Flashback to the summer of 2014

Imagine if you will, it is midnight on a Sunday, and I am sitting reading Agatha Christie novels with tears leaking from eyes as I continue to eat chili powder and drink copious amounts of water. It is a strange scene isn't it. Especially considering that the last hours leading up to Mondays (of madness usually) should involved such strange activities. It almost makes you think I am making it up. But I am not. This has been part of my evening and for so many reasons.

Recollections from Vietnam

This is an old post from Vietnam (forgive the present tense)

Internet

I will say that I am quite the Internet addict. I could list the many ways in which I am but I will save myself from your judgment. Instead let me tell you what happened when the Internet at our hotel died, died (unlike its regular collapses everyday, for which we call and request for a router reset much to the staff's bemusement). Apparently a power surge/lightning bolt/something had affected more than the router and it was out for the night. This was the eve of us leaving for a five day trip, in which we believed we would have little to no Internet. Meagan decided to go to the coffee shop before it closed in ten minutes to send out some emails and I followed her. I may have updated ALL of my social media with news of the upcoming Internet blackout. I was forced to sleep all night and couldn't check email as I tend to. I woke up at 5.30 am and was out of bed at 6 am (I cannot remember the last time that happened). I got ready and went to the coffee shop where I think I babbled I have ten minutes to access 'all of the Internet'. Even I will acknowledge this is a bit excessive, especially as nothing urgent was coming my way. But the icing on the cake was arriving at our hotel and discovering that the Internet is way better than the one in Hue. Eating crow for sure.

The many everyday things of Hue

(Written a while back when in Hue, and now is as good a time to share it as any other)

It is easier to breathe here. It is hot, burning, lava-like and yet every once in a while there is a respite. Like the evenings. The occasional rainy days. The city is full of history, the streets full of bustle. Everyday brings something familiar and something new. I have fallen into a pattern, one that I will always associate with a happy summer. I know words and pictures will not do much justice to the experience. But I still try a combination of my favorite things: lists, words and pictures. 

The people selling lottery tickets, usually old. I was told it is considered unlucky to win as it splits families up over money.

A lottery ticket I bought.

Home (for now)

Leaving Vietnam was easier than I thought it would be. Leaving Hue city, not as much. By the end of my time there, I had a life, a routine I enjoyed and friends. Our work towards the end was chaotic but even so, the farewells felt difficult emotionally and were full of small kindnesses. Souvenirs and parties and gifts and trips and banana pancakes. We visited our ever-kind and gracious coffee lady (and maybe used an open window in her house to drop a gift when the coffee shop was shut), we said bye to people at the Indian restaurant, we had farewell parties with staff at CORENARM and with people at our hotel (Khach San Duong Sat). Spending time with a lovely three-year old Suri made everything a lot more fun.

On leaving

Saigon was exciting and bustling and full of making new friends, laughter and honest, spirit-fueled talks. It jarred a little after the quiet charm of Hue. I had forgotten how cities can sometimes tug and claw at you, how they demand attention. I walked, I explored, I marveled at the public spaces, had fancy coffees and missed the simplicity of ca phe sua in Hue, saw a water puppet show, saw the city from rooftops and balconies. I met people who were lovely and kind and felt like a harbor in the dark blanket that so much group work had settled on me. Now it is time to head home, for I am weary.

Water puppet show - fascinating

Outside the theater

Ben Thanh market

Bye Bye Hue

"
Dear Hue,

I leave early tomorrow morning. I have a few days in Saigon and then I go home and then I go back to graduate school. I want to say goodbye to you. You were exceedingly kind to me. You welcomed me with open arms and warmth. As we arrived at the airport and drove through, I remember worrying about where I had come. I wasn't sure how I would survive my time here. But I did well. All because you are one of the best places I have lived in in my life (grad school dramas notwithstanding).

I felt more at home than I have for a while. You kept me safe and allowed me to explore without having to worry about crimes and harassment. I never worried about what I wore. I shouldn't have to but we all now how that goes down. It is one of the few times in my life, I have not worried and just been. It was wonderful. You helped me meet people who are wonderful and kind and warm and funny and who became friends. You allowed me to be a student, a tourist, a researcher and most importantly myself. You reminded me of how Indian I am (by virtue of my chocolate brown skin, my Indian eyes as I was often told) and yet I never felt like I was defined or judged by my color. I never felt the implication of being 'second-rate' that other parts of the world sometimes have managed to communicate. Khach San Duong Sat (the Railway hotel) was my home for 2.5 months and it became one with the kindness shown by everyone who works there. We shared food and chatted at the porch even when all we shared were fragments of different languages.

