Vietnam

My time in Vietnam was split between work and play. I was able to spend time in Hanoi, Hai Phong, and Ninh Binh province. I was there for the third international fecal sludge management conference. You might chuckle, but there were over 500 participants! Sanitation is becoming a hot topic - we even have our own Sesame Street character!

I got a lot out of the conference because it is mostly focused on what happens after you use the toilet, whereas the other conferences I have been to concentrate on water and getting people to use toilets with little attention paid to what happens next. Don't get me wrong: getting a toilet built and actually used is difficult, but the whole sanitation chain must be considered. This is one of my fears concerning India's 100+ million toilet goal.

You probably aren't here to read my opinions on poo policy, so here are some glimpses into the rest of my time in Vietnam (more photos here):

Luckily, someone on sabbatical at work has lived in Vietnam, so he took us to a great restaurant and ordered up a feast that included morning glory (garlicky "water spinach"), fried tofu, salad, some buns, plus seafood hotpot and:

... fermented sausage (wrapped in like a banana leaf or something).

Before the conference I went to the Ho Chi Minh museum. This photo is from the part where it is supposed to be like you are walking through his brain. Admittedly, I didn't know much about this part of history or the world so it was difficult to know what to trust. There was one really trippy part where a video was shown in which the Challenger explosion morphs into a nuclear mushroom cloud.

nice mosaic-y lotus fountain

Super coffee drinks. This one is iced condensed milk and coconut milk with coffee on top.

After the official conference was over, there was a day of workshops. During the session on resource recovery I was pretty much convinced that worm farming is the future. Luckily, I should be writing a case study on a growing worm concern later this year. The following day was for field trips. I went to a sewage composting plant in Hai Phong.  

You should have seen  those sanitation researchers sprint to check out this vacuum truck.
It is my understanding that the sludge stays in these stabilization ponds before it is moved to windrows for composting.

After the field trip, I headed to Tam Coc province with a co-worker. This is an area about two hours away from Hanoi that is known for some cool rock formations.  

We took the train

first class or "soft seats" there were also TVs and a ticket checker, who fell asleep and snored incredibly the whole trip.

Vietnamese-style coffee. The silver disc acts as a filter. Vietnam produces quite a bit of coffee, but it is used mostly to make instant coffee. I really enjoyed the vanilla aroma of the coffee. I brought some beans and two of these filter contraptions back to Switzerland and am looking forward to trying them out.

The thing most people do when they come to this area is the three caves boat trip. Basically, water flows under some of the rock formations and you can have someone from the boat-guide association row you to all of them. Our guide rowed most of the way with her feet.

I'm usually really good with boats. This one was near impossible to steer or propel.
It took some convincing for her to let me try with the real oars. There were some token paddle for the tourists, but they were flimsy tin attached to about two feet of wood. 

 I think the boat trip went on for a bit too long. It was pretty far and you can really just sit there enjoying the scenery and making awkward faces at the other tourists who are on their way back. One cave probably would have been enough, but the most impressive one was the last one. The hotel had free loaner bikes, so we explored the area for the rest of the afternoon. They were very helpful and provided a map with some points of interest.  It was so nice to be back on a bike (freedom!) and out of the hectic city. I got the hang of it eventually, but crossing the street in Hanoi usually felt like a bit of a gamble. Plus the air quality in town is rather poor.

That is a goat on an almost vertical rock face. I bought a similar (okay much clearer) postcard at the natural history museum in London a few years back when pops and I were there for soccer watching

Click the above photo for a 360+ degree view.

The karst landscape almost masks the encroaching industry. 

The next day, we went to Cuc Phuong National Park, which is a rain forest. The park opened during the war and was so important to Ho Chi Min that he took time away from leading the army to attend the ribbon cutting.  You can get a sense of what it was like to be in the forest here.

The trash receptacles were carefully molded/sculpted to look like stumps. 

Conservation sign. I did not see any tigers or monkeys.

This was pretty much the only wildlife I saw. There were lots of bird noises.

The park is know for its allegedly 1000 year old tree, but this other (younger) tree was much more interesting. 

The park also has a turtle and primate rehabilitation centers, which I did not visit, because I was fairly certain it would just make me sad. I did go by the gift shop of the monkey center, because all the others were closed and it actually seemed pretty legit. The next day there was time for a smidge more sightseeing before heading back to the city. 

So hip.

Obligatory Southeast Asia rice paddy photo. For a photosphere that includes a boatload of stairs that lead to some sort of temple click here.

The best fried tofu of the trip. So fluffy. With a nice, slightly grainy, chili sauce for dipping and surprise herbs/leaves.  

On the way back we rode second class or "hard seats"

The second class windows were just grates, not glass.

Once back in Hanoi I stayed at a hotel with ants and spent my last day at the Hoa Lo prison and catching up on work while drinking more of those delicious coffee concoctions - one even had rice in it, before flying to the Philippines.

In the international departures terminal in Hanoi-
Watch out capitalism is on its way!