Finally made it to Dong Ha, Vietnam.

Hi all,

We finally arrived in Dong Ha yesterday. We had a really nice welcome dinner last night. 

Below you can see a local billboard warning everybody about UXO (unexploded ordinance) left over since the American Conflict in Vietnam. Dong Ha is located in the Quang Tri province that had the most amount of bombs dropped on the area. I saw some pictures today at the Landmine Awareness Center that show recent footage of victims as early as the fall of 2003. Here we are also planting trees to help reforest the devastated landscape. We planted 500 trees this morning and will be going back to plant another 300 this afternoon. It was hella hot, but yet very rewarding! I love this type of stuff!

 

.Below I have included some pictures of UXO.

 

 

The Royal Tombs of Vietnam

Hi all,

Here are some of the pictures from my time in during the last two weeks in Hue. I have included pictures from some of the Royal Vietnamese Tombs.

Tomb of Tu Duc.

Tu Duc's tomb is located in a narrow valley in Duong Xuan Thuong village (currently Thuong Ba village, Thuy Xuan Commune, Hue City). It is one of the most beautiful works of royal architecture of the Nguyen dynasty. The tomb lies in a boundless pine forest, 8 km from Hue.

The Tomb of Minh Mang.

The Tomb is 12km form Hue, on Cam Ke mount, near Bang Lang fork, on the west bank of the Perfume River. In September 1840, the construction of the tomb began. In January 1841, while the work was implemented Minh Mang was sick and passed away. Emperor Thieu Tri, his successor to the throne, continue this task according to his father’s plans. Emperor Minh Mang's corpse was buried in Buu Thanh on August 20th of 1841. The construction was fully completed in 1843 . Minh Mang's tomb is a standard architectural complex consisting of 40 constructions (palaces, temples, pavilions, etc.) designed on an symmetric axis running from Dai Hong gate to the foot of La Thanh (Surrounding Wall) behind the Emperor's tomb.

The Tomb of Khai Dinh.


His tomb was the most elaborate and most expensive of the Nguyen Emporers. It was very western influenced, especially by the French. Emperor Khai Dinh came to the throne in 1916 and he chose the slope of Chau Chu mountain (also called Chau E), 10 km from Hue, as the location to build his tomb. The construction of the tomb was started on September 4th 1920 and lasted for 11 years. Incomparison with those of the preceding emperors, Khai Dinh’s tomb is much smaller in surface (117m x 48.5m) but it is very elaborate. It is the result of the interminglement of many architectural trends: European and Asian, as well as ancient and modern.



We just arrived in Dong Ha, which lies in the Quang Tri province, just below the 17th parallel. We are here doing our community service portion of the our study abroad working with PeaceTrees Vietnam, which I have enclosed a link so that you can check out their history and some of the stuff we will be doing (http://www.peacetreesvietnam.org/). I am very excited to start working towards peace and contemplating how I can continue to evolve by being a more conscientious person who fights to eradicate poverty and racism by bringing a greater sense of humanity to every situation.

Geography

Located in North Central Vietnam, Quang Tri Province is surrounded by Quang Binh Province on the north, Thua Thien-Hue Province on the south, Laos on the west, and the East Sea on the east, with 75km of seaside. Except for the narrow piedmont coastal plains, the terrain is dominated by hills and the Annamite Mountains. The highlands, characterized by steep slopes, sharp crests, and narrow valleys, are covered mainly by a dense broadleaf evergreen forest. Most of the peaks are from 4,000 to 7,000 feet high, but some rise above 8,000 feet. The narrow coastal plains flanking the highlands on the east are compartmented by rocky headlands and consist of belts of sand dunes and, in areas where the soil is suitable, rice fields.

From the crests that mark the drainage divide in the highlands, streams flow either east towards the South China Sea or west into Laos or Cambodia. Those flowing eastward are swift and follow short courses through deep narrow valleys over rocky bottoms until they reach the coastal plains, where they slow down and disperse over silty and sandy bottoms. The westward flowing streams follow longer traces, sometimes through deep canyons, other times through poorly drained valleys that, like the coastal plains in the east, are subject to seasonal flooding. Its topography consists of mountains, hills, plains, sand dunes and beaches. The long coast and complex network of rivers includes the Ben Hai, Cam Lo, Quang Tri, and Thach Han rivers offering a good potential for hydroelectricity production and aquaculture. The weather features a wide range of temperatures and rainfall, with hot and dry south-west winds during the Southwest Monsoon (May through September), and much cooler wet weather during the rainy season (November to mid-March). Annual average temperature is 24ºC, but temperatures can drop as low as 7ºC during the rainy season.

