Worth 1000 pictures

“Traveling is a brutality. It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends. You are constantly off balance. Nothing is yours except the essential things – air, sleep, dreams, the sea, the sky – all things tending towards the eternal or what we imagine of it.” – Cesare Pavese 

These few days in Ninh Binh can't be called a brutality, except perhaps certain aspects of transit, but it was all about the essentials, albeit packaged in luxury. Sky, earth, water, spirit: they were the themes. I don't think that Cesare intended his words to refer to soaking in a pool lit by a full moon, but I do think that our boat trip might qualify. Covering such a jam-packed few days is hard work, so I'll let pictures do most of the talking.

We set out for Ninh Binh Friday morning. I finally got a good shot of the mosaics that decorate the highway for what seems like miles. The one below celebrates Hanoi's 1000th birthday, which was last year.

After a while we were out of the city for the first time. It was a whole new set of sights.

Our first stop was an ancient temple. It was the muggiest weather yet, and after having been coerced into playing team building games on the bus, people were grumpy. It was our first taste of the packed, regimented schedule for the weekend. I did win a lacquer plate as a prize, though, so I won't complain too much. Despite our being sleepy and soggy, the temple was an aesthetically pleasant place. Possibly my favorite thing about it was seeing the bright pink slime molds that seem to proliferate in Ninh Binh. I also ate lotus seeds.

After our tour of the temple we were treated to a re-energizing lunch. Lunch was outside and we were surrounded by decorative fruits and flowers. At the end of the meal we found out that they were all for us to take with us. There were pomelos (giant citrus fruits about the size of your head), and those of you who know my penchant for fresh citrus and for fruit hoarding can imagine my reaction. After that we arrived at our hotel, which, for once, was as nice if not nicer than the website pictures would suggest. Upon getting an eyeful of our rooms and glorious bathrooms and swimming pool I think most of us would have been perfectly content to stay there for the rest of the weekend. But it was not to be.

Our next activity took us sampan-ing across the Ngo Dong River between karsts, visually unique formations so common to this part of the world. Our trusty oarsman texted the entire way, rowing with his feet. I was impressed and kind of jealous; with those skills its like having an extra pair of arms, or becoming a half-octopus. We passed mountain-climbing goats, flocks of ducks, lotus farms, and little pagodas. We went through three caves/natural tunnels under the karsts. Kelly and I practiced Vietnamese with the lady who jumped in our boat to sell us trinkets and pretend to row. Being able to form complete sentences and have a (limited) dialogue with someone is not too shabby after two weeks. She laughed at us the whole time but she understood us and we got her gists. The sunset was beginning as we got out of the boats, and it made the scenery even more breathtaking.

 Dinner was a spectacle. Or rather, we were a spectacle. We were supposed to do more team building activities after eating, but the coordinators seemed to give up and the event quickly devolved into a dance party -- observed by what seemed like the entire staff of the restaurant/hotel. The whole thing was on a patio outside, and they just pulled up chairs to the edge of the patio and sat and watched.

This morning we facilitated some activities for a group of gifted but underprivileged students. Again, I was impressed by their level of English ability. At the end of the session they took so many pictures of and with us that we started feeling like celebrities headed back to the tour bus. If I'm honest, I couldn't help thinking that I wouldn't mind if the Fulbright experience were all about resort weekends and 'making appearances', but I am looking forward to growing roots somewhere and building relationships.

The rest of today was less busy and our bus naps were interrupted only by bumpy roads. It felt so uncanny to see houses with a plot of lotuses instead of a front yard, or to pass so many houses with trees laden with giant pomelos or jackfruits. As my vocabulary expands I am able to decode more of the street and storefront signs I see, and it helps that often an entire street is dedicated to the same product, so I can figure out the word in common.

Eventually we were back in Hanoi, and back to 'normal' daily life. At least here I am feeling less off balance and less like a traveler. A few of us went to mass tonight as we have big plans for tomorrow morning.