How to Survive your First Day in Hanoi

How to Survive your First Day in Hanoi

It was our first day in Hanoi and Justina and I were keen to get up early and explore the city. The night before, Chris recommended an early morning walk to the lake. "It is about 5-10 minutes from here. It’s really easy to get to, just go down the street and take a right, then follow the big one-way road right to the lake,” said Chris

“Perfect, thanks Chris!” Justina and I replied in unison.

As self-proclaimed “seasoned travelers”, an early morning stroll to the lake was going to be a breeze for us…or so we thought. Once we reached the lake, it didn’t take long for us to find ourselves lost in the city of Hanoi. Relying solely on Google maps and the advice of well-meaning (but non-English speaking) locals, we attempted to navigate our way from the lake, back to the hostel.

 Trúc Bạch Lake, Vietnam

After 30 minutes of wrong turns and following our Google map through a sea of motorbikes with no familiar landmarks in sight, the panic began to set in. With every new street appearing identical to the last and only 10 minutes until our morning meeting, we began to worry that we may never find our hostel. Luckily we were able to catch a ride with a cyclo driver who (eventually) got us where we needed to be. In hindsight, there are many lessons to be learned from getting lost in a new city. Here are ours:

1. Bring a physical map

Google maps can be a great resource for making your way around a new city, but following a little dot on a small screen can prove to be challenging in certain situations, especially when walking through side streets or paths off the beaten track. If you are keen on using Google maps, make sure to have a physical map on you, and have your destinations plotted in advance. This can help with avoiding mishaps like the one we had today on our mini-adventure.

2. Know the local language

When traveling to a new country where the local language is not your native tongue, communication is key to a smooth experience. Understanding basic words and phrases, including directions, can prevent you from miscommunications that could lead you in the wrong direction. You’ll be surprised at how much time and energy you can save by knowing how to say phrases like “where can I find...” or “I want to go to...”.

3. Agree on your price before getting on the cyclo

Riding a Cyclo in Vietnam

Our cyclo driver today happened to be extremely kind and honest, but that may not always be the case. When travelling in countries where bartering is commonplace, proceed with caution by agreeing on a price with your driver before jumping into any vehicle. This will ensure that you are not left to pay a hefty price for a short journey.

4. Take a photo of the intersecting street signs near your hostel/hotel.

Street Signs in Vietnam 

If there was one thing that saved us today, it was having a photo of the intersecting street signs that were near our hostel. Our cyclo driver was not familiar with the name of our hostel, and could not identify the location by referring to Google maps, so having a picture of the intersection where our hostel was located, really helped him get us home.

5. Look both ways before crossing the street, and then look again!

Crossing the street in Hanoi is like playing a real life game of frogger. With motorcycles and taxis coming at you in both directions, the only way to get around the city without getting hit is by “just going for it”.  Saying this, the keys tips that we learned are:

1.     Look both ways before you go

2.     Walk slowly

3.     Walk in a straight line, and;

4.     Don’t hesitate or change your pace

You may find that you will get honked at a lot, but rest assured that more often than not, the drivers just want to inform you that they are there. In Hanoi, traffic lights are a rarity and traffic rules are more like guidelines, and the road is alive! Make sure you pay close attention!

6. Stay calm

Staying calm was a key factor in us getting back to our hostel. Getting lost in a foreign city can be extremely stressful and it is easy to panic when you encounter difficult or confusing situations. If you do find yourself in an unpleasant situation, take a few deep breaths, and then stop to assess the problem. Sometimes, our adrenaline can make the issue appear worse than it is. By stabilizing your mental and emotional state, you’ll be able to make better judgments and get yourself out of sticky situations.

7. Cake for breakfast is always a good idea!

Eating Cake in Hanoi, Vietnam

In a moment of calm during the storm, we stopped for some delicious cake from a local bakery. So, this isn’t really a lesson, but our last piece of advice is to enjoy your trip! If you don’t normally divulge in sweets, this is the time to do it! What happens in Hanoi stays in Hanoi…except those extra few pounds, you’re probably going to take that back home with you. So I guess the moral of the story here is that, when in doubt, eat some cake!

