Day 402: To Vientiane, Laos

My trip from one nation's capital (Hanoi) to another's (Vientiane) was a long one: the sleeper bus took around 20 hours, plus another two hours getting from my hostel in Hanoi to the bus station. The trip was quite enjoyable actually - not least because the Vietnamese sleeper buses are the most comfortable ones I've experienced so far for overnight trips: their seats recline to about 150 or 160 degrees, which makes it possible to get a good night's sleep.

We arrived at the border at around 5:30 in the morning but were left to sleep until the border opened at 7 am. The border formalities were quick and painless, provided you were equipped with the right amount of US dollars and passport photos for the Laos visa on arrival.

My first impressions of Laos were the beautiful mountain scenery and the scorching heat at our lunch break.

Also, the houses in Laos seemed to be much bigger than Vietnamese houses. This might be correlated to Laos' population-to-land ratio: Laos is about two thirds of Vietnam's size, but has less than one tenth of its population. This means there is much more land to go around, which allows for bigger houses. There also seemed to be many more cars around. This could be due to a different taxation policy in Laos: with the 200% tax on car purchases in Vietnam, most people can't afford to buy a car; a different taxation in Laos would naturally lead to more cars.

Days 400 + 401: Research Days

Travel-wise, these two days were exceptionally unproductive. I felt quite productive in the areas of research and job applications, however.

By now, I've identified which jobs and job titles I want to apply for. Believe it or not, I've never before been certain of the exact job I wanted to have. I've also never before felt confident that the job would be right for me, and I've never before felt qualified for a job when I read job announcements. All of this has changed now: I know which job I want, I know it's the right thing for me, and I know I can do it.

So my task now is to convince potential employers of this. The applications I've sent for postdoctoral positions so far are quite strong, I think. However, I also want to apply for lecturer or assistant professor positions - and these require a research statement, i.e. a statement of my past, present and future research. I've never before written such a statement, and that means it's a lot of work initially. But, strange as this may seem, I'm excited and really happy to do that kind of work now (even if that earns me strange sideways glances from my fellow travelers).

This realization has made me change my travel rhythm. I'm still figuring out what exactly to aim for, but I'm thinking a ratio of two days of travel and one day of research/application work could work quite well. Although, I have to say, it feels a little disorienting to combine travel and work in this way. I often get into a state of flow working on an application, or researching a certain point, and when I resurface from my concentration, I find that I'm not sitting at a nice desk but at a table I've never really seen before; my back aches from sitting on a bad chair, slumped over my tiny netbook screen; there is music playing and people are partying around me; and it's suddenly dark when it was broad daylight just seconds ago. And I have to think for a moment about where exactly I am and where I might find food and drink in this strange place... ;-)

Day 399: Back to Hanoi

The third day of my Halong Bay exploration was relatively boring. After breakfast, we went on a bus to return to the boat, then sailed back to Halong harbor. The views of Halong Bay were radically different from the first day, though, because it was very hazy and all but the closest islands were disappearing in fog.

Day 398: Cat Ba Island & Monkey Island

The second day of my stint into Halong Bay brought us to Cat Ba island, the biggest of Halong Bay's many islands. The weather wasn't as perfect as yesterday - but since we had some hiking to do, that was all for the best, at least temperature-wise. The hike took us into Cat Ba national park, and up a small peak to a lookout tower. The views were nice, if a little hazy:

After lunch, we got on another boat to visit Monkey Island. For me, this trip was a little ambiguous. For one, there was a little hike up to one of the islands peaks. However, nobody had told us that it was more of a climb than a hike. Consequently everybody was wearing flip-flops, which made the entire adventure really quite dangerous.

Then there were the monkeys, the reason for Monkey Island's name. The guide said that only about 70% of visits actually get to see monkeys, and so I was expecting wild monkeys that may or may not be around. His warning turned out to be entirely misleading though, and I'm pretty sure that every single tourist who sets foot on the island gets to see the monkeys. The reason for this is rather sad: the monkeys are not wild monkeys anymore. They are not quite pets, either, but they are totally dependent on tourism. They hang around the beach, going through the rubbish left behind by tourists, and when tourists show up, they do their best to steal any food or drinks people were incautious enough to bring.

Some people even bring bags of fruit along with the purpose of feeding the monkeys, and as a result the monkeys are very capable of opening plastic bags and going through the contents.

