Vietnam Adventures, Continued

Continuing about Vietnam…

Our next few days were intended for soaking up the sun on the beaches.  However, Vietnam’s rainy season chose to continue into December this year, so instead we enjoyed Netflix a little more than anticipated as the ocean waves looked rather treacherous.  Thankfully, the rain cleared every once in awhile, and we were able to check out a mountain of marble as well as meet Ngan, one of Liban’s friends from MSU a couple times.  We ate delicious seafood and explored a little bit of Danang’s coast and sights with her and another friend.

We’d enjoyed our travels thus far, but the absolute best part was getting to see Courtney & Caleb.  Courtney was one of my OT classmates and is now living in Cambodia, and it was SO GOOD to get to spend time with them and learn about their new lives and adventures.  I am sure she and I are probably the only two weirdoes who have graduated Mizzou’s OT program dreaming of the day we would use our fancy schmancy OT degrees to live in Asia and make no money, and this trip just made me realize how thankful I am that God put us in the same class.  Hearing about their experiences, struggles, and victories was a much-needed encouragement to us, and it came at a perfect time.

One place we were all able to go together was My Son, which is a stretch of ancient Hindu temple ruins built in/around 700 A.D.  It was pretty cool and especially interesting to see the similarities to the temples in India, and it struck me as the type of temple and setting in The Jungle Book, just much, much smaller.  

Even at these beautiful, old temples, there is the tangible presence of the Vietnam War; this is true for the majority of what we saw throughout the country.  Feet away from each of these temples is a 10-20 feet wide crater from the bombings, and the ruins reportedly went from 70 temples to about 20 remaining standing.  

We saw the same remnants of bombing at Vinh Moc, a small town about 20-30 minutes north of the border when the North and South were divided. The entire town of Vinh Moc literally went underground for years during the war.  Children and elderly were often sent to safety further north, but the rest of the citizens used shovels and their hands to dig a network of tunnels that they lived in.  They did so with good reason, as the grass and dirt on top are peppered with craters about every 20 feet from the B-52 air raids.  

Trenches that connected with the tunnels

Filling up a family room in the tunnels

The network of tunnels is a total of 35-ish miles long and is down to three levels deep in places.  The tunnels were tall enough for us to walk in with hunched backs and necks, and I’m grateful the people preserving the tunnels have added electricity because walking around with only one flash light would have been a little scary.  (Coming around the corner to find a statue replicating daily life was at times terrifying on its own!)  

When I read online about the tunnels, I think I was expecting each “family room” (aka totally open room on side of tunnel with zero privacy) to be about the size of a queen size bed.  Instead, it was about the length and width of a loveseat.  Yes, the Vietnamese are a shorter people, but there is no way that 3-4 people inside one of those “rooms” was comfortable.  Liban and I just squatting in one of these rooms was a bit squished.  Realizing that people lived underground like this, children grew up like this, for literally years at a time gave me a new perspective on America’s history.

The Vinh Moc tunnels’ 12 entrances have been rebuilt to accommodate tourists’ statures and withstand weather, but they are spread out all over the area.  Some exit on a hill by the beach, where the townspeople smuggled weapons and resources out to Viet Cong boats, others exit by what was probably once rice fields.  All of these areas are covered in bomb craters.

I cannot think of a single class in my education where the Vietnam War was discussed for more than a few minutes, and even that mainly focused on the protests.  The rest of it was swept under the rug with a discussion of communism and Karl Marx’s theory vs. reality.  (Sadly, I probably learned more about America’s involvement from watching Forrest Gump!)  But it’s interesting--there has to be a better word than that, but it’s all I have now--to go through not one but several museums and read about American Imperialism, read about how the Americans shouldn’t have been involved, see the torture devices and "tiger cages" Americans used for Viet Cong prisoners, see the palace where the American-supported president of South Vietnam surrendered to the North, and walk past “victorious” photos of American pilots being captured and taken to prison.  The amount of propaganda present was also a little eerie and something that cannot be objectively ignored (and made me wonder how much more must be present in North Korea); regardless, I appreciate being able to see another perspective not shown in my high school history books and learning general information.  Unfortunately, I feel just as confused about it all as I did when we arrived in Saigon.