Area: 4,760.1 sq. km. Population: 625,800 habitants (2006) Capital: Dong Ha Town. Administrative divisions: - Town: Quang Tri - Districts: Vinh Linh, Gio Linh, Cam Lo, Trieu Phong, Hai Lang, Huong Hoa, Da Krong, Con Co.

Family reunion in Da Nang, Vietnam

 

  

Hello Family and friends,

I just wanted to share with y'all  about the progress from my trip. Two Sundays ago, I had the distinct pleasure of reuniting with family members in Da Nang, Vietnam (where my mom is from) for the first time in almost fifteen years. What a great time we had! I finally get to set foot on the soil of my ancestors... My words cannot express what I felt that day. And I don't know if I will ever be truly able to articulate how I felt that day! All I know is that I felt a tremendous relief of a burden that I had been carrying my whole life had suddenly been lifted off of me. Plus I finally got to see my grandmother's (RIP Do Thi Bui 2000) ancestral altar. I couldn't help but weep!

I was able to reunite with my cousin (Anh Bi), and my two aunts (Mung and Linh). They are all doing well, he is in the shipping industry and owns a hotel in Da Nang and Saigon. Plus I met his wife and two year old daughter. She is quite adorable! Then Bi took us to his hotel where we went to a room where Auntie Mung was, it was quite an exciting day. 

      

Then Bi took us to the beach at Da Nang. I have never been any white sand beaches in my travels, but Da Nang's beaches are like we say Dep qua! (Very pretty/beautiful!) Here are some of the pictures of us at the beach. Plus we got to eat some crab, squid and snails on the beach!!! 

Fortunately, for us Bi negotiated with the ladies selling food on the beach. He told them that "Why are you cutting their throats, they are poor college students!" So they lower the price of crab from 400, 000 VD (~ $23.00 US) to 250,000 VD (~ $14.00 US)! The whole meal costs us about 400,000 VD... I hope you enjoy the pictures of the beach!

 

Hue Citadel, the beach & Huda Hue soccer!

Hi all! I am sorry that it has been awhile since I last blogged. Please forgive my slackness, for I have been really busy last week with readings (four books at one time), plus one exam and one paper.  Anyways, since we last spoke I have been to the famed Citadel in Hue, where the last Nguyen Emporere Bao Dai abdicated his throne in 1945 due to immense pressure from Ho Chi Minh (Democratic Republic of Vietnam). Basically they told Bao Dai, you can either abdicate and leave with your life or we will chop your head off, not the best of options. But hey that's what happens when you collaborate with the enemy. Then he set up a provisional gov't and became the president. 

The crazy thing about the Citadel is that they have two prices for admission. One is the foreigner (white/more expensive) and then there is the local (Vietnamese/much cheaper) price. Even the size of the tickets are different to differentiate who is who. Which truly didn't come as a surprise for me, because our instructor warned us about it. I think that it would be a common practice to charge foreign whites more monies, because they usually have the wealth or means to pay. 

However, what happened next I didn't really expect, but I knew it would be inevitable to not experience. Inadvertently this might be one of the reasons why I haven't blogged until now. I didn't want to be just the angry Vietnamese guy! Even though some could say that it would be valid. Anyways here is basically what happened. We were going through the line to get in and I hand the guy my ticket and he said Khong! Khong! Khong dung!(No! No! This is no correct.) He said that I wasn't Vietnamese. I tried to explain to him in my broken Viet that I was half. An American of German and Vietnamese descent, but he wasn't trying to here it. Fortunately for me, my classmates and teachers made a big enough scene to where he had to accept me.  From there on the day went kind of downhill for me, but I truly appreciate all the love my classmates and professor showed me!!! 

During our free time on Saturday we went back to the Thuan An beach. While there James tried to teach Mai how to swim. Leena bargained the clams from 70,00 VD to 55,000 VD which equates to like $2.50 US, they were very tasty. 

 

Then we went back to the city to see the local soccer team Huda Hue (class B). It only costs us 15,000 VD, which equates to 0.90 cents US. Quite the bargain.  They seem to play well as a squad, but their strikers weren't very good. They were down 1-0 in the first five minutes. We stayed until halftime and left to go explore more of the city. Well that is all for now, I will post more when I get back from shopping. I have more to write about some of the Vietnamese Royal Tombs, the Cham ruins at My Son and shopping in Hoi An. Peace, love and prayers....