They were really cute and funny to look at, of course, but what made the experience really sad for me was seeing them drink the last drops out of discarded soft drink cans. That's most definitely not monkey food and I don't think it can be healthy for them. Strangely enough, none of the other people in my group seemed to share my feelings: with plenty of emphasis they opined that the visit had been amazing. Are these the kind of people who enjoy going to the zoo?

Day 397: Discovering Halong Bay

Halong Bay has been designated a World Natural Heritage site by the UNESCO, and as such it is one of the biggest tourist magnets in Vietnam. Exploring the bay independently is virtually impossible: it consists of nearly 2000 small limestone islands, so without a boat you don't have much of a chance to see the bay properly. Consequently, there are hundreds of tour operators in Hanoi that offer 1-, 2-, and 3-day cruises. I didn't even bother to compare programs and prices, and just went with my hostel's recommended operator. They picked me up at the hostel in the morning, and after a four-hour drive we arrived at the bay and boarded our boat. The weather was nothing short of perfect, giving us one gorgeous view after the other:

After some cruising and lunch on the boat, we stopped to visit the Surprise Cave. I really loved exploring the cave - small wonder, really, when you consider the spectacular views that each new chamber revealed.

The cave is a dry cave full of tastefully lit stalagmites and stalactites, and a very interesting formation making up the ceiling:

At some points, the cave opened to the outside, creating a wonderful contrast between the yellow artificial light and the blue-white daylight.

After the cave visit, we went kayaking. We started at a nearby floating fishing village and then went around a few of the bay's islands. The guide was setting an ambitious pace - until, about ten minutes in, he suddenly said he had a hole in his boat and would sink if he didn't return immediately. He explained which way we had to go, and for the rest of the kayaking we were guide-less and able to go at our own, much slower pace. At one point, we met this boat that was towing four smaller ones behind - a little like a duck and her ducklings, very cute ;-)

The sun goes down very early in Vietnam at this time of year - it's dark around 5:30 pm - so the sun was already quite low towards the end of our kayaking trip.

After we returned the kayaks, we quickly got on the cruise ship again and went to another island - tea house island, if I remember correctly. This island had a small climbable peak with a pavilion aka tea house on top. This house provided a prime lookout point for watching the sunset. Of course, all the other cruise ships knew about this as well, and so the tea house was really crowded. Nevertheless, I managed to shoot a few nice pictures: 

The view towards the east was quite interesting as well, just to give you an impression of the number of cruise ships in Halong Bay at any given time (and remember, it isn't high season, and many of them were anchoring at tea house island at this point):

The island also had a small beach with a roped-off swimming area, to prevent tourists getting run over by cruise ships, I guess. Swimming in the post-sunset twilight with the moon shining above and the horizon still glowing was magical:

Equally magical was the hot shower afterwards: the ocean was relatively cool, and without a sun to warm me after the swim I was really grateful we had hot water on board.

Day 396: Museums in Hanoi

Hanoi has quite a few good museums to offer, and so today I picked three of them to visit. When I arrived at the Ho Chi Minh museum in the morning, I discovered that the museum is part of a greater complex including his mausoleum and the house where he used to live. I had heard from people in my hostel that Ho Chi Minh was not currently in the mausoleum - apparently he is shipped off to maintenance once a year. I was all the more surprised to find a queue waiting at the entrance to the complex that, after a short wait, was guided directly to the mausoleum entrance:

Seems maintenance was done, and I was lucky enough to see the actual body of Uncle Ho! Visiting the mausoleum was an interesting experience. There were honor guards in white uniforms lining the entrance, the steps up to the burial chamber, and the chamber itself. We were guided through in single file; neither stopping nor photography were allowed. If anyone let the distance to the person in front of him become too big, he was ushered along by the guards. Ho Chi Minh himself looked very much like the pictures you can see everywhere - definitely not like a body that has been dead for more than forty years!