The orchestra/actresses on the left, with the fire breathing dragon puppets in the water :)

To end on a lighter note, we saw a water puppet show in Hanoi, and it was delightful.  Also in Hanoi, we had our only bad meal in-country at the restaurant Anthony Bourdain visited on "Parts Unknown" with Obama.  I feel a little slighted by Bourdain for the bad recommendation...

Vietnam Adventures

Less than a month before we left Missouri, Liban’s travel bug flared up, and he suggested we spend the majority of December traveling in Southeast Asia somewhere.  Who was I to say no?  By the next day we had plane tickets.

At that point we really had no clue as to what Vietnam offered, so we decided 10-11 days was good enough.  (It’s not.) Upon actually researching the country, we quickly realized that although Vietnam is a smaller country, it’s very long and the geography makes traveling by train and bus quite time-consuming.  So, our “things to do” list was halved for sanity’s sake.  

Unlike all of my previous travels, I didn’t really have expectations for Vietnam.  I had places I’d wanted to see, but it’s not a country often depicted in fine art, books, or movies--unless it’s war-related.  As a result, the image in my mind was limited to “jungle, war, beach, tropical weather, Asian city chaos, pho’.”  

I can happily say that it blew away whatever measly expectations I did have, and I loved our time there.  

We started in Ho Chi Minh City (also called Saigon) and met up with a university student who offers free city tours in exchange for meeting foreigners and improving her English.  Liban’s favorite part of traveling is food, and she took us to some great local restaurants which let us experiment with confidence.  We tried snails cooked in a coconut sauce; the downside of this dish being that you suck the snails out of the shells rather than pull them out with fingers or a fork.  I kept hearing Mom’s voice in the back of my mind telling me not to slurp my food, Liban got scolded by a waiter for trying to use a fork, and I ended up placing my thumb at the back hole of the shell to create more suction pressure. . . consequently giving my thumb a hickey.

One thing that surprised me the most throughout our entire trip, but especially in Saigon, is the French influence from its colonial days.  Some of the old French buildings have been kept up to such an extent we thought they were newly built, others are noticeably aging homes with balconies lining the rivers, and yet others have a unique combination of French and Vietnamese styles.  (I realize that most every country was once a European colony, but India has set my sights awfully low in the maintenance of old structures and aesthetics as a whole, so I find this worth mentioning.)

A small city in the mountains, Dalat was our next stop and our only stop said to be “off the main backpacking trail.”  But whoever wrote that either lied or started a whole new trend because the number of westerners proved otherwise.  We had a couple of guys give us a motorcycle tour around the mountains and to a waterfall, all of which were beautiful--although the pouring rain made it for a very chilly afternoon.  We also visited a silk factory where mass amounts of cocoons are attached to and unraveled by machines.  Naturally, this factory also sautees the silk worms to ensure they don’t go to waste, so we each ate one but turned down second helpings!

At a rice wine factory, we tried a couple drops of a rice wine with 65% alcohol content.  (If you need help imagining that taste, just imagine your mouth puckering up yet being on fire for 5 minutes.)  Snake wine is another popular thing in the area, and seeing the cobra with its hood up, ready to strike--inside the massive Mason jar of wine--was definitely cool.  They also had jars of smaller snakes and even one of a Komodo dragon.  Snakes are also a delicacy here, so we saw a rather large, caged boa constrictor whose future is likely the main dish at someone’s party.  I wanted to try the meat, but after looking at the prices on the menus, we decided chicken was more affordable!

Dalat’s main other attraction was its nearby coffee farms.  The farms alone are beautiful because it’s built on the mountainside, but these farms are particularly unique because they use weasels for processing the coffee.  My basic understanding is that the farmers collect the red coffee berries and feed it to their weasels, which are kept in cages surrounded by fairly aggressive guard dogs.  The weasels digest the berry part but not the bean, and the beans are excreted before being cleaned, roasted, packaged, and sold in stores.   I have no idea how someone looked at a weasel’s excrement and said, “hey! Let’s boil this and drink it!” but someone, somewhere apparently did, and now weasels are worth a heck of a lot of money in Vietnam.