Dong Ba market

All the tourist reviews promise you that Dong Ba market will be overwhelming. That it is 'too touristy'. That you should miss it. I disagree. For me the Dong Ba market was a riot of color and things. I am glad I went and did not miss it as it originally looked like it would happen. Visiting during siesta time made it very clam and manageable. I think this may be the Indian in me but it actually felt calmer compared to the markets I frequent in Delhi (I will give some of that to the timing of the visit). It is a a giant beast of a market with everything from weasel poop coffee to paintings to clothes to shoes to detergent to dried fish to fresh meat to juice. The list is endless. Of course you have to bargain. I will say I have bargained a lot in Vietnam (all very politely and calmly) and am happy that I haven't lost that skill. I got some souvenirs and returned from the trip rather pleased with myself (and grateful to the friend who took me and was amazing). I have been on several motos in the past few weeks and I have to say it is exhilarating and tempered by the fact that traffic in Hue is busy but not insane. Maybe these pictures will give you a glimpse of the Dong Ba market I saw!

:-) 

A feast for the eyes and stomach

The famous hats

Pottery in various stages

Snippets

This last week is full of infinite things to do, of impossible deadlines, of chaos, of the sense of loss settling in slowly. It means realizing that I have friends here, a life that I will be leaving. Just as I had started to settle in, feel at home (and this hotel has become home in many ways), I must leave. On every walk, every trip someplace, I am mentally making lists of everything that I want to remember, that I want in etched in my memory. As the number of days reduces, the list of goodbyes grows longer. There are so many daily mysteries that are still unsolved (for example the four sets of traffic light of different sizes and at different heights at each crossing). I haven't taken all the walks I wanted to, I haven't explored as much as I wanted to, I haven't done all the things I now know I would have liked too. This too, I know is part of the experience, making peace with the discontent at all that is left unexplored, accepting my own limits. But what I have from this experience is so much, it parallels nothing in my life. It hasn't only been an academic or professional experience, it has been much more. I am not wont to romanticize places; every place has something going for it (and not). But Hue city, Vietnam has been incredibly kind. 

The last lap

One week left for us to finish our project work here and it feels nothing short of absolutely absurd and strange that time has flown by so quickly. I am ready to be done with work but I am definitely not ready to leave and yet, leave I must. Work-wise it is strangely busy and yet slow. For now I am start to build a list of all the people, places and things I am going to miss and feel a wave of sadness at going. Here are some of my favorite photos:

At Ushi restaurant in Pham Ngu Lao. 
Perhaps an elephant, perhaps a monkey. 
Some of those toys squeak.

An illuminated prayer wheel lamp I spotted during my evening walk.

A canopy of umbrellas at a quaint quiet coffee shop

Paradise Cave

After a week that I will say was intense in many ways, we headed out to the Paradise Cave (Thien Duong Cave to be exact) on Saturday. I have never seen a cave in my life and I think this was one of the best and worst ways to start.  Best because it was so awesome, worst because I am not sure how many caves can live up to this. This is a recently discovered cave and is gigantic. I have say, I was awed in a way I haven't been for a while. In a way that made me forget the really long journey in a really small (and in many ways poorly-designed) bus. Even I was too tall for the seats and I am not too tall for anything. The day went off as travel days are bound to: grumbling about the bus and potholes, making friends with a pair of girls traveling across Asia, eating (or not) lunch and being pleasantly surprised by the addition of french fries to the usual fare.

We had booked a tour via a tour company and some folks got off en route, most people went to Phong Nha caves and six of us to Paradise Cave, which was a 40 minute ride away from the Phong Nha stop. We got to the entrance, sat in what is charmingly called a buggy and sped to staircase to the cave entrance. This was only 570 steps and I will say I am very out of shape. I console myself by thinking that at least I did it. We went inside and I promptly fell down the steps even before we reached the first warning sign. It hurt. But it was no surprise to me. I am the person that will fall.

On walking

Walking is my favorite way to explore a city. It is also my way to clear my head. Off late I have been feeling sick. It keeps coming and going and I can't figure what is going on. Earlier in the week, I eventually was very upset and annoyed with myself. For not feeling better, for not being able to work, for having no energy, for sleeping so much, for being so weak. I figured a walk would do me a world of good. In my head I had meant to explore the city on foot more and not being able to do that made me even antsier. My time in Hue and Vietnam is almost over and I feel sad about that. Being here has been good for me in so many ways. Coming back to topic, I went for a two hour walk-a-about in the city and it was lovely. I started by walking to reach the ATM that has the maximum withdrawal limit. To get there I walked close to the Imperial citadel and then turned into a busy shopping street, choc-a-bloc with boutiques, shoe shops, restaurants, groceries stores and more. I am usually very good at getting lost but in my head I mapped a parallel road to reach an end of the citadel, where these is a large courtyard space. Children roller blade here, people fly kites, there are coffee and snack vendors. It is full of people and yet not crowded. Imagine if you will, an old building, its majestic walls, crumbling ever so slightly, rising against the evening sky, sometimes lit by the moon as well as the orange streetlights. Enterprising vendors rent out roller blades, it is a popular evening sport here. It is one of the many things that has caught me by surprise, it is new. I wave at every toddler I spot on the way and it is a testimony to the general kindness of people that all their keepers smile at me and encourage them to say hello. The kite sellers have all left by the time I get there and this makes me sad. I thought they stayed out for longer. A few people are flying kites but the sky is more subdued than the last time I was here. Still nothing will ever beat the first time I saw those vibrant life-like kites of butterflies and dragons and airplanes soaring in the skies.

