Ninh Binh

This last weekend my friend Trinh invited me to visit her hometown of Ninh Binh for the weekend. Ninh Binh is a province around 100km south of Hanoi. We left at 8:00pm on Friday. Going with us were her friend, her two brothers, her sister in law, her brother's three year old and six year old daughters, a neighbour, and her older sister.  We all packed into her brother's SUV which seated eight.  We arrived at her house around 11:30pm. Her parents were very kind and very happy to meet me. Like many families in Ninh Binh, Trinh's family is Catholic. Therefore, instead of the typical ancestral and Buddhist figurines found in many Vietnamese homes, there were pictures of Mary and a large statue of Jesus. They didn't have an ancestor altar but they did have picture of their grandparents on the wall with a small jar of incense underneath. 

During the car ride I had spent a long time talking with Trinh's older brother despite the fact that he knew very little English. Trinh's older sister would occasionally make jokingly make a comment about me marrying Trinh. I got a lot of those comments over this weekend.

That night I shared a bamboo bed with Trinh's brother and father. I woke up the next day and took some picture around the house.

Huge dump trucks drove fast down this road in front of the house. While I was taking pictures, a dog ran into the middle of the road and got run over by a dump truck. Guts spilled out everywhere.  Guess what we had for lunch.

Of course we didn't have the same dog but we did eat dog meat which was a little difficult to do after witnessing that scene.

However, before we had lunch we went to visit Phat Diem Cathedral.  This cathedral was built around 100 years ago under the guidance of the priest Tran Luc. Parishioners prepared this once unstable sight by driving thousands of stakes into the flood plane followed by layers of earth, gravel, and bamboo rafts. It was here that Graham Greene watched the Viet Minh battle the French, which he would later right about in The Quiet American.

It is probably the most interesting church I have ever scene. Unlike St. Joseph's Cathedral in Hanoi, this stone structure isn't just a knock-off of European style architecture. It actually more resembles a Buddhist temple. However, as you can see, it features crosses and statues of the saints. Carved into the stone are also scenes from the passion.

Trinh told me that the cathedral was bombed during the war.
"Của Mỹ!" said her sister. (By America!)
I knew by her expression she was just joking around but I didn't know what to say so I just said "Xin lỗi. (sorry)"
Her family laughed and we continued walking around taking pictures. The site included smaller chapels around the larger structure as well as a grotto. 

There are sometimes when the American War (Vietnam War for all you North Americans) is brought up and I'm not exactly sure how to act.  The Vietnamese are never accusatory when they talk about it. However, it is clear that it is a victory they are proud of and they hold firm to the belief that they were in the right and America was in the wrong.  I do agree that America was in the wrong during the war but since I didn't live through it, it's hard to feel any sort of feeling either way.  Later that day I would meet a neighbor of the family who was a soldier during the war.  He told me that he killed 15 American soldiers. However, he assured me that now America and Vietnam are friends. I told him that I was glad for that.

We came back and I met some relatives. Trinh has five brothers and one sister. Her father also has five brothers and I don't know how many sisters. Therefore, every hour or so I would be introduced to another uncle, aunt, or cousin.

That evening we drove around the countryside and took pictures.

That night we went to mass at the local church. It wasn't as big as the stone church but it was still quite large. It's been a while since I've gone to Catholic mass so I'm not sure how much was unique to Vietnam. However, at the end of the service, a brass band played some music which I never remember experiencing at a mass before. It caught me off guard because I didn't see them in the back of the church. I felt like I was at a pep rally.

Trinh's brother helpfully ran around the church during the mass to take pictures for me (try to spot me in the first picture).

I ended up going to mass three times that weekend. The next day I went with Trinh at around 10:00am. There were probably around 2,000 people there. Most of the people were sitting outside on plastic chairs.

The evening I visited some more relatives. One man showed me around his garden where he grew mint and his pond, which was full of fish. He told me everything in hand gestures although it would have actually been more helpful if he had spoken Vietnamese.

