Back in Vietnam...

I was in Vietnam! You don't know what I have seen!

However here are some pictures to help...


We set out from Yuxi to He Kou at 0600 hours planning to get there sometime that night. All together it was about a eight hour bus ride through the mountains.










With the tropical climate of Southern China we saw a lot of Bannana trees on the way as well as Tangerines and Sugar Cane. the pictures here are actually of Banana trees. In He Kou we had some Bao zi for dinner then headed to the bridge to cross over into Vietnam.










On the left is the entrance to the bridge that leads to Vietnam











and on the right is the view of Vietnam from the China border.








It wasn't too bad crossing over from the China side but once we reached Vietnam we immediately ran across people seemingly still bitter over the war. At the border cross in Vietnam we had to fill out some forms before we could go through. However, the forms required information that was on our passports meanwhile the officers had our passports. For about ten minutes we stood there waiting for our passports unable to communicate with them for we didn't know Vietnamese nor did the officers know Chinese or English. Eventually they gave us our passports back and we didn't think much of it. However, once we gave them the forms with our passports again they hesitated in giving our passports back again. Then finally the officer held up our passports on his side expecting us to reach under the glass window and reach out to get them. Not exactly sure if he was giving them back to us or not we hesitantly reached under the glass to receive our passports. As our hands slowly grabbed our passports he immediately gripped them tightly not willing to let go. After we tugged back and forth for few seconds and he looked up at us without smiling and finally let go. Some what taken back we proceeded out into the land hoping this was not a foreshadowing of what was to come.
















Once we stepped outside the door into the city of Lao Cai we were swarmed by nationals one offering us a ride to some Hotel on his Moto, another to a near by city in his van and another wanted to help us exchange money. Trying to avoid being ripped off as lonely planet had warned us we walked about 5 km to the train station with about thirty different people trying to sell us something. On the way we stopped off at the bank to take out money. I took out 1,000,000 Dong which is about 63 USD. Latter at the train station after bargaining for several hours we eventually got a car ride from Lao Cai city to Sapa for 20,000 dong down from 200,000.

By the time we reached Sapa it was 2200 and we found a nice little hotel to make up camp in prepare to set out the next day.



Here is my friend hooking up to some free Wifi at the hotel. That mourning we looked a few things up online to have a better idea where to head out. My friend studies minority music and thus we were looking where to find particular minority groups.






Heres the guy who works at the Hotel...










On the left is a yao minority
(sometimes nicknamed the santa
clause hippy pants people because
of their hat and colorful pants)











and on the right is a Mheng minority
carrying her baby on her back.









Besides a lot of minority groups Sapa hosts some really cheap dinning...












Here is my friend "Zo" and you can't see but she is carrying her baby "Go" on her back. "Zo" is a Mheng minority who sells stuff to foreigners for a living. Since she didn't know Chinese I told her my name was just "Big Mudd" instead of Da Ni Ba. So she followed us around Sapa saying, "Big Mudd you buy from me."












On the right is a public park with a Catholic Church at the other end.














At Sapa we checked out the Market where we bought some fried rice cake for breakfast before we got some maps and headed out to the mountains.





































I tried to capture some of the local people but every picture I got was of them attempting to sell things to foreigners.















Much of Vietnamese economy now runs off of tourism today and attracts many people from around the world.












They sell everything from these little native instruments, there traditional clothing and jewelry to even, unfortunately, marijuana. We had a few people say, "You buy Marijuana from me."













We eventually made it out of Sapa
and after we paid a little toll we went
out of the city and into the
mountains.








It was about a 30Km
walk to our desired destination.
We marched for half the time
and jogged the other half to
try to make up for time.
















































































Even outside of the city we did not escape the native salespeople... Nor was age an obstacle.















We had to run to get away from them and even then they chased after us for a while before giving up.

























































































It was a 16 Kilometer walk to Ban Den where we had some fried rice for dinner.


























By the time we had finished it had began to get dark and we still had a good ways to go to reach the village we hoped to visit. After we walked about another 5 Km from Dan Den we finally gave in and took a moto to the next village where we would spend the night.












When we arrived to the next village
we found a decently priced place
to stay. The room was on a second floor and the floor was made of loose bamboo.












The only electricity was a light that hung from the ceiling and even that was ran to a power source outside. We had to ask the owner to turn the lights off for us when we went to sleep.













The next mourning we left at 0600. On the left is a river that passes through the village we stayed in that night


















and on the right is the village that we set out to see. It was about another hour from the village we were at to the next by moto and thus after we had bargained with some drivers at the village for about an hour we got there by around 0800. Once there my friend practiced some of the language that he had been studying back in China and seeing there similarities and differences. Strangely most of the minority groups out in mountains had resorted to western clothing. In addition though some of the language my friend had been studying had changed taking on traits of the Vietnamese much was still in tact. We spent a few hours in the village and then made the journey back to Sapa by Moto.

















