Olives and Elephants

Happy Trip

We arrived back in HCMC in District 2 in a lovely home with a lovely host family where we could do laundry, woohoo!! The family was so nice, sharing traditional Tet delicacies and hosting dinner with them after the kids got home from "Kung-fu Vietnam" practice. We talked the evening away with their ambitious daughter. Even though they were great, we wanted that city hustle and bustle outside our door instead of roosters crowing. So we scooted over to District 1 for a new homestay called Happy Space and dove back into great street food and two more roosters right next door, go figure.

Happy Space is the home of a family of five: husband Bill, wife Susan, 9 year old son, and Grandma and Grandpa/Susan's parents. We are so pumped to have a kitchen and be able to make our own breakfast every day. Grandma is always with us making sure we're cooking everything correctly and up to her standards so it's a well supervised kitchen. Susan runs a coffee/tea stand outside their front door so we met some neighbors just watching life go by in the alleyway. Bill is a zenmaster who teaches mediation along with so many other "Happy" businesses: Happy Talk (speaking engagements), Happy Bank, Happy Happy Happy everything. He led me in meditation our first night and invited us on a Happy Trip for the first full moon of the Lunar New Year. We really had no idea what we said yes to, all we knew was that there was mediation happening on a mountain top and we would see the sunrise and sunset, but it sounded like something we wouldn't have access to do on our own and Bill is so nice. We asked about free time and if I would be able to eat the food and that was pretty much all we cared about. So we packed randomly, not really knowing what we were packing for and got excited for our Happy Trip.

From the start, we are clueless and English is tough to come by. Many of our questions are answered "Yes" but it took us a few days to realize that's just a standard answer without real information behind it. We think we're leaving at 8am, but then we just hang out at Susan's coffee shop on the front stoop for an hour with a couple guys who apparently are our drivers, siitting next to Bill, no explanation... Then tells us we're waiting on others. Others never show, we have to find them which means driving through HCMC and picking the other van up from the side of a highway. We drive forever into more remote places passing through farm country and tiny towns, everyone is drying their crops for sale on tarps over every free inch. Eventually we pulled over at farm, Bill turns to us and says, "Lunch." The people at the farm came out with a huge meal for our group, all made from their organic farm. The main farm guy who we named "Dad" kept pointing to Ryan and saying, "Handsome! Very very Handsome!" Great choice of English words to learn. We toured around the farm, learned that there's a whole other edible part of a cashew that's delicious, and Bill tells us to hop back into the vans to head to, "Mountain."

Next we show up at a furniture store/woodshop/hotel and we're told we're in room #10 but it's the middle of the afternoon and we don't see where the mountain is... "Rest, leave later." Ok got it. Our drivers who seemed to know the people at the farm also seem to know these furniture/hotel people so we sit with them and try to learn about their farm through some translations. The Vietnamese feel food has great power and you need to eat a balance of those powers. We were told how the pomelo will keep cancer away by a man chain smoking cigarettes with a picture of lung cancer on the pack. We ask if we're sleeping here and should we bring the blankets to the mountain, everyone in the group starts grabbing up their blankets and supplies from the room, so we take that to mean: no, we're not sleeping here, and blankets are a great idea! Ok back in the vans.

Drive through edge of a little town and when the road gets too steep, we pull over and ask the house next to us if we can park there... Um ok, I guess we're walking from here. Where are we?! Then Dad comes rolling DOWN the hill on a motorbike and joins our group. Where in the world did he come from? He was just at the farm! I have no idea what's going on. But it's clear that the next step is to carry everything that was packed in the vans, up the hill to who knows where, so that's just what we do. This would have been a great time to change from flip flops to sneakers but we weren't smart enough for that. Ryan of course is the mule with all of our stuff, a box of water and a bag of mangoes. I'm carrying couch/meditation cushions that Bill brought for the group from his home and trying to keep it together because I cannot stop giggling at the ridiculous day we're having. And we're off hiking along a path into the rubber tree fields!

We made a wrong turn of course and had to double-back but we then came to this adorable little farmhouse at the edge of the rubber trees. They had chickens and pigs and a dog that wanted nothing to do with Ryan. And we all went inside, dropped our stuff and relaxed walking around the trees. Dad was there again running things and the dog only had love for him so this has to be his home. We're thinking this is where we're camping and the mountaintop has to be a close hike from here. Nope. We picked everything back up again and kept on hiking.

It became pretty steep from there and upon taking a break, Bill catches his breath and puffs out, "Happy Stop." I almost rolled down the hill laughing.

