Adventures - to the country

Phew, So it's been almost a month since my last update! busy busy!
I have been doing some more travelling.... this time the focus was really on getting out of towns and into the country. And I found some beautiful country!!!

I started with a trip through the mountains and close to the Laos border with Mr Uyen (my easy rider/"tourist guider" friend). 4 days on the back of a bike.


~~Me on the road with out trusty bike! ~~


~~ Mr Uyen - my friendly tourist guider (at least, that's what it says on his business cards!) ~~

We started out trip by heading into the mountains and to a stunning waterfall. Now - it is pretty hard to impress me with waterfalls. I spent a lot of my childhood discovering and enjoy many great swimming holes. And I find in Vietnam most of the "amazing waterfalls" are now more or less rubbish tips, or are average by FNQ standards. But this one was amazing. I would have happily paddled around all day!

While I was enjoying my swimming a friendly Danang local came and chatted with Uyen and myself. She and her work mates were having a picnic, and wanted to invite me to join their party.... once I was finished swimming. So I wandered up and had an awesome time!
only two of the girls could speak English. One very well, the other hesitantly. Everyone was very inviting and welcoming. Vietnamese people sure know how to picnic! they had entire chickens grilling over fires. Containers full of beef marinating and squid pieces, plus rice, salad, fruit, who knows what else!
I sat down and help skewer some squid and beef. Had a coffee and some watermelon seeds, then decided I should probably go find Uyen so we could go get some lunch! When I tried to leave the girl who had invited me started some extreme emotional blackmailing..... telling me I could possible leave until after we ate, or all her friends would think she was a bad host, or that I didn't like them. So I phone Uyen to make sure he was getting himself some food somewhere... and sat down to enjoy lunch!

Back on the road after my lunch and swimming and through some lovely hills and mountains, that unfortunately have been subject to years of slash and burn farming.

~~ forests and farms on the road. Plus plenty of hills that have previously been farmed, and are now just eroding away~~

Uyen then asked if I like to drink tea.... and had a special treat, going to see how tea is grown. How exciting! (for those who don't know.... I spent my uni holidays doing tours of a tea factory and thusly possess more tea related knowledge than is really necessary!

~~TEA!~~

~~ rice wine "factory" ~~

Back on the road through a number of small villages and stops to visit rice wine "factories" cinnamon plantations and rubber farms. Plus we constantly pass groups of kids who all get excited and wave and shout "Hello!" whenever we stopped I would track down the kids and spend some time trying to talk with them. most enjoyed having photos taken and love to look at the photo on the screen and pose in as many ways as they can think of. Some are shy about the weird white monster with the strange machine and hide away. (I'll be dong another post in the next few days with a whole lot of photos of people but here's a few kids!).

I also met a group of women who were sitting up on a recently burnt hill when we arrived, taking a break from planting rice. They spotted me and started shouting for me to come over and waving their arms. I decided to give them a thrill and complied - resulting in them all laughing uproariously. So I crossed a little creak, and hiked up a hill to visit them. The conversation consisted of my minimal amount of Vietnamese. So I was able to answer such questions as where am I from (Op - Australia); How old I am (Hai muoi lam - 25 because the Vietnamese count ages different so here I am already 25). At least.... I am fairly sure that is what they were asking.... It is the usual questions and so whatever they asked those are the answers they got!

I also got roped into having a go with the pointy stick and throwing seeds into the hole job. Which again, they found hilariously funny!

~~ note where the road and bike are.... and appreciate how steep this hill is! ~~

The road then took us through some really beautiful jungle areas. This was another hill I hiked up for the view! It was somewhere around here that I got a glimpse of what I am pretty sure was a Gibbon in the wild, only for a second... but I was very happy to see wildlife, in the wild!

Up the border of Laos and Vietnam to Khe Sahn. I didn't expect this trip to involve so much fog, or cold weather! but at some points it really did feel like driving through the tablelands again! I am sure that the views from here down into the valley was beautiful, but the fog was so thick there really could have been anything in there!