At around 4:00pm we went to evening mass. I joined a group of men walking around the church I think to symbolize walking Jesus's walk to Golgotha.

It was quite the musical experience. Chanting mixed with bells, flute playing, a brass band, and large drums. I've never seen this at a Catholic mass:

Some more pictures.

We came back, packed, and left for Hanoi. On the drive back we added two more people. It was a pretty uncomfortable four hour drive. I finally got back to my house around 12pm. It was an exhausting but exhilarating trip.  Before I left, I thanked Trinh's parents. Trinh's mother told me to come back and visit again. I hope someday I can.

Cowabunga! Adventure in Cao Bằng Day 4

Tuesday April 12, 2011.

This next day we left around 8:30am. This time we took a detour through Ba Be National Park. It was incredibly pretty. There was a large lake and a small village with stilt houses. It reminded by of Mai Chau but even more beautiful. Unfortunately we were way behind schedule so we had no time to stop and admire the scenery. However, at one point we noticed a cave right by the side of the rode. We checked it out for probably a total of five minutes and then continued on our way.
 

Bryn was basically on empty at this point so we were quite relieved when we found a person with a small gas pump in the little village. We also stopped here in the village for lunch. Surprise! We had pho again. Because we had taken this detour we weren't able to keep our promise and visit the pho shop owners in Bac Kan.

However, we did revisit the cafe in Thai Nguyen. The lady working there was very happy to see us. I also met her husband this time. I think Vietnamese women enunciate more than Vietnamese men because I always have an easier time talking with women in Vietnamese. However, I was able to understand some things that her husband told me. He told me he had an older sister who lived in Texas and that she was married to an American there. The lady also told me that she had a very beautiful 20 year old daughter and if I come back to Thai Nguyen she will introduce her to me. I said "ok" although I honestly don't know when I'll ever be back to Thai Nguyen.

After chatting a bit more we began our last leg of the journey---and probably the absolute worst part of the entire trip. Trucks after trucks spewed dirt and dust in our faces.  Soon, it was dark and harder to make out the road. Finally, after what seemed like forever, we reached Hanoi. Because of the detour, it had taken us around 13 hours to get back.  To treat ourselves, we went to KFC. I was actually a little embarrassed walking into KFC. It was filled with people and we looked like we had just come back from mining. 

All in all, it was an awesome trip and that I will probably always remember. I'd also love to do another motorbike trip up north in Vietnam sometime.

Cowabunga! Adventure in Cao Bằng Day 3

Monday April 11, 2011.

I made a goof in the last post. Bryn and I didn't really get lost this day. We always knew generally where we were, we just had a lot of trouble finding our destination. 

We left the hotel around 9am. Today we would visit Pac Bo cave where Ho Chi Minh spent time gathering revolutionaries after his return from China. He didn't have to go very far when he returned because the cave is right on the Chinese border. The drive there was a lot less intense than the previous days' drives. It only took about three hours to reach the site.

The road went straight to the border and dead-ended in a parking lot. We parked our vehicles and took followed some Vietnamese tourists to a path through the forest.

This is Lenin Stream.

After obliging to take pictures with some excited Vietnamese girls, we decided to walk up a stone path that went up a mountain.

We were both pretty sure that the cave wasn't up this way but we had plenty of free time to explore. However, soon the steps disappeared and the climb became steeper and muddier.  The climb also became increasingly more difficult. We stopped a few times and wondered if we should continue since we were getting really sweaty and tired and we had no idea where the path was taking us.

We decided to keep going but after another half an hour or so we realized that this path could very well just lead into China or to another village. So we came back down.

We ran into the group of girls again who were now joined with a group of guys. They were sitting down to have a picnic and they pointed out where to go. We followed their directions that led to steep stone steps. Climbing up the steps we ran into a pretty Vietnamese lady with her child. We must of looked like wimps huffing and puffing up those steps. I tried to explain to her that we had just climbed a mountain. We made small talk for a bit and then continued on with walking with her and her kid. We ran into her husband and mother and sat and had a rest half way up the mountain.

