Leaving for Shangri-La(Not really but it sounds great)

In about two weeks, I will be on a jet plane going back to Vietnam for the umpteen time(as someone else told me), but somehow the enthusiasm hasn't lessen.

I will begin in Saigon(HoChiMinh City). There are several people I will visit in HCM. After that, I will fly to BuonMaThout, where I will visit one of my VNese sons who recently married. I look forward to drinking lots of "cafe" at the local coffee shops, one of which is owned by Hung, the man I am visiting. I first met Hung in 2002 but connected with him through email because he wanted help learning English. We have kept in touch ever since but haven't always been able to see him while in Vietnam.

Then I plan to take the bus north to Plieku and KonTom. This area not heavily traveled by tourists and more rural and ethnic in population. Actually this started out to be the main reason I was returning to Vietnam as one of my former Vietnamese students(Tommy Nguyen) here in Portland wanted to start a nonprofit for the people who live in this area and he asked me to go with him. But in the planning, he had conflicts so now I am going alone. I plan to try to explore some of the area even though I have been told that the local police and gov't officials are not very receptive to tourists or foreigners. Because of this, it might not be easy to see much. This is quite a poor area where lots of people have no water supply and little shelter or food. This is the reason for the nonprofit idea, so I am still going to see what I can learn.

After this, I go to DaNang, where I will fly to Hanoi. In Hanoi, I plan to volunteer with Global Volunteers at a local high school. I did this in 2008 too. After that, I plan to take the bus to Nanning China. I will travel to Guilin and Yangshou, ending up in Kunming, where I will volunteer at a school for two weeks. After that, I will somehow get to Xian where I volunteered before. I plan to reunite with a few teachers and two students that I have been in email contact with. After that, I will travel to HongKong, and stay a few days in HK because I plan to visit with two volunteers that live there.

Finally, I will come home on Jan. 12.

Recently, I had dinner with two former students that I taught in 1981-82 at Gregory Heights. They both live in the Portland area and recently we reconnected. They were some of the first VNese students to come to Greg. Hts. and I remembered them well. There was no ESL then, just integrated into the regular classroom. They have turned out great. So they took me out to dinner one Saturday night with their families where we spent a lot of time reminising about the good old days.







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We are in our second week now at Queretaro. This morning Arturo greeted us with his familiar smiling face. I thought he must be tired getting up so early to drive us most morning. At school, we were met by Gerrando, who we had not worked with yet. His class had made signs for us which were taped to the wall. In my group the students had prepared questions which were very thoughtful in nature. Several questions or answers surprised me. One student told me she would like to learn Mandarin, another Japanese. A girl who wants to own her own gym, asked how could she practice English more. Gerrando, the teacher, was so very complimentary to us, saying again and again how much he appreciated and enjoyed our visits. In his other class, Gerrando again had prepared his class. Each student not only tried to ask a different question but they also had name tags which was very helpful to me. One male student surprised me by saying he had 2 children. I have had mothers in my class but this was my first father that I am aware of. We taught in Daya's room too. In her class, the students had only parts of a question that had to be transposed into a correct grammatical sentence. All the questions were related to the topic of World Traveler. It was also a good activity but the students had difficulty composing the correct question. On student told me about a great book he was reading called "Hitler's Ovens", if I remember the title correctly.

At the end of the day, Diego was kind enough to give us a ride home. He drove a different way which took us by the arches of the city. Also, Diego shared his connection to Oregon, his thrill of driving a manual shift car, and politics.


I didn't sleep well last night, maybe the coffee was not decaf.. ha!

No rain this morning as we waited for Arturo. He was slightly late, maybe traffic is heavy this morning. At school, we had two new teachers, Lalo and Richardo. Diego, our other teacher didn't show for his 9:00 am class. In Richardo's class, I used the 3 X 5 cards with my group asking them to write down their name and one thing they like to do in their free time. It worked well, and Richardo liked it too. One boy in the group belongs to a track club and enjoys running. I thought this was quite interesting as I had not heard about this with any other student. I took lots of group photos which will be a nice memory.

In Lalo's class, we had to discuss natural cures and remedies of minor problems, like headaches. It was quiet interesting. I found my group the most advanced in English so far, and this was a group of all boys. Now, sometimes I didn't understand their English but they were confident to speak and understood what I said. One topic that came up was diabetes. A boy in the group was diagnosed with diabetes two years ago and said that he used a natural remedy, but I am not sure what it is.