Khe Sanh airport featured one of the most interesting museums I have seen (possibly because it didn't just focus completely on Ho Chi Minh like a lot of the do). The photographs were incredibly powerful, and very much front line photography. The base now consists of a couple of crashed planes, a couple of whole planes and helicopters and rebuild bunkers and trenches. The thick fog certainly made for an eery atmosphere. The downside was the guy trying to sell me "war souvenirs". Which possibly ex-service men are interested in.... but I just see those bullet casings and think: that bullet, or one just like it tore through a person. ripping them from their family, their life. cutting through with a sudden searing pain and making someone else, a killer.
He also had dogtags for sale. Which I suspect, and hope are fakes that have been made somewhere.... they were super shiny. But if they are real.... why would anyone want to buy the dogtags that a man died in. that should have been sent home to some poor family.

anyway, I tried to say no nicely and make him go away, i know he has to make money somehow.... and then Mr Uyen snapped something and the salesman left us alone.

From here we went East along the DMZ, saw the famous bridge and a couple of fairly boring war based museums. One featured 3 strange Vietnamese men who repeated yelled HELLO at me from the other end of the museum. The first time I smiled and waved and replied, but then they just kept yelling Hello repeated. So after a couple I started to ignore them and try to actually look around. When next i looked up one of the men had pulled a gun off the display and was miming shooting me. I think it was meant to be a joke.... but seems like the sort of thing you would expect of a 13 year old... not a 40 year old... and seemed fairly bad taste next to the photos of people fighting and dead bodies. So I left this musuem pretty quickly.

Slept next to the ocean and I got up at dawn to see the sunrise/the fishing boats coming in with their catch.

~~ beach at dawn~~

~~round boat hauling in fishing nets~~

Unfortunately the cloudy weather persisted and I didn't get a sunrise.... but it was still a nice walk

Next off to the Vinh Moc tunnels.
This is where an entire village moved into tunnels to hide from the bombing. The tunnels here are quite interesting and you can still walk through them. Apparently 8 babies were born in the tiny kitchen table sized maternity room. They also had deeper bomb shelters..... but if the shallow tunnels collapsed while everyone was in the bomb shelter, I am not really sure how they planned to get out!

~~Vinh Moc tunnels~~

For the last day of my trip we journey to Phong Nha national park.
Boat trip into Phong Nha cave. This is apparently an 8km wet cave, but the boat trip goes up the river for about 40 minutes to reach the cave, then about 1km in.
They have filled it with lights and it was quite beautiful.

Next we went back to Dong Hoi, and I got the midnight train up the coast to Ninh Binh.....
But that is going to have to be another post - because I need a break!!

The kids of Red Cross

Redcross orphanage is one of the places I go 4 days a week.... So I thought I would introduce some of the kids I spend a huge amount of my time in Vietnam with!



This is Ha, she is about 5. Ha is a lovely and engaging girl, she adores playing with people and getting attention, and is very good at pointing or showing you exactly what she wants you to do. Unfortunately when there isn't anyone paying her attention, she goes wandering and has been found almost on the highway before! To prevent this the mother's tie her by her waist to the walls of a playpen (she can climb out very easily if not tied in!). Today I requested that we add a latch to the gate of the orphanage the is up high, hopefully if we keep the gate closed, she can't get out the road.... so won't need to be tied up all the time any more!

Ha doesn't have individual play skills, she can't entertain herself without someone to show her how to play, learning to play is made significantly harder by the lack of ANY toys left for her to play with. Everyday I give her toys and practice my OT skills by doing some pretend play with her and try to encourage this. But every morning when I arrive there is nothing in the play pen. Next week I am going to make someone talk to the carers EVERY MORNING when there is nothing in there for her (non of the carer's speak English. So I have to get a translator to discuss this with them). I am hoping that if I make the conversation happen every single day, maybe eventually they will realise that just getting a couple of toys for her when they wake up in the morning (I assume the issue is that toys go away at bed time) is easier and quicker than listening to my lecture.

