A Joy, In Every Possibility

August 17, 2009

Greetings from Hanoi! We have just finished a great two week tour through Vietnam. I love this country! From stunning landscapes, to bustling cities, to laid-back towns, Vietnam has it all.

We started our trip in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), the former capital and one of the busiest cities that I have ever experienced. Saigon has a permanent buzz: the people and streets are full of energy and the roads are absolutely packed with motorbikes at all times of the day. In Saigon, crossing the street is an art form; mastered by the locals and attempted by the tourists. If you wanted to wait for a clear break in traffic, you would be waiting for minutes, so the locals have adopted a simple road-crossing philosophy: just walk. And it works. The bike drivers are adept at avoiding you and each other and, somewhat miraculously, the traffic moves smoothly and safely. In Saigon there are 4 million registered motorbikes for the population of 5.3 million. We quickly became very accustomed to dealing with the seas of motorbikes.

In Saigon, we visited the Reunification Palace, where the Vietnam War officially ended in 1975. We also visited the Cu Chi Tunnels, which are an example of the intricate underground tunnel system used by the Viet Cong soldiers during the war. The tunnels were dug out entirely by hand and had multiple levels at different depths. They are a feat of engineering. A typical tunnel was about 1 meter in diameter and was dark, hot and very humid. We had a chance to crawl through one of the tunnels (which has been enlarged for oversized westerners). It was pretty tough work.

After Saigon, we headed up the coast to Nha Trang, the beach city of Vietnam. We spent our entire first day enjoying the beach and promptly turned into lobsters! For the rest of the stay we were a little smarter about staying out of the sun. The beach was a really fun time. There was a minimal number of tourists and it was absolutely packed with locals, many of whom we had a chance to chat with. The Vietnamese are very kind and accommodating people, and they were very interested in learning as much as possible about us. We usually talked until we exhausted their supply of English words (i.e. for about a minute or 2)! Nha Trang also has a very nice coral reef and we spent a day snorkeling at Mun island, which was a lot of fun. Another highlight of our stay was a trip to the local hot springs, which included a mud bath “spa” treatment. We went to the spa with our friend Steph from Calgary, who we met in Nha Trang. To get the full experience, we covered ourselves from head to toe! After getting out of the bath, you sit in the sun for about 10 minutes and let the mud harden before washing it off. It leaves your skin feeling really soft. I wish I could do it every day!

From Nha Trang, we continued up the coast to the great little town of Hoi An. This was my favourite place in Vietnam because of its laid back atmosphere and slow pace. Oh, and the fact that they serve beer for 3,500 dong (about 15 cents) certainly doesn’t hurt! Hoi An had an incredibly beautiful beach, which was really quiet and felt like our own little piece of paradise. We spent a full day swimming in the incredibly warm ocean water and relaxing on the beach. We also rented motorbikes one day and drove around the streets with the locals. The motorbikes were so much fun! We took a short road trip to Danang and took in the beautiful ocean and mountain views along the way. I can see why everyone here has a motorbike: they are addictive. Hoi An is famous for its 400 made-to-measure tailor shops. While initially hesitant to buy anything, after seeing the prices and the quality, we couldn’t resist and each of us had a suit made. We won’t have a chance to wear them on this trip, but we’ll both be looking forward to our next chance to suit up at home. Our Hoi An trip also saw us shave off our month-old “beards”, which was liberating to say the least!

After Hoi An, we made a short stop in Hue, Vietnam’s ancient capital. Hue is home to the Imperial City, where the emperor and his family lived. It was really beautiful and had an interesting mix of pristine temples and temples which are only half standing because of the war. Hue was hit hard in the Vietnam war and a lot of the Imperial City was destroyed. Some have been refurbished and other parts have been left in their original state. We also experienced a monsoon-quality rainstorm and got extremely soaked before our bus ride to Hanoi.