Once out of the mausoleum, the guards finally let everybody wander the complex on their own, and I got to visit the Ho Chi Minh museum. I had read that the museum would be odd, but this in no way prepared me for the reality of the museum's oddness. There were cars that seemed to be crashing through walls, wartime relics, sculptures, video installations and scenes from Ho Chi Minh's youth, all interspersed with lots and lots of letters and documents you could go through. This was only one of the many odd views in the museum:

Oddness aside, the museum was well done and I quite enjoyed visiting it. My next stop after this was the Fine Arts museum. It gave an excellent overview of Vietnamese arts, from its very beginnings until modern times. There was quite a bit of Buddhist art, of course, for example this statue who seems to be scratching his ear:

Among the more modern works, there were many done in lacquer. Next to silk paintings, lacquer work seems to be one of the typically Vietnamese (or Asian) techniques. I learned that lacquer is the extracted sap from the lacquer tree. The paintings done with lacquer are beautiful, often done with gold or silver color on a black background. This lady was therefore a somewhat untypical piece of lacquer artwork, having next to no black in it:

Many of the more recent works in the museum depicted some aspect of the war. This may well be due to the fact that that's what the ruling party decided to exhibit - especially because there were only paintings of glorious acts, or of the population's unwavering support of the wartime effort. Works of suffering and loss weren't really present - at least not that I can remember.

Just opposite the Fine Arts museum was the Temple of Literature. These buildings are said to have housed Vietnam's first university with a history of almost 1000 years. The Temple of Literature was the place people came to to prepare themselves for the national and royal exams that were held regularly. Today, people come here to pray for luck in upcoming exams, and to make pictures on graduation day. My visit seemed to coincide with a graduation day: there were girls in traditional dresses, boys in suits, and photographers carrying huge SLR cameras. I felt like I was walking into somebody's shot with every single step - but it seemed people were already used to that and kept friendly throughout.

The royal examinations were roughly at the level of a doctorate. The names of successful candidates were engraved on stone stelae which were standing on the backs of stone turtles, and then erected in one courtyard of the Temple of Literature. Today, these doctor's stelae are still there:

My last museum for the day was Hanoi's women's museum. The museum had three sections. The first floor explained typical events in a woman's life: marriage, childbirth, family life. Since Vietnam has more than 50 minority cultures, the museum did not only provide explanations for the mainstream culture, but also for several of the minority people, grouped into patrilineal and matrilineal cultures.

Many of the old marriage customs are still practiced today. I found it fascinating to learn more about who joins who's family, and how this exchange is somehow paid for in wedding gifts from one family to the other. Many of the exhibits were traditional wedding dresses, and also samples of the typical gifts exchanged. This, for example, is a mainstream Viet wedding outfit:

The most interesting part regarding childbirth were the different naming customs. In at least two minority peoples, the kid gets a say regarding the name he or she is going to receive. For this, the family relies on a ritual master. About a week after the birth, he is called to do some kind of ritual, and then say the intended name out loud. If the child cries upon hearing the name, a different name has to be chosen. I like the idea of the child being part of the naming decision, but I have slight doubts whether the child can be fully aware of the ritual's consequences at this young age. Plus, nobody bothers to explain the rules, so how should the kid know when to cry?

The second floor covered women in war, and this felt like propaganda again - especially because it had sections for women in both north and south before the war, and women in the north during the war, but conveniently left out women in the south during the war.

The third floor then had an exhibition of women's fashion across all the cultures in Vietnam. Something I didn't know before was that at some point it was considered beautiful for women to apply black lacquer to their teeth, like in this picture:

Today, the fashion has changed and only older women still have black teeth.

The museum's final exhibit was this gorgeous dress, in the typical traditional mainstream Viet fashion. These dresses combine long pants with a top/dress that has slits up to about the hip or navel on the sides. I really like these dresses: they look great, but are also very practical.

Day 395: Hanoi

I used this morning to finalize and send my first job application, and start work on another one. In the afternoon, I strolled around Hanoi's old quarter for a bit. The traffic in Hanoi's old quarter is crazy, especially during rush hours. At any given time, there are hundreds of motorbikes, tens of cars and a few buses competing for space on the relatively narrow streets. The sidewalks are occupied by shops displaying their goods, and by parked motorbikes. So the only option for pedestrians is to join in the space competition and walk on the street. The motorbike drivers seem to be used to the situation, however, and generally avoid running over pedestrians.

Crossing the streets, just like in Saigon, is a matter of simply starting to walk and expecting traffic to part around you. Funnily enough, my guidebook warned to look in all directions before crossing - left, right, front, back - but I have found that looking is almost not necessary and mostly serves to freak me out. So by now I have the routine of barely glancing at the next meter, only in the direction where most motorbikes come from, and then simply walking on. I'm still glad every time I'm not run over, though ;-)

After a while, my wanderings took me to Hoan Kiem lake, a big lake in the middle of the old quarter. The small temple of the jade mountain is built on an islet, and there are nice views of the lake from the temple grounds.