It was a short trip but it was well worth it. In total we were only in Vietnam for two days and spent a total of two days traveling.

Dali: Day 3

Day 3 we went up the mountains, thank God we didn't actually have to hike but we got to ride the convenient Ski Lift. Here is Felix!
















Here is the view obviously from the sky lift.
















And this is from the top of the mountains!











Once at the top of the mountain there were once again several temples for worship. At one of the temples I was nearly coaxed into giving money to the temple. As I was standing outside watching Felix and Leo do there thing bowing down to the 圣像 or shengxiang (icons). One of the monks started waving to me from inside the temple to come in. Out of curiosity I went just to see what he wanted thinking maybe he would teach me something about Taoism. When I went in he had me sign my name on a piece of paper and then next to it he wrote down "200" and then took a red stamp had me breath on it and then he stamped it and proceeded to point to a box for me to put 200 kuai in about $27 USD. After that I just got up and left and he chased me out the door saying for good luck for good luck. Though I wish I could have said something to him, all I knew to say was 不要谢谢！Bu yao xie xie or don't want thank you.



Once again Leo is crazy!















































I love this sign! Especially since there were several places were there was big chunks of fence missing and even sometimes sidewalk. And right on the other side would be a sheer cliff! Somehow we made it back though...





























This little cave was right over a huge cliff. Mostly made out of rocks that were covered in moss from all the moister in the air that day. The only way in is on these two slippery and narrow strips of rock over a cliff!










Here again Leo shows that he is indeed crazy. This is inside the cave where there was steep and narrow stair case that goes up to a little opening at the top. The stairs were maybe big enough to put one foot down on a step at a time. With the fact that everything was too slippery it wasn't the best idea. One mistake and you end up like the guy in the sign!







The entire walk was 6 Kilometers down and about 8 back. Reason being is that we had to catch our bus back to the school and were running back and happened to run right past the exit and kept going...












It was certainly worth the walk though with the great view of Dali, er hei lake and the waterfall at the very top! It was certainly good ending to a good trip. I was also able to get to know Leo and Felix really well and we have been meeting once a week to study together ever since the Dali trip!

Dali: Day 2

Day 2 Felix drove us around in his father's Jeep Cherokee! Which saved us a great deal of money and time... Felix got his license recently and so he taught me a little bit about the way getting your license works in China. In China to get your license you don't have to take a driving test but a detailed written test right down to questions of mechanics to naming the different parts under the hood! Also the rules of the road, at least from my perspective, are radically different from America. You can pass whenever you want as long as you beep your horn and let the person know.

In fact it seems that the general rule is to try to beep the horn as much as possible in order to let everybody know where you are. Also later that day I would find out first hand how an accident is handled, when Felix got in a little Fender bender trying to get out of the parking lot. At first it seemed like he was going to try pretend like nothing happened and just drive off; until the guy from the other car came running up to him and shouting at him in Chinese. Though most of the time I was clueless as to what was going on, I spoke to Felix afterwards and he explained to me in English that the person we hit was wanting 200 RMB (about 27 US) for the damage to his van. But, the cop agreed on 100 RMB (about 13 US) and Felix paid the man and everything was settled right there and then.

On Tuesday we went to the 3 towers and the temples, here is the view of the three towers from the outside. These towers as well as the temples are all symbols of Buddhist worship, these in the past were the places of worship for royalty. However, now it is a park.







Here is the sign at the entrance to the park. Though I'm not quite to the point yet where I can tell you what it says I know the last two big characters are 三 San, which is 3, and the last one is 塔 ta, which is pagoda or tower. If you can read the rest of the characters and let me know I will add it here and put your name in my blog! (These characters were translated by...) - your name could be there!


Here is the towers from the inside of the park along with a mob of people. This week is one of the few weeks of the year where just about everybody does not have to go to work. Thus everybody is traveling and the sites are crowded.







Theres the 三 中国 牛仔 san zhong guo niu zai, or the three Chinese cowboys, in front of the three towers!








China has some of the coolest signs in English! This is the first one I've put up so far but theres certainly more to come! In case you can't read this one it says "The unselfish human world of flowers and plants is in love."




































































When asked Leo and Felix claim to be Buddhist because they have both grown up in Buddhist homes where that was all that they knew. We saw maybe twenty different Buddhist temples where at each one Leo and Felix both bow downed to worship idols of many different kinds, as is the tradition. They also lighted incense and even paid money to worship the Buddhist Gods.



















Leo is crazy

























































This was the largest temple we saw and holds the most important of the God's in Buddhism. After him comes the fat Buddha that we so often see.
















Here is the bathing Buddha...













This was the last temple which actually had a second story with stairs and a pretty cool view.


















Well that was Day 2 of Dali, keep a look out for day 3 in our climatic trip to the famous mountains of Dali!