Vietnam Expedition

Three Peaks, Tam Dao National Park

2007-10-18T08:16:00.000-07:00

The Good Stuff

2007-10-14T22:17:00.000-07:00

October 13, 2007

We are headed back to Hanoi. I am excited because I feel like I could spend much more time in that city, with it’s tremendous energy and accommodating people. We stop off at a local street marked on the way in. I am stupefied by the amount of goods jammed together in one place. It’s not even in the city and there must be a couple of acres of stalls with an endless variety of plants, animals, minerals, and, well, lots of junk.
Having become addicted to yet another form of coffee, I venture in to the market, and with Lien’s help, acquire a filter/brewing cup, a kilo of real Vietnamese coffee, and the crucially important Ong Tho sweetened condensed milk that captures the ‘ca fe sua’ experience. It all sets me back around $9.

I’m not really into the acquisition of ‘stuff’, though. My prized possessions are my pictures and videos taken throughout the trip. I’m pretty happy with my camera, except for extreme close-up work, and up to this point I just hadn’t worked with it much. I brought my digital video camera, but I am impressed with the quality I get from my regular camera, and I decide it’s not really worth the hassle of dragging the video camera around. I never filled a memory card, had back-up rechargeable batteries when I needed them, and everything downloaded smoothly onto the Mac.

My flight out of Hanoi doesn’t leave until late Saturday. I try to squeeze every possible moment out of Hanoi. We visit the Museum of Ethnology. Would like to spend more time there. Would like to be able to read Vietnamese. I say my goodbyes to the team members as we depart for various flights and hotels. I am jealous that most of them are extending their stays to visit other locales in Vietnam and Southest Asia. So much to see.

I picked up a small visitors guide to Hanoi before my trip. It’s golden. I end up consulting it for shops, sights, and ‘sua. I have catfish spring rolls. Get jewelry. Have mango and dried shrimp salad. Get a t-shirt. Try to remember the endangered status, am assured it’s OK, and have crocodile. Should I feel bad here? I hire a guy on a motorbike to run me around. Nice guy, and we don’t get crushed at an intersection in a tragic xe om/dump truck accident. Purely by coincidence, I find myself at the very intersection my book describes as the quintessential Old Quarter experience. I have a bia hoy. I meet Yanni from Finland, Dassy from Australia, and their girl friends, Lan and Nguyen, and Sun and Li. They invite me to dinner. We go to another bia hoy joint and have eel, ham, gherkins (which are, um… juvenile pickles?), tofu, wasabi sauce and beef. It’s all awesome. I sleep all the way to the airport.

Tam Dao Teen Night Out

2007-10-14T22:11:00.000-07:00

October 12, 2007

We are done with transects. This morning, weather permitting, we are supposed to climb Tam Dao 1, the first of the 3 Tam Dao Peaks. Weather does not permit. I say I’m going anyway. Viet shakes his head: “Slippery! Leeches! Three hours!”

Libor and I still want to go. I consult Lien. He wins my heart: “OK, we go.” I don’t think he really wants to. I think he goes because he thinks it would look bad for Earthwatch if we disappeared into the forest and got consumed by the leeches.

It’s not raining as we start out. That doesn’t last long. We go from t-shirts to ponchos and then hoods. I’m pretty happy. It looks like a typical November day in Oregon, only warmer. As we enter the forest, though, the rain gradually lets up. As promised it’s a wet sloppy slog to the top. It only takes 45 minutes from the forest edge, but the slope is about 45% all the way up, so it feels like a workout by the time we get up there. No view. Too much fog. It doesn’t matter, as the three of us toast the top and chat for awhile before heading back down. No leeches either. Moved too fast for those suckers.

This afternoon I do the TV tower in 14:48. New PR. Gotta find some steps at home.