The temple also seems to be a popular spot for older men gathering to play board games - Xianqi, most likely. Just imagine this taking place on the steps of a Catholic church... kinda hard to imagine, isn't it?

Day 394: Hue

After spending five nights in Hue and not really seeing anything of the city at all, I decided to book a city tour today before moving on to Hanoi with a night bus. The tour was especially convenient because many of Hue's sights are located a few kilometers outside of the city.

In the 19th and the first half of the 20th century, Hue was Vietnam's capital and seat of the emperors of the Nguyen dynasty. Many of them had magnificent mausoleums built for them, and these were all located at particularly beautiful or spiritually significant places in the countryside surrounding Hue. We visited three of them during the tour. The first was the tomb of Minh Mang, the dynasty's second emperor. He was apparently very concerned to not let the exact whereabouts of his body be known - the body thereby being 'available' for theft, or so he thought - so that it is only known that he was buried somewhere in an underground palace located in a walled-in area. The total area of his mausoleum encompasses more than 20 hectares!

The next tomb was that of Khai Dinh, the twelfth emperor. Area-wise, it was much more modest: just a hectare or two.

The interior decoration, however, was over the top. Just look at how many pieces of small, painted porcelain were used to decorate the walls:

This extravagance led to much higher building times and cost, of course. Our guide explained that Khai Dinh's son imposed a heavy tax to raise funds and demanded 20-hour days from the construction workers, and many of them died from hunger and illnesses.

After visiting the tombs, we made our way back into the city to visit the citadel. The Hue citadel, I had read before visiting, was modeled after Beijing's famous Forbidden City. I was therefore prepared to see grandeur and magnificence (and a lot of it), but instead, there was this:

Apparently, Hue had been the target of massive bombings during the Vietnam war, and about 90% of the citadel were destroyed. Restoration and reconstruction work is in progress, but expected to be completed only in 2035.

A few of the palaces have already been finished, however, and one of them was the king's mother's palace. To explain the importance of the king's mother, our guide explained the system how the Nguyen emperors chose their wives and successors. When someone became emperor, he initially didn't have a wife, only several concubines - up to a few hundred concubines, according to the guide. The king therefore had plenty of opportunity to produce offspring and potential successors. When he at some point decided to choose a successor, he chose one of his sons and simply married that son's mother. That mother didn't become queen immediately, however: the king's mother was queen. Only when the king died and his son succeeded on the throne did his widow become queen. A visit to the king's mother was therefore highly prestigious and allowed only to select persons. In addition, the king's first action each and every day was to visit his mother's palace to say good morning to her.

Another of the already restored buildings was a temple where the previous emperors were worshipped. The temple had a small altar for each of the deceased emperors, and they were prayed to at different times. Each of the emperors was known for specific qualities - wisdom, patience, etc. - and whenever a situation required one of an emperor's qualities, the current emperor would pray at his altar.

Our last stop was the Thien Mu pagoda, or pagoda of the heavenly lady. It is the oldest pagoda in Hue, and its tower the tallest in Vietnam. It is also occasionally being rained on quite heavily - during the time of our visit, for example ;-)

Day 393: DMZ

My current base Hue is located pretty close to the 17th parallel north - the line along which Vietnam was split into two countries from 1954 to 1975. A 10-kilometer band around the 17th parallel was declared as the Demilitarized Zone, or DMZ. Today I joined a tour to explore the DMZ and a few other wartime relics in the area.

One of our stops was the Khe Sanh combat base - a US base in South Vietnam. Today, the area is used mostly for coffee plantations, but during the Vietnam war it was the site of bloody battles and many lives lost. A museum preserves some of the bunkers and trenches as well as a few old planes and tanks:

Next, we visited the Vinh Moc tunnels. The tunnels are similar to the Cu Chi tunnels, but a lot bigger and more comfortable to move in - I could almost stand upright. They had to be, however: they served as the home of an entire village for several years. The village was relocated to a depth of up to 30 meters because the US somehow believed this village to be in their bombers' way to Hanoi. Consequently, all of the villages activities took place underground for years: there were wells, assembly rooms, schools, and even a maternity ward that today has life-sized puppets illustrating how cramped the space was:

17 children were born in the tunnels. Just imagine - you turn five years old, and the only association you have to daylight is "danger!"

