The Adventures of Brittany Byrd

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…and we accidentaly wondered into a zoo, that cost us 4,000 dongeach for a ticket, about 19 cents

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Yes, they have deer in the zoo. They did in Ho Chi Minh too!

Here is a collection of bad English translations/phrases that were not quite right

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We are leaving the hotel in about 25 minutes and heading home! Hanoi to Seoul, Seoul to Atlanta, Atlanta to Cincinnati and finally the drive from Cincinnati to Case!

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 One of the office guys at Bari’s school, Keith, used to be an RN in a the US and he offered to walk us around. The hospital campus has many different buildings set up all around with various specialties. They provide services in respiratory diseases, neurology, nephrology, cardiology, surgery, intensive care, emergency, psychiatry, infectious diseases, neonatology, surgical recovery, traditional East Asian medicine, psychotherapy, and out-patient examination

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These are the outside of patient rooms. They have inside and outside doors.

We made our way around and eventually ended up in the Emergency Room waiting area where we were stopped by two nurses, one of whom happened to be the head nurse (the lady in the middle.)

She sent us with another nurse, Nurse Hau, to ask their boss if we could observe. Unfortunately we were not allowed in to observe however, I talked with Nurse Hau for a bit. She said American nurses come to the hospital and teach nursing. She also asked me questions like why I want to be a nurse and that sort of thing. If we were staying through Monday I could have seen more, that is when they usually allow observation.

Health care in Vietnam is paid for mostly by the patient, however hospitals try to do free work whenever possible. Doctors are required to do five years in public hospitals and after the five years are up, they generally try to open private practices. Doctors only make between $30-100 USD. For some perspective, engineers can make up to $250 USD. One of Bari’s students said she takes her children to a doctor whose practice is in his house. Keith says even I could teach them a thing or two about nursing simply because I know how to effectively wash my hands.

I can’t post the pictures I took in the ER because of patient rights and all that but it was crazy crowed there. You go in one door and sign in at the desks (they look more like ticket counters) then you get a number and wait until someone can see you. The order is first come first serve and it looked like whole families came with the kids. I read that some nurses and doctors are willing to accept bribes for faster or “better” care. If you are admitted or have to stay in the hospital, it costs $30-50 USD. If you are in the hospital but you are “okay,” you might not see a doctor more than 3 times a week and sheets are changed twice a week.  

Hanoi is a totally different city than Ho Chi Minh. Ho Chi Minh is considered the financial capitol of the country while Hanoi is the governmental capitol. Also, Hanoi is over 1000 years old. Considering that, it is obvious why the cities are so different. The biggest thing I’ve noticed is the bigger language barrier here. Way fewer people speak English and considering our Vietnamese now consists of “thank you” “male” “female” and “turtle” we need all the English we can get. Near our hotel we found a restaurant that sells pizza, pasta, Mexican food and steak, though we are still unsure how these things go together in the grand scheme of things, it is excellent American-ish food and in 48 hours we have basically become regulars since the waitress now has our drink order down pat.

Yesterday was Bari’s first class here. We spent an hour or so at the school in the morning and met the staff in their brand new building. Apparently its a huge step up from the last one which had rats and salamanders last time he was here. Thank God they moved.

After class, one of the students (the lady in the yellow sweater) told us about how she had a two hour bus ride home after class. The work ethic of these students and in general of the Vietnamese is incredible. The little store just outside of our hotel for example is open until at least 10pm every night and opens around 8 or 9 in the morning. This is the little shop outside. They sell everything there and there is more in the back.

This morning we went into the heart of the city and shopped along the side streets in the rain. The age of the city gives rise to legend of the past and Hoan Kiem Lake is not immune. According to legends, emperor Le Loi was boating this lake when a turtle took his sword and disappeared into the lake. The sword was never recovered so Loi decided the turtle must have been the Golden Turtle God coming to take it back (the Golden Turtle God gave it to Loi to fight the Chinese during the Ming Dynasty.) The pagoda was constructed to commemorate this event.

Hoan Kiem Lake is also home to a Confucius and Taoist temple built in the 18th century. To get inside you have to buy a ticket and get passed the “Ticket Control” who did take our tickets but was far more interested in his iPod

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We had hot coco at the Trung Nguyen. A few minutes after ordering we were starting to wonder what was taking so long since there were not very many people in the cafe. The the lady brought us this and it made more sense. Bari forgot to pay for our hot chocholate so this little lady working there chased us down the street in the rain.

KFC for lunch. Did you know the KFC Mascot was Chicky the chicken? Neither did we.

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 The second day, the secretaries from the school offered to take me to the zoo across the street. It was 15,000 dong for a ticket, roughly 75 cents US.

You could buy bamboo to feed the elephants. Watch here!

My personal secretary for the day, Canie.

