It has been way too long since my last post.. things have gotten very busy here. In the midst of trips around Vietnam and a three-week stint back to the states, I have had some fantastic opportunities that I'll briefly summarize here. Below are three short articles that have been/will be featured in an expat magazine (called The Word Hanoi) and some pictures that go along with each article. The first is about a work trip I took to Ca Mau province at the bottom of Vietnam, where I met with lots of inspiring youth who work on stigma reduction and/or infected or affected by HIV/AIDS. The next is about a camp that Save the Children held about two weeks ago in Ba Vi, the rural community where I did my research study this past winter and spring. And the third is about an amazing beach trip to Quan Lan island (in the north, right next to Halong Bay) last weekend with three friends, one from Spain, one from England, and one from Vietnam. Although words and pictures can't do justice to what I've been able to experience in the past few months, I hope that you enjoy!
Ca Mau:
It’s not every day that you hear of someone deciding to take a trip to Ca Mau, the southernmost province in Vietnam. But lucky for me, I found myself there a few weeks ago on a work trip. From trips along dirt roads lined with coconut trees to meetings with inspiring HIV-infected youth, it was an unforgettable 48-hour journey.
At 7:00 a.m. Tuesday morning, an hour after our departure from Saigon, we landed in one of the smallest airports I’ve seen up close. Pink lotus flowers dotted the grass around the landing strip, and my colleague and I were tempted to forego our meetings and spend the day taking photos instead.
After dropping our bags off at Anh Nguyet hotel – cheaper yet more luxurious than many of its big city competitors ($30USD/night, buffet breakfast included) – we drove an hour away from Ca Mau city to Nam Can district. On the way, we passed a number of beautifully constructed tombs. According to my colleague, in the south those who are buried in these tombs stay inside them for eternity. (In the north, the body only remains in the tomb for three years, after which the bones are collected and put into a smaller container in another tomb or a pagoda.)
Upon arriving in Nam Can, we spent the morning making house calls to kind families whose homes have been ravaged by HIV/AIDS, and the afternoon participating in a training with the incredible volunteers who work hard on the families’ behalf. For lunch, we feasted on canh chu ca, a delicious fish and vegetable soup dish. After the training, we walked to a café to have some Sinh To Bo, and watched as children swam fishnets across a small lake to help local policemen catch fish.
Afterwards, we took a two-hour taxi trip (which involved a boat ride across Dam Cun river, whose bridge is just beginning to be constructed) and unbeknownst to me, arrived at one of Ca Mau’s biggest tourist attractions, Cha Diep.
Cha Diep is a massive complex of churches, each equipped with huge organs, beautiful stain glass windows, and row after row of the same pews I used to kneel at during church services back home. The most beautiful church of all contains the body of Father Truong Buu Diep , who was respected during his life but has become idolized all over Ca Mau in the 50 years since his death. Every cab driver in Ca Mau prominently displays Father Diep’s face on his windshield. Father Diep’s grave is displayed in the biggest church in the complex of Cha Diep, full of stone angels and burning incense.
Our next day in Ca Mau was much like the first – peace, coconut trees, and some of the most delicious seafood I’ve tasted in Vietnam, mixed with meetings with hard-working, motivated locals. We traveled to Tran Van Thoi district, an hour’s drive in the opposite direction from Nam Can, where we met with teens who were blasting Justin Bieber from their headphones and were thrilled at the chance to practice some tieng Anh with a foreigner.
For those interested in traveling to Ca Mau for some du lich, Phan Ngoc Hien Street is known for its cuisine and Lam Ngu Truong is a popular place for bird watchers. Above all, find a local guide or two who can show you around and be prepared for a monsoon or two to break up your day.
Ba Vi "Colors of the Rainbow" festival:
A Rainbow that Made A Difference
From August 11-13, Save the Children in Vietnam held a “Colors of the Rainbow” festival in Ba Vi, Hanoi, a rural district about 60 kilometers outside of Hanoi’s city center. The camp, as well as the conference that followed, was created to address the problem of stigma and discrimination against children living with HIV/AIDS, and specifically the barrier that they face in attending public school.
The festival sought to address the concerns of people in the Ba Vi community about integration of HIV-positive children into schools. Moreover, there is a government-run center in Ba Vi called “Trung tâm số 2,” where 53 HIV-positive orphans live. The government has tried several times to integrate the children into Yen Bai A and Yen Bai B public schools, but to no avail – parents of children who attend public school there line up in front of the school and protest integration of the orphans each time it is tried.
I conducted research in the winter and spring of this year to determine why parents so strongly object to integration, and found that much of the resistance relates to misunderstandings about HIV/AIDS transmission via casual contact.
Save the Children staff knew that we needed to come up with a way to both educate parents about the realities of HIV/AIDS and give them and their children a way to meet these children, to help them see that HIV-positive children live, breathe, laugh, and learn in the same way as non-infected children. We decided that a camp, culminated by a conference with government leaders and other community stakeholders, was the best way to do it.
The three-day festival was held at Dam Long, a beautiful resort in Ba Vi. Stroll through the resort’s grounds and you’ll see monkeys, deer, rabbits, and other animals playing freely amidst breathtaking scenery. The flat ground and clean air made for the perfect location to hold the camp – even when it monsooned on the first day, the children still managed to have a great time (with the help of a large umbrella that we set up).
The first day, roughly twenty kids and their caregivers from the center, thirty children and their parents from public schools in Ba Vi, a handful of government leaders, teenagers from all over Vietnam (“peer educators” who have been trained by our staff on the facts about HIV/AIDS and stigma), and roughly ten college-age volunteers from Hanoi came together to kick off the camp. The kids were randomly assigned to color-coded groups and played teambuilding activities to get to know each other better.