We crossed the Ben Hai river that marked the DMZ twice. There are monuments and Vietnamese flags and a modern bridge today, but back then, our guide explained, there were loudspeakers with propaganda (of both sides), and helicopter patrolling the area.

Our last stop was a cemetery where soldiers killed in the war are buried. The most shocking thing for me was to see the inscriptions on the gravestones: the vast majority of them doesn't bear a name because the body couldn't be identified.

Days 390-392: Hello again, Academia!

So a few weeks ago, I decided I would rejoin academia after my trip. To move things forward, I spent these three days compiling my CV and writing cover letters.

I know, I know: only last year I wrote a lengthy blog post detailing all the reasons why I was running from academia, and now all of a sudden I decide to go back anyway? This merits some explanation, for sure, and I'm going to provide it in this post (feel free to skip the rest of this post if you're only interested in travel-related adventures ;-))

Deciding to go back to academia is a big step, of course. One and a half years ago, I had a number of very good reasons to quit. To make sure I don't run off in a bout of misguided emotion, I'll examine each of the reasons to see what, if anything, has changed (be that the world, me, or my perception of the world).

Mindset

First off, I believe that one basic thing has changed, or is in the process of changing: my mindset. When I decided to leave academia, I was very much in a fixed mindset. What this means is that I believed in the fixedness of talent and intelligence - you'll succeed only if you already have talent or intelligence; there's no way to change either of them. In this mindset, success meant being the best and proving it over and over again, and failure - not being the best - was much too easy to procure in an academic environment.

Now, my mindset is much more oriented towards growth. In the growth mindset, the belief is that intelligence and ability can change if you apply yourself hard and purposefully enough. Success means accepting challenges and learning as much as possible on the way. Failure is simply the failure to learn.

In any area of life, but especially in an academic environment, the growth mindset is much more advantageous because it removes the pressure of having to constantly prove yourself, and allows for the pure pleasure of learning without fear. True, I was always curious and keen on learning new things, but I was also very afraid of being 'found out', and afraid that admitting to not knowing something would mean I wasn't smart enough.

I think my mindset was already changing slowly throughout my trip, but reading the excellent book Mindset by Carol Dweck (amazon) has definitely accelerated this process and improved it by giving me much more information about mindsets and their effects on my life.

Competition for funding and positions, job insecurity

I've decided to give it a shot - or rather, to give it the best shot that I am capable of. I've decided to do research because I love it, and work as hard as I can to do the best I can. As long as people want to employ or fund me for this, excellent! Should that not be the case anymore at some point, I am confident that other opportunities will open up. With a CELTA in my pocket, I could always go teach English in some exotic place, for example.

This doesn't mean that I don't have goals regarding funding and positions, or that I will run from academia again at the slightest hint of difficulty. I am committed to being a scientist, and I want to work hard at being a good one. It just means that the end of academia won't be the end of the world for me anymore - what a freeing thought!

Location insecurity

I've lived nowhere and everywhere for more than a year now, and I'll admit that the idea of a home - regardless where that may be - sounds very appealing right now. If I really do end up in a hideous place, why, I'll find a new position in a nice place! And besides, I'm convinced that there are very few places that are truly hideous - often it is only the mind that makes it so.

Plagiarism

I'm guessing that plagiarism on all levels continues to be a problem, whether it is growing or not. I have an idea what a solution may look like, and I have a Mexican scientist to thank for this insight.

In Mexico, I met a researcher studying tourism. He looked at how tourists behave when they think they're on vacation, and what he found wasn't pleasant at all: most tourists are very condescending and disrespectful. He saw only one solution that might improve the situation of tourism worldwide: education. He admitted that this would be a slow solution, taking more than one generation for sure, but he was certain that it was the only one with the potential to be truly effective.

I believe that the same might be true for plagiarism. So raising awareness, educating students, and being consistent about exposing plagiarism would all contribute to the solution.

Unwavering determination and self-confidence required

Since I want to do research for the love of it, and I am determined to give it my best, that is a big step towards unwavering determination, isn't it? Unwavering self-confidence sounds like a whole other issue, but once you change your perspective from a fixed mindset (I'm the best, I simply have to be) to a growth mindset, self-confidence only requires being confident that you'll be able to learn something in the process - and this I am.