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Late night memories from Lao Chai

I can't believe we have been home from Vietnam for a week already! Saying "see you later" to Vietnam was sad, but I left the trip with so many special memories. There is one particular that keeps bringing a smile back to my face.

While in the village of Lao Chai, I got to spend the day helping the villagers prepare to meet tour operators in Hanoi with the CBT Team. Our training session was held at Ms. May's beautiful house. I was so impressed with how eager the women were to learn what Mia and I were teaching. Frequently, I thought back to moments when I was in the classroom at Capilano University, where it seemed as though none of my classmates were paying attention to the content that they had paid tuition to learn. This was not the case in Lao Chai! After each concept we covered about professionalism during business meetings, the women would burst into excited discussion. There was a keen interest from the villagers to learn  above and beyond what we had taught them already. Ms. Do (pronounced "z-uh") for example, was so excited about practicing her new English words that she asked if she could meet Mia and I later that evening to practice her pronunciation. We were more than happy to help! 

At the end of the day, we had the opportunity to stay overnight at Ms. Xung's home stay. Ms. Dq joined us after dinner so that we could help her go over some of the food vocabulary items she was struggling with. If I had been in Vancouver, I would have simply pulled up images on my computer to help her visualize the words she was saying. However, because we didn't have laptops or Internet available, I tried my best to draw examples of what we were talking about. Despite my lack of artistic skill, she seemed to understand and remember the words a lot better with the drawings. It was such a pleasure helping her practice new words! She was so happy to be learning something new that she almost lost track of time. We eventually had to call it a night because the next day we would be bringing the villagers to Hanoi.

As I head into my final semester of my Bachelor of Tourism Management at Capilano University, I will dearly remember that night with Ms. Dq.  Because of her passion for learning, I will take with me a renewed enthusiasm for my education. It's amazing how it can be taken for granted when you've been in school for a while. Teaching Ms. Dq was an excellent reminder to be appreciative of the opportunities that I have been given, and to push myself to keep learning.

 

Photo taken by Mia Chiappetta McCannel

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The First 72 Hours - A Filmmaker's Perspective

“What are you doing next week?  Do you have a passport?!” 

It’s a rainy Tuesday morning in Vancouver, and I’m riding on a city bus on the way to shoot a video about seeing-eye dogs at a local animal shelter, when I get the most important phone call of my life.

“There’s a project going on in Vietnam, and they need a guy to come out and film what they’re doing.”

Trying to sound unfazed, I hide my obvious enthusiasm at the thought of simply packing up and heading around the world in under a week’s time as Bill Thumm, the director of the Bosa Center of Film & Animation, continues on.

“They can meet up on Thursday afternoon, will that work for you?”

And just like that, in two days time, on that Thursday afternoon meeting, my life was about to change forever.  I met the Chrises: Dr Chris Bottril, Dean of Capilano University’s Tourism program, and Chris Carnovale, the project’s logistics guy and resident ‘fixer’. 

The crash course interview, where only moments before meeting the pair did I finally get a chance to check out the CBT Vietnam website and get familiarized with who the Dao and Hmong peoples were and where they lived around Sapa, was a memorable one. 

As Chris Carnovale, or Carno - as we like to call him - asked me about my past travel experience, only to realize that apart from a few road trips and a couple all-inclusive escapes to Mexico and Cuba I was pretty green, I saw his face go sickly pale, and the stress levels go up.

“I don’t care what you’re doing on this trip.  I just need to know if you’re going to freak out because that can’t happen. And we won’t be able to wait around for you.” 