Ha's hair is so patchy because apparently she pulls it out. I have never ever seen this, I can only assume that the reason I have never seen it is that when I am there she has toys to play with, so doesn't need to pull out her hair!


Here we are working on independent feeding skills. Ha and Thanh are both able to feed themselves when given the opportunity, so we try to give them the opportunity as often as possible. Like any kid learning to feed themselves they take longer than if I just fed them, because it takes slightly longer.... the carers don't give them the chance.





Thanh is about 5 year old. She is practising walking using a frame, or with help at her shoulders. As well as independence skills such as taking her clothes off and on by herself.





Here we have the beautiful Tam, she is a gorgeous 4 year old with severe cerebral palsy. Tam can't really use her arms or legs at all, but she can look to what she wants with her eyes, turn her head to look at you, and will let you know straight away if she doesn't like what you are doing!
I work with Tam to try to stop her getting too contracted. Tam is a classic extender, in her cot she lies almost in a C shape.... but her back is inside the curve. she is very difficult to move, because as soon as you touch her she extends and stiffens! but When you ask nicely she will reach for toys as much as she can, or turn to look at you and offer a beautiful smile!





Nga is about 5. Her disability is suspected to be a result of Agent Orange contamination passed down from her parents or even grandparents. Yes, it is amazing that kids are still being born with agent orange contamination - but it is possible that the contamination happened relatively recently, I have been told that there are bright orange barrels stored in Danang. This was a major American base during the war, and they didn't take horrible, toxic, potentially deadly stuff like that home with them. Locally, how are people meant to deal with it!

Nga has some amazing problem solving skills, she has great motor skills and can stack objects to make a ladder, climb up to get whatever she wants, open any packet or container. Unfortunately she also likes eat things... this includes any of the medications that she gets a hold of including topical creams. Nga will repeatedly try to get at candies, or chips, watching where you hide them. She also likes to pull toys apart, or take the strings off zippers or shoes. I think some of this is because she doesn't know how to play productively by herself. And some is that she has learnt when she is naughty, she gets attention. Yeah, it comes in the form of yelling, or getting chased until people retrieve whatever she has stolen. But when you get nothing - any sort of attention is craved!

I have been trying to encourage giving her lots and lots of positive attention when she is playing or doing puzzles with us, or just when she is walking around nicely - I say hello and give her a cuddle. Harder is to avoid giving her attention when she is being naughty. Today, because she repeatedly was breaking into the physio room, trying to get medications, stealing things.... I made her sit in time out in the corner where I was working with another kid. I completely ignored her (but watched her out of the corner of my eye so she couldn't escape until I said). She did not like it at all. I got a chair throwing tantrum (so then she had to sit on the floor), plenty of crocodile tears and general body thrashing.... But as soon as she calmed down and sat with out kicking me.... We went and played with the puzzles pictured above!

I work on my Speechy skills with Nga - trying to encourage her to vocalise for each piece, at the moment she will sign "thank you" (in Vietnam this is hugging your body with both arms and doing a little half bow) and will hold out her hand instead of snatching. We also play with a peg board and I hold out two colours, say one colour and she will usually pick the correct colour. Considering that I have only been working with her this way for a week.... I can't imagine how well she actually could function if she was in a normal home, with boundaries and structure and attention.



Here we have Minh, as you may be able to tell he has hydrocephalus. While he has had some sort of brain scan in HCMC, apparently the doctors couldn't shunt him because "he would die". So his head keeps on getting bigger, and I am going to hazard a guess that now that he is getting old enough for his skull to fuse.... as that fluid increases his epilepsy is probably going to become more problematic. I couldn't establish why the doctors think he will die if they put a shunt in. He can't communicate verbally, but he will smile and laugh when he is given attention and protest if he is unhappy with whatever you are doing.



These three are very cheeky, and extra adorable! They are the oldest of the "typical" children (and how any of these kids end up fairly typical amazes me!) I believe the girl in the stripy shirt has been adopted by a couple in France, but is waiting for all the paperwork to be completed, so she has to stay here. France must have easier international adoption laws than most, of the 3 kids who have been adopted while I have been here, all have gone to France.





