I went to Hanoi, Vietnam with Kenji who is my lab friend. Our purpose was to go around countryside in Vietnam with motorbikes and Mountain man because Paul, my English teacher, recommended Vietnam trip with mountain man and I had heard about his tour and I was very interested in it. I didn’t have enough time to prepare for this trip, so anyway I called him and only confirmed that he could make a special tour for us before I left Japan. At first, Thanks Paul and Mountain man! I was able to have a good time and it was so valuable experience for me.
Mountain man is Hung, his real name, and 36 years old but he looks so young and he is more vigorous than I. Probably, I had never seen so wild and powerful man like him. One of his favorite foods is sugar cane as this photo. He eats it everyday. He told me that he don’t have to brush his teeth because it has lots of fibers so to eat it is to brush his teeth for him. He likes vegetables and is vegetarian. Next photo is Aoki.
Aoki and Hung was singing with a mobile stall.
He likes this vegetable very much. We also ate these sometimes. His stomach seems to be very sensitive about foods. Probably his stomach is weak in oily food. Of course, He paid attention to our meals very well during this trip. We often had meals in restaurants but he sometimes went to its kitchen and cooked our meals. It was surprising for us. I thought it was impolite but I don’t know if it is Vietnamese role. Anyway, he is a good cook. It was so nice! This photo is one of them.
We traveled in Vietnam for 7 days with Hung. In first 2 days, we traveled in Hanoi city. We went to Vietnam Museum of Ethnology and some traditional temple. The following pictures were taken then.
The traffic was so crowded and some people often ignore a red light so a little dangerous. You can see
it. There are too many motorbikes in Hanoi. The air was so bad that I had a sore throat and my nose was stopped up. We had to wear masks. Now Hanoi economy is growing so quickly and so many foreign people immigrate in Hanoi to get some business chance. The local people also seem to be powerful. I think the air pollution is so bad that I don’t want to live there but Hanoi may be a good place to get some business chance or to make money. Hanoi is interesting city.
This woman’s job is picking up and collecting garbage and trash. You can see such people in Hanoi because many trashes are scattered everywhere in Hanoi. The local people have a custom to throw out the trash. I hope this city would be clean.
This trip is the red line in this map.
Hanoi→Ba Be Mar. 8. 2008
This photo was taken in Hung’s house before we left for mountainside. His next woman is his wife. His first child is supposed to be born today or tomorrow. His baby must be vigorous! Next photo is that Hung was packing our baggage, and then our baggage became small because he judged if our loads were necessary. He is nice packer.
This photo is Hung’s friend family. We visited to their house in lunchtime and had lunch. She was making sticky rice cake that is Vietnamese traditional and special food and it was so good. Her son was so shy boy that it was difficult to play with him but he became friendly before we left.
This is a gas station in a small village. It is classical method but so clever and don’t need electric power. Our motorbikes are made in Russia and so tough but need so much fuel.
We stayed at the traditional house of another Hung’s friends in ba be. The owner was so kind but the family seemed to be used to accept home stay of foreign people and the children and young couple were watching TV. The TV program was to look for some girlfriends of some soldiers and some soldiers were dancing and singing in TV. They were just like idols in Japan.
Ba Be→Cao Bang Mar. 9. 2008
We woke up at 5:30 and went to morning market near there and we were looking that the local people were preparing their stall. Hung got so rare and natural medicine for his mom. We ate hot Pho like noodle because it was rainy all day so we felt a bit cold. It was so delicious that we ate it many times in this trip.
Our motorbikes got to dirty and our clothes and shoes got to so wet!
Cao Bang→Waterfall→Cao Bang Mar. 10. 2008
We went to Ban Gioc waterfall where is very beautiful and huge. Now my desktop picture is this photo. This river is on the border between Vietnam and China. In Sino-Vietnamese War, a lot of soldiers fought each other there so many people were killed. The waterfall was too beautiful to image the atrocious event.
This photo is the market that we dropped into on the way to the waterfall. Then Hung bought a lot of his favorite vegetable.
We also dropped into certain a small village. The local people were so friendly and interested in us. We played with them to make a strange face or to take some pictures of them. One of them became to be interested in taking a picture so he took some pictures of the local people with my camera.
The traditional job is to make many kinds of knifes. There were some place to make them in the village and even woman was hammering some heated knife. The village has one problem that is a hygienic problem. They raise livestock under their house and the house’s floor is not tight so inside the houses smell bad.
Cao Bang→Lang Son Mar. 11. 2008
We went to the border between Vietnam and China on the way to Lang Son. So many people and things go into Vietnam from China. Some tracks had too many loads so that they were unable to go up even gentle slope. This track fell over a precipice but I don’t know why. Local people said that 3 people were gone. So sorry. To drive is so easy but we have to be careful anytime. You know that but it is difficult.
The women are certain tribe people. Their custom is to make a big ball on their head. They were so cheerful that they asked us many things, How old? How high? ....
Lang Son→Hanoi Mar. 12. 2008
We took a walk in early morning and went to big wall that Vietnamese solders used when Vietnam fought China. There was interesting rock. Can you see a mother with child on her back? This is a legend that the mother and baby were waiting for father who went to china as a solder. It was a good story but next photo made us so sad. There were many shots for drugs. I was surprised that was used even there, not only city.
Next we went to the big cape near Lang Son. There is a big temple in the cape and it is the so famous temple in Vietnam that so many Buddhists in Vietnam come there.
It was fine day so it was good for drying our shoes! This is my favorite picture.
We had lunch in a restaurant and there was a barbershop next to the restaurant. Hung wanted to cut his hair so he asked the owner to cut his hair and his hair became so short. After that, Hung cut Kenji’s hair. Maybe Hung didn’t like Kenji’s hair but Kenji hated new hair style. I was looking them with a laugh.
I want to go to Vietnam again and go to the area yellow line in the above map.
I always studied this place. the green thing on my desk is my bedroll. I used it so many times.
This photo is when Minakuchi teacher, my professor, gave a party in his garden the other day. The woman next to him is his wife. she is so friendly that she remembers our name and calls our name and orders us to do something to prepare for BBQ.
This photo is Paul, my English teacher and me. I went to his school to say thank you yesterday. Thanks to him, my experience was so bigger than before. I will catch up with him. I heard good news. It was that his baby is going to be born September and today he leave for Vietnam. He is going to stay there for a week and attend Matthew’s wedding party and then he is going to go to his Australian home. He seems to take a longer vacation than students.
