Adventures in March - part 2

~~ train station at midnight~~

Off the train in Ninh Binh, and up to Cuc Phuong National park.
I was really looking forward to walking through the jungle, have the nature, and peace and quiet.... maybe getting lucky and seeing some animals - but I wasn't really expecting it, after all how hard is it to see native animals (excluding kangaroos!) in the wild in Australia! and we surely have a lot more animals living in the wild!

Unfortunately the weather was misty and rainy, but that is kind of to be expected in a rainforest!

I walked up pretty steep, very slippery path to an "observation hide". the observation tower contained 3 kids, who immediately started shouting at me "hello, come here". I really did not feel like being peppered with the same question (what is your name?) 100 times.... so declined climbing up with them. instead they started coming down as I went to walk away.... I tried to escape. This lead to a slightly ridiculous situation of being chased by kids down a mountain.... and hiding off the path behind a rock for them to go past. I know they just wanted to be friendly, and curious about the Westerner. But sometimes, I am just not in the mood. once I had finished hiding behind a rock I returned to the top and climbed the tower.... that was mildly terrifying, and i went back down quite quickly when the wood cracked and sunk under my weight!

~~ terrifying "observation hide", I am sure the view is amazing sometimes..... but all I had a view of was fog!

~~minority people who live in the national park who just appeared out of the forest next to me as I was walking down the road~~

~~ This gate for some reason locked people out of the "botanical gardens" I am not sure when they are called botanical gardens, they seem to just be more recently planted trees.... some of them had signs saying what they were. To et in I had to go ask for the key, discover that they only have one key, and someone else has it. Just climb over the gate, the office woman says. It's easy for you. So I am assuming this is a low gate, not something higher than me! luckily I found it was actually unlocked and I walked in. wandered the paths for a while then decided to leave. As I did I passed the school group (complete with park ranger) who had come in while I was in there. Non of them though to mention that they had relocked the gate behind them.... and so when I wanted to leave I had to climb through that gap where one of the metal bars is missing!

On my second day I decided to rent a motorbike so that I could get to the park centre and the interesting walks. On the way I went to the cave of the prehistoric man. Apparently they found 7500 year old human remains and basic tools in here. Which is pretty cool. I had a small torch (the wind up sort that don't really give a lot of light. There was a stall at the bottom renting better looking torches for 50cents.... but I thought mine would be fine! When I went in, I discovered something.... Going into caves by yourself is actually scary. Even though, I tried to tell my brain, that I have a torch, and it's fine..... something about this big dark cavern just made my brain start yelling GET OUT, GET OUT! I persisted, and walked around to the point that I could no longer see light from the entrance. I found a ladder leading up, and a few places where i would be able to crawl through to another chamber.... and as much as I wanted to do these things, and I would have been the one encouraging us to if I had a friend in the cave..... I was too chicken!

In the case of the ladder it was in part because I worried that if i slipped (it was very wet and rusty) noone would find me. This gut feeling may have been right as I met another tourist at dinner who went into the cave with other people (so didn't have the i-am-all-alone-in-the-dark-fear) but when I asked her what was up the ladder she had no idea what I was talking about, so much not have actually walked around away from the entrance.

~~ the cave of the prehistoric man~~

Riding the bike was also fun, It was the first time I had rented a motorbike in Vietnam. Made easier by being on the very low traffic road of the national park, although, the traffic that was on the road was mostly giant buses! But it was nice to be able to ride myself around. I did a couple more long walks, these required careful timing to avoid to loud-talking-tourists (and people complain about not seeing animals) but it was nice. I thoroughly enjoyed just being in the rainforest, being in the quiet, listening to the jungle sounds.

The next day I got the local bus that only comes once a day back to Ninh Binh.... half way there I realised that when I paid.... they hadn't given me back my passport. After a hectic phone call trying to work out how I can get it (preferably without getting a taxi all the way back up!) It all worked out. A tour guide who was going with tourists into Ninh Binh dropped it at a hotel for me.... who then proceeded to quiz me before giving it back to make sure I really was Lucille Robinson. Even though, it's my passport. It has my photo!