The forest clears to a huge rock and we are indeed on a beautiful mountain top with amazing views all around. Just stunned. We put our stuff down to run to the far side of the mountain, the tallest peak and enjoy sunset there with our driver who's the youngest of the farm family. Bill is loving it and asks us to "Capture" him pretending to meditate in the beautiful setting. The full moon is already up!

We hiked back to the main rock after sunset and found half of our group halfway between those points, with some random mountain guy, with a bunch of the groups's stuff piled on the ground and speaking quickly and pointing all around. We're pretty sure that these ladies were not interested in carrying this stuff back to camp, so we just picked it up and walked back, no idea what actually happened there. We set up our hammock, made ourselves a little camping spot and played some Bob Marley for the group while everyone else got to cooking. We had an amazing dinner of grilled pork, sweet corn, kimchi, chocolate cherries and Dad showed up again with a pot of rice. Bill led the group in meditation under the full moon and we headed to bed with the sweet sounds of Vietnamese karaoke in the distance.

Bill woke us up for sunrise and roasted cashews. We packed up, headed back to the little farmhouse in the rubber trees, took a break, headed to the vans parked in the random person's driveway, and were brought into town to a delicious bowl of noodles for breakfast. Then to what we think is a coffee shop but is actually the home of the farm family where they serve us coffee. Same same. Here we learned that all of these people taking us around the farm are just some of the 13 children in this family, and "Dad" is really "Brother #??." We piled back into the van thinking we're headed home but we're end up at a waterfall! Ryan and I both jump out and run up the rocks, until Ryan gets yelled at for going too far without a ticket... And our driver has to deal with two security guards looking for a payout. Next stop, back at the furniture/hotel spot which is great because we're in need of showers. We all sit around in the beautiful table and chairs they make there at the shop and then get up and sit on the floor for lunch. Thinking we're leaving now, Bill says we have two stops to make but we'll leave for HCMC by 1pm. First, we go back to the coffee shop/family's house and pick up the mother of these 13 kids and bring her with us. Second stop is at a small chopstick making shop. But then there's more stops... herbal medicine doctor where we eat steamed sweet potatoes and watermelon, and our driver takes a nap, and then a shrine to the first herbal medicine doctor and we eat more of that sweet corn. All of the discussion is in Vietnamese so Ryan and I are out of the loop. Even our driver and Mom of 13 were over it. We were crazy tired and when we actually got back home at 7:30pm, we ate street food and crashed. What a crazy couple of days!

5:41 PM
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Quoc Continued (Special Guest Writer: Ryan)

Phu Quoc

Family friends of ours, Monica and Tim, came to Phu Quoc during their holiday vacation time for the Lunar New Year called Tet. They both teach English at language centers in different parts of Vietnam. It was great to meet up with some people we know and pick their brains a bit. Monica was thrilled to be in Phu Quoc because it has been so cold up north. They both decided to get their SCUBA certifications during their trip, so Beth and I signed up to join them on both days of their dives.

On the first day of diving, we went to the northern sites. A boat picked us up at the beach we were staying near and took us to Turtle Island. The visibility was much less than what we experienced in Thailand but the water was really calm and the diving was easy. On the second day, we went to the southern dive sites. The scenery at these sites was wonderful with big rock formations scattered throughout the bright blue water. Underneath the surface was a totally different story. The conditions were much worse with only 1-3 meters of visibility and a strong current. It was great practice for us since we were pretty spoiled in Thailand, having 30 meters of visibility and weak currents if any. Although conditions weren't ideal, diving in Phu Quoc was a great experience. The corals are very healthy and colorful, but there is much fewer fish than expected. The Dive Masters on the boat made a few comments mentioning that if we wanted to see the fish, we'd have to go to the local night market. The market was full of restaurants with tons of fresh fish on ice displayed. As tourism grows on the island, more and more fishermen are earning a living supplying restaurants with seafood. This plus the fish sauce industry Phu Quoc is famous for, have diminished sea populations and conservation efforts are just getting started.

There was a local carnival in full swing for the Lunar holiday. It begins with rows among rows of different plants and flowers traditionally given over Tet, very similar to the Christmas tree stands we have at home in December. Behind the flowers and plants were a few carnival rides and games like homemade ring toss and Plinko for children but the main attraction was the show on stage. On stage were two transsexual women in short sparkle dresses and platform high-heels. They were singing a song which we figured out to be a continual jingle used to call out numbers drawn similar to Bingo. The woman in the gold dress gave us a smile and wink while waving her arm welcoming us to join the audience. We watched the women take turns singing the jingle until someone finally had "BINGO" and walked to the stage to claim his prize. We're not 100% certain on what the entire prize package was but it contained a standing fan, tin of crackers, and a bunch of what looked like ramen noodle packs. It was great to see such joy brought to the man for winning ordinary household items. It reminded us of what our parents would put in our stockings on Christmas. While walking to our scooter, we noticed a family following us with big curious eyes and wide smiles. When we got to our scooter the family handed over their children for us to take pictures with... No problem! Not a word of communication between us but after at least 50 pictures of us with the kids, then Beth with all of the women, and me with all of the men, we were on our way back to our rural bungalow. Saturday night was the big Tet celebration with a concert and really really impressive fireworks. By the end of the next week, all of the festivities were over and gone but the sidewalk karaoke parties never end.