All the Little Details: Korea & Japan

One thing I've missed is getting home from a vacation and being able to sit down with my family and flip through ALL the pictures while describing the subjects and telling all our favorite stories.  So this post will be an attempt to do that, with less pics.

Bathroom Business

Yes, I realize this is a weird topic.  But I was seriously impressed.  And it only took a couple days before I decided every country needs to learn from Korea and Japan.

Men's stall in Miryang, South Korea

• The electronic toilet with heated seating and remote-controlled bidet isn't new to me, but I did not expect almost every public bathroom in Korea & Japan to have them.  And, in addition to the motion-sensor flush, some restrooms even had motion-sensor soothing waterfall sounds to ensure auditory privacy and prevent peeing-in-public-shyness. 
• They also had toilet seat sanitizer, which is absolutely more environmentally friendly than the paper covers.  Some also required you to get your TP before entering the stalls--which I guess probably help limit how much is used (or puts you in an awkward situation).
  
• Speaking of environmentally friendly:  in the majority of public restrooms, flourescent lights were on near the mirrors and sinks, but the rest of the lights were off.  The light in each stall turns on only when your stall door is locked.  
• Handicapped bathrooms were genderless, HUUUUUGE, and if there were a hallway to the standard restrooms, the handicapped bathrooms were located immediately before the hall.  This is (weirdly) exciting to me as an OT for many, many reasons:  1) No one without special needs ever uses these restrooms, which means they are actually available and cleaner for those who truly need them  2) No need to struggle with navigating a wheelchair/walking device through a hallway, bathroom line, or around teens doing their hair in the mirror  3) The sliding doors are button-activated, thereby maximizing space and increasing accessibility for all!   Sigh...It was beautiful.
• Parent-friendly:  Men's restrooms (reportedly) have the occasional stall with baby-changing table and/or toddler toilet.  At least one stall in every women's restroom had a high-chair like seat attached to the wall for a 0-2 year old child.  And if there were several stalls in the women's restroom, there was also a little tiny urinal outside the stalls so moms can bring their young boys in with them.  In addition, every single bus and train station, museum, mall, etc. had a nursing room--usually within EACH restroom, but sometimes only within specified ones. I don't even have kids but could appreciate how much they catered to families.

Regional Foods

• Yuna introduced us to honey-butter flavored chips.  They're amazing, and my mouth is watering just thinking of them.  Please submit that flavor to Lays in the next flavor-creation contest.
• Green tea-flavored everything.  I personally don't care for this flavor if it's not the actual liquid in a cup, but Liban was head over heels for green tea ice cream, cake, and KitKats.  There is currently a bag of the KitKats in our fridge--just do not expect Liban to share.  

Robots

• They're not everywhere but are around a lot more than they are in the US.  The robots assist with your customer service needs, take (and edit) your picture at tourist attractions for a fee, and might be your waitress if you go to an expensive restaurant.  (We didn't as we are cheap).
• At Miraikan, one of Tokyo's science museums that focuses on the new innovations, we saw a robot that imitated the human body quite closely.  Between "her" eyebrows raising up and nose twitching, hand gestures, and skin that is a little squishy like human skin, it was a little bit weird and futuristic.
• The same museum had a Honda robot that has more motor skills than some of my previous OT clients. It could do sign language to a song, kick a ball at a target, and hop on one foot.  I predict a connection between this and helping kids with autism learn gross motor skills in physical therapy. 

Random Thoughts

• Why ALL the photos are of only me:  Liban uses his phone to take approximately 10 photos a year, but put him on vacation and he turns into a professional photographer and refuses to be the subject of 95% of the photos I attempt to take of him.  While traveling, he decided he "needs" a Go-Pro and a drone to continue his newfound (*temporary*) passion.  So, Mom, there's his Christmas list for the next 3 years.
• Did we like the food in Korea? YES.  The spice, the kimbap=all delicious. Did we like the food in Japan? Yes, for a few days.  Then we drooled on every street that had an Indian restaurant because we really really missed our masala.
• South Korea is OBSESSED with coffee shops.  Near transport hubs, there might be 8 coffee shops lined up next to each other with nothing in between.  
• Japan's koi ponds are picturesque, and I want one.  
  