Did I mention that our team leader, Lien, works hard? Tonight he takes me out around 10 pm for moth baiting. It’s kind of like chumming for sharks. He knows a house around the hill from the village that has a bright halogen light that they leave on late into the night for Lien (wait- is it the moths or Lien who is attracted to the light?). He’s looking for rare moth species. It’s kind of a social event for some of the boys from the village. There are a half-dozen teenagers hanging around. A couple of dogs. I give them a hard time for smoking. The kids, not the dogs. When the light goes on, the result is crazy. Moths by the thousands come to the light. They pour over the ridge up from the valley. They swarm around the light, land everywhere, whack me in the head. They keep coming. Some are 6 inches across. Many are beautiful. One kind looks like a jet fighter. Lien will stay up until one, two, sometimes sleep out there looking for his target species. I don’t last that long, I’m back at the hotel before midnight. I know how those moths feel though, because I get crazy like that when I see coffee shops.

Vietnam Vignettes

2007-10-14T22:07:00.000-07:00

October 11, 2007

1) There is a meeting at the hotel today for the Tam Dao Farmers Association. This is a big deal. Most of the village people are farmers, either part or full time. They have worked hard to develop a market for the local khai otay vegetable as a cash crop and it has made many of them financially successful. There are new houses going up around Tam Dao that I think are strikingly handsome. These homes are paid for in cash by the farmers.

The meeting brings people out in their nicest outfits. The men all wear suits and ties. The women, including the hotel staff, wear the traditional long silk dresses- I didn’t get the name. The dresses are beautiful. Vietnamese women age gracefully, and there are no overweight Vietnamese women in Tam Dao.

We share a common dining room with all hotel guests, so at the lunch the day of the meeting, we are introduced to the local community leaders with multiple toasts. It becomes evident that there will be more toasts than my carrying capacity for alcohol can handle, so the team members slip water into the shot glasses and toast with H20. Again I am impressed with the hospitality of the Vietnamese people
2) There are these small moments that will stay with me. The inviting porch of the MiMi Hotel, with it’s stunning view out over the village and valley, becomes a gathering place before dinner for conversation with team members and clumsy shared attempts with the staff to learn our languages. My tongue just doesn’t function in Vietnamese, but I enjoy trying.
A half hour just before bedtime spent with several of the staff, sharing oranges, a still unidentified fruit, and candy I bought in the village. Further attempts at names and language. Laughter.
Negotiations in the village for ca fe, peanuts, soda, and cookies. I learn to bring a pen and paper at all times. I’m pretty sure I lose most of these negotiations, but I don’t get too worked up about paying an extra 10 cents for cup of coffee.
Discussions with team members about cricket (the game), US vs. European vacation policies, drought in Australia, organic farming in America, and marriage traditions in Pakistan.
3) We visit the school. Their resources are pretty limited. Most students have to scramble to be able to afford paper and pencils. There are no computers, calculators, copiers, projectors….. About sixty children, grades K-9. Parents try to send high school age children to the cities, where the education is better and there are more options for classes and teachers. Classes at Tam Dao are maybe 6 or seven students in tiny rooms. English is always taught in schools, not just here in Vietnam, but in all the countries where my team members come from where English is not the primary language.

Lien. Labor Force.

2007-10-14T22:03:00.000-07:00

October 10, 2007

Over the last two days, we have hit the transects, grouping according to the transects we have not had the opportunity to walk, according to the weather, according to what Lien wants to accomplish. We are becoming better at recognizing and identifying the Latin families and classifications for the butterflies. I am more impressed as the week passes with Lien’s comittment to his work. He does all the computer data entry work. He gets up early to prepare materials, works with the hotel staff, and stays up late talking with group members. He is very accommodating, but knows what needs to be done, and in the characteristically polite Vietnamese way, says no, we’re not doing that, we’re doing this instead. But we always end up feeling like his plan is the best idea anyway.