I had a boat trip through the Van Long nature reserve. Lots of birdlife and wetlands type scenery, but with sheer limestone cliffs surrounding it. People I spoke to the day before had seen Languars (a type of monkey) but I wasn't so lucky. Possibly because the weather was freezing and windy! or possibly because I had the bad timing to arrive just after a bus tour and their tour guide kept yelling and making loud noises. I think he was making echos? I also noticed that the Vietnamese love of music extends to MUSIC ALWAYS! A boat load of Viet people who were just behind me had a mini stereo blasting music instead of enjoying the silence. At first I thought it was just that one guy, but then I past two other boats the same. So I guess it's just a thing.

~~As rugged up as was possible! still cold~~

Next day: Bike rental from the hotel to ride out to yet another limestone cliff and boat rides (There seem to be three such locations in this very small town. I passed on doing all three, two was more than enough for me!

~~boats, awaiting the hoards of tourists~~

~~ note my sexy plastic pants! These are to keep the rain and muddy road water out while I was bike riding.... I got too lazy to take them off before the boat trip, plus i was afraid it would be as freezing as the day before at Van Long!

~~rice fields and limestone cliffs, we pretty much went through a cave tunnel, and when we emerged on the other side there was no solid land or people visible. Just rice, and nature.~~

Next I journeyed on to a pagoda that is build up into the side of a mountain. So as you climb up to each level of the pagoda (the path winding up the side of the mountain and through caves and tunnels) you get a different view. Whe I arrived to park my bike at the designated bike parking spot that guy pulled out a printed official looking receipt book and tried to tell me it was 50 000 Dong to park your bike there. I looked at him incredulously, usually it costs 2000 to park a bicycle - sometimes 5000 for Westerners. Never 50! I called him out on his extreme price and he tried to tell me it included entry to the pagoda. "ticket price" he says pointing at the entrance. "It's a pagoda.... It's Free!" I said. unlocking my bike and pushing it away. He tried to block my path "How much you pay" I shook my head. "No, you cheat people. I'm not paying you" (I was keeping it light, laughing a little... I try not to be angry. He continued to try to write the bike parking numbers on the new, blank receipt book that he pulled from his pocket. "5000, he said, 5000 for bike only". I walked my bike out a little way down the road where I had passed a half a dozen bikes on my way in.
I think they actually belonged to the stall holding women, but they accepted it when I said I wanted to park my bike with them and that they guy over there charges 50 000. They had a good laugh, I assume at my refusal to be ripped off THAT much. Then asked for 2000.

at the top of level of the pagoda, when the nice concrete steps finished was a little sign pointing up a dirt track Climb up
So I did.
Of course, as previously mentioned it was wet, so the dirt track was actually a slippery mud path, complete with scattered jagged limestone rocks.
The view from the tp was pretty amazing

~~excuse the quick stitching together of photos!~~

However on the way down my foot slipped, and I managed to smash my left knee on a rock, cut open my right shin, and slice a couple of good deep cuts all the way up my right arm.
So when I got back to the bottom and the souvenir selling women leapt up to offer me bags and scarves and little wooden boats; they quickly recoiled upon seeing my arm, covered in blood and mud.
One of them stared, shook her head and muttered "Xau" which means ugly or bad.... I laughed and pointed to it... Xau? ooohhhhhhh Dep? (beautiful?) this made them all fall about laughing. And saying no. So then I went for Xau xa (very ugly or atrocious). they all agreed that my arm was in fact Xua xa, then (I guess deciding that I seemed fairly unconcerned by the bleeding) decided to try again with the souvenirs. I laughed at their attempts.... then went to buy a bottle of water to wash out my arm (the only other hand washing water being the rice field, or a well used hand washing bucket outside the toilets, that probably came from the rice fields anyway.
One of the stuff selling ladies helped me wash my arm and asked repeatedly if I needed a hospital. Then I headed off on my bike for the 8km ride back to my hotel for a shower and some wound care!