At lunch time, I ordered two tacos from the cafeteria, then went outside and sat with two teachers who do not work in the English department. One was a math teacher. They gave me lots of suggestions for places to visit in Mexico. I told them about my weekend visit to Pozos and Guanajuato. I also talked with some students who showed me their video commercial they had made about Alka-Selzer. It showed them drinking, then getting sick and finally Alka-Selzer being the cure. It was very well done.

During my free hour, I went to the TIC building, found Gonzalo, a teacher I had met two years ago. We made a plan to meet later in the week. Walking back and forth to class today, I stopped several times to say hello to former students that I had met during the week. They all greeted me so pleasantly and for the most part I could call them by name. I think it is important for them to know that I value my contact with them during this two weeks. For some, it could be the spark to stay in school, to study English more, or to just get small window of information about life outside their world.

Wednesday started normal. I had a good night's sleep. Arturo had on his UTEK jeans and blue jeans' shirt. At school we were met by Diego who took us to our first class, even though another teacher was scheduled. Once in the room, Jean, my teaching partner was moved to another room to teach, which makes it better as sometimes the noise level is too high especially if the students are speaking softly. Now, I am speaking to faces that look more familiar, like Oscar who I had spoken with yesterday near the cafeteria. I also saw Alex on the way to class who I gave my email to because he wanted to chat with me. Most of the time in my groups I have been just asking them to introduce themselves and tell me something they like to do in there free time. Sometimes, I get surprised, like the boy who likes Tai Wan Do which I found out he takes it at the school. I try to get the students to talk as much as possible and I try to limit my information unless asked. I find that once I can get them to relax a bit, they will make more of an effort, but I also try to remember to be patience. In one class, Chello's, she only sent three students each to talk to us in the cafeteria. This was different than any of the other teachers but I like the variety. It worked out good as these students would have been lost in the large group.

At lunch, I again ate tacos from the cafeteria. Then I looked for Jean as we were going to have a Spanish lesson. After a while, I remembered that the lesson was going to be in the English building, not in the cafeteria. Then, I couldn't find Jean, so I thought maybe she was there already. When I got to the teacher's room, I found Bernice but there was so little time, so we just visited. In the afternoon we had class with Esperanza. I had a larger group of boys, maybe twenty. It took me a while to get them on track, with quite a wide range of speaking ability. In the end, we played Simon Says. Several thanked me even though we ran over ten minutes.


After we got back to the hotel, I walked to the market to buy tangerines and bananas for our Thursday party. It is a huge market and like a network of puzzles interlaced. When I did find the produce, there seem to be mostly oranges but I bought something. On the way home I spied another interesting coffee shop for later. Later that day, we went to dinner at place that has very nice art work on the wall and a dance studio. Thursday,We woke up to torrential rain. Maybe it is because of the hurricane Alex. Our major project was to make sure all the party food arrived at the school safely. Pam had bought the pastries the day before, plus some accrouterments, and the rain was posing a minor hindrance for the final farewell leg of a great two weeks. Once at the school, Pam went to the Teacher's room to prepare the food, while Jean and I walked with Bernice to the class. We had three classes with Bernice. Each class had prepared some questions using past tense. The questions were interesting and thoughtful. Many students thanked me which reinforces my wonderfully positive experience here. At eleven, Jean and I walked back to the party room. Most of the teachers were there and it was a nice time to kibitz with them. I offered a short and informal speech to the school for Global Volunteers. It was a nice time to have more time to speak to all the teachers. The butterflies were a big hit. I took some photos of the teachers. The teachers gave Jean and I a nice cap with the school's name . I left a little be before noon, as I had arranged to met Alex, a student I met in one of my first classes. Alex is seems to represent the typical young man in Queretaro, very intelligent, thoughtful, and a great host. We talked about many things. He wants me to come back to visit him at his house and met his family. I would love to do this. His main concern was about what Americans think of Mexicans. He worried that all Americans think bad of Mexicans. I was really blown away with this question. I assured him that all Americans did not think horrible things about his country or the people, yet some probably are prejudice. The topic of immigrant didn't really come up. I worried that I had said all the right things. After an hour, we ended our conversation with an wonderful embrace, and as I looked at him, I could see his eyes tear up. I felt the same way. I know I am only one person with one point of view, but that made my trip. Simple yet very powerful communication with one student.


Later, I had one more class with Bernice and then we made our final voyage back to the hotel. Now, most of the rain had stopped. Tomorrow we are lucky and have a free day.
Portland is only days away. Ha!