Publication bias, selective reporting, publish or perish, playing it safe

These are all issues concerning publication, and I think they can seriously affect the efficiency of science: publishing only a certain kind of results, filtering data so that a specific outcome seems to result, and publishing a flood of papers with tiny increments all don't contribute to the advancement of science. Unfortunately, researchers often have their best self-interest in mind, not the interest of science or humankind, and so these issues exist.

The solution on a larger scale might be raising awareness and educating (again), but on a smaller scale - i.e., myself - I can start improving things by not playing this game: by being honest and conscientious about reporting my results, and by aiming for quality instead of quantity.

Military applications

This is a difficult area. I think that an important contribution in this area would be raising awareness; researchers outside of the military may be ignorant about the consequences of their research.  For example, if you do research in robotics with the goal of a "search & rescue" robot - a noble goal, wouldn't you agree? - the military can easily turn this into a "search & destroy" version of your work.

What I'd like to look at are the ethical consequences of research projects, and I also think that there should be a discussion how the military can be prevented of using research results to help kill people. Are civil use clauses, patents, or software licenses effective?

Loss of meaning

The most important reason I had to quit academia was a loss of meaning. Nothing I did seemed to be meaningful anymore, let alone a meaningful contribution to the advancement of humankind. So the most important part in me figuring out that I want to return to academia was figuring out how to make it meaningful. My solution is rather simple and, in hindsight, seems really straightforward: I realized that I can tweak my job as a researcher by adding my own focus to it.

For example, I'd like to improve the situation of women in science. And I'd like to make sure that ethical issues are more centrally discussed in my area of research. Concentrating on these issues - women and ethics - would add meaning to my research and contribute to making my life meaningful. In addition, I realized that I have quite a bit of freedom in choosing what I want to work on, and how to work on projects in such a way as to maximize the meaning they give my life.

How did I figure this out?

During the CELTA course in Ecuador, I realized that I love learning and figuring out new things, and that I also love working hard to do the best I can. This made it really clear to me that it wasn't research per se that had made me run from academia, but rather the circumstances.

Regarding the circumstances in which you work, I had many conversations with fellow travelers, and their stories made me realize that the circumstances you have to put up with in industry are very often worse than the ones in academia. Basically, I realized that you have to put up with some amount of crap in any job; it's up to you to decide whether you let it annoy the hell out of you, or whether you work with what you got and try to change the worst of it.

Both of these points, however, left the main issue untouched: the question of meaning. I wanted my work to have some kind of real impact, to improve the world in some small way. Then I read this great article in Psychology Today, entitled "Finding Happiness at Work." It asked readers to ask themselves three questions: what gives me meaning? what gives me pleasure? what are my strengths? In my case, both pleasure and strengths pointed to academia. That left the issue of meaning. A while ago, I had compiled a list of issues that I would find meaningful to work on. At least two of the items on the list were directly applicable to academic settings.

The first item was feminism. If I can work to improve the situation of women in science, work towards more recognition and representation and support for women, then I am working to improve the world.

The second item was ethics. For quite a while I've had the feeling that ethical issues are not really discussed in my area of research, although there are military applications and environmental issues that I feel need to be addressed. So, if I work towards a broader consideration of ethical issues in research and education, then I am working to improve the world.

And this is how I arrived at my new mission statement:

I'll go back to academia, do research, work on improving the situation of women in science, and work to raise awareness for ethical issues.

I have to say, this decision feels almost like coming home after a too-long absence. I can't wait to resume work again!

Day 389: My Son

While Hoi An was the Champa's commercial center, their spiritual center was located about an hour's drive inland, at My Son. To avoid having to share the ruins with huge crowds, I decided to book a sunrise tour for my visit. The tour left way too early, of course, but since ours was the only bus going to the ruins for sunrise, it was definitely worth it.

We were even provided with breakfast in the bus: Vietnamese baguette! Apparently, the Vietnamese learned how to make baguettes during French colonization, and now the most prevalent type of bread in Vietnam is baguette. They didn't stop at reproducing French baguettes, however: they made them their own by filling them with Vietnamese-style meat and herbs and sauce. Definitely a culinary experience worth repeating :-)

When we arrived at the ruins, the timing was pretty much perfect, as you can see in this picture:

My Son was the biggest Hindu temple complex in Vietnam. Unfortunately, US carpet bombing during the Vietnam war has destroyed much. This is the best preserved part of My Son - isn't it a shame?