Back to Phong Nha for my 3 day caving trip.
Only myself, and a Vietnamese born, US raised san francisco-ian firefighter on the trip, so very small group travel! I was somewhat concerned that I would be struggling to keep up with our tour guide (who does this trek a couple of times a week and is like the energiser bunny!) and a fire-fighter! But turns out that growing up scrambling over rocks and up hills made me feel like a natural!

~~Pre-caving, post caving my right pants leg was about 25cm shorter. and the left featured a stylish "cut out knee" section. They also became a stunning murky brown colour~~

We crossed rivers, hiked up hills (that were mostly mud and rocks, with some trees to hang on to and try to avoid sliding all the way back down). Slid down the other side of said hills, I found it easiest to squat down and "skate" through the mud.... the guide, Thanh, and I laughing hysterically as we did this. The other trekker looking at us like we were mad, and trying hard to stay on his feet as he walked down.
The caves were mostly very large and easy to walk through, but the jungle tracks we much more overgrown and adventurous!

We learnt about many more types of cave formations (here I was thinking I was going well because I knew that stalactites go down and stalagmites go up). Finally swimming through the cave to get out to out camp site. Stunningly located at the edge of the waterfall and pool. And pre set up with camp fire and tea by our porters (who carried all the hammocks and food in for us!)

~~Caves peaking out of the jungle~~

~~This one was my favourite cave, because that rock looks like something Indiana Jones would discover is actually the secret entrance to some golden skull room. The guide seemed to struggle to see how that rock, looks like an upside-down skulls. So back me up guys, It does look skull-like, right?~~

~~ Cave pearls, like pearls, but less pretty~~

~~Swimming in the caves. On day two the swimming portion of the trek included turning off out lights and swimming in pitch blackness~~

~~The cave we were swimming in, from the outside~~

~~The view from where my Hammock was set up!~~

The next day was much less hiking, but more swimming through caves and exploring.
Unfortunately at this point, my waterproof camera got water in the lens. So no more photos. On the plus side, it still works. It just takes blurry photos - So I will find someone to repair it and all will be well :)
In the afternoon we swam under a waterfall and found the little cave-like room behind it. I found this pretty easy, using the rocks and walls to pull myself up. Definitely benefiting from many waterfall explorations in younger years! Everyone else persisted in wearing life jackets into the water even when out of the cave. But I was able to convince Thanh, the guide, that i am a good swimming and promise I wont drown if he allows me to now wear a life jacket!

Second night at a new, but equally stunning camp location. This time we got a little glimpse of the stars through the clouds, and lots of fireflies to watch as we sat by the fire.

Last day featured hiking over another mountain (I think the are really more hills than actual mountains... but let's not let facts get in the way of a good story!) and back to the village we started in for a delicious bowl of pho. First we had to back track and climb over a giant rock to avoid a snake who was happily sunning himself on the path. This featured quite a funny miming of "there's a snake on the path" (can't talk.... snake will attack :P). I found a picture later - pretty sure it wasn't a poisonous snake (just incase you were wondering!

My last two days of holiday were spent at the beautiful pepperhouse home stay in the country surrounding Phong Nha. Happy kids (relations of some description of the Vietnamese woman and her Aussie Husband who run the place) would come in at various times and be extra happy if you spent some time playing with the ball or taking photos and showing them the camera. Plus, beautiful scenery to take a bike ride or walk through, and hammocks to relax in and do nothing but read my book!

I did venture for the 8km bike ride into Phong Nha town to go to the markets.... because I wanted a hammock. These hammocks are amazing. They are some sort of reproduction of US army surplus hammocks. But, as well as zipping up into a convenient square, they come with mosquito nets that zip up and a bar at each end that you can tie up so the net is held up out of the way. Genius!

So I am looking forward to coming home, and going camping one day with my fancy new hammocks!

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!