Chris Bottril, on the other hand, told me more about the project, about sustainable tourism and about what our goals were as well as ideas on how to get them across in the video.  I was immediately both interested and excited about the project, and given my experience working on film sets where a short day on set clocks in around 12 hours, and you routinely find yourself in uncomfortable situations, dealing with opposing personalities and sometimes polarizing team dynamics, I felt pretty confident that I’d be able to come in and get the job done.  Or at least show up and not freak out in the airport.

I felt that I’d be fine out there, but how do you really know?  Working and dealing with challenges and situations in a culture that is about as far removed as it can be from what we deem to be normal seemed to be a big question mark.  And then dealing with the pressures of shooting a documentary and playing the role of director, cameraman, and editor wouldn’t make the gig any easier.

A phone interview with team leader, Jen Reilly followed the conversation with the Chrises, and it became clear that I was going to be a part of this trip.  But it also became clear that I had under 72hrs to completely prep and organize a camera package to film a short documentary about a subject I had no idea or past knowledge about. 

In addition, it became clear that getting an extra round-trip ticket to Hanoi, an extra Vietnamese visa, four travel vaccination shots, passport photos, and all the other basic preparations you’d make for a trip across the globe had to now be dealt with in a compressed amount of time.

To say that everything that needed to happen for the film to be made was impossible, which at times I felt, would not be acceptable.  No couldn’t be an option. 

I had no way of testing a lot of the gear I’d be bringing over to Vietnam; an old Macbook G4 laptop, the only one available for us to use, for example, frequently crashed while we tried turning it on in the studio.  One of the hard drives that we’d copy media onto in the field was duct-taped together.  Another drive had a horrible buzzing noise when plugged in.  

The extra expense and stress that my surprise involvement automatically added to the not-for-profit-project certainly made the pressure on myself to be fully ready and able to film on day one in Vietnam all the more greater.  I took videotapes to record onto as a last resort if the laptop, hard drive or main camera failed - the equivalent of planning to record a symphony orchestra piece on an old cassette tape.

And as I continued sorting through and testing the equipment from the Bosa Centre for Film and Animationat Capilano University, Chris Bottril called to reveal to me that whatever this film that I was creating was - I still wasn’t completely sure myself - that it had to be completely finished and ready to be screened at the PATA Foundation Conference taking place in less than a week after we’d return.

Crazy? Sure. Impossible? Nope. By this point my flight with the team was scheduled, my Visa greased past Vietnamese immigration far quicker than the typical processing period, and I was able to get all my vaccines, malaria pills, and film equipment locked-down and ready for departure.

Planning ahead to cutting a video in 8 days?  Why not?  It’s not like it would be any crazier than everything that had come at me so far…

As the hours grew nearer to departing, with myself mentally going through what it was I was about to be getting myself into, I knew that without a doubt, my life would be changing as a result of being involved in this project.

And over a year after that first trip in March 2011, and the two project trips since, I know, without a doubt, that my life path has absolutely shifted gears.

The opportunity to spread a message, to share a story through video or new media is one that has the potential to emotionally engage and affect audiences in ways that simply cannot be expressed when written in articles, new stories, or books.

Having the opportunity to go in and film a story about the positive and negative impacts that tourism can have on sensitive ethnic communities was an eye-opening personal and professional experience. It was an incredible experience, one I’ll never forget; and it has since made me want to continue to search for stories that are important. Stories that are original.  Stories that are meaningful, and stories that are full of emotion.  

Stories that every writer, journalist, and filmmaker strives to find.  They are the stories that have the potential to make an impact to the world; they are the stories that have the potential to inspire.

Whether it be sharing to the world a remarkable individual’s unique accomplishment, an ordinary family’s daily life and routine, or a dying culture’s last chance to be heard by a wider audience, searching for and sharing stories that have the potential to make differences is something I would like to strive to achieve over the next few years. 

And I hope that it's something we can continue to share to people all over the world with the CBT Vietnam project.

Kyle

www.kylesandilands.ca

To see the video's Kyle has shot for the Capilano University / PATA Foundation Vietnam Training Project you can check out the project's website or YouTube channel.

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