Frenchies, Kiwis, Mauritians, and Poles...

We're in Luang Prabang, Laos now - I have many better pictures but, unfortunately, I'm having a bit of trouble uploading them. LPB has been a ball - we have met the most ridiculous, lovely people, starting the first night (picture) - meeting two Frenchies, an Austrian, and a German and heading to the local club, which we have been to 3 out of 4 nights so far. We were definitely the only travelers in the club and the place was full of Laotians of all ages getting their groove on.

We went kayaking on the Mekong on Friday and hit a beautiful waterfall yesterday (with our new N. Irish, German, Polish, and Kiwi friends) which launched into dinner with a crew of 12 very rag tag folks, which, of course, led to the Laotian club... there's also a bowling alley we hit Friday night.

All in all, Kelly and I are having a ball and have secured a pretty decent place as LPG social coordinators. Tonight we hope will be a bit more chill, though - we're hoping for massages!




<-- Hanz, Kelly, & some Laotian friends at the club.



Hanz & Roland in the tuc-tuc -->

Kelly, Guillermo, & Joannes in the tuc-tuc

The Vietnamese Haircut!

The night before leaving for Laos, Trang took Kely & I to get my hair chopped off in Hue. There was a slew of hunky Vietnamese men learning to cut hair, most of whom lined up behind my chair to learn how to cut non-Asian hair - it was a literal teaching seminar. He cut off about 8 inches of hair, I think, which feels fabulous! See the progression of the haircut - and the chorus line of protegees - below.

This little munchkin was having his hair cut right behind me, but another tank-topped Vietnamese hottie - and his brown eyes kept flooding with tears. Really adorable.

The finished product! All for $2.50! It looks better now that I do it myself - more low mantenance, 'I just took a bus across a border with 43 Vietnamese and 16 live animals' traveler and less bowl shape...

Back in Hanoi...

Ky - our fabulous client, who's super cool, very witty, and makes sure we get plenty of 'rau' - vegetables - to go with our rice ;-). He takes good care of us. Here he's posing with a local treat...

Sup & Vijay - in Thuong Xua, at our favorite restaurant... we ate there 6 meals in a row...

Kelly & me at her birthday celebration (more & better pics to come!) Kelly & I first met in the H-block of the India School of Business last January and bonded over our mutual love of chai. Kelly will be a featured member of my blogs as we're traveling together for a month after Vietnam.

We've just arrived in Hanoi, after spending the beginning of the week in the field interviewing pig raisers, traders, People's Party officials, Women's Union Chairwomen, and agricultural officials. Yesterday morning, we interviewed two agricultural officials who specialize in hoof & mouth disease... Vijay and I were asking questions, and had ridiculous giggles everytime we accidentally looked up and saw the ridiculous myriad of posters decorating the walls - and educating us in the various manifestations of the disease... see below...

but these adorable little munchkins peeking in at us during our next interview made up for it...

What We're Eating...

On today's lunch menu:

- Assorted Vermin: Wild Rat & Musk-Cat
- Fighting Cock Hot Pot
- Heart of Pig Steamed Green Tea
- Pigeon Hot Pot
- Assorted Snakes
- Baked Goat's Dumsticks
- Smoked Pork's Legs
- Steamed Pork's Legs (2 varieties)
- Pork's Legs with Salt & Pepper
- Stir Fried Heart of Pig with Mushroom
- Heart of Pig Steamed Mugwort

Last week, one of our colleagues graciously invited us to dinner at his house with his family. His wife is an incredible cook and we had a ton of WONDERFUL dishes. Towards the end, one more dish arrived with a few less familiar ingredients - or rather, they were familiar, just not things we're used to eating, including a few claws and feet. We were comletely stuffed, so Kelly & I convinced our host we would share a bowl. Kelly moves to serve us, looks at me, smiles sweetly, and pours all the noodles and broth into her bowl, leaving me with the 'parts is parts.' She was a vegetarian for 12 years, so I'll give her a freebie for this one, but I can't wait until Paul, her boyfriend, joins us in a few weeks to take over the gracious disposal role...

Over the past few days, we've seen cows and pigs being transported on the backs of motos - refrigeration is less common so meat is much more fresh. Last week we were interviewing farmers in a rural town and halfway during lunch of pork, mustard greens, and rice, I heard a huge, "Soooooo-eeeeeeeeeee!!!!!" squeal/scream from the back of the restaurant. Kelly & I made eye contact and struggled to appear calm and normal as the pig - clearly destined for someone else's dinner - was being slaughtered in the back. No one else even heard it...

