Da Lat 2014: Scarf & Fireplace Weather

Erin, I adore this picture.

One of the best and most relaxing adventures of my summer was my return trip to Da Lat, in the Central Highlands of Vietnam - Land of 1000 Pines and Former French Colonial Playground.

Not only is the weather here just ridiculously comfortable (a mild 70's during our visit in July), but it was an excellent last hurrah with my friend Erin and a great experience for my friend Lisa visiting from NYC.

It's truly a must-see if you're looking to experience a few of the sheer variety of climates and environments in Vietnam.

Some of the great things we did included: staying at one of the world's most unique guesthouses, visiting pagodas and flower parks, discovering secret trails into the hills originating in the cemetery, frolicking among lush jungle waterfalls, doing the central Market on a Sunday, and generally wandering around this picture-perfect painting of a town, far away from the sweltering heat of Ho Chi Minh City to the south.

It was SO COLD... seriously,
like at least down to 70 F.
Scarf and fire weather.

True, I was brutally sick with a stomach bug for the first day and a half (including a really, really precarious sleeping bus trek. Sorry about your bathroom, Da Lat bus station - but seriously, you should be sorry about it too: thank god I carry toilet paper with me).

(BTW: Hello Erin's Family - this post is for you!!)

Not a lot of reading today, it's been a long week and I'm tired of looking at these summer posts stuck in Draft Purgatory. Plus, I pretty much detailed everything I liked about Da Lat in my 2013 post, which you can find here if you haven't memorized everything I've ever posted.

Check out a photo album of my Last Vietnam Hurrah with Friend Erin, and the beginning of my Vietnam Adventure with Lisa, below!

Park Life: Thac Giang Điền

I wish I'd found this place myself.

However, it's so far off the beaten path of my everyday travels that only looking for it specifically would find it - it's not in Ho Chi Minh City at all, but rather, about about 60 minutes (~45km) outside it in the countryside of Dong Nai Province, northeast of Bien Hoa City.

Join me in the Dong Nai countryside for a relaxing surprise!

Saigon Survival: Regulating Your Body Temperature in the Tropics

Our family cabin in Northern Wisconsin, Winter 2013-14 - A DOOZY.

 You know it's hot here.

I pretty much can't shut up about how hot (or, alternately, how rainy/humid/flooded) it is, every single day - if there are two things Westerners like to talk about, it's politics and the weather... and you can't talk about either here.

I'm still not entirely sure how I got here, weather-wise.

I'm a generally warm person descended from people that originated in northern Europe (Norway, Sweden, Germany, etc), and I've lived all my formative years in places that usually received a pretty decent load of snow and freezing cold crap for several months a year - Wisconsin and Chicago can be very cold places.

So, naturally... Vietnam! ...Huh?? But it was new, different, the development pace was right, and the challenges they were facing as a people/city/country were fascinating... so here I am in the tropics, sweating my butt off and playing fast and loose with body odor.

I've had to find ways to survive the heat.

Hạ Long Bay: Natural and Economic Marvel of North Vietnam

'Tornado Light' - all afternoon!

"Twisters!" is an unexpected thing to hear where I live - not just because I immediately wonder what Helen Hunt is doing these days, but because I don't read much weather news here in Vietnam (why bother... it's either Hot and Dry or Hot and Rainy).

So when my mom and I did hear it, it only lent another interesting layer to our overnight daytrip to Hạ Long Bay, Vietnam, one of the new Seven Wonders of the World, in June 2014.

This is an ancient place, one of the first cradles of humanity in the Vietnam region, and a huge, interesting business built on the fickle whims of Mother Nature. Read on...

Côn Đảo: Unspoiled Vietnamese Island Life

Hey, you. You in the office. You seem stressed.

What do you want?

You want peace and quiet? You want dogs? You want the best diving in Vietnam and fresh seafood for every meal?

Done.

Beaches? I know a nice one. Endangered animals? Scads (well, maybe not scads... they are endangered, after all) Ghosts? If you believe some Vietnamese, this place is crazier than NYC at the end of Ghostbusters 2.

And history? Here's a place that summarizes in one 200 year period all the struggles and trials that Vietnamese mainlanders have gone through over thousands of years - shorter, sure, but arguably bloodier, and events just as traumatic to the national psyche in their sheer brutality and lingering impact.

You want all these things, plus boat rides, hiking, bike rides, and island-wide radio hour twice a day?

Have I got the place for you!

My 2014 New Year's Resolutions

A funny reminder that no one's perfect. Resolution time!