• Most neighborhoods have these random little outdoor "gyms."  I played on a few to try to understand the physical benefit but found none other than momentum and balance.  At one point, we sat and watched a middle age lady on one because her legs were basically flying.
  

First, Next, Then?

I'm a planner.  I always have 30 or so "next steps" in my head.

For example:
-At the end of the month, we are visiting Vietnam
-Then Thailand
-Then back to Chennai
-Then to Delhi to see Vickie & Anurag. . . and bargain in broken Hindi for sarees at Sarojini
-Then back to Chennai
-Then to the US in January
-Apply for renewal of greencard & my new Indian visa status
-Work a travel OT job approximately Jan-April
-Receive green card & Indian visa
-Head immediately back to Chennai
-Apply for adoption in India (Finally!)
-Buy all the little girl things because Liban finally might let me
-Wait on the emotional roller coaster until we receive specifics
-Go meet little girl and be a teary mess
-Bring little girl home and Skype everyone

It's bad, I know.  
Liban's the total opposite and my planning or "dreaming" often just makes him (lovingly) roll his eyes.  But I can't help it.  I took a Strengths test in college, and "futuristic thinking" is essentially my number one strength.  It's great:  I always have dreams and goals and strive to achieve them.  But just because I've stared at maps and planned 29 tentative backpacking trips around Europe doesn't mean I expect all of them to come true.  God's been gracious enough to give me the gift of adapting these dreams and goals based on circumstances, and that allows me to be functional!

Why do I tell you all of this? Well, ever since we planned to come to India, there was basically only the unknown, and sometimes that is tough.  We prayed God would close the doors to the finances, the timing, to Chennai, to housing, etc. if us coming here was not in His Will.  But no doors seemed to close.  Yes, the summer was chaotic:  moving out of our duplex, understaffing at work, my wreck, car shopping due to said wreck, other car struggling to survive, family health issues, and my grandpa passing away.  At one point in the midst of all that, I wondered if God was saying "no."

But He provided a rental until He provided a reliable, affordable car at a lot.  He provided a buyer for Liban's non-highway-driveable car 45 minutes after it was posted on Craigslist.  God arranged every piece to fall into place so that we could move into our (huge) apartment the day we landed in Chennai, which was the day after he moved out.  And on top of all that, the day I realized our Korea/Japan trip was going to be significantly more than we'd budgeted for, I got the email from the insurance company quoting more than I expected to receive.  (Thanks for all the sushi, Farm Bureau! I still wish I could carry a backpack without my cartilage popping in and out, but I'll take what I can get.)

He's been good, and He will continue to be good.  He's had a plan and He knows the future.  So, I just ask that you pray with us as we wait to learn our next steps in His timing.

-Discernment in our current job hunting for those few months in the US
-Wisdom and clarity in whatever-Liban-is-supposed-to-do-work-wise when we return to India
-Learning Tamil, and patience while doing so
-Discernment in partnering with ministries (or not?) as an OT? English tutor?
-Speed and peace within the green card/visa processes
-Favor and smooth sailing within everything adoption-related
-My "grandma" Barb as she is battling cancer & everyone else as they are hurting during this time

Settling In

Almost 2 weeks ago, we flew from Tokyo back to Malaysia, where I watched Liban sleep for 6 hours (because sleeping on Air Asia airplanes is the worst, excluding the Royal Air Maroc planes that have duct tape around the emergency exit windows.)   Then we had a short flight to Kerala, which is where Liban spent most of his summers as a kid.

The city of Kochi is like a typical Indian city, with just a little more space to breathe.  But we spent a couple days meeting relatives in rural Kerala, and it was pretty neat to see the more tropical, local side of India. For example, Liban's uncle showed us around the family rubber tree farm and how they remove the sap.  I wanted to see how sticky it was because it looks like Elmer's glue, but Liban wouldn't let me, nor would he let me poke it with a stick.