While Bryn rested with them, I decided to book it up to the top as fast as I could. When I got to the top, the path turned into a small dirt path that led to a construction sight. I was really confused. Off to the left was a stone marker that said "China" in Chinese. Bryn and the Vietnamese family came up later. Bryn heard somewhere that the cave Ho Chi Minh worked at had been destroyed and wondered if maybe this was a marker for where the cave used to be.

I thought that this could not be right because I remembered that our former colleague Shane had visited the cave and had taken pictures and had mentioned a table where Ho Chi Minh worked at. I tried to ask the pretty lady where the cave was. However, I didn't know the Vietnamese word for "cave" so instead I asked where his house was. She understood and told us that it was down the mountain. So we climbed back down. At this point we were extremely tired. We had also forgotten our water bottles in our motorbikes.

Once we reached the bottom we saw another path that branched off. This led to what amounted to a jumble of boulders on top of each other and a plaque that said when Ho Chi Minh worked here.

So this apparently was the cave that had been destroyed. However, I still wasn't satisfied. I knew that Shane had gone into a cave and had mentioned a table.

By now we were really hot and thirsty and so we went back to the parking lot and got some iced tea at one of the many small stalls located there. It was then that we noticed that two paths split off from the parking lot. There was another stone path that went out towards some rice fields. No one was on this path. We grabbed our water bottles from our motorbikes and went along this path.

Finally, we reached it.

It was just a large crack in the side of the mountain. But we entered it and it was definitely a cave. It was incredibly dark and damp but it was just light enough for me to make out large bats swooping around. I realized then that I'm afraid of bats. Or at least groups of large bats in a pitch black cave. Therefore I only went a little ways in before I decided I had seen enough of the cave. Still didn't see a table though. Perhaps I didn't go far in enough.

The trail kept going so we decided to keep following it. We came across small thatched house and a marker for the China/Vietnam border.

The following picture is photoshopped so you can make out the surrounding view and the shack. Maybe sometime when I have more time I will do a better job. 

I checked inside and lo and behold a table!

(If you don't see a table it is because the picture is from a weird angle, it is sticking out from the wall right under the window)

Apparently in this shack Ho Chi Minh held the eighth Party Central Committee Meeting.  I was very glad that everything finally came together in our search for the cave and the table. I could now leave satisfied. I guess we probably should have brought some sort of guide book with us. It would have saved us a lot of trouble. But in the end our method was more of an adventure and ultimately more rewarding.  

Cowabunga! Adventure in Cao Bằng Day 2

FYI: The pictures don't look so good shrunk down. Click on them for a larger view 

The next day we awoke at 8:00am. We had breakfast at a nearby phở shop (there seems to be a lot of phở places in Northern Vietnam) and hit the road. Today we would visit the Bản Giốc waterfall 90 kilometers northeast from the town of Cao Bằng, located on the Chinese border.

Cao Bằng is a rather poor and remote area at least compared to Hanoi. The road was worse than the one we were on yesterday but the view was even more spectacular. We passed through dozens of small "towns." I'm not even sure you could call them town, perhaps "hamlets." Some of these hamlets took less than a minute to drive through.

 The manager of the hotel, who spoke English, had given us directions to the waterfalls.  However, somewhere around Quoc Tuan way we took a wrong turn.

We realized our mistake but decided to follow the road we were on because it also eventually led to the waterfall. However, this road was--to put it nicely--complete $#!+. There's a section by my house in Hanoi that I always dread riding on because it it's bumpy and dirty and full of potholes. However, that section usually only lasts about a minute tops. This road was about the same quality, but lasted around three hours. However, the payoff was that we got to observe a landscape that probably only a handful of tourists--not to mention Westerners--had ever seen.

