Home in the US

If you are wondering why I have not posted anything the last 2 weeks, it's because many things were happening at work.
My contract expires on March 31 and they decided not to extend it.
So, I decided to come back to the US on March 26 and is now home in Arizona.

I still have a few posts that I want to put on the blog.
However, I need a new computer.
When I left Vietnam, I returned my laptop to my employer.
I have an old computer that is very, very slow.
I will wait until I get a new computer before adding new posts to the blog.

Please bear with me for a few days while I shop around for a new laptop or deskside computer.
Thanks.

Ecotourism

Living one floor below me in my apartment building is a Spanish NGO (Non-Government Organization) that focusses on ecotourism. The project is called Ngoc Son Ngo Luong Project. This organization is trying to help the local population better their living standard by helping them promote ecotourism. It is building hiking trails through the area and building the infrastructure to support it. It is training the locals to be eventually self-sustaining.
The project is about three hours south-west of Hanoi in Hoa Binh province. Most of the people in this area are ethnic minorities: Kinh, Muong, Thai, Tay, Dao, etc. The people here are mostly farmers and very poor. Earning the equivalent of US$10 a day is a lot of money.
I was invited by the staff of the NGO to go with them to another ecotourism project in a neighboring province that was completed by another European NGO. They want to see how it is operating so that they can apply some of the same successful practices. Our guide is Hai (in blue jacket in pictures above) who worked for the other NGO and is now working for this project. Hai grew up in the area and knew just about everyone as we walked through the mountains and villages. He worked with these villagers to help them understand ecotourism and how to be part of it.
The main focus of ecotourism is enjoying the environment without destroying it. One of the features is homestay. You stay with a local family and eat with them. You have a local guide with you who will take you trekking (or hiking) in the area. You can also do local things like what the farmers do every day. This type of tourism is not for everybody. The homestay hosts probably have never stayed in a hotel, not to mention a Hilton or even Motel 6. They have their own standards of cleanliness and hygiene. Expect a very primitive stay.
Our hosts for the evening was a very nice young couple with one daughter. He is Thai and she is a Moung. His mother also helps out. The house is on stilts (standard in the area). We all mingle and ate dinner in a large room. The couple cooked in a kitchen area towards one end of the room. At night the couple set up mattresses spread out over the room. Each sleeping area has a mosquito net around it. The family slept in the kitchen area.
This kind of tourism is gaining in popularity. Sometimes you want to go somewhere where there are not a hundred other tourists and every hotel room looks the same. People everywhere are concerned about the environment and helping those who are not as fortunate. This is the perfect type of trip if you belong in this category.
You can see chickens pecking around. Ducks swimming in the ponds. Touch a rice stalk. Listen to the cock crow in the morning. Hear the rush of water in the stream next to the house. Sit next to a papaya tree. Eat vegetables grown by the hosts themselves. Well....you've got to try it.

Temples

Temples are very common in Vietnam. Some are very big, like the ones I saw in Danang and Hue, and some are small, hidden among houses on a street. Some of them I miss completely even though I've walked the same street many times. I didn't realize there was a temple there until I saw tourists coming out of the building.
If I ask my Vietnamese friends what religion they belong to, they almost always say Buddhism. I also have some Catholic friends, by the way. However, when I visit the temples, I hardly see any statues of Buddha at all, like I would see in the temples in Cambodia or Thailand. What I see are mostly idols, the same kind that the Chinese worship.
I see many similarities between what the Vietnamese worship and what the Chinese worship. I would call this a blend of Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism. Confucianism and Taoism are not really religions. They came from two famous Chinese philosophers, Confucius and Lao Tze, respectively. However, they have been so intertwined with the daily lives of the people that they become part of their religion. Somewhere, Buddhist doctrine is mixed in to form the religion of the Vietnamese.
You see a lot of ancestor worship, like burning joss papers, paper money and other paper objects as offerings to their ancestors. It is common to see a small altar for the "kitchen god" in homes and even restaurants.
I often get confused when my friends say they go to the pagoda to pray. So, what's the difference between a pagoda and a temple? From what I gather, a pagoda is a place where you go to pray and worship. It does not necessary have to have a pagoda, as in a building. A temple is a place to honor someone important in history. For example, one of the famous temples in Hue honors the Nguyen dynasty.
The slideshow above shows pictures of many temples or maybe pagodas that I took while walking around the streets of Hanoi and some from Danang and Hue.