We stayed with Liban's uncle's family one night, and the two little girls in the family were so excited to have me stay with them. They were so excited that they literally said nothing to me, just stared at me.    (I wish I could say this is because I'm super cool or gorgeous, but it's just because I'm white. At one point, they also each reached up and gently touched my hair to see if it felt like theirs.)  Eventually, we went to a toy store and bought some Legos and Chutes & Ladders so that we could do something other than stare at me. We had quite a bit of fun after that.  In the morning, the girls made sure I walked them out to meet the "school bus" (an SUV of 12+ children), and the whole bus burst out in giggles at the sight of me.  

Other random thoughts:  The houses in Kerala are generally HUGE for Indian standards and occasionally also for American standards.  There is also space in between the buildings, which I didn't really know was possible to have within an Indian city.  Kerala also has red bananas, which are regular banana-colored on the inside but have red peels. 

This next picture is just something we saw on the way from one village to another.  The super curvy roads didn't have a ton of traffic, so we were going fairly fast (for Indian roads).  I kept waiting (and hoping, just a little bit) for the truck to tip over towards the right.  I just wanted to see what the cows would do with their heads straight up in the air. . .




After our week in Kerala, we finally arrived in Chennai, got our keys, and began the process of moving into our apartment.  We started with 2 carry-ons' and 3 suitcases' worth of stuff, and now we have a mostly-furnished kitchen, washing machine, internet, and actual furniture.  Overall the apartment is really nice and overlooks a park-to-be, which is currently a dirt plot used for soccer practice and/or cows to chill out.  The apartment is also absolutely way bigger than what we actually need, which means 1) you should probably come visit us 2) we need a dog, and 3) I'm even more ready to adopt a little girl.

Japanese Villages

Our backpacking trip is beginning to end:  we are finally in our last destination before beginning the flights home.  

We also know this because, as pretty as they are, we don't want to see anymore temples for awhile.

Indoor firepit with fish "grilling"

One of my favorite things we have done so far was "for our anniversary" (the only way to convince Liban it was worth the money).  We stayed in a traditional Gassho-style ryokan for a night.  (Interpretation:  a traditional home in a village with a thatched roof, sliding screen doors that turn open spaces into individual rooms, an open fire pit in the middle of the living room floor for warmth, and a family that still lives there.)  The village of Ainokura itself is being preserved by locals for both their homes as well as tourism, and there are about 20 houses in the village, 12 of them in the Gassho-style.  We'd visited other places with similar homes, but not with the remoteness, quietness, or tourist-less-ness, so it was quite a treat.  We literally spent most of the day sitting on benches and looking at the mountains, the village below us, and waterfalls.  The other part of the day we spent eating and getting to know the other guests in the ryokan.  It was lovely.

Then we went to Kanazawa, where we relaxed on a mostly-empty beach and drooled over the antique, totally unaffordable Kutani pottery.  We toured the neighborhood where all the samurai used to live and saw one of the remaining houses with sketched paper screens and a backyard garden to die for.  My favorite activity was probably touring the Myouryuji Temple.  Temples were often used as a protection for palaces and a dwelling in addition to being a place of worship.  In this temple, we got to see hidden staircases and secret passageways as well as techniques samurai used to both hide and attack.  I'd post pictures, except that we were not allowed to take any!

I want a backyard garden like this, please.

After all that, we came to Tokyo on the overnight bus and arrived early this morning.  There is an disaster training center that has an earthquake simulator, so we went there.  Because our tour group consisted of mainly 60+ year old Japanese men, Liban and I were chosen to be the "models" of how to follow instructions.  Never mind that the instructions were given in only Japanese!  They had us sit at a table and when we felt the ground shake to move under the table and hang onto the legs.  So we did, and it wasn't so bad.  Then she told us she was turning it up, and we experienced what a 7.0 earthquake would be like.  It was a lot more movement than I expected. Then she said, "now wait, BIG earthquake now" and demonstrated a 9.0.  I could hang onto the table but my knees were sliding back and forth about 6 inches with every shake and I felt like I had no control.  It was crazy, and coming from a part of the US where we hardly ever have earthquakes, I now have a much greater appreciation of them and understanding of the destruction they can cause.