Last night we travelled from Hanoi to Thanh Hoa City - about a 4 hour car ride. We stopped at dinnertime at our first Vietnamese truck stop for what was surprisingly amazing food - Ky ordered mounds of vegetables & tofu and we were starving. Even the cats and dogs weaving between our feet under the table weren't enough to distract us - until there was what sounded like a dog fight outside. After dinner, as we got in the car, I looked up and saw the truck of dogs being transported... dog - thit cay - is sometimes eaten for good luck, especially in the north. These pups were in transit to a grim destination.

Although a lot of what we've seen is more harsh and raw than we're used to, the Vietnamese do eat or use the entire animal, so there's no waste. And we are, after all, here to help IDE improve people's quality of life by animal husbandry - pro-bono consultants on the Porker Project.

Goodnight,
Julls

Sometimes Headlamps Aren't a Good Idea... OR... How I got attacked by a bat in a Viet Cong tunnel

I'm outside our 'guest house' at Bach Nam National Park, watching as the rain ends and the fog sets in. This morning we did the lovely Five Waterfalls hike with our guide, Nhan. The hike was absolutely stunning, full of ferns and scuttling little creatures. In the afternoon we climbed the summit... and that's where our story begins.

Nhan: Now we go summit.
Kelly & Julie: Sure!
Nhan: You want tunnel?
Kelly & Julie: Tunnel? What kind of tunnel?
Nhan: Viet Cong tunnel. Helicopter, American.

Tunnel, VC.
Julie & Kelly: Um... okay, sure...

When we finally got to there, Kelly & I were stoked for our tunnel adventure - see pics. We hunch over at the entrance and start the walk in. Nhan has a flashlight & I have my head lamp, with Kelly in between us. We hike in for about 5 minutes, past several old bunk areas where the VC slept. And then something kind of flies in and lands on the ground in front of Kelly. I don't think she fully sees it at first, because she steps over it - and then, as it starts flapping its wings between her feet, she runs forward and says, 'Is that a bat???' I can see it, laying stunned on the ground in the chasm that now lies between me and Kelly & Nhan. There is no way I am stepping over it, so Nhan is proposing we turn around when it starts flapping its wings and flying towards me. The last thing I see before I close my eyes is this fury, winged creature flying directly towards my face. Somewhere, neurons should be firing telling me to keep my mouth closed, but instead I scream when I feel it hit my hands. I turn around to try to get away, but it's still with me as I hear Nhan yell, "Light! Off light!" I turn my head lamp off as I see it hit the ground again, and now we're in the pitch dark, and Kelly has to cross back over it so we can get out of the cave. Nhan now tells us there are many more bats in the cave and asks if we want to go on or turn around, but Kelly and I are hightailing it out of there before he can even finish his sentence. That's enough VC for one day for these two girls... so we head down the leech path instead.

Eating at the Yum Dung...

Our whole team has arrived safely in Tam Ky, Vietnam! After a hotel change (to be across the street from the town supermarket), we're getting settled at the Anh Huy Hotel, where only the woman who works the graveyard shift speaks English. Today, I successfully communicated, "refrigerator, milk, no electricity, smell" to the woman at the front desk by pointint to a series of words in our Vietnamese dictionary so I could get the electricity turned on in my room once I left (otherwise power goes out when you take the key). Perhaps we'll have another Vietnamese lesson tomorrow...

So.. the title - which narrowly won over "And for the lady, she'll have squid." On our first night as a team in Tam Ky, we collectively had 5, make that 4, words/phrases in Vietnamese. I knew 'thank you' and Supriya & Vijay knew some variation of 'chicken' ' veggies' and 'no fish' (Supriya's allergic.) We all got chicken, and Vijay ordered veggies for Kelly... he was quite proud of himself and his mastery of Vietnamese, until the waiter came out with 3 plates of chicken and a GIANT plate of squid for Kelly. All this took place at one of our favorite restaurants, the "Dung" (pronounced "Yum", hence the Yum Dung.)

Today we drank sugar cane juice off the street... with ice! The ice barrier was broken today, and since no one got sick, we can now have cold beer, cold sodas, and, thankfully, cold sugar cane juice. We were rushing back to work from our lunch break so had to have it in the "to go" variety, which means a little baggie with a rubber band/straw seal at the top. The rubber band/straw created a bit of a vacuum in the baggie, but after a few rookie sips, we've added another option to our ever-growing list of streetside treats.

G'night from Vietnam (salutations are on tomorrow's vocab list),
Julls