Field visit in pictures

We took a lot of pictures in Nam Giang. Our most fun and entertaining memories though aren't captured in any of these. Like the mini-hike through the forest. The joy (and relief) at finding a place to eat that we all liked. Our awe and shock at the baby whose only joy was in beating us all up. The rains, the mist, the mountains. But these should give you an idea.

We look at a rattan seedling
at a now defunct nursery

Mr. Ruoc, third from left, who was a
gracious host. Later we were told
 how he enjoyed the visit and sometimes
gets lonely and that made
me inexplicably sad.

Here and there from Nam Giang

Yesterday and today have been days of meeting harvesters and middlemen of rattan, among other things. We met with three sets of people yesterday and two today, had long conversations about the products they harvest, their relationship with the forest, the support they need to be successful. Each one of them was very kind to us. They offered us water, green tea, fruits and most importantly time and knowledge. Some of our meetings were at home, one at a coffee shop, and we visited one of the forest areas today. It is evident that people are poor - in one of the meetings we asked why some households do not harvest rattan. The village headman wryly replied it is because only the poor do it. In the forest today we saw young and older rattan trees, oui trees (the tallest in the forest), lon bon trees and some coffee trees. We also saw many, many ants, several of which feasted on us. We went to one village and one plantation first. We then started walking to another site which in the past was a rattan nursery but now has no support. Our walk attracted quite a bit of attention - children and adults looked and smiled at us, a pack of mangy and scrawny dogs that barked continuously at us and followed us a little. This was definitely a lot of forest and foliage. It started to rain a little but stopped soon which was good because being drenched in a downpour in the forest would have been quite the adventure but not as much fun.

Exploring in Nam Giang

'Uoi' drying outside

Today was a really good day in the field. It was full of meeting people, learning more about rattan harvesting and copious amounts of note-taking. We met the heads of a few villages, learned about how they harvest rattan, what is and is not working, what they need. We also learned a lot about another nut 'uoi'. It is available only once every 3-4 years and is worth a lot more money than things like rattan or crops like maize and rice. It makes sense now because at our last field visit one of the groups was busy collecting this and did not make it to our meeting. It seems like it does not react well to water (from a sales perspective), the collection period is short (June-July), while shaking the tree for is a good way to get it, a lot of time the tree is rather tall and cut down to get larger quantities. It seems to need shade in its younger days and then provides canopy cover. I know a lot about it, I saw it, I believe it helps with back pain, but I don't know how to spell it correctly. It is interesting because we went out to find more about rattan and instead we are back with a lot of information about 'uoi'. It seems like no training sessions, health camps etc are well-attended in this season because everyone is out to gather as much of it as they can. It makes complete sense. As one of the groups told us, rattan gatherers are among the poorest in their communities. Selling 'uoi' helps make a large amount of money but it is only once every few years. The day ended with a downpour that made the weather lovely. We then found a new local restaurant that was really nice. It had a picture of Che Guevera and I have to say this was one of the dinners I enjoyed the most, because we nerded out on discussions centering around race, discrimination, policies and more. I recognize that this is all talk and we don't necessarily achieve anything by only talking but I think it is a good platform to form my own ideas as I go along.

Coke in a bowl. First time for everything.

Say hullo to this super nice place in
Nam Giang

Look at the fancy lady and
the not so fancy man.

50-50

Karaoke is big here!

We could call today a bust or a win. I am going with win. We got to Nam Giang around 10:30. I woke up naturally at 6 am to go get Internet (and coffee) at a local shop. The Internet at our hotel had died last night (and I must say I exhibited pretty intense withdrawal symptoms). After our last field visit, we were definitely wary of what to expect - not all of us, but at least some. Well, it was needless worrying on our part. The hotel where we are staying is great, the rooms clean, the Internet works. What about work you ask? Well, it seems like there were what I am going to ambiguously call 'miscues'. Nobody who should have been expecting us was expecting us and so no meeting that we had planned happened. By tomorrow morning we will know if we are even meant to stay here for the week. Instead most of us gave into the temptation that is a siesta (I only got 15 minutes sadly). We woke up to learn  nothing was likely to happen today.