This littlie is affectionately nicknamed Buddha.... because, he's chunky!

Photo galleries -> stuff on bikes

Most people are probably aware that motorbikes in Vietnam are used for any and everything.
From moving wardrobes to the family van or selling anything imaginable, often complete with crackling speakers that advertise whatever it is they are selling. My favourite "snack van" features a steal case on either side of the bike, on the left was a Perspex box containing bun bo (a steamed dumpling filled with meat and eggs). On the right hand side was a clay pot filled with burning charcoal and a pot in which to steam the bun bo.
Here are some of my favourites (at least, the favourites that I managed to snap photos of!)


push bikes are a favourite of the fake flower sellers.... I am not sure how there are so many fake flower sellers in Vietnam


The recycling collectors always have massive loads. I think the fact that people are able to be paid for recyclable objects means there is significantly less littering, only because when someone throws anything recyclable on the side of the road somebody will come past and find it.





mmmm fishy, Other food stuffs that I have regularly seen does include a spit roasted pig on a platter, so it was all cooked and ready to go. Kind of covered a little by some fly net (I think to try to prevent it getting dusty). The roads here are so dirty and dusty and busy, that glazed coating would have been pretty dusty by the time they got where ever they were going!


I will go ahead and assume that these boxes are empty, but this has to have some serious wind drag!


Also a regular on the back of bikes are large panes on glass. Like this door, they rely on a passenger holding the sides of the glass. Occasionally the glass holder has gloves. Often he just has a piece of cloth on either side.



This is 2 flatscreen tvs. I swear, one day I saw 6 flat screen tv's stacked up like this.... I couldn't believe it! especially because (while I haven't check the price of tvs..) luxury items are ridiculously expansive here, way more so than in Australia. I even know someone who purchased a macbook in Townsville and brought it back here because it was significantly cheaper. So stacking 6 tvs on a bike just seems risky!







This one is a water filter, What I particularly like, is the tendency to instead of tying things on.... just use one hand to hold it kind of!


While these bottles are empty, the most full bottles I saw at once was 6.


Cake shop! I think they are cakes.... weird green tea cakes or something.




These are paper models of a "house" thing that is burnt at Tet or when honouring ancestors. It is burnt because that signifies it being sent to the afterlife so that the ancestors can use it.



If you look closely.... he also has 3 boxes balances between his knees!



These ones were the special Tet flowers.




I do kind od wish I had stuck around long enough to find out if that third bag is also going onto the bike.


Jackfruits, or possibly Durian.... I can't tell from this far away




This one is a little cane highchair, that as far as I can tell has been specially designed to make it easier to carry small children. Another favourite is a padded strap that goes around the child's waist, and the parents to stop them falling off.


All manner of tasty looking fruit!


This is rats.... on their way to some restaurant. It's ok though, I was assured that these rats came from corn fields not rubbish tips..... so they're clean rats :S

Views on the disabled

Today I went for a walk. Going for a walk in Vietnam is not the relaxing, quiet activity I would usually think of it as. Particularly at 5pm, when EVERYONE seems to be out in the streets, Kids playing some game that involved throwing thongs like frisbees along the road, or skipping. Parents chatting to neighbours, grandparents holds babies, families sitting on the patio and eating. All of these people stop when I walk by, most smile back at me, or call out Hello (often after I have already walked past..... leading to confusing turning around to hello back over my shoulder amid kids giggles). Some just stare..... in a somewhat disconcerting manner - I combat this with a huge smile, often it makes them laugh or smile back... some continue to stare.