This morning I was picked up by Gonzalo, a teacher on networking at UTEK. He had his two sons in the back seat. We then went to the Grandparents house to get Lucy, his wife. From there Gonzalo drove to his son's school for the Kindergarden Graduation. Twelve five year old students were given diplomas with some Mexican songs and the Mexican national flag salute. Afterwards, it was inside for a slide show with music depicting all the students throughout the year in different activities. A lot of crying on this last day by the girls, the boys were all non emotional about the final farewell. Next, it was on to breakfast and a very nice bowling alley and playground for kids. Inside, the adults watched the World Cup, eat, and talk, while the kids played in a secure area. I even talked politics with Gonzalo, without worrying about what he would think. I thought it was really genuine kindness and hospitality on his part to do this today for me, as he is quite busy and was going to work at the school this afternoon. I will keep in contact with him and hope to repay him in some way. This morning just reinforced my final thoughts regarding my experience here.

Adios Mexico.... hasta luego!!!

Luang Prabang

Dec. 9

The 6 hour car ride from Muang Khua to Luang PraBang went according to our plan agreement, which is a surprise in itself. I thought for sure he would pick up a few more people as it is pretty unusual to travel in this country with empty seats!! In fact, he only stopped about 30 minutes for lunch at a local street restaurant where we had rice and chicken. I did pay for his lunch which wasn’t that much and a way of tipping him.

In Luang PraBang, we(Thanh and I) tried to have the driver drop us off at the guest house I had found in guide book. But the driver didn’t seem to be able to find it and rather than waste his time and gas, I told him to just let us out. It was about 3 pm, so plenty of daylight and I thought we could ask someone, which would save us from walking around too much, plus carrying our bags. We found a coffee shop by the Mekong river, and relaxed for a bit. Then, Thanh asked someone and he told me to wait while he looked for the guest house. So off Thanh went, and I thought he would be back in about 15 minutes or so. Well, I waited, and waited, and waited. After about 45 minutes, I was thinking this isn’t good. What could have happened? I did have his mobile number, but that was all. Finally, he returned. He never did find the guest house we had chosen, but did find another one. In fact, he had checked out several, trying to get a good price. They were all about 8-10 USD. But the one we stayed at was on a main street, with a nice big room, two beds, cable TV, and a decent bathroom, plus a good lock on the door.

Luang PraBang is a UNESCO world heritage site. This is probably the one city in Laos that gets the most tourists. There are a number of Pagodas and Buddhist monks that live here. Monks are generally young men or boys that devote any number of years being a monk, then go back to regular life. There was a National Museum that I visited to that was very interesting, which contained lots of art, photos, furniture, and artifacts from the early history of Laos. You have to take your shoes off more in Laos almost everywhere. For example, in the guest houses, your shoes stay outside. I always worry that someone might steal mind, but they most have small feet. Ha!

On one of the main streets, there is a night market. This market is several blocks long and every night they setup. They sell most everything, from food to clothing to jewelry. And you can bargain too. But I just like to look for a bit. The crowds of people, lots of other Asians from Japan or Korea, seemed to checking out the market.

One night, we walked through the buffet night market. Food sitting out in pots everywhere, even a vegetarian buffet area. Well, we finally decided to eat a small corner street stall. They cleaned a table for us and ordered some pork and rice, and vegetables-not sure what kind, but they were green. The food was ok, but the flying ants disturbed me. I kept knocking them off my arm and trying to keep them off the food. Unbeknown to me, Thanh was almost out of Kip-Lao money. So then he tells me this after we have ordered the food. I had tried to use the ATM machine early, but I couldn’t get any money, but I thought I had enough. I could use my US dollars, but better to save them for backup. Thanh did have some VNese Dong, which he then went to change for Lao Kip. Again, I waited for him to come back, not knowing exactly where he had gone or when he would be back. Now, I had eaten the food, so I had to sit there until he got back. Now, the people in Laos are pretty laid back. They just let me sit there without asking me about paying or taking up space for others. Thanh did return with Kip so then we paid and walked back to the hotel.

Earlier, when I tried to use the ATM, a young woman tried to help me. She spoke good English but looked Asian. I then asked her where she was from. She said USA. Portland , Oregon. Smalll world!

I will write about my one day of trekking next... I wrote this after getting home. 


Dec. 8-9

Dec. 8-9
In Muang Khua, we found a guest house that was near the river. Well, actually, the whole town or village is near the river. Not sure of the population, maybe 1,000. When we checked into the guest house, we just ask the price, look at the room, then agree to stay. Next they hand you the key. You never sign in, or do they ask for your passport. Nothing! Very different than Vietnam. And we stayed two days, then we have find them to pay. Very laid back. The room was ok, about $8 USD. The only problem was the rooster crowing to his friends, starting about 3 am. Other than that, the whole town is very very quiet. You can walk though the whole area in about an hour. On game, they like to play is a French game with a cue like ball. You throw or roll the ball down a gravel like alley or lane, trying to get close to a center pin. I would call it a cross between bowling and horseshoes. Maybe closer to horseshoes.