Speed Limits

2007-10-14T21:56:00.001-07:00

October 9, 2007

S….L…..O……W When you have downtime in Tam Dao, it’s about as far down as you can get. Today we finish our transects about 2, have a late lunch, and then….. hmm. In Oregon, when I have free time, that means heading out for a cup of coffee where there’s wi-fi, and I can read the paper, have a latte, check e-mail, maybe have a yogurt parfait. There’s an internet café, but when I try to get on I can’t get any of my email accounts, my blog, or CNN to load. Nothing, loads, and it costs me 10,000 dong to try. Dong doesn’t grow on trees, you know.

There’s no wi-fi. No newspapers, no books, no yogurt. I could have a shot of gecko liquor and a pig snout but I pass. I have no idea what is going on in the US. There is no one in any of the little cafes or shops except the owners. Where do the people go? I could go for a run…. But I did that this morning. I wander around the hotel, willing to do anything where it looks like I could help. Move chairs, pluck chickens, repair a door. No one seems to be doing anything. It’s the middle of the week, and it’s a tourist town, so the roadside stands that provide some interest and sell those tasty Vietnamese bananas are not set up. Yes, we have no bananas. It would take me a while to adjust to the pace of life in Tam Dao.

Some things just make me laugh. Our room came with complimentary toothbrushes. Very nice. But every day we get two more toothbrushes, even though we have our own toothbrushes. We have a hoard of toothbrushes. Today I notice we got a little packet of ‘Rejoice’ toothpaste. I will try it tonight.

Today I was appreciating the advice of the travel clinic I consulted for my immunizations. On their recommendation, I treated several items of clothing with permethrin and purchased Ultrathon long-lasting mosquito repellent with around 30% DEET. We were on a forest transect, with many mosquitos hanging around, but it was as if I had a force field or something around me. I could hear and see those little pests all around, but I bet if I understood mosquito, I would have heard them swearing at me. They didn’t land on my clothes, hat, face, or neck. No bites! No leeches, either. I got to keep all my own blood. A good day for the circulatory system.

Shopping Tam Dao Style

2007-10-14T21:53:00.000-07:00

October 8, 2007

Most people here live in poverty- they make less than $3000 per year. I can’t say I am shocked about this, after all, as a social studies teacher I talk about world poverty issues in my classes. But to see it up close is still disturbing. Today I buy a bottle of shampoo for 33,500 dong, a little over $2. If the shopkeeper made a $2 sale every day, he would make $60 a month. But most Vietnamese don’t- most make less than $1 a day. Many live in shacks of bamboo with tarps, some corrugated metal sheets, and simple wooden furniture with a few pots and pans.

There’s not really a grocery store in Tam Dao. I have wandered through the village several times, looking for some kind of snack, maybe a Snickers bar, or graham crackers…. Nothing like that to be found. I can get local bananas, which are excellent. Thankfully, I can get ‘ca fe noh’, which means brown coffee. This is like a shot of espresso with condensed sweetened milk. Vietnamese coffee is excellent, and since I am addicted to coffee, life is still worth living for me.

I also have the opportunity to buy the specially modified local liquors, which start out as normal alcohol but then some of the alcohol gets poured out and things like snakes, scorpions, geckos, seahorses, and evidently any other local wildlife that can be caught gets stuffed into the bottle. There must be 20 places in the village where I could buy this. Drinking this is supposed to be a test of manliness or courage. Being a secure person, I abstain from trying this killer stuff. It makes for a very impressive souvenir, though.

There are a number of other items in recycled water bottles which absolutely terrify me. Some of them are supposed to be a kind of vinegar. Others are unknowable. I look for nuts of some kind but cannot identify anything that looks edible. I am ignorant of the kinds of things available to eat here and since I don’t know Vietnamese, I can’t get an explanation from shopowners. There is very little packaging with English, as I sometimes saw in Hanoi. There is so much I don’t know about this world. I will find out more.

