was generally good, with even a dual carriage-way in places. The scenery was quite spectacular, although we did not go over the famous Hai Van Pass,(also the scene of many terrible accidents). Instead, the bus took the new Hai Van Tunnel, a 6.5km long tunnel straight through the mountain range. The Hai Van Tunnel took 5 years to complete and is currently the longest tunnel in South East Asia.

At a road-side stop at the top of one mountain pass, a US couple declared that they would travel back to Hue on the train, this bus trip being too terrifying. It wasn’t that bad, but then they were sitting up front.

On arrival at Hoi An, the bus dropped us at a location only a short walk to the Greenfield Hotel, where we had booked. We stayed there last year, and when we walked in, a couple of staff greeted us warmly. “You remember me from last year?”. We were amazed that they would pick us from the thousands of tourists that they see every year but they could even remember things that we had done. While not the cheapest hotel around, this place has a lot of charm and is extremely friendly. We love it.

We hired bicycles and ambled around the old town, enjoying the relative safety of the traffic and the freedom of mobility. While Hoi An is unmistakably “touristy”, is totally retains the charm of the old town. It is said to be the best preserved example of an old Chinese trading port in existence. While all others have been rapidly overcome with modern structures, the gaining of World Heritage Status and the influx of foreign preservation dollars has ensured the old ways are retained. The Government enforces strict controls over the street touts and so one can wander around with little harassment and lots of friendly “hellos”. This is the only place in Asia that has cyclo drivers who wait for you to come to them and don’t annoy you for business.

We had a wonderful lunch down at the dock area. The food here is unique. Most dishes will have their own Hoi An variation, some, such as the ubiquitous “fried wonton” is so different to any other that it has to be experienced. Rather than the usual deep fried little parcels, these are oval shaped and flat, then heaped with finely diced vegetables and shrimps. A real treat. A local specialty is Lau Cao, a noodle dish with a delicious sauce and vegetables. Once again, it is unlike anything else and defies accurate description. It is said to require the noodles to be cooked in rice water, the original water to have been drawn from a well in a local village. However, there are so many restaurants selling this dish that the well would have run dry years ago.

Hoi An is famous for its ultra-cheap tailors and shoe-makers. They can produce anything you want in only a few hours. The quality of the materials and workmanship is universally good and the bargaining itself is very entertaining. I wanted a good pair of sandals while Christine was chasing another pair of evening shoes. She drove a very hard bargain, walking out twice (but never quite making it to the bikes) until we got mine for $15 and hers for $20. Both were full leather inner and outer and custom made for our feet. We ordered them around 1pm and organised to return at 6pm to pick them up. Can’t beat it.

Hoi An remains one of our favourite places anywhere. We will definitely be back.

Train Hue to Nha Trang
The 12 hour trip from Hue to Nha Trang was during the day, leaving Hue at a respectable 8am and arriving at 8:30pm. We did the trip from Danang to Hue last year and the Hai Van pass by rail was a highlight. This time, poor weather obscured much of the view but with a huge swell running, the sections where we hugged the coast were spectacular. We enjoyed the company of a young English couple, James and Jodie, who we seem to keep catching up with, and from Quang Nghai to Nha Trang shared a cabin with an engaged couple who are living and working in Saigon. The girl was born in Quang Nghai but moved to Texas at age 12. With the great company and the fact that we can both sleep well on the trains, the trip passed quickly.

Nha Trang
By Nha Trang the rain had stopped, but the terrible wind persists and it was very overcast. The promotional literature for Nha Trang boasts of over 300 days a year of sunshine but we didn’t see one. The weather ruled out excursions to the islands or the waterfalls and National Parks of the nearby mountains. We did spend some time just sitting down near the beach watching the huge surf crash along the shore. The beautiful white beach was being badly eroded by the surf and the beach was officially closed.

We spent a quiet relaxing day, with some long walks through the beach-side parks. Here the dominant tree is a tamarisk-like tree that the locals shape into all manner of interesting shapes. Some of the parks are quite comical. The rest of Nha Trang can be summed up in two ways; more than a block back from the beach its just another provincial city. On the beach front road it’s a typical Asian beach resort, quieter than Patong or Kuta, but more upmarket and active than Langkawi. With the weather situation, a full comparison is unfair but I lean towards Langkawi over Nha Trang.

One day was spent at Vinpearl, a theme park type development on an off shore island. It is very much like Sentosa in Singapore. Vinpearl is reached by means of a 3.5km long cable car. With the wind gusting to over 40km per hour, it was rocking and swaying a bit but the trip was certainly smoother than if the ferry had been running.

