Cuc Phuong

Katie and I decided to spend a night in Cuc Phuong National Park, about 3 hours south of Hanoi. It was a trek to get there (a 2 hour bus ride followed by a painful negotiation with a xe om driver to take us another hour to the park headquarters), but it was totally worth it. At the park headquarters, there is an endangered primate rescue center, which rehabilitates monkeys who have been rescued from poachers (monkey brains are both a delicacy and an ingredient in traditional medicine). They were the cutest monkeys I've ever seen. If that experience won't convert someone to vegetarianism, I don't know what will.
After the rescue center, we ventured out into the park itself. It is 20 kilometers from the park headquarters to the park center, where we were sleeping in a stilt house. Mostly because we didn't want to pay for another taxi, we chose to rent bicycles to get to the house. After a 45 uphill ride, however, we realized that we had only gone a few km and decided on a new plan to rent a motorbike. It took about 45 minutes to arrive at the park center on motorbike and I can't imagine how long it would've taken us on bikes. Driving a motorbike is so fun. I can't believe I don't own one. They are super small and have 4 gears, but no clutch, which you shift with your left foot. The other foot has the brakes and the right handle bar pumps the gas. There were only a few hills that gave me trouble. The tour buses passing me on narrow dirt roads also were terrifying. We stopped along the way at a few caves that were so dark you needed a torch after the first 10 meters. At night we went night-spotting, but besides bats, moths and a dead snail, we only spotted flying squirrels. It was one of the most beautiful and non-commercial sites I've seen in Vietnam so far.

24 hours in Hoi An

Last weekend I took a quick trip to Hoi An, along the central coast of Vietnam. I took an overnight sleeper train, which, because I booked a "hard sleeper," was 6 bunks, stacked 3 high, in a tiny tiny room. The bed above you was so close that you couldn't sit up...only lie horizontal or stand up. The way down was not so bad, it took a measly 14 hours to get to Da Nang (the closest town, which is about 45 minutes away by motorbike). On the way back, it took around 16. When I got to the train station, some very sweet Vietnamese folks in my bunk offered me a ride to Hoi An - they seemed nervous that I was planning on taking a xe om instead of a real taxi. The 24 hours I actually had in the town were well spent. I got some clothes hand tailored, met some fantastic people and ended up at a georeous beach club with a bonfire. I wish I could say the same for the 30 hours I spent abord the train.

Myanmar

I've been putting off writing about my 2 week trip to Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) because there is just too much to say (and I'm nervous that I've already forgot some things!). But I've got to start somewhere. So here goes...

The democratically elected leader of Myanmar, and a Nobel Peace Prize winner, Aung San Syu Kye, requested a ban on tourism to Myanmar. After she won the election in 1990, the overpowered military decided they didn't like the outcome, put her under house arrest and began a period of military rule characterized by massive amounts of forced labor and atrocities on human rights. That being said, I went anyways. Knowing I was inevitably putting dollars in the hands of the government (for flights and entry fees) was certainly a turn-off, but Myanmar is such an incredible country with the most welcoming and warm people I've ever met. It was enlightening to hear the stories people told us, and you could tell people would have liked to talk even more about the political climate. One of the most notable things about Burma was the prevalence of monks in every day society (we saw monks out and about throughout the day: wandering to various pagodas, collecting money for food or collecting food itself, riding motorbikes, and shopping for sunglasses). The other was the traditional dress, longyi, worn by both men and women. Longyi are basically long wrap around skirts that are worn year round, in cities, on fishing boats, in factories. They seem ultra comfortable in the incredibly hot weather. When we were there it hit 30-35 degrees celsius, but in the summer it can get to 45 or higher (well over 110 degrees farenheight). Another noticable thing about Burma that has been lacking in other countries I've been to is the military presence. Not only are soldiers fully equipped with M16s but there are parts of the country not accessible to tourists. There is a leper village off the coast of Inle Lake, whose existence the government denies, and tourists are not allowed to cross the river to the south of Yangon (formerly Rangoon) because of the intensive damage caused by 2008 Cyclone Nargis, after which the military government denied Red Corss assistance. I never felt unsafe when travelling but there was definitely a different sort of feeling than in other countries I have been to.

We started the trip in Yangon, the capital city. Notable sites included Shwedagon Pagoda, which was actually an enormous temple complex, most of which was covered in gold leaf. The top of the central golden pagoda is studded with literally thousands of rubies and diamonds, and a 76 karat diamond tops it. Monks and their non-monk buddies wandered around the complex on the Saturday afternoon we were there. We also visited a monestary school for boys and girls, the Yangon harbor, a 76 meter long reclining Buddha and Botataung Paya. Botataung Paya housed a few important relics: the Buddha's hair and teeth relics (which unless the Buddha was a saber tooth-tiger were quite an exaggeration) and a Buddha arcade (spinning arcade-like games in which you threw Kyat or dollars...depending on which bucket you got your donation into, that's what you would receive...good health, long life, prosperity in work etc.).

After 3 days in Yangon we went to Mandalay, a smaller city in central Myanmar. We visited a workshop where 3 men were pounding out (by hand) gold leaf, and then saw the Maya Myat-Muni Buddha image, which was so fat from gold leaf donations that he had lost his fit shape over the years. Afterwards we visited a few teak buildings, the King's apartment and Shwenandaw monestary, which was the last of the ancient style monestaries. Then a trip to Kuthdaw Pagoda which houses the "world's biggest book," 729 stone slabs, each in its own stone house, that tells a Buddhist story of some type. I couldn't read it, but I certainly appreciated the beauty of the Myanmar script, which is super curvy and round. We went to another monastary, Mahagandhayon Monastary and saw the monks having lunch (which was a shockingly big tourist attraction). All their food is donated by rich families or by collecting small donations/foodstuffs from the surrounding villages. They also are not allowed to eat after 12 noon, so lunch is especially important for them. We ended the trip with a visit to Mandalay hill where we met some friendly teenagers and monks who wanted to practice their English. Although I'm pretty sure monks aren't allowed to speak directly to and/or put their arms around women for a photo op. In Myanmar every man is expected to be a monk for at least 6 months time, after which he can decide whether or not to continue his religious studies or go back to his family. Some of them are a little bit less into it than others.

The third stop on our trip was Bagan, which has 16 square miles of ancient temple ruins. The UN tried to establish it as a world heritage site, but the military government decided to restore and rebuild some of temples, as opposed to leaving them as they were. The landscape reminded me of center city Philadelphia, if all the buildings were torn down, and in the place of each Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, Checker's and Wawa was an ancient pagoda. There were a freaking lot of them.

After Bagan we went to Pindaya, a very small town known mostly for its Shwe Oo Min Natural Cave Pagoda (Shwe means gold by the way) which was a cave with over 8000 Buddha statues. We also saw a paper-making/umbrella making workshop and a clay workshop in which all the clay pieces were made by one woman and her homemade self-spun pottery wheel.

We continued on to Inle Lake which was dotted in small floating villages, made with mud and grass gathered from the bottom of the lake. Livelihoods included fishing, boat-making, cigar-making, blacksmith, lotus weaving and farming on floating islands. The fishermen practiced a form of fishing unique to Inle Lake, where they stood up and used their legs to row, as opposed to rowing sitting down with their arms. We also visited a primary school and an elementary school, where the kids are rowed from the school house to the playground and wash their feet off on the side of the boat before naptime.

Our last day in Yangon we went to a reunion of Allison's family. Just a small gathering at a monastary, 100 or so of her Burmese family members. Everyone was very sweet and welcoming. And...that's all!