Today, I am weak. I am dying for something with pure, white, unrefined sugar. I wander into village and get a cup of ca fe. With milk. It’s really good. I get another one of those. I edit some pictures and work on my blog. Did I mention there is only dial-up internet in the village? I don’t think I can get much of this uploaded to my classes- I had hoped to have more back and forth but it takes half an hour just to log on. Anyway, I get brave and wander into another shop. I negotiate for juice and some cookies which are ancient and probably made with concentrated fully saturated fully hydrogenated oils. They taste really good. I try to communicate with the shopowner- we do fine with the money part- the universal language?- but I can’t even figure out her name.

I am spending dong right and left. I always think I bring enough and every time I buy anything, it’s 20,000 here and 40,000 there. It seems like a lot but then I do the conversion and I realize I have spent about as much as a 20 oz. latte’ costs in Oregon.

This morning I decided to do the TV tower again. I don’t usually like to run in the morning but I know the humidity here in the afternoon will kick my rear, so I make myself get up and go before breakfast. As I leave my room, my Earthwatch buddy Libor, from the Czech Republic is also leaving his room. We compare notes, and it turns out we have the same objective. This time we get to the top in 20 minutes. I drag my camera up there in hopes that the fog will have cleared, but no joy. Still, it’s a great workout and I think I will do it several more times before I leave (notice I am too chicken to commit to doing it every day).

Stepping Out, Stepping Up, & Wily Coyote

2007-10-14T21:45:00.000-07:00

October 7, 2007

Our first day of field work takes us along a newly built road up towards the three peaks after which the area is named. We move slowly along the road, recording sightings in each transect and practicing our butterfly catching skills, and also looking at caterpillars and pupae that Lien shows us along the way. After we complete the first transect, several of us continue into the forest for a second round. The forest is very quiet. There aren’t many birds, which surprises me. Today, there aren’t many butterflies either, but I enjoy the plants and trees, especially bamboo- this is a bamboo forest. The trunks, as you would expect, are smooth and extremely strong. The path is a little rough but not especially hilly, The main problem I can see is the dangerous spikes left when the bamboo is cut- not something I would want to fall on. The other problem we have to watch out for is leeches. I know about these, but when we come out of the forest and check, I am surprised to see the one that stuck to Lien is so small- just a couple of centimeters. In forest, the rule is long pants always, with pants tucked into the socks. We all look goofy, but I sacrifice style so those little suckers don’t get stuck on my legs. To remove a leech- light a match and bring it close to the leech. Try not set your leg hair on fire. They usually let go when they’ feel the heat.

Tonight I decide to run up to the top of the hill where the TV tower looks over the village. Viet, who is Lien’s brother, tells me it takes about 30 minutes to get to the top. I take this as a challenge. I don’t usually run stairs, though, and after 100 or so steps from the bottom I am already walking. The stairs keep coming. I have never seen so many stairs. Since I started late in the day, now I am worried about getting up and down before dark. More stairs. Dripping wet, not used to the humidity. Finally I reach the top. As is often the case, clouds and mist obscure the view, and besides I want to get down before I completely lose the light. It’s really hard to see the steps and they are slippery. I have to do this kind of gorilla walk thing to get down because I can’t see where one step ends and the next begins. Much to my surprise, I make it with only one fall.

Viet later tells me there are about 1200 steps. I was going to count them on the way down but I gave that up as I had all I could do just to hit the next step. The thing that I was thinking about though, is that all those steps had to be built by hand, and then the buildings and TV tower, which is a huge thing, had to built at the top, which means everything had to be carried up to the top by hand. All this was built at the time of the French occupation, and chances are that local villagers were forced to do all the labor for the French colonial rulers. In fact the entire village of Tam Dao was built with Vietnamese labor for the French as a vacation destination. There used to be 200 French villas here, some of them huge, carved and built into the hillsides. When the French were forced out of Vietnam, the local people, rather than occupy the villas, chose to tear them all down as a sign of their anger with the French. The only remnant left is the church, which is now a discotheque. Everywhere the villas were destroyed, the people of Tam Dao have planted a vegetables (which sounds like ‘coyote’) They sell this in Hanoi and it is the main source of income for these families, generating even more cash than tourism.