The next morning kicked off with a game show and parent-run panel that tested each child’s knowledge of HIV/AIDS and helped reinforce the message that integration into schools for children with HIV/AIDS is critically important. That afternoon, the parents visited Trung tâm số 2 to see how the children there live their daily lives.
On the morning of the third day, the parents participated in a workshop with three doctors from the Infectious Diseases department of the National Hospital of Pediatrics, where the doctors explained exactly how HIV/AIDS transmits and answered parents’ questions. The children, in their groups, created team slogans that related to integration and stigma reduction.
That afternoon, we held a conference that brought together government leaders from both Hanoi city center and Ba Vi, as well as the school administrators, parents and children from the camp, other community leaders, and local and national TV stations and newspapers. At the conference, doctors and researchers presented research on HIV/AIDS and stigma, and parents, children, and school staff participated in a talk show and panel.
At the end of the festival, parents commented that they learned a great deal about the realities of HIV/AIDS transmission, and that they were pleasantly surprised by the intelligence and enthusiasm of the HIV-positive children.
“Before, when I imagined my kids and the HIV-positive children playing together, I was really worried because my daughter is very active,” one mother of a child in Van Hoa primary school said to me. “But after the festival, I understand the whole idea [of integration] and have much less worry when my child plays with them.”
The festival combined face-to-face contact, education, and fun to teach people that children with HIV/AIDS are just like other children, and deserve the same rights and privileges. Ultimately, while it remains to be seen whether camps like these have the capacity to change parents’ behaviors, I have high hopes that integration of HIV-positive orphans into public schools in Ba Vi will happen soon.
Quan Lan Island:
When most people think of Quang Ninh province, Halong Bay immediately pops to mind. But last weekend, I found myself in Quan Lan, a hidden island about an hour past the Bay, where the crowds were small, the beaches were big, and the seafood was the freshest I’ve had yet in Vietnam.
At 5:45 a.m. on Friday morning, we drag ourselves to the Luong Yen bus station on the outskirts of Hanoi and find a bus that will take us to Van Don – a port city near Halong Bay – for the going rate of 125,000 VND.
After the five-and-a-half hour ride, we reach Van Don, grab some street food at a market near the bus stop, and catch a cab to Cai Ong port. Here, we buy tickets for a 45-minute motorboat ride (280,000 VND round trip) to bring us to Quan Lan, a pristine, untouched island far from the hustle and bustle of Cat Ba and the rest of the bay. Upon reaching Quan Lan, we get in a tuc-tuc (picture the tuc-tucs in Bangkok, only bigger) and head to the center of town.
Despite its remoteness, Quan Lan offers a wide variety of hotel accommodations both in town and on the beach. For starters, the Minh Quang Hotel in the center of town has two-person rooms that go for 300,000 a night. Next door is the pricier but classier Ann Hotel, where a room for two people is 650,000 VND. And on Son Hao beach, one of the biggest beaches on the island, Van Hai resort supplies four-person bungalows on the sand that cost 800,000 VND/night.
We opt for the cheapest option, drop our stuff off in our rooms, and head to Son Hao beach about five kilometers away from town. The rain doesn’t stop us from jumping in the water and getting in a good swim before it gets dark. That night, we have a delicious dinner for 65,000 VND (which required a bit of bargaining) and head into town to see what the nightlife has to offer.
While there are no western bars to speak of, the town doesn’t completely shut down at night. We find a fun karaoke joint with about fifteen Vietnamese guys drinking shots of beer and singing “Bèo dạt mây trôi,” among other selections, and decide to join in. Not only do we get free beer and some great photos out of the evening, but there are even some English songs for us to sing.
The next morning, we wake up early and head back to Son Hao beach for the first half of the day. After going for a swim, we try to have lunch at Van Hai restaurant – the only one at this beach – where we see lots of tour groups feasting on some of Quan Lan’s seafood. Foreigners who come here, beware: you will not be given a menu to read, and will have to purchase seafood in bulk (0.5 or 1 kilo). Yet we manage to get delicious oysters for 10,000 VND each, and head out of Son Hao feeling fairly satisfied.
After Son Hao, we head to Minh Chau beach, another seven kilometers outside of town. What this beach lacks in bungalows it makes up for in restaurants. It’s also got a bigger crowd and a more lively atmosphere. When the sun goes down, each restaurant lights a bonfire on the sand; there is also techno music blasting from speakers and people doing karaoke at various points along the strip. That night, we feast on fried mussels, morning glory, omelet, and rice for 70,000 VND/person.
Sunday morning, we walk to a beach only 200 meters away from our hotel (called Quan Lan Beach) and swim there for a few hours before heading back to our hotel. We lunch on fish and clams, get a tuc-tuc back to the port, and arrive back in Hanoi by 7 PM.
While a visit to Quan Lan is fairly inexpensive, be prepared for various small charges that will pop up during the trip: to get to and from most of the beaches, you’ll have to either rent motorbikes for 150,000 VND/day or hire a tuc-tuc, which will cost either 200,000 VND for a round trip from town to Son Hao beach and back or 300,000 VND for a trip to Minh Chau beach. And to get into each beach, there’s an entrance ticket of about 20,000 VND (unless you go to the small Quan Lan beach, where the ticket is 15,000 VND).
These fees are a small price to pay for what Quan Lan offers: beautiful beaches with none of the hassling that you’ll find in some of the more popular seaside destinations. The island is not one for tourists looking for bar-hopping and lots of shopping, but for anyone trying to get away from it all for a weekend (we didn’t spot a single café that advertised wifi service), Quan Lan is your place.
**There are about a million Quan Lan pics I could include.. to see them go to my picasa page where I've uploaded all the photos: https://picasaweb.google.com/115019264134726098665/QuanLanAug2011?authkey=Gv1sRgCLK5zuSJsrLFrAE
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