Our last stop in Vietnam was Hanoi. I really enjoyed Hanoi. Compared to Saigon, it feels more like a traditional Asian city and has managed to partially resist the Western influence which has infiltrated Saigon. The city is quite beautiful, with a lot of temples and some nice lakes and rivers throughout the downtown. In Hanoi, we visited the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum and the Museum of Ethnology, but my favourite part of the visit was just walking around the streets and taking in the city. Hanoi is more about the vibe than the sights.

We also took a trip to visit Ha Long Bay, which is about 3 hours outside Hanoi. Ha Long Bay was beautiful! The bay is surrounded by limestone rock faces covered in green foliage and has about 500 rocky islands scattered throughout. We took a two-day cruise through the bay and spent the night on the boat. Close to dusk on our first day we had a chance to kayak around the bay, which was an awesome experience. We got to explore some of the islands up close and appreciate their incredible size and beauty.

Next up for us is a stop in Hong Kong. Kevin will only be in Hong Kong for a day before he heads back to Canada. It’s hard to believe that six weeks have passed already! We have had an incredible trip and I’m going to miss sharing the adventure with him. I will spend about 5 days in Hong Kong before heading into the Yunnan province of China. I have heard that the blogspot site is blocked in China, so there may not be any new posts coming for a little while.

-Mitch

Walking With the Elephants

August 5, 2009

Sawatdee krap! Kevin and I spent the past week exploring the beauty that is Northern Thailand. I really enjoyed our stay here, although for different reasons than Cambodia and Malaysia. Thailand does not have the same charm as these other countries, likely because its people are extremely accustomed to tourists. The people are more abrasive in general, and seemed more interested in making money off us than getting to know us. I did not feel the same personal connection to the locals as I have on the rest of this trip. Also, due to the heavy tourism, the probability of finding a hidden gem like Tawau Hills Park in Thailand is essentially zero. That being said, Thailand is full of natural beauty and we had a number of unforgettable experiences discovering it.

We began our trip in Chiang Rai, a city close to the northern tip of Thailand that has a nice small-town feel. Our main reason for venturing to Chiang Rai was to do one of Thailand’s famous hill tribe treks. Most of these treks happen out of Chiang Mai, but we chose Chiang Rai because the group size is generally smaller and the jungle is more authentic. We were not disappointed.



We did our trek with two guys from Holland and a great, and sometimes a little crazy, guide named Simon. Thailand’s mountains are filled with hill tribes that have lived off the land, and largely technology-free, for hundreds of years. Simon has lived his whole life as part of a hill tribe and has an incredible understanding of the land in his area. The trekking was quite challenging and had many river crossings, tough climbs and treacherous stretches along the hillside. The scenery was beautiful and varied. We were surrounded by green mountains, rice and corn fields, rivers, waterfalls, and, of course, spent a lot of time going through thick jungle. Simon would include an occasional “adventure” for us, where we would go into the jungle and essentially blaze our own trail, with the help of his knife (read favourite toy).



We spent the night at Simon’s house where he and his wife cooked us a delicious meal. It was interesting hearing his perspective on Thailand’s social issues and hearing his stories about the hill tribe way of life. It rained hard overnight, which made for quite the trekking experience on the second day. We all took some spills and without our walking sticks it would have been even uglier. The highlight of day two was a huge waterfall that we had a chance to swim at. In the picture here, Kevin and I are enjoying what we call the “waterfall massage.”



As part of our trek, we had the opportunity to visit a number of hill tribes. I was excited for this part of the tour but it was a bit disappointing. The tribes seemed pretty inactive, and there seemed to be little happening in terms of agriculture or other jobs. Also, I was shocked to learn that all of the tribes around Chiang Rai have been recently been given solar panels by the government and now have electricity in their huts. It is clear that their way of life is changing, maybe not for the better. It seems contradictory, but tourist’s fascination in the hill tribe way of life is the very thing that is eroding this way of life.