An Island Surrounded By Land

2007-10-14T21:31:00.000-07:00

October 6, 2007

This morning, Mr. Lien Vu, our expedition leader, instructs us in identifying butterflies and moths, and in the history and status of Tam Dao National Park. The topography of the Park is especially interesting to me. It’s not very big, only 80 kilometers long by 15 kilometers wide, and it rises unexpectedly out of the surrounding lowlands. Because of the many thousands of villages that surround the park and it’s easy access to Hanoi, there is nothing like wilderness here. The park area has long been exploited for logging, hunting, firewood, bamboo (which is an amazingly versatile tree) and valuable resources such as butterflies, which collectors value and may pay up to $100,000 to obtain first examples of new species!
As population continues to grow, and the government of Vietnam looks for ways to improve the economy, there is increasing pressure to develop new areas of Tam Dao for tourism. Currently there are plans for a large resort in a previously undeveloped area of the park. Lien and others who are concerned about preserving the park are opposing the development, but the power and promise of money can be a difficult opponent.

There are butterflies everywhere. In the afternoon, we get a practice run in catching and identifying many different types. Data is recorded as the the type and number identified in each transect, which we will enter into Lien’s database for further analysis.

Vietnamese food is excellent, and we are served a seemingly endless variety of dishes at lunch and dinner. Curiously, breakfast is very simple and I find myself wishing I had more, knowing I am going to be active through the morning, and being used to munching energy bars whenever I need a boost.

When lunch and dinner are served, the dishes keep coming out. So far we have been served dishes such as Vietnamese radish, Beef with snow peas, river fish in tomato sauce, stuffed snails, fried shrimp, always French fries, snail banana and mushroom soup, many vegetables I don’t know, and taro root, which is like potato, and which I have always wanted to try. Because of the history of the French in Vietnam, there is also excellent bread, but so far only served with breakfast. This is hard for a carb fiend like me. Everything is served ‘family’ style, and always eaten with chopsticks. Spoons are OK for soup, and it is also OK to hold your bowl up to your mouth and shovel in the rice if it’s hard to pick up. I have never used chopsticks much, but since it’s chopsticks or go hungry, I’ve gotten pretty good at the chopsticks after a few meals.

Xin Chao Tam Dao

2007-10-14T21:25:00.000-07:00

October 5, 2007
My bag isn’t telling me anything about where it’s been, but it did show up at the last possible minute this morning as we left for Tam Dao. I considered grounding it but it couldn’t have gotten into too much trouble as all my underwear is still there and there was nothing incriminating on the video camera. And I was happy to see my boots.

I met up with the rest of the team exactly as planned today. One of the aspects of these Earthwatch expeditions that I value is the interesting variety of people they attract. My team members come from Australia, the Czech Republic, Pakistan, the Channel Islands off England, and the US. There is a guy who played on the Pakistan national polo team, an ecologist, a woman who works with disabled adults, and a biochemist. They offer a wealth of knowledge, experience, and world views.

I was sad to leave Hanoi. I want to see more of the city and interact with the people. The drive out was crazy and interesting. Many more close encounters with vehicles. Vietnam is a small country in size, with 85 million people. For the first half of the drive to Tam Dao , I saw most of them, on xe oms (scooters), tending rice fields, cooking, waiting for buses, herding cattle, and just sitting. Every road in Vietnam is under construction. Or should be. Roads stop and start inexplicably. They widen into four lane roads and then squeeze into narrow passageways between houses and trees. There is no road rage. Everyone seems intent on survival and finding the next seam between two trucks and avoiding the next pothole.

We finally begin to climb about 60 kilometers into our 80K journey. The temperature begins to cool noticeably and the roads get less busy. The last 15K into Tam Dao is a steep climb to the village on a narrow road. This road was originally built by the French early in the 20th century and Lien, our expedition leader, says it took 10 years to build.