We had dinner with a Polish couple that we met on the bus. Actually, we ate with them in Diem Bien too. They were going to take the boat down river the next day, but I wanted to stay another day, so I haven’t seen then since, but she took my email, so hopefully I will here some day.

The next day, I checked out the slow boat ride to the next town, in route to LuangPrabang. The way this works is several people go together, and so that keeps the price down generally. But then sometimes you have to wait several days before you enough people. I didn’t really want to do that, so we later found a private car who wanted to defray his costs of driving back to Luang Prabang empty. At first he wanted to charge $35 but then agreed to $25 which was a great deal. I was actually afraid it was too good of a deal.. It turned out fine.

The countryside here is mostly mountains everywhere. I not sure of the name but roads all go through the mountains or over the mountains. The terrain is full of trees and greenery but I haven’t seen many animals or birds. A few rivers. Where there are small villages, then are located right on top of the main road. I am sure many people get hit or killed by the traffic. The traffic isn’t heavy, like in Vietnam, but moderate. One thing is they don’t honk their horns much.

Next I will try to write about my one day trek....Say a special prayer for my father... he is not good..



Dec. 4- Bus Ride from Vietnam

Dec 4

I know I am behind. I think you will understand after reading this.
Friday morning, we left Diem Bien Phu, Vietnam for Laos by bus. The ticket cost about $4.50, and it was supposed to be about 6 hour trip. At the hotel in Diem Bien, the receptionists told us it was difficult but I “thought” she was just uniformed or trying to get us to stay in Vietnam, after all this border has been open for more than 2 years..

The bus was scheduled to leave from the local station at 5:30 and because we hadn’t bought our ticket yet, we needed to go early. We bought the ticket and saw that there were only 2 others signed up to go, even though it was a 26 passenger bus. We found the bus, got our seats and stored our bags inside the bus. This bus was really more like a shuttle bus at the airport and was already filled with many boxes. I thought maybe they don’t worry about the number of passengers because they are hauling so many boxes. Well, unbeknown to me, this was only the tip of the iceberg. More passengers began to come and more boxes. Soon, not only were there lots of passengers but tons of boxes-I am not exaggerating. Finally, can some heavy machine parts. Now some of these were put inside and above. If any of these rolled or fell, hitting you, it would be “curtains” for sure-no safety. The back of the bus sagged so low I thought we would never get out of the station. What had a sign on for now!! It look like a death trap for sure.

Around 6 am, we pull out. Now it is 35 KM to the border and road is paved but single lane. The bus seems to be holding up ok, but I can hear things rolling around. There are 4 other tourists passengers on the bus too, who I had met last night, but we really couldn’t talk because of how we are sitting. Going to the border, even thought I thought we were beyond saturation, along the way, I am thrilled to see the driver, stopping at every local village, finding new passengers and boxes. There is no Limit!!

The road to the border gradually gets narrower and narrower, but the bus chugs along. Then one local colorfully dressed woman starts to go into hysterics. I am not sure what she is saying but I learn that she has left her passport or legal paper work in home, so now she wants the driver to turn around. Wow! The bus driver make a calls-yes, he is using this cell phone while driving.

We arrive at the border. I am now sure how this will go but I got my Visa already so it should be a breeze. Everyone gets off the bus and into a line where a VNese immigration official is pressing some sort of temperature instrument to the passengers forehead. He is checking for swine flu!! No one is sick, and I am not sure what they would do if anyone was sick. I guess they just deny them entry.

This crossing go fairly smoothly as we are there only business. I talk to the immigration officers who have nothing to do-bureaucracy at its best!! One offers to exchange my VNese Dong money for Lao Kip. Of course this is all under the table and at a good rate for him. But I do it as we need some local currency. Now, I have to start thinking about costs in a different currency. Always some adjustment. The bus and passengers go about 6 km where we go through much of the same rigamarole(??) except that this time the border officials scan the bus for “terrorists materials”. I am not sure how they would get anything out of this “sardine can”... but luckily, that isn’t an issue. A Lao official tells me that it about 6 more hours to Muang Khua, which is my end destination, which turned out to be fairly accurate but that only tells one small part of the story.