Beautiful furniture at the coffee shop

We then went to get coffee, some folks went for an informal chat over coffee about rattan. I got some work done, wrote some of a paper I need to write (and by wrote I mean jotted down bullet points in no particular order and felt very happy with myself). It rained heavily in the afternoon and the combination of the winds and mist over the lush mountains was rather pretty (and I am pretty hardened against such sentiments by now). I decided to take a walk around the hotel and met many babies and toddlers being taken out for the evening and fed their meals. It is cool and breezy and I remembered why hill stations can be so charming. Hue is great but extremely hot and I have forgotten what it feels like to live anyplace where the weather works with you. In general things are great. In terms of one of our projects, confusion abounds.

Bye Bye Hue (for a week)

So we leave for Quang Nam early morning tomorrow. I have no idea what to expect. The Internet at our hotel died due to a power surge/lightning and it seems like there is a dim chance of Internet for one week. Definitely a scary prospect. (Edited to add: eating crow in Nam Giang). I am feeling much better (there was a moment where I thought I could not go for this visit but then things picked up). Today was spent mostly Skyping, doing some work, getting prints in the hot afternoon (with the Laotian winds bringing more heat in), eating lots of Indian food in preparation for the week of relative starvation that awaits and not doing anything useful. I am writing this from a coffee shop to which we ran as soon as we figured that Internet at the hotel at died. Ok, they are mopping the floors and we are the last customers. I feel a little bad now. Bye!

Grumpy updates

I know I am sick because:

a. Two cups of the best cold coffee I have ever had (after my mother's) still couldn't keep me awake and my naps have been going on through the night and the day

b. I can't stay awake to even watch television

I must be really sick :p. We leave early on Monday and I can't decide whether to work over the weekend but risk being too ill/exhausted to travel or to rest and be ready to leave and be engaged in the activities of next week. I have also decided to blame being sick on the stress of last week (most of which I see as unnecessary). This is not to worry anyone, I am mostly fine, eating, I have people to reach out to if needed. I feel bad about being sick and not being able to work, travel or do anything. Oh well, it isn't the worst thing that could happen.

Non sequitir

Busy days don't lend themselves to adventures. This last week has been a lot of (busy) work and planning. We are traveling for field work next week so the drill of surveys, activities, etc is on. Our time here is growing shorter and the things to do, people to meet, places to visit, longer. I already find myself feeling sad about leaving, but that is life. Instead, see these pretty flowers (these were the flowers from my childhood that I remember most distinctly) and feel happy.

Mondays

Our workplace has moved down a couple of blocks, because the last one is under construction. This has a large courtyard and the rooms are more 'open-air' and less (no) air-conditioning, which lends for a good look in the 40 degrees heat. The shine on my face has never been brighter, the number of times I spray myself with whatever body spray/perfume/hand sanitiser is close never higher. The bathroom is a little far away (directly behind the building at the opposite end and a bit of a fun walk by a drain). One of these days I am going to post about bathrooms and sanitation hassles. I used it yesterday and promptly got locked in (the knob is broken and rusted). I banged and banged on the door but it is so far away that no one could feasibly hear me. I figured people would realize I am missing in a while but it started to get claustrophobic and I didn't want to be stuck in it. I could have broken the door because it was so flimsy but how would that look? Everyone would know me as the girl who broke a bathroom door. Did I want to be that person? On the first day of work at what are rooms sub-leased from another company? I wasn't sure. Luckily I could claw my hand out from the lower half of the door, reach the knob and get out. But now I have a new thing to worry about, thank you new office building.

But my bathroom adventures for the day continued. As I was showering, I saw the following beauty two feet away on the wall.

I am proud to say I finished showering and walked out and came back to take a picture to show the front desk staff. This was an emergency, there was no time for my usual miming tactics. Meagan may have scoffed at me but perhaps Meagan and I won't be friends now (are you reading this Meagan). Anyhow, the front desk lady very kindly came, by which time it had started to return home through the giant opening in the wall. She then put some Raid on it and sealed the opening with a regular tape. She smiled a lot and I think she may have been bemused by me. I would have been amused too. I am usually good at slaying my bugs and spiders and roaches (living in a basement apartment in Minnesota which was a bug-fest when 'Spring', cough cough, came b) but this was one fat-legged monster. I suppose I should be better at doing this myself but it truly caught me by surprise. How was your Monday?

The one full of exciting bus rides and dragons

Auto awesome in Google did this!

We decided to actually visit Da Nang this weekend (as opposed to the many weekends that we planned to but didn't manage to leave). I am very glad that we did because this was one of the most enjoyable and fun weekends so far. Many, many exciting things happened to us: bus rides full of chairs in the aisle and sassy old ladies, walks across the Dragon Bridge, lazing by the beach, so many naps, great views of Da Nang from where we stayed and a sky restaurant.