Tam Dao village is nestled into the steep sides of the hills. Our hotel is one of many built especially for the people of Hanoi, who like to come during summers when temperatures in the city reach 90-95 degrees with 90% humidity. For someone from Oregon, even the cooler temperature now in October is hard to take, so it’s easy to see why Tam Dao, which is 10-15 degrees cooler and less humid, would be such a popular destination.

The village has a population of about 600. It’s pretty quiet when we arrive, as the busy season is over. When we arrive, we are greeted by the hotel staff. We are served green tea, a very popular drink in Vietnam, and we get some time to move into our rooms. I take advantage of the free time to go for a run, which gives me a chance to see the village and enjoy the views from the hills. There are many hills. If I can manage to run most days in Tam Dao, I will be in great shape. I like running hills, but the motivation is tough because most roads run downhill from here. I can run down, no problem- but then I have to run back up at some point! There’s no free lunch.

Why Travel?

2007-10-04T20:36:00.001-07:00

Hanoi is incredible. I started laughing as we left the airport and my driver began dodging thru traffic. I laughed all the way into the city. Horns are the primary means of communication but familiarity breeds contempt, as they say, because they beep incessantly. Road signs, lines, lanes, they are all merely suggestions to be followed at the whim of the driver. Many drivers seem to feel safest if they drive down the middle of the line separating lanes. Cell phones are mandantory for all drivers and they must be dialing or talking at all times while driving. As I drive in, I see, in no particular order, cows in the highway median, hundreds, thousands, MILLIONS of scooters. Bikes. Cute little Daewoo trucks that look like toys. Scooters carrying 1, 2, 3, 4 people. Helmets are optional and rarely worn. Tiny children ride on the front back, and squished between riders. Tiny children drive. Everyone weaves in and out of traffic, at 10, 20, 40 mph avoiding each other by inches or fractions of inches. There are no accidents. No one falls. There are no screeching brakes. Intersections are utterly chaotic but work flawlessly.

My hotel, like much of the Old Quarter, is run down but well maintained at the same time. The people are friendly and helpful. They laugh at my lousy attempts at Vietnamese- or just ignore it and reply in English, which I find embarrassing. I step out from my hotel into an unknown world normally I love to walk a city, for miles, but it takes me about 10 seconds to realize that the Old Quarter of Hanoi is a maze. Nervously, I walk around the block and feel pretty good about finding my hotel after I walk past it twice before recognizing it. It's a mass of humanity. Many, most, of the people are obviously poor- the entire Quarter seems to be people selling cheap stuff to each other, or just sitting in front of a thousand storefronts without anyone buying anything.

Within 10 minutes, I am offered books, scooter rides, cyclo rides, tours, squid, beer, silk clothes, hats, bananas, food I am unable to identify and probably don't want to. Despite the poverty, the vitality is incredible. And, as a westerner, I am rich. Pho is 50 cents. Excellent rolls and breads are 10 or twenty cents. Full course meals, if you want a nice restaurant, are easily found at $5. The currency, the dong, is hilarious. There are 16,000 dong per dollar. Hammered squid is 4,000 dong, 25 cents. The local light beer, bia hoi, is 12 cents per glass. Prices for most everything are negotiable. I sit at a street corner in a local bia hoi joint for hours through the evening, talking with people from Australia, Italy, Germany, Vietnam, Korea, San Francisco, Canada, and England. Life is good. Hanoi Rocks.

Still Getting There

2007-10-04T19:50:00.000-07:00

Bottom line: Made it to Hanoi. It's an awesome city. As I write this morning, I am sitting in the lobby of the Classic II hotel watching it rain. Someone forgot to tell the monsoon season it was supposed to be over.