At the amusement park, we acted like little kids, even spending time in the video game arcade playing Rambo, driving cars on race tracks and watching 3D movies. It is one of those “Entry Ticket Buys All” situations so we just went for it. There is also an ultra exclusive resort on the far side of the island. They were hosting a beauty pageant so everywhere there we saw young girls running around being photographed in high heels. It was really hard to take. By the end of the day, many were limping and most were carrying their shoes. Christine went on the “Elevator”, a terrible spinning ride that carried a huge wheel up and around, at one stage spinning the occupants around while totally upside down. I really wanted to go but someone had to stay down and take photos. At the top of the ride, her screams were audible and she was using a universal language. People on the ground were in hysterics.

We enjoyed the huge Underwater World, similar to the one at Hillarys. With the weather so bad, crowds were right down and we were able to enjoy all the facilities in a relaxed manner without joining big queues. The complete package for a day’s fun and two way ride on the cable car is $14. Amazing.

Leaving Vietnam
We leave Vietnam for Kuala Lumpur today, flying via Ho Chi Minh City. We have thoroughly enjoyed our time and will definitely be back next year for Project Vietnam again. The weather has been a huge problem though and, although everyone says it is unseasonal, we’ll probably head across the mountains in Laos and Cambodia, chasing warmer weather next year.

Phu Ly Week 2 March 12-18 2011

March 18, 2011 / terry

The project has come to an end. As I write, we are waiting to head off to Trung Luong Village (the other job) for a hand-over ceremony. Our job, at Ma Nao Village, was completed yesterday and handed over amid much speech making, dancing girls (5 year old ones), karaoke singing and beer drinking. It would have been a real hoot if it wasn’t for the sub-10 degree temperature and the persistent rain. The weather has been terrible for the last 3 days, making it very difficult to put the finishing touches on our project. Some walls remain unpainted, but all the structural work has been done, the kids have lots of new puzzles and games to use and they have a wonderful new kitchen, complete with gas cooker, fridge, fan, rice cooker and tiled benches. This is a far cry from the old lean-to with charcoal brazier and limited water. The biggest change is the provision of electricity to all the rooms. The major structural change is the removal of the old rotting roof and erection of a new colourbond steel roof and suspended ceiling.

Christine has conducted her own personal project along the way, taking on the task of restoring two ancient old pieces of play equipment. One, a merry-go-round, was very drab and had a lot of holes in the fibreglass horses. She could not source any hardening filler anywhere, so we located some styro-foam packing and mixed it with petrol, making a gel-like bog to patch up the holes. Next she painted the horses and added some astro-turf matting to cover and hide all the rusted holes in the base. The result was acclaimed by all. The other piece was a rocking cradle with a chicken head. It needed a new seat so an old door was cut down and a rainbow pattern added. With a good lick of paint, the whole thing came up like new.

The reaction of the village inhabitants was charming. Every day, we were greeted warmly and farewelled with genuine friendliness. We all received gifts of tea sets made locally in Ha Nam Province. During the afternoon, the villagers joined in with a game of cricket, mostly children but a couple of elderly people also taking up the bat. As the deadline to finish the work drew close, the local contractors increased their efforts and the whole thing came together very well. A very satisfying ending to a terrific two weeks.

The collegiality of the members of PVI will bring us back again. We have made some wonderful friends. Like all groups of people, there are many diverse personalities and viewpoints but I guess we all share several things in common; a concern and compassion for the people of Vietnam, a sense of adventure and the ability to work together as a team. This made the project work and is what has driven things over the last 15 years of its operation. We both envy those people who have a long standing association with PVI because they have been able to see and track the incredible changes taking place in this country.

As for Phu Ly, I think two weeks is long enough for a while. As a purely provincial city that lacks a tourist infrastructure, life is a bit one dimensional (2 dimensions if you consider the Bia Hoi stall). We have found the food to be generally disappointing, although the lunches have been absolutely amazing. In town, many places sell only one or two dishes and communicating what you want or don’t want is tricky. The good thing is that if you get it wrong, it doesn’t hurt the purse at all. Life here is very cheap indeed. Some members changed $200 on arrival and still have money left over. After a big session at the Bia Hoi, we all dob in to the pot. The standard rate we seem to have settled on is 10,000VN each which is around 50 cents.

Throughout the fortnight, the local shopkeepers and residents have become more accustomed to seeing “round-eyes” in their midst and greet us with enthusiasm, rather than shying away. The school children, in particular, love to practise a phrase or two of English from school and giggle and blush when we reply. In reality, the language issue is a serious problem in Phu Ly, whereas in other parts of Vietnam, one can usually find someone who can speak enough English to get by. We have struggled with Vietnamese but the language is very difficult, with inflection being just as important as words and structure. I do not find it a “pretty language” by any means, particularly when people are in a hurry and sound as if they are arguing. On the other hand, when speaking gently, or formally, the language can take on a poetic lilt that is quite soothing.

From here, we move South to Hue, the ancient capital of the Nguyen Emperors. We will catch the train from Phu Ly tomorrow morning, a trip of around 12 hours. The others will bus back to Hanoi today and head off in all directions, although those planning on heading up into the mountains are reconsidering given the weather. We are both well satisfied with our work, but looking forward to getting on the move again.