But today, I met a young woman who, at a guess I would think has cerebral palsy. A woman I will assume was her mother was outside with 2 young boys (possible grandchildren?). She had smiled and waved and encouraged the boys to say hello when I first walked past. On the return journey it was the same. But on the return journey I also noticed the young woman sitting on the front steps of the house. She had obviously been carried out so she could join in the street party, but was left on the front steps rather than sitting in the dirt of the street. She was grinning and waving at me so enthusiastically that she was almost falling over. I mimed to the woman to ask if I could go inside her gate to say hello. she smiled and pointed to the young lady and I think told me her name. I went in (taking off my shoes at the bottom of the steps) and sat with her. In my extraordinarily limited Vietnamese I said hello, and my name is Lucy, It's nice to meet you. we shook hands, and smiled at each other. and i wished so much that I was able to talk with her more. I am not certain that she can speak, or that it would be clear. But i believe she understood me.... or at least enjoyed being spoken to!
But it was obvious to me that she was a loved and valued family member. One of the boys started crying (to be honest, he stopped when I left... I think my weirdness scared him!) and she held out her arms and he immediately went for cuddles.
This meeting was the highlight of my day. And it got me thinking....

I think, a lot of Westerners have this preconceived idea that in developing countries like Vietnam people with disabilities are shunned, or not wanted and given to orphanages because their parents are ashamed, or unwilling to care for them.

In my experience that couldn't be further from the truth.

Yes, one of the orphanages we visit has kids with disabilities, and I can't claim to know the reasons that they were taken there. However there are far more orphanages with typically developing children. Because their parents just can't afford to look after them, because of trauma or death during childbirth, because it is a country racked with poverty and without all of the government assistance that we have.

All of the parents I have met with kids with disabilities, from autism to intellectual impairment to cerebral palsy, have obviously adored their children and are trying their hardest to do the absolute best possible for them.

My special little darling Ngan has the most beautiful relationship with her parents. Usually her Mum is in the room for the whole session - helping out, using sign language to show me what Ngan is asking for if none of the translators are around, doing the fine motor activities with Ngan if we are busy with other children until we are able to come do the walking. But Dad often drops them off and then goes back to work. When he returns she absolutely lights up, and usually wants to do more walking, or standing, or generally show off whatever we have been doing that session. She did go to school (rare for kids with CP, even if they have wheelchairs, because the schools just finds it slightly harder than other kids so refuses them). When she was at school though she was in her wheelchair all day, and the family felt she was getting weaker by not exercising. So now Mum home schools and does exercises, Dad takes her for walks outside so she gets to explore the world.
At the moment Dad is planning to build her a walking frame so we are trying to work out the best design.

While I was travelling we stopped for coffee at a little shop on a small island in the river (basically, we got a ferry to the island, drove over it in a more or less straight line, then got a ferry off on the other side). While we were having our coffee a young girl was chasing 2 rather harassed looking dogs around. Thanh explained that she adores the dogs, last time he was here they were running away from her and she cried:(, he also explained that she has some of intellectual impairment. On this occasion, it would seem she was chasing the dogs for a bath in the river. Mum was helping her between making coffees for customers, laughing and smiling and helping chase dogs around. Dad was playing cards with a group of guys in the coffee shop. but when a dog ran past he stopped the card game to scoop it up and help her. there was no hiding in the shadows, or avoiding showing you mates that your child is disabled.

At the autism clinic, I have started seeing a 17 year old boy named Luc. Initially he wasn't about to come because the family are too poor to take the time from work to bring him to the clinic, or pay for a taxi. I get the feeling they are extremely poor and have always been unable to help him as much as they would like. With some fund raising someone sponsored a month worth of motorbike taxi's to bring him to and from the clinic. The director of the clinic however, changed the plan. Turns out, his sister just finished school, and the director felt that with a child as old as him at the clinic they really need another person (all the other kids are 5-8ish years old). So she offered his sister the job, meaning that she can be his carer at the clinic get a (albeit small) wage for the family and the fundraising is instead helping his sister pay for gas to come in everyday, and learn the skills to work at the clinic. As a bonus she is also able to watch the session and learn how we are working with him, to then go home and show her family.


The country lacks access to anything for kids with disabilities. Whether support for the family, therapies to help kids develop, healthcare in the early days, hours, minutes, or equipment like orthotics. But it doesn't lack love.