I've returned from my brief soujourn in the country. Alex, Maria (Alex's Danish girlfriend), and I took a bus out to Mai Chau a few days ago. Mai Chau is essentially a valley surrounded by mountains and covered with rice paddies. As for being the minority people, a lot of the people here descend from the minority hill tribes of Thailand and Cambodia, and we did, in fact, meet one man who spoke a dialect of Thai. The people out there are famous for the textiles--much of the non-silk cloth looks very much like the patterns and colors of Central/South American fabric. They're also famous for their silk, though all of the local merchants have suspiciously similar silk scarves and such. We did see one couple feeding a large bunch of silk worms, so I guess I can say that they actually make it there.
We slept in a homestay place that Alex's sister had been to before. Basically, a lot of the families there have an extra little house (one main room in a house on stilts) that they rent out to foreigners. They partitioned the room into two small bedroom areas (hung up sheets) with mattresses on the floor and mosquito nets. It was too hot and humid to really do much exploring, so we spent the two days takign some short walks, playing cards, and eating lots of homemade food (they made the best spring rolls EVER).
On one of our walks, we passed a house that was celebrating some sort of birthday (or so we think--Alex is the only one who speaks any Vietnamese, and he wasn't sure what they said) and insisted we join them. But, they were celebrating something, as there were lots of people sitting around platters of food. They then proceeded in separating the three of us (Maria sat with the old ladies, Alex with the men, and I with the younger ladies and some of the younger men), feeding us food I was sure would make me sick in a few hours (but it didn't! yay!), and filling up our cups with some homemade rice wine when our heads were turned. So, we stumbled out of there finally, after buying some of their textiles, prying Maria from the grasp of the drunk grandfather of the family who fell in love with her, and with Alex and I already developing headaches from having drunk too much nasty rice wine.
Right now I am recharging my iPod (priorities!), but I will definitely post some more pictures soon. I have a picture of the grandfather reaching out for Maria's hand, as well as some of the people at the celebration.
Today, I've just been wandering around the old quarter of Hanoi, spending more money. Tomorrow I'm going on a 2 day/1 night tour of Halong Bay, which seems to be the popular tour that everyone keeps pressing me to purchase from them. I think I basically take a bus to Halong, where I catch a boat that navigates around the bay to Cat Ba island (where I think there is cave kayaking and possibly swimming) and then I guess the boat goes around the other side of the island (Gulf of Tonkin).
Alex has been my own personal motorbike tour guide and travel agent :). We went back to his apartment yesterday, where he lives with his father and sister, so it is of course this ridiculously nice apartment overlooking the river, and I was able to take my first hot shower in over a week (soooo nice). He called up various hotels for me and found me a place to stay for the night. Other than that, we've been having huge dinners with other Americans and Australians living/traveling in Vietnam that he and his sister know, we went to see a documentary on photojournalists of the American War (what they call it here), and might do some drinking and karaoke singing tonight. fun fun.