This last 6 hours were the most horrendous of any bus ride I have ever been on. I know my guardian angel was working overtime and beyond. I thought I could easily die. Many times I just wanted to get out and go back, even though we were in the middle of no where. The road was really a gravel path, constantly climbing through a morass of heavy green landscape with no signs of life. Sitting next to the window, I could see only mountains and jungle. The obstacles on the road were always a challenge too. Sometimes the bus would just ford across a shallow stream because there was no bridge. One time, we had to all get out and walk across a suspension bridge, while the bus driver drove through empty. Luckiy the suspension bridge was not too high or difficult, otherwise I would have been stuck there. Ha!! Of course, the bridge did sway, and I saw some of the thin planks cracking from the footsteps of a fellow passenger ahead of me and he was much lighter in weight than me. Ha! So, I crossed with gingerly and praying the whole time. Another time, the bus stopped because of a landslide and there was a bulldozer clearing a path. We must have sat for over an hour. Finally, the road was wide enough, so the driver proceeded slowly and carefully(thank god he was a good bus driver) I really wanted to get out and walk but I didn’t. The road seemed like soft clay and bumpy but we inched forward, swaying all the way. I thought someone just sneezing would put us over the edge-And I mean edge-because, from where I was sitting , it was straight down. Death for sure. No one on the bus was speaking. My silent prayer mantra was racing in my head. I think I have used up all of my 9 lives on this trip.

As we continued to drive on, the road seemed to always continue to climb. I thought it would never end. Finally, we there was a decent, with some small villages along the roadside. Sometimes the driver would stop to load or unload people or boxes. When we got to our destination, there was suppose to be a ferry to take up across the river, but for some reason no ferry. We then had to use this long boats which worked ok.

I was now at Muang Khua, which is only a small village, but few guest houses. More about this later..

I hope everyone is good. Special “Hello” to my Father.. I am praying for you. Love Roger

Dinner and School.

Nov. 30, Vietnam Time

Yesterday, I went to Mr. Thanh’s place for dinner. He rents one room, that adjoins a much larger house. The main residence has about 5 or 6 rooms that they rent out. His girlfriend, Miss Hang, rents another room next to his. This room is about 45 minutes from his travel office in the Old French Quarter of Hanoi. I rode on the back of his motorbike to get there. I am really used to the traffic now after so many visits but Thanh is a great driver too. Before cooking dinner we go to the local market. This is a big open metal building that has about 100 venders inside selling meat, vegetables, flowers, you name it. Lots of flies hovering over the meat. The fish come in all sizes and colors. The vegetables and fruit look good; lots of fruit unique to S.E.Asia. One fruit I like it dragon fruit and here is very sweet and huge. Thanh asked me if I would eat buffalo tongue. I said “sure”. I have had cow tongue before.

I rest and watch TV while Thanh prepares dinner. The kitchen counter is really the floor with two propane burners. After about an hour or more, dinner is ready. Soup, fish, meat, rice, and fruit. Food enough for 10 but there are only 4 of us. I think they think I eat a lot. Ha!! Oh, and I forgot beer. We eat sitting Indian style on the floor, which is the hardest part for me. I cheat and use the wall for support. The soup is very tasty. I think the vegetable is a type of turnip. The fish is very good too, but small bones, so constantly picking them out. The tongue is good, dipped in nuoc man sauce(sp?), and constantly washed down with beer. I am always amazed at how little cooking equipment they have, yet can put together such a great dinner. Of course, the weather now is helping too as you don’t have to sweat through the whole meal. But the local people think it is cold here. So far , perfect for me.

Going back into Hanoi, there is very little traffic and it is only 7:30 pm. Our main problem is the road is narrow, and we are behind a city bus, constantly breathing in fumes. You see a few motobike riders with a death wish, passing with just a sliver of payment on blind curves or hills. Thanh is content to just follow until finally we have passing lane. Back in my $12 room, we watch a soccer match before calling it a day.

Dec. 1
This morning I went to visit my old school. There is a team of volunteers there now, so I wanted to be careful not to upset or intrude on their time or routine, but Pam, the team leader and my friend, invited me to come in the morning. While there, I wanted to look up a few students but I couldn’t find them. I did see a few of the teachers I had worked with before, so that was nice. The principal heard I was there and came and gave me a big hug. He says we are “brothers” so that was very nice. Later, I had lunch at the school with him. For some reason, the principal and his son really like me and he was thrilled to see me. The volunteer team is visiting his home tomorrow, so then of course, he wanted to invited me to come to his home too, so I will do that tomorrow.

There is another teacher, Mr. Quy, who heard I was there and came running to give me a big hug too. He wanted to have lunch with me too. It was very nice that this teachers were so glad to see me again. I was touched. Now, Mr. Quy, wants to see me tonight, so I will see if he calls.

Now, I am going to get my Lao Visa.
Take care.