Oh what a trip it's been. When I got to Seattle, things started to unravel a bit. I checked in at my airline, only to find my flight had been delayed. I was supposed to fly out at 1:45 am but now the expected time was 3:15 am. Thats AM. I have travelled enough to know that when a flight is delayed, the first revised flight time is hopelessly optimistic. Unfortunately, this proved to be the case. I hate it when I'm right about stuff like that. I watched the time move later and later until we would up at 4:30 am. So the huddled masses gathered in the waiting area and, um.... waited. The airlines did feed us some chewy hockey puck things optimistically described as 'beef' around 3 am.

Of course, this being the first leg of my trip, the delay ensured that I would miss my flight from Taipei to Hanoi. So when I got to Taipei, I was set up for a connecting flight to Hong Kong, then to Hanoi. I would reach Hanoi around 5 pm instead of 10 am, which was disappointing because I had planned to spend the day sightseeing in the city. This wasn't that traumatic, though, it's not like I lost a bag or something.

Which of course I did. My checked bag is somewhere in Southeast Asia as I write, probably getting to see all the things I do not have time to get to, such as Angkor Watt and Ho Chi Minh City. I am so jealous.

Fortunately, I have almost all my essentials that I carried on with me and still have. Of course, that depends on how you define essentials. It would have been nice to have the changes of underwear. And deodorant. Deodorant is good. I miss that. Really, though, the thing I'm worried most about is my boots. I can get other clothes. My video camera is in there, but my digital camera takes decent video. I can borrow a poncho. But the boots.... need the boots to stomp around the forest.

So hopefully, as I have been promised, my bag will be at the rendevous hotel here in Hanoi when I meet everyone in about 3 hours. May the baggage gods smile upon me.

Getting There

2007-10-04T19:45:00.000-07:00

October 2nd

Rats. I forgot that soft horseshoe-shaped thingy that really helps your neck when you try to sleep on long flights. And I have a LONG flight.
But wow! I’m on my way to Vietnam. The first leg is fairly normal. I’m on the plane now flying from Portland to Seattle. It’s only 35 minutes. I don’t get a real jet. It’s a propeller plane, made by Bombardier, but it should be called Bombeedeer, because it sounds like there is a very large, very angry bee right beside my ear for the whole trip. I’m a little worried because there are a lot of big people sitting on the left side of the plane and it seems like the whole time the plane is leaning slightly left. The pilot sounds exactly like Jack Nicholson. He came on the speaker to tell us the weather in Seattle, but it must be really bad there because he yelled “You can’t HANDLE the truth!” and stopped.
I can see lights reflecting off the propeller, I guess that way the pilot can tell if they are still turning.

As we fly in, the clouds part and I have a great view of the Space Needle from right overhead.

Considering the passengers on the left, Pilot Nicholson’s landing is about As Good As It Gets.

October 3, 2007
Ahh, the joys of travel. It’s tomorrow now- that is, it is now October 3. I am still in the airport. My flight is supposed to leave at 1:45 am. I didn’t think it was legal for flights to take off that late. As I wait to check in, I see my flight is delayed until 3:15 am. It’s OK, I can still make my connecting flight in Taipei. I have something to eat and meet a friend who comes to see me.
Hmm. I see my flight is further delayed. 4:30 am. It’s not looking good for the connection. This is disappointing because I am really looking forward to having a few hours in Hanoi to see the city before I meet my team to head out to Tam Dao.

I am tremendously excited about this trip, even with the travel hassles. I love it all. Although I have flown many times, I still am thrilled at the experience of getting on a plane in one place, and in a few hours being able to step off the plane into a place that is completely different- climate, food, people, language, history, opportunity. I’m grateful to Earthwatch and my sponsors for valuing the power of education and making this trip possible for me.

2007-09-10T21:39:00.000-07:00

Hello, I'm Rich Kirstein. I teach social studies at Sam Barlow High School, in Gresham, Oregon, which is just to the east of Portland. This blog is under construction, but I am excited to be on my way to Vietnam to study the Tam Dao National Park, to the northwest of Hanoi in Northern Vietnam.