One of the craziest aspects about this road was that at certain times it would go through a hamlet and the road would become dirt and shrink to a width of my wingspan. I felt that any moment it would simply lead to the driveway of someone's house. But then five seconds later we would be out of the hamlet and the road would widen again.  There seemed to be around 5 different defining characteristics to the road. It would either be 1: paved with a few rocks and pot holes, 2: rocks and potholes, 3: dirt and potholes, 4 dirt and rocks, 5 dirt. 

Probably the most frustrating thing about driving on this road was that we had to focus all our attention on the road. One point I was observing jagged rock formations that seemed to just pop out of the rice fields like natural gravestones ...

...and BAM! hit a pothole. My water bottle flew out of my front basket and I had to turn around and to retrieve it.

While it was definitely a difficult road to drive a motorbike on, we were both glad we took this road. We went through mountains, small hamlets, rice paddies, and farms where the road was lined with small rocky walls on either side. However, after a while we were getting pretty tired of all the bumps and hoped that it would soon end.

Finally we reached the town of Trung Khanh where we were able to turn off unto another, better road. However, before we did that, we stopped for lunch. We stopped at a small house/shop where an old woman presumably lived. We ate bon noodles with duck meat. It was pretty good. The only other people in the shop was the old woman's granddaughter and a young man. Like the other places we visited, once they learned I spoke a little Vietnamese they became very friendly. I told them some about ourselves and our trip. The old woman thought it was hilarious that Bryn was from Canada, I was from America, Bryn was clean shaven, I had a beard, I wore glasses, Bryn didn't, and that Bryn was fat (apparently to Vietnamese standards) and I was thin. She pointed helpfully pointed this out to us. We were like a Laurel and Hardy or Penn and Teller or something. We talked a bit more, then paid, said our goodbyes, and got back on the road.

Did I say that the road got better? That's only partly true. The road became smoother, however there were large stretches with thick red mud. It made it difficult and a little dangerous to drive. I wasn't aware how easy it was to loose control in the mud until I did. I skidded out and flew a couple feet in front of my motorbike. Luckily, I wasn't hurt. However, now my motorbike and the only pair of pants that I brought were covered in globs of red mud. Just when I thought I couldn't get any dirtier.

Although he didn't wipe-out like I did, at one point Bryn also tipped his bike and fell in the mud.

While still in good spirits, by this time we were ready to get to this stupid waterfall. Finally, an hour or two later we made it. We must have looked pretty crazy riding up on our filthy motorbikes with dirty faces and clothes covered in mud. We didn't blend in well with the American families or Vietnamese urbanites getting off the buses at the parking lot. However, I was surprised that there weren't more tourists since it was a holiday weekend. I would later learn that on the Hung Kings Festival, Vietnamese people traveled to temples (specifically the temple in Phu Tho Province) to worship the Hung Kings. 

As for the waterfalls themselves.. well, yeah, they were pretty spectacular.

There's me!

Since everyone was doing it, Bryn and I took a boat ride up to the falls. The boat ride was kind of expensive 100,000 dong for one person (around 5 dollars). But I guess we only paid 15,000 dong to get into the park. Chinese tourists were on the other side of the river. However, everyone got to ride on the river. When one boat filled with Chinese tourists passed ours, the tourists waved and Bryn and I posed for pictures. We hung around there for a bit and then walked back up to where our bikes were parked. After drinking some ice tea at a shop nearby, we headed back to Cao Bang.

This time we went back a different way.

This alternative option included a smoother road. However, there was also more mud. But after about five hours we made it back safe and sound. The receptionist was surprised that we had somehow managed to get even dirtier.  After showers, we headed out for dinner. The place we ate at the night before was closed so we ended up eating at a small cafeteria like place. The food was just so-so, but it filled us up.

It was a long but incredibly fun day. After some more shenanigans, we finally went to bed.

In the next episode, Bryn and Nathan get lost!