Having Monica and Tim to hang with really helped in figuring out how to eat here. We discovered Hot Pots and pretty much ordered one for dinner each night after. Hot Pots are meant for sharing and became a way to try many menu items while keeping the meal affordable. They put a burner on the table and bring out a big pot of broth to start boiling. Then they bring whichever ingredients are included with the Hot Pot ordered which include a protein, different veggies, herbs, chili peppers, and either rice or rice noodles. Once the broth is boiling, you just dump all the goodies in, let it cook, and make individual small bowls of soup. On our first solo attempt at a Hot Pot, we had no idea what each ingredient brought to us was. It came with a fish paste on the bottom of the plate topped with a sliced green vegetable called bitter melon. Our waiter turned on our burner and walked away so we figured it was time to start dumping in our stuff. At the time, we thought the fish was just two or three fillets laying next to each other, rather than the paste it actually was. An older man walking around, who was obviously the boss, shouted out to our waiter to come help us since we were about to do it all wrong. We learned that we were to turn the plate to it's side and spoon hot broth onto the paste while breaking off chunks to cook. The fish paste turned out like a fish sausage dumpling and wasn't bad. The bitter melon was GROSS! It is indeed very bitter and Beth wasn't able to keep it in her mouth for a second before having to spit it out. I figured that the longer we cooked it the easier it would be to eat, but that wasn't the case. What did work was filling my bowls of soup with a ton of fresh chili's. After starting a fire in my mouth, I ate every piece of bitter melon in the pot.

Other Hot Pots weren't nearly as hard to assemble. Shrimp, squid, actual fish fillets, are all familiar to us and by the last dinner on Phu Quoc our waitress complemented us on how well we know how to eat Hot Pots. Please note the chicken pecking under our feet...

Another fun way to dine is to order BBQ. We went out for BBQ with Tim on his last night on the island for farewell dinner and drinks. Similar to a Hot Pot, you get to cook your food. A small bucket lined with cement is brought to your table with burning charcoal inside and topped with a wire grilling surface. You pick your protein and out come the side vegetables and rice. We opted for beef, which comes as very lean, thin slices, and frogs which come gutted and chopped into several pieces. The frog came to the table first so we tossed it on the grill. The three of us get lost in conversation when a woman, who was obviously the boss that night, comes to our table explaining that they will cook the frog for us. She tells us that frog is very difficult to cook and that they see foreigners mess it up all of the time, while turning a few pieces revealing the burnt undersides. Another lesson learned but we still got to cook our own beef.

Having our scooter rented for a few more days, we took some time exploring the island. We discovered a really nice beach on the other side of the island that was loaded with Vietnamese tourists making for an interesting place to see how others vacation. The beach was really crowded and didn't have much shade so we walked to a far end and settled in the shade of a palm tree. We found some bamboo which could be used as Devil Sticks and had a tennis ball to throw around while swimming. While sitting on the beach, a local guy came out of the jungle with a branch of green berries. Asking what they were, he offered some to us to try. He ate one and we followed his lead. I'm not sure if he was playing a trick on us, but these things were nasty! They absorb all of the moisture out of your mouth and taste like poison. Not wanting to insult him, we pretended they were good and he went on his way. Moving on from the beach we noticed just how much construction is underway. Billboards everywhere showing new development plans and huge resorts mimicking images of Dubai. Beth kept singing the "Little Boxes" song from Weeds as we drove around. Phu Quoc will be a totally different place with tourism growing so rapidly. We visited Phu Quoc Prison which only has a few remaining barracks from when the island was used as a internment camp for captured North Vietnamese. There were 45 detailed methods of torture used with statues to demonstrate each method. Deeper into the undeveloped parts of the island lay fishing villages where the road turns to a hard red clay with some serious ruts. Any child we passed would yell, "HELLO!!" All but the one who was too busy crying so hard and making the saddest face but still found the energy to wave at us. Taking the scooter on this road was a challenge and with daylight fading and the high possibility of popping a tire, it took forever to get back to a paved road. By the end, we were both covered in red dust with Frida-like eyebrows.