[Edit: hey, check out how I did on these goals in my 2014 Post-Mortem!]

Hello, my friends. Again, welcome to 2014!

What a crazy, wild year it's been. Not just for me, either, it seems - I've seen many, many social media updates marking what an exciting year it's been for my family and friends.

In 2013 I completed a TEFL certificate, moved to Vietnam, started (and maintained, in possibly the biggest surprise of the year!) a personal travel blog, and started a new job in a new field. I've been medically stable and, besides a few speedbumps due to a new climate and environment, am in fairly good health. My 30's are kicking ass and taking names so far. Here's to keeping that momentum for next year!

With the new year comes the Western tradition of New Year's Resolutions. As I look to the next few years of my master plan, I've come up with the following list of things I want to work on this year. Some are already underway, and some will take more work, but all of them are goals that I have for 2014.

Go big or go home...!

Saigon Sights: The Saigon Zoo and Botanical Gardens

Recently, I visited a place I told myself I'd never go again. On my previous excursion, it was the most depressing zoo outside of Minnesota (looking at you, Little Falls, MN): the Saigon Zoo and Botanical Gardens. And here I was again, ready for round two.

We weren't even supposed to be there!

But, alas, the History Museum was on naptime lockdown (sigh. I feel I'll never get used to that) for an hour and a half, and, with no where else to go, my friend Kasia and I ventured into the zoo next door to take some pictures, stroll around, and generally be snarky and judge-y about the whole thing. We'd both been there before, and, unlike her, I wanted to return to capture the sad on my upgraded camera. We were both afraid of being bummed out, but with nothing else to do, we reluctantly drifted in.

What a shock we had. Merely four months ago, this place was a decrepit wonderland of depression. Animals were skinnier and more despondent, attendance was lower, and it felt kind of run down. This time, admission prices had doubled (from a scant 6000 VND to a slightly less scant 12000 VND, or about .60 cents USD), the grounds had been given a makeover, several new habitats were under construction, and there were people! People everywhere! The most exciting animal in the park!

Continue on to see a few of my favorite pictures and my suggestion for a plan...

Saigon Sights: Lâm viên Cần Giờ (Monkey Island)

District Can Gio.

Recently it was the most glorious holiday (TEACHER'S DAY!) and I was able to rearrange my office hours to take a much-needed trip outside of the city - fresh air, fewer people, fewer bikes, nature... and monkeys.

So many monkeys. And so many pictures!

You can see the map of Cần Giờ District (yes, still part of Ho Chi Minh City, crazily!) that we traveled to. Our destination was Lâm viên Cần Giờ (Cần Giờ Forest Park), in the southern region - almost as far south as you can go while staying both on land and in HCMC's expansive boundaries.

Lâm viên Cần Giờ is a designated UN Biosphere Reserve, recognized as such for the best practices exhibited by the Vietnamese government in regrowing the massive and extensive mangrove forests following the destruction of over 80% of the total biomass through American gas attacks during the Vietnam War. Today, the area is a quiet haven for thousands of monkeys (called a troop!), a group of crocodiles (called a float!), and a beautiful and calm alternative to the endless shouting, honking, bustling throngs of Ho Chi Minh City.

It's picture slideshow time!

Why Did I Choose Vietnam?

I waffled (fun word!) for several months before finally picking a place to go teach English, and even then I was unsure and lacked confidence in my decision. It was only once I'd been here for a while that I could say for sure that I made the correct choice - this is an amazing, electric city in a rapidly modernizing & developing country, and, in 2013, it's a fascinating place to live and work.

If you haven't heard me tell it, there was a specific string of events and planning that led me to take the concrete steps to go abroad to teach. Here's how I eventually settled on Vietnam!

Vietnam is special in a lot of ways. Here's what I was thinking when I finally made my choice:

Saigon's Canals: The Project From Hell

The revamped main canal.

Ho Chi Minh City's canals are two different stories, which diverge significantly (ha), with many accidental but important lessons learned along the way. Today I want to tell you about what surely must be one of the most compelling sustainable infrastructure projects I've heard of yet: the transformation of the Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe branch of the Saigon canal system.

Over the course of 10 years this branch was transformed from an open sewer spreading disease and destruction to a jewel of central Ho Chi Minh City's park system.

And, to think, it almost didn't happen - at least 4 times. In fact, it was literally abandoned as un-doable at one point by a foreign contractor. Not a good omen, you say?


Hit the jump for just how the longest of these canals turned out, as well as pictures from some of the city's less well-off canals:

Why Travel Now?

