I haven't met people this poor

Today Vera and I headed into a Dzoa village from Sapa via motor bike. The motorbike ride alone was unbelievably scenic and it was VND 60,000 about $3. We then were attacked by the Dzoa merchant woman. Trying to get us to buy almost anything. I did a little shopping and then headed up towards the cave one of the local women told us about. On the way we were invited into one of the Dzoa women's houses. There was very little light, hard beds with mosquito nets for the children. All the rice she grows is stored, not sold, in the house for the winters. The walls were wood planks that had large spaces between them and would do little to prevent the brutally cold winters here in the mountains. In the middle of the open room was a sewing machine where she produced tapestries. One of which I bought.

She told us how her first son died a day after birth. She then bought... yes I said bought... a son from another woman who had too many children for VND 5 million. That is about $250. Since then she has had two daughters. Marriages are arranged sometimes the couples split. Men's families pay a dowry to the woman's family before marriage. It is good to have boys because they do a lot of the work and it is good to have woman because the families get a dowry. Dzoa women typically get married between the ages of 18 and 23 but some may marry at 25 like the woman we met. This is considered late.

The children in the village usually go to school...maybe up to secondary school and then stop because they can not afford university. They then go into farming

Once we arrived at the cave we were again swarmed this time by children trying to rent us flash lights. I used the one on my phone and Vera eventually gave in and got one of the head lamps from the children when the lamps on the walls were shut off once we already entered. Those kids are ruthlessly smart. I didn't realize we were also paying for a guide too. And it was much needed! There were all sorts of turns, twists, and low ceilings which required us to take our bags off to get through. It was definitely easy to get lost in this underground maze. I had always done the touristy type caves before but this was real spelunking!

After the cave we then walked a couple of km out of the village and observed breath taking scenery. Here are some pics!

 Me donning the local gear next to the woman who became very upset with me because I didn't buy from her. They are really good at the guilt trip here.

A new tourist arriving in the village being swarmed by the locals. They literally run down the mountain and surround you. It is good they are armed with merchandise and not weapons.

 Our professional cave guide. Definitely an agile little guy!

Me next to the cave after we went in. I am a muddy mess though I am not sure the picture shows this well

 Dzoa kids racing giant beatles. Its the next best thing after remote control cars I used to play with as a kid

Dzoa woman weeding her rice field

 Scenery just outside the village.

 Kids trying to convince this yack to get back up the hill. They are bribing it with rice grass I think.

 Sapa city center.

Moung girl in Sapa city center.

The scenic ride on the motor bike from Sapa to the Dzoa village


Later I realized I should have asked how the town was run. Is there a council of elders or some other system for making agreements. I think there is a lot to be learned here but I leave tomorrow night so maybe I will find out tomorrow. Let me know if you have any questions you would like me to ask.

Sapa: The land of the Moung and Zoa

While I am waiting for data to become available I decided to do some traveling. At the moment I am in Sapa, a small city that is on the border of Vietnam and China in the highlands. It is gorgeous here and the weather is much cooler and more bearable. Down the mountain are the local indigenous people, the Moung and Zoa, who still sport their traditional outfits. They do a lot of weaving and garment making. I bought a bag and pillow case as gifts paid 100's of % more than I should have. But I am going to chalk this as helping out a local with probably 15 days worth of salary.

Today I did about 6 hrs of treking from Sapa down to the villages and then back up again with my hiking buddies, Lou Lou and Vera. Lou Lou is from Malaysia and Vera is from Germany. We met at the bus stop waiting for the from Hanoi to Sapa. The views were well worth the walk despite the constant rain.  

Here I am with some local kids whom I asked their permission to take a photo with.

City of Sapa.

Me cautiously standing next to a yack/cow of some sort.

My teking buddies I met on the bus from Hanoi to Sapa. From Left to Right (Me, Lou Lou, Vera)

Me in the village with terraced rice crops and Mts as the back drop.

Blue Chickens. I didn't even know there was such a thing.

Are we having dog for dinner?

Yep.... thats what they do here. I have never been happier to not be invited to dinner. Fortunately they realize I have a moral dilema eating dog. But apparently it goes really well with beer. It has been described as very tasty. I will try the turtle next week. Its supposed to be better than beef. I did try snake wine which is fermented from rice and 10 other ingredients including snake. It was described to me as it is supposed to be very good for the man but the final outcome is good for the woman. It seems like this goes for a lot things around here.

I wish I could eat the rooster that crows out my window every morning. It starts at 4 am and goes until about 11 am. It crows to compete with the other 4 in the neighborhood and they are constanlty cock a doodle dooing at each other to show off who has a bigger... well you get the point. They definitely don't need any snake wine. I wish I had a sling shot and have this one out my window for a nice dinner.

So I was directed to the Mekong Garden which apparently is a crocadile farm. I didn't realize what they were raised for until I saw the handbags, shoes, and wallets for sale. Unfortunately they were very expensive...$100 and up...otherwise I would have bought some. I did luck out enough to show up during feeding time. Check out the video....it really is something else.

I also started to play volley ball with the students over here for some exercise and they are no joke. It isn't a sport, its a religion over here. Check out the video of how they set up the ball, spike it and the saves they make. They are unbelievable. I am like the fat boy that gets picked last for the teams. Nobody wante the clumsy American.

The Undergrads Reuse Their Needles....

to give doses of LHRA  female carp in order to induce egg deposition. Here is a video of this ocurring:

I can't believe the nasty pond they jump into in order to net these fish. I will have you know that sewage is not dealt with the same way we do it in the US. At the University, it is piped to ditches along the perimeter of the the property. So I am sure some of that has ended up in this pond. I guess something has to feed the fish.

They then chose the ripe females and a couple of males. The way to sex these fish is pretty neat. If you pull on the pectoral fin of a male their tail will move. Its kind of like when you scratch a dog behind the ear. (Men, we're just so simple.) This at first had me wondering why all these students keep pulling and massaging fish pectoral fins. You can also tell if the brood sac is large and puffy (filled with eggs). The picture below shows a female and a male fish.





Here is a video of one student demonstrating how the male sperm is extracted (Its a little unclear):

The students were also required to count fish fry, 6000 to a bucket and they told me all of them had to be counted in the one large bucket. I am still not sure if I believe that since there were easily over 100 thousand. Here is a picture of that tedious lab work



Here is a picture of some baby snake head that being raised in the hatchery. These are the types of fish my study deals with.

Hope you enjoy the pictures and videos. Please let me know if these videos do not work. Also feel free to post on the wall. I always enjoy seeing who is reading this stuff.

Did I tell you?..... I got married!

To a beautiful Vietnamese woman....jk....So above are some pictures of when I was in Hochi Minh City for a wedding. I especially liked when they put dry ice in the pyramid of wine classes and then poured wine in the top one to create a waterfall and vapor. I also added the pictures of the Pagoda when we were in Trah Vinh. There are also some pictures of the seafood near the river and mango and dragon fruit at my hotel. These were in Can Tho.

Tomorrow I will see them harvest some fish at the school in one of the aquaculture ponds. Today I was shown around the aquaculture hatchery where they raise snakehead, carp, catfish, shrimp, and eel. Once they reach a larger size they are thrown into ponds nearby and later harvested. I am not sure what I will see tomorrow but I will take some pictures.

Next week I will be going to a fish farm where they are using the new feed technology that I will be doing a cost benefit analysis involving partial budgeting and capital budgeting. Once I get my hands a little deeper in this I will begin to talk more about it.

Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Ask for toilet paper and you get a guava

Since it is monsoon season it typically is sunny in the morning and between 12 and 4 pm it will rain for ~3 hrs. And when I say rain I mean by the buckets. Its like a water park.

Today I am in Trah Vinh while my collegues attend a meeting on aquauculture. Its in Vietnamese so I am not sure how much I would get out of it plus I would have needed some sort of security clearance. Anyway, I am enjoying ice coffee at the cafe with Wifi. During the week I have worked with the faculty here on translating some important papers and next week we will dive into the snakehead fish research. I'm looking forward to it.

After the meeting today I will be taken to do some sight seeing. There are beautiful pagodas here that are used by the Khmer people. They are an indigenous people that mainly reside in Cambodia but some clusters like in Trah Vinh have stayed despite the Vietnamese take over of this area in the 16th or 17th century. I'm looking forward to it.

Now that I take the hotel toilet paper with me everywhere I go I had to ask for some at the hotel. This did not go well, as I received a guava instead. For those of you who don't know, that is a fruit with red meat inside. They taste awful in the Carribean or at least smell awful but here the variety tastes quite good. Finally through some complicated act of Shirades I was able to obtain my toilet paper.

Note: Do Not just dive into the food here or you will hurt yourself like in any sport. I had spicy grilled calamari and cocanut sauce on rabbit last night. I didn't think that would be too bad....wrrrrrroooooonnng! stick to soup with noodles for a while.

I am posting a video of what the streets at night look like here in the more touristy section, though I would not call it that touristy....I may have seen 8 tourist in total there.

Little things I have noticed

When pointing to something, use your whole hand. I learned this when I was in Japan. Pointing as we do in the US is rude.

In Vietnam they often use the spoon along with chop sticks. It helps with slurping soup and noodles. And slurping seems to be just fine...not quite as loud as in Japan but it is no condoned like the US.

Frequently a spoon and fork is given for food. The spoon is used as a cutting utensil. I really just wanted to pick up the drum stick and eat it with my hands but I am sure i would be viewed as some barbarian so I refrained.

Utensils are faced down when taking a break from eating. When you are done you face them up.

Leave some food over on the plate. It shows you were well fed and there was more than enough when someone else is providing. Still getting used to this one but is useful when you don't like the food.

Bathrooms- Its a BYOTP. Everything from newspapers, loose leaf, cloth are used. It goes in the garbage and not the toilet. They also have a garden hose attached to the wall. I will not go into explaining but I am sure you catch the drift.

Pepsi and Beer you are in the clear, but tea you should fear.
I still drank it when it was offered but try to avoid it along with vegetables you boat captain offers you.