These are the textbooks most of the class had, every page of them is copied. When we arrived at the school on Sunday, a man was there selling the next class’ books out of plastic bags. The students said they were (obviously) much cheaper. At least they aren’t books on copyright law or something.

This is Bari’s class in Saigon. One lady offered to introduce me to a Vietnamese boyfriend!

After the final exam, we headed north for a two hour plane ride north to Hanoi. We took a cab to the airport with this guy who, despite his appearance, was a good driver. At least as good as one can be with the crazy traffic.

Now for the amazing part of this post, Ha Long Bay!

First, some back ground on the area and getting to the bay. I’m not sure how everything is organized but we got there some how. We had to take a taxi from our hotel to the Hilton across town where we boarded a bus that took us to a harbor where we were met with a taxi to take us to our dock about 5 minutes down the road. The whole trip was about three and half hours. Along the way, we traveled past shacks and tall cement homes. The fronts of these houses were spectacular, very pretty with bright colors. The sides of the cement homes were often unpainted and rarely had windows. Up until recently, Ha Long City and Bay were “undiscovered” so to speak for tourists. Within the past 25 years, the surrounding area has developed tremendously with a ton of new infrastructure going up and is now dotted with hotels and coffee shops.

The best way to describe what we saw on our cruise is to say its like something out of National Geographic. Bari and I kept saying it didn’t seem real or at the very least like something you read about in the SkyTravel magazines, but you never actually get to see.

We took a dingy from the shore out to our boat, only about 100 meters, but the dingy staff insisted we all wear life jackets.

First lets look at our boat. We sailed with Indochina Sails, our boat reminded me of a pirate ship complete with an anchor and sails.

Bari with a scary pose? What can I say, Nam changes people.

Now for what you really want to see, the Bay. I still cannot believe I was here. Between Bari’s pictures and mine, we have close to 400 from Ha Long Bay alone. Here are just a few, and here is a video of the view from our boat.

We climbed to the top of Titop Mountain, 425 steps straight up. Between the day in the zoo with the heat and this hike plus the cave later, I did a months worth of cardio in three days. Anyway, Titop Mountain was named after none other than…a Russian astronaut. Wait what?

This is our odd guide for the cruise. He decided Bari was going to be his best friend for the trip and kept popping up everywhere.

Next we set sail for Luon Cave where we got into a bamboo boat rowed by a local.

Back to the boat for dinner and reading where Bari found the deck to be a tad chilly. Four blankets later, he was finally at an okay tempature. This picture is before he put one on his head.  

We didn’t get a picture of everyone else on our boat but we certainly were traveling with some odd people.

In the morning, we had tea on the deck and then headed off to explore Surprise Cave and a small fishing village in the area. Typhoons come in September, but these boats stay in te water protected by the rocks. They have electricity, satellite TV and fresh water. Even in this small town of 200 in the middle of no where, speakers are mounted to spread communist propaganda. Look at that water! Here is a video.

 Surprise Cave was discovered by the French in 1901 but was only open to the public 30 years ago. Since then, the caves have been preserved and lights were added for tours. Click here for a video.

Bari and I reppin’ Northern Ohio pretty well.

For what ever reason, this won’t let me post some of my favorite pictures. I might try to post more in the morning, but for now this is long enough. It is truly beautiful. I cant imagine how much fun it would be in the summer. I so wanted to swim in it but it was far too cold.

“The Duck Lady�

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Next, we headed to a small town where we found out 1 kilo of sugar cane is worth $30 while 1 kilo of snake is worth $100. The sugar cane farmers of Vietnam never burn their farms until after the harvest in hopes of catching snakes. The more poisonous the snake, the more valuable it is. Snakes are used to make snake wine and used in snake and vodka shots, they are very popular among young people, but not this one.We also met a lady who was 89 years old, had great grandchildren and whose mother lives in the same house and is 108 years old!!

Gum trees (minus the Kookaburras) are free to those who need them. All you have to pay for is labor. They are common in river front houses as stilts because they dont rot and only need replaced every ten years.

Land is passed down from parents to children. To insure the children continue the family business, parents are buried on the land. That way it can’t be sold as it is a bad omen to purchase land with a dead body on it and the parents feel they can watch over their children

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A beautiful bonsai farm

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Children on the side of the river waving to us. Vietnam is home to the second happiest population in the world. They are very friendly! Click here for a video.

We drank fresh coconut milk from “Mr. #5." His family owns fields of sugar cane and rice.

Since we were no where near a tourist area, the company couldn’t find a clean restaurant. As a result, we ate outside of an orphanage and they brought in lunch from Saigon. We saw a baby only a month old who was left on the steps outside just after birth. I wanted to bring him home, Bari said no.

We ended our tour at the Cao Dai temple. The primis of the religion is that there is one God in many forms, all of the religions, who changes form in order to save more people. The religion is preserved only by elderly members.