Why Travel Now?

After receiving many questions about my motives for traveling, and Vietnam in particular, I wanted to share with you how I got to where I am, and where I want to go. At least, how I decided to go NOW, and not in a year, or 6 months, or 5 years.

I'll continue about Why Vietnam? in a second, related post. :)

I should also add that, while these are my goals now... I'll be course correcting as I go along!

Once Upon a Time, in the late summer of 2012, I was riding my bike home from my volunteering gig at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum. It's a 7.25 mile trek back to Albany Park, about half of it along Chicago's unparalleled lakefront trail - surely one of the most pleasant, easy urban rides in the United States. I was thinking about how nice it was to have access to such a strong network of biking trails in Chicago and how lucky I was as a citizen to be able to use them to get sunshine, exercise, and peace of mind, as well as using them for cheap, practical transport. 

And here I found myself thinking, How did this happen? Who did this? I wondered if there were some way that I could get in on this city-improving action.

The idea stuck, and I was soon concocting plans.

Dà Lạt: Central Highlands Playground of the French & Fabulous

Two months ago (!) I joined a number of people from my housing association and took a memorable trip (so memorable, in fact, that I'm about to recount it all to you, right now, two months late!) to Vietnam's central highlands, the most prominent city of which is Dà Lạt.

It is situated anywhere from 6-9 hours north of HCMC, and we were told to wear pants and long sleeves because it gets cold there. HA! It was shorts weather if I've ever seen any - a perfect 76F and mostly sunny all weekend. It's known for pine trees, strawberries, milk, and its abundant lakes and tree covered foothills. It provides temperate vegetables, flowers, and fruits to the rest of Vietnam and is particularly famous for a jam made from rose, strawberries, sweet potato, and mulberry.

It is the capital of Lâm Đồng Province, home to the Dà Lạt people, and is a popular tourist destination due to its mild climate and colonial past. During our stay we rented motorbikes, I learned how to drive, we toured the city, visited a temple, took a roller coaster around waterfalls, ate amazing food, and saw some incredible sights.

Hit the jump for a long post, and so, so many pictures!

Park Life: Công Viên 23 Tháng 9

The lily pond in Công Viên 23 Tháng 9, surrounded by an isolating and deeply relaxing grove of palm trees.

Today I want to take you on a tour of the park where I meet several of my clients, as well as my own personal Vietnamese tutor. On concrete benches beneath the shade of palm trees, in a section far away from the mosquitos that live in the pond, I learn and teach languages. Coupled with a ca phe da (iced coffee), banh mi, and folders full of language notes, my students and I learn languages together in the morning heat.

Leslie Knope would be proud! This repurposed park is today a thriving civic hub, one that I visit at least three times a week.

Rooftop Garden Update

Itty Bitty Baby Star Fruits! Thanks, bees!

Can I get a huzzah for gardens and how much psychic gravity they bring to an abode?

Recently I was watering the star fruit trees (yes, we actually have two! Surprise) and realized that I wasn't really very happy with the rooftop. I mean, I'm going to be here until at least the beginning of November, and to be honest, I'll probably re-sign my lease. I like the neighborhood. I know the streets and am getting to know my neighbors. I like the house. But right now, it's just that: a house. It's not a home. Yet.

Obviously, step one is to replace that bangin' patio garden I had in Chicago... this time with fewer spider plants (although I did find some for sale at a nursery not far away, so perhaps... for nostalgia's sake...).

Park Life: Công viên Lê Văn Tám

I couldn't find much info on this statue, which is
a shame - I like the stylized torch on top.

As one Google user states in their review of Le Van Tam Park (presumably a local, speaking in translated Vietnamese):

"Complicated resident with old construction..."

Couldn't put it better myself (well, mayb. This was the first park I fell in love with, and so it's the first public space I'll cover in depth in my tour of spaces that make Ho Chi Minh City unique.

I love parks. They're good for the mental and physical health of residents, they provide much-needed space for groups to meet, socialize, and exercise, they beautify, they breed civic pride, they can boost tourism, and they help create strong, integral communities with a multitude of opportunities for residents to interact, play, and work. They're an important part of any neighborhood, and cities without parks are just downright boring, as well as have more difficult paths to all the benefits I've already mentioned. A park is simply a wonderful thing to have around, and I have a personal interest in community infrastructure and design... which is why it's pretty much the first type of place I tried to find after moving to Vietnam. I was not disappointed - this park is well-designed and great for all sorts of activities.