Going to the National Museum of Modern Art was really interesting, too.  I'm familiar with many styles and mediums in modern art, but I haven't seen those styles done by Japanese artists using Japanese subjects.  That was cool, and I don't know why American art museums don't show this progression within their "Asian art" section that usually consists of calligraphy and watercolor bamboo/samurai paintings. 

Finally, we ended our evening by having dinner with Yumi.  Yumi is one of my sister's best friends from college, and she spent a lot of weekends at our house.  It's been 8 years since I saw her last, and it was so good to catch up, introduce her to Liban, invite her to India, and have a delicious seafood dinner.  

Backpacking In Japan

Backpacking through South Korea was kind of a dream.  I got to see friends and students I hadn't seen in years, and overall, I just fell in love with the country, the scenery, the affordability, and the food. (Minus that octopus).  

And then came Japan.  I'd dreamed about coming to Japan as a kid, but I haven't written about it much because there were times when I wondered if I would like it at all.  THAT is something I don't like feeling because it makes me feel super snobby and seems like I don't appreciate this opportunity to travel, and, yes, I realize most of the world will be headed to work in the morning and not to a little ancient village just for the fun of it.  So, if the above statement offends you because you are doing horrible charting processes at the hospital or changing the 15th diaper of the day, I'm sorry, and please forgive these run-on sentences and feelings.

But, thankfully, it turns out I do like Japan; I just do not like Osaka!  Osaka felt kind of like NYC, which is a "one and done" place to visit for me. It's crowded, it's expensive, and the things to do there are mostly city-things like shopping and looking out from the highest floor of buildings.  Hordes and hordes of people were in all markets, shopping centers, and metro stations.  For some reason, this doesn't faze me at all when I"m in India, but in Japan, it puts me on sensory overload and I pull Liban's hand and give him the "get me away from here now" look.  Thankfully, there were some quieter neighborhoods, and I quite enjoyed those; and of course, there was sushi.   Some of the other highlights were the aquarium where we got to see whale sharks and ginormous sting rays and Liban's first ride on a Ferris wheel.

Nearby Osaka is Nara, a small town with a couple cool temples and a really, really big Buddha.  There are also "semi-wild" deer all over town that you can feed and pet with a little caution.  Now, it's not a petting zoo, and they are still deer and so once or twice we saw them fighting over the food or territory, but it was still cool to see them roaming everywhere.  I couldn't help but wonder what all the Midwest hunters would think in a place like Nara!

Kyoto is a little city about 30 minutes away, but we are the geniuses that got on a train we didn't have a pass for, were not allowed to exit the train station, and had to turn back around and get on the correct train.  So when we finally got there, at least we had fun exploring.  The temples and shrines in Kyoto are gorgeous and unique compared to other areas. It's one of the more traditional towns, and so a lot of tourists were wearing kimonos (traditional dress) while they wandered about the old parts of town.  But then at the end of the day, we walked around the old town in search of some geisha and were able to see two briefly.  That made me giddy, but Liban just doesn't think they were as great as the bullet trains.

Near Hiroshima is Miyajima Island, with its famous Itsukushima Shrine.  It is surrounded by dry land during low tide and by water during high tide, which is supposed to give it a floating effect.

And then we went to Gifu, where there are beautiful mountains and an amazing view from a castle.  The town is known for its traditional cormorant fishing.  PETA would hate it, and I'm not really sure how humane it is, but basically, the fisherman go upstream and tie small ropes around cormorant ducks' necks, then toss them in the water.  The ducks swim and pull the boat towards the fish. I don't really understand the rest of it, but I do know that having a ball of fire as a lantern on the front of a little canoe makes it a fascinating thing to watch!

Now, we are in Takayama, another little city in the mountains.  There's not much to write about here as we've just been roaming around enjoying the old traditional houses and views.  Overall, we are just glad that there are maps and signs around town in both English and Japanese because Gifu's did not. . . . and we tend to be a happier couple when there are English signs!