During our stay in Chiang Rai we discovered two dishes which would prove to be staples for the rest our trip: Thai Green Curry and Pad Thai. It also didn’t hurt that we found a place selling Pad Thai for 30 baht! ($1)

After finishing our trek, we took the bus to Chiang Mai. We started with a much needed day of recovery, reading and relaxation. Our next day picked up in a big way, with a whitewater rafting trip on the Mae Wang River and its grade 4 rapids. For both of us, it was our first time trying whitewater rafting. The rapids were pretty intense, but I was hoping they were going to be a little crazier. At one point the raft did almost tip, and Chubey and two Belgians got tossed overboard. The ride itself was very nice, as the river was beautiful and was surrounded by great jungle. We also had a chance to swim in the rapids, which was a lot of fun. For obvious reasons, there are no photos from this day!

The next day was the best part of our Chiang Mai trip. We went to visit the Elephant Nature Park, which is an elephant sanctuary that is geared towards caring for, rather than riding, the elephants. This idea really appealed to us, as we had been turned off by the fact that nearly every trek has an elephant riding component, where elephants are marched around in circles all day and live in extremely cramped quarters. The park treats elephants properly. We had an incredible experience there!

From the moment we drove up to the park, I was in awe at the size and grace of the elephants. I had a permanent smile on my face the entire day. It is a place that exudes happiness. We started our day by visiting the park’s cutest members: a 4 week, 3 month, and 1 year old trio of newborn elephants. The 4 week old baby already weighs 200kg! I’m certain that this is one of the only 200 kilogram mammals on earth that could ever be described as “cute.” The sheer size of the adults is breathtaking. This was on full display during a touchy moment where the 1 year old, “wild boy”, escaped from his pen. How did he get back into the pen? Simple: his mom just walked over and, with one step, broke a hole in the fence so that wild boy could walk back in.

Next, we had two chances to feed the elephants. Feeding consists of holding out pieces of fruit that the elephants grab with their trunks and shovel into their mouths. They literally eat at the pace you feed them. Elephants have incredible appetites: they can spend up to 18 hours per day eating and typically consume between 350 and 500kg of food daily. It was hilarious seeing the ridiculous eating pace. My elephant ate an entire bucket (probably 50 lbs.) of fruit in 5 minutes.

Later on, we had a chance to spend some personal time with the elephants without any sort of barrier between us and them. We went into the river and helped cool them off by splashing them with buckets of water. They loved the attention and it was really cool to see them playing with one another in the water. We also went to the field and had the chance to get up really close to some of the elephants. Their favourite thing is when you rub them behind their ears.




In the field we had a chance to meet Lek, the founder of the park. Lek is an incredible woman and she has an incredible rapport with the elephants. She started the park as a place to help injured, sick and mistreated elephants. Unfortunately, the mistreatment of elephants is a very serious problem in Thailand. Most of the elephants at the park have been rescued from entrepreneurial schemes such as using elephants on city streets for begging, for circus acts and to give tourists rides all day long. The owners often torture the elephants in order to make them as obedient as possible. In fact, there is a horrific ritual for domesticating elephants in Thailand called breaking the elephant. This process consists of chaining up the elephant, putting it in a wood cage and then stabbing it with sharp sticks until it literally gives up its fight. The worst part is that there are no laws against using domesticated elephants as a business venture in Thailand. The trainers are allowed to get away with these malicious acts. Nearly all of Lek’s elephants come from this industry. There is a large push for a change in the laws regarding elephant treatment, but it appears that changes are still far away. The irony in all of this is that the elephant is a revered and worshipped religious symbol in Thailand. Besides caring daily for the elephants, a large part of Lek’s works goes towards raising social awareness about these injustices. After seeing the elephants thriving in their natural setting, it is very sad to think that half of Thailand’s elephants are domesticated.


Seeing these incredible animals up close is something that I will never forget.

For the next leg of our trip, we are flying to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and will head up the coast by bus towards Hanoi, making a number of stops along the way.

-MB