In addition to US bombings, the site has also suffered because many of the more portable relics found there have been shipped off to museums elsewhere in the country. One of the few statues remaining in My Son is this Shiva statue:

Looking at the quality and detail of the carvings that can be seen on building blocks scattered around the site, the temples must once have been a stunning site.

Today, however, the jungle is threatening to retake its territory and cover everything in green fluff.

In some parts of the ruins, a big restoration project was in progress where the destroyed temples were being rebuilt with intact fragments and new bricks, using the same building technology as in the olden days. So who knows, maybe in ten years My Son will have regained its former glory?

Day 388: Hoi An

After a surprisingly relaxing night in a sleeper bus, I arrived in the small town of Hoi An in the morning. Hoi An was the main commercial center of the kingdom of Champa - a civilization that today exists only as a small minority people in Vietnam.

From the 15th century onward, after the decline of Champa, Hoi An was a major port city, but its importance declined in the 19th century when the river got too shallow for big trading ships due to an accumulation of silt. I'm guessing that this may be the reason why the town has not been ruined by new high-rises and port buildings - there was no economic incentive to build modern industry in a port that wasn't functioning anymore.

Consequently, Hoi An consists mainly of small traditional houses built in an architectural style that mixes Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese elements. The Chinese influence in Hoi An seemed to have been significant: there are assembly halls for five or six different Chinese communities. The Phuc Kien assembly hall is one of them, and the most beautiful of those that I visited:

The inside of the assembly hall's main building was decorated in a way that reminded me very much of my visit to China a few years ago.

To the left and right of the main courtyard were smaller rooms where many of these incense spirals hung from the ceiling:

Each spiral had a yellow card attached to it where people had written messages - mostly asking for things. The ones I could read were pretty shallow, touristy things: good weather, a nice trip, and so on. Most of the cards were in Vietnamese or Chinese, however, and they were probably asking for more significant favors.

Walking on the streets of Hoi An, I noticed again that some parts of Vietnam really cater to Russian tourists. There are signs and restaurant menus either entirely in Russian, or in three to four languages (Vietnamese, Russian, English, and French). I wonder - is this caused by cheap flights available from Russia today, or is it a relic of an old communist friendship?

Some of the traditional houses were open to visitors. This, for example, is Tan Ky house:

The guide who showed us around explained that Hoi An is affected by floods on a regular basis. On one wall, the house had flood markers showing how high the water stood in the past years. The marker on the left-hand side was at about my height and was dated to almost exactly one year ago. A flood like this would have made Hoi An pretty much impossible to visit. Lucky me!

The guide also explained what the inhabitants do in case of a flood: they simply transfer all the furniture to the second floor via a trap door and live upstairs for a while.

Some of the houses had small balconies upstairs that offered nice views of the almost medieval streets:

Day 387: Diving in Nha Trang

The only two things I did yesterday after arriving in Nha Trang was arranging for two dives in the morning, and one bus ticket to Hoi An in the evening. With Nha Trang being the high-rise party town that it is, I didn't really feel the desire to stay longer than absolutely necessary ;-)

The first dive site was quite busy - busy to an extent that I've never seen before. I counted no less than fifteen dive boats anchored at our position! Luckily, we were the first to arrive, so I only noticed the masses of other boats after I got out of the water after the dive.

The dives themselves were beautiful, with lots and lots of coral and reef fish. For much of the first dive, a big trumpetfish swam alongside me - it was amazing to watch how it propelled itself forward with the tiniest of movements. Another thing that was fascinating for me was how much closer I felt to the environment and its inhabitants after the underwater naturalist dive I did for my AOWD certification. What the naturalist dive did was teach me the basic classification of underwater life, some of its characteristics, and the names for some of it. I think it was this ability to identify and name underwater creatures that moved me a big step closer to them, and I really enjoyed classifying them during the dive. For example, I now know that these creatures are called sea squirts - they were very common both in the Philippines and in the dives today.

One thing I've noticed in many countries I've traveled is that many of the locals can't swim. This was particularly absurd in the Philippines where the nearest ocean is never far. But today absurdity got a whole new meaning when I saw these guys:

Apparently people who can't swim nevertheless DO want to dive, and so they get their own personal guide to tow them around. I have to say, I don't really understand. If you're already floating in the water and breathing through a regulator, what is the big difficulty in waving your finned feet around for a bit?


This is the view on the way back to Nha Trang. The blue colors are quite stunning, aren't they? If you look closely, you can see the skyline of Nha Trang in the distance, too: