11/19/2009

Sorry I haven't written in forever. I have been a very busy bee here in Vietnam.

First there was the whole love with a Vietnamese boyfriend debacle, which for the record was a joke. Please my dear friends and family do not take facebook too seriously. It is the internet not real life and although it is a great means of communication it also requires no truth. If I wanted to I could change my facebook name to Bob and become a man, while in real life that we be a bit complicated. Sorry if I shocked any of you.

On a different note I have made a lot of new friends in Hanoi and have been going out on the town regularly. I had a great friend take me all around Hanoi on his motorbike and he showed me all of these amazing pagodas that people who don't live here rarely get to see because they are very difficult to find or to locate. I also got the opportunity to try a hot pot, which is this big pot of boiling soup that you share with friends. It is a really interesting tradition when people want to get together and share a meal with friends they usually suggest a hot pot because it is delicious and communal. The coolest part of a hot pot is that the meat and noodles and vegetables are all raw and you have to cook them in the boiling soup yourself. At first I thought that the experience would be weird, but it was actually a ton of fun and it helped break the ice with my new Vietnamese friends. I have to say that when embracing the culture my age is my biggest asset, I feel like I can try anything and that because I am so young people react to me with a lot of genuine interest and this amazing desire to share their culture. Since the hot pot I have hung out with a bunch of other people and everyone has different stories and experiences I seriously spend hours every day just sitting down and talking to people about their lives. It has to be one of the most liberating feelings to know that I have all the time in the world to just delve into someone elses life for a few hours. I love the freedom of this experience.

Also last Wednesday I went with my group to Sapa, which is in Northwestern part Vietnam right on the border with China. Sapa is the mountainous region of Vietnam and it is where a lot of ethnic groups live, specifially the Dao or Yao (pronounced Zao) and the Hmong (pronounced Mung). We took a night train to Lao Cai first class, it was pretty sweet (I love whoever invented sleeping pills). We arrived in Lao Cai Thursday morning and then drove 1 hour to Sapa. In Sapa we hiked to a small ethnic village called Cat Cat which had beautiful mountain views and a nice waterfall. Friday morning is when the real fun began. Being the great mountain woman that I am I, and the 15 other people in my group, decided to climb Mt. Fansipan, the highest mountain in Vietnam. Mt Fansipan is 3,143m (10,309 ft) high. So Friday morning we began out accent of the mountain and climbed two thirds of the way up to the base camp where we spent the night. Two important things to note about climbing Mt. Fansipan the first third of the mountain is pretty flat, but the second third of the mountain is REALLY steep. There are sections with ladder, and parts where you are literally climbing the mountain on all fours. The place where we spent the night was very high up and very cold and we were not well equipped (ie bad sleeping bags and sleeping in a small open hut on bamboo planks) so, we were all pretty cold and uncomfortable all night. Saturday morning we awoke to a cold wet day and most of the 15 people that had started up the mountain decided to go down instead of summiting. In the end only 6 of us made it to the top and we were the first people on top of Fansipan that day and we drank champagne and huddled together in the cold until we would take the cloudy top no longer and we headed down. Now I know that anyone who has read this far into my terrible story is either really bored of really loves me but HERE is where it gets good. Now from the top of mount Fansipan we couldn't see anything. It was cloudy and gross, but as we began out decent at some point a little more than a third of the way down we got out of the clouds and the world opened up. It was this moment that made the entire hike completely worth while. From where my good friend Maggie and I stood you could see the entire Sapa Valley, as well as the valleys on both sides of us and begin up you could see the cloud that was covering the top of Mt. Fansipan. If you have ever seen pictures or movies of Vietnam they could never in a million years do this scene justice. You could see these steep beautiful mountains covered in green foliage and at the top of each mountain clouds raced from peak to peak. In the distance you would see for miles these mountains, valleys and clouds, and they were the most beautiful landscapes I have ever seen. I could literally ramble on forever trying to describe this moment out there on that ridge staring into what had to be the most beautiful view I could ever imagine. In the end for as hard and cold and terrible the hike to the top was I would do it again for another moment like that. I have always loved the great outdoors and this was just one more wonderful day in the mountains where I was reminded just how beautiful the natural world is. That's all I have to write today. I love you all and I hope you all are doing well.