Dollars to Dong-Bahts, Plant Exploration in Northern Vietnam and Northern Thailand

8/9/2005-9/2/2005

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Trip Participants: Tony Avent, Plant Delights Nursery, NC
Alan Galloway, Aroid expert, NC	Hayes Jackson, Extension Agent, Palm and Ginger expert, AL	Wade Roitsch, Yucca Do Nursery, TX

We chose Northern Vietnam and Northern Thailand because we felt that this region has not been adequately explored for potential winter-hardy plants for Zones 7 and south. The rich Chinese flora certainly did not stop at the Vietnam border, and the same is true for the little-known Burmese (Myanmar) flora that didn't stop at the Thailand border. While all regions that we visited in these two countries are tropical/sub-tropical, past trials indicate that there is quite a bit of latent hardiness in many of the higher elevation plants, which have existed since glaciation periods. Many of these areas are regions where temperate flora and tropical flora mix, creating exciting plant possibilities. Since we also have a large collection of the genus amorphophallus, we wanted the opportunity to see and study these in the wild. Over the last 5-10 years, countless new species have been discovered, primarily by Alan Galloway of NC and Mary Sizemore of FL. As our trip would show, there are most certainly many new species still waiting to be discovered. Our timing was not chosen to intentionally coincide with the monsoon season, but to catch the tail end of the flowering season and the beginning of the seed season.

Wednesday 8/10/2005

After nearly 24 hours in the air, we arrived just before midnight in Bangkok and rendezvoused with our other trip participants at the airport, where we took a van to the nearby Asia Airport Hotel for the night. The huge hotel was obviously a popular place to stay near the airport. I was surprised to find a prostitution vending stand just inside the lobby, staffed by local pimps who wanted to make sure that your night was not lonely. Obviously, the hotel gets a kickback or a percentage of the profits. The hotel was certainly acceptable for a short night in Bangkok.

Thursday 8/11/2005

After a brief 4-hour sleep, we were in the shuttle on the way back to the airport again for our early morning flight to Hanoi. As we went through immigration at the Bangkok airport, the immigration worker noticed that Hayes. Visa ran from Sept 11-Oct. 11 instead of beginning on August 11. After explaining to us that Vietnam might not let him in, they agreed to put him on the flight and let us take our chances with the Vietnam authorities.

We arrived in Hanoi mid-morning and crossed our fingers as we waited in the immigration line. We decided to be proactive and explain the problem instead of waiting for them to spot the mistake and say no from the start. We figured since all the other members of our group had the correct Visa dates, they would understand that the date discrepancy was simply a typographical error. Whether the guard understood Hayes explanation or simply didn't speak any English, Hayes was waved through without any problem.

Relieved, we could now concentrate on plants again. We next stopped at the currency exchange counter to exchange US dollars for Vietnamese Dong at the rate of 1 to 16,000. It sure seemed like we had a lot more money when we left the counter. We made our way to the baggage claim carousel, where we were picked up by the driver that we had hired over the Internet. We had purchased a pre-packaged tour route and figured to modify it once we hit the road. The driver took us to the travel agency in downtown Hanoi to make the balance payment for our van. We made sure that we would be staying in 3-star hotels, as we had been promised. We were assured this would not be a problem. We also expected to pick up our English speaking driver here, as we were promised. Despite the assurances that our driver would speak English, the owner of the travel agency now told us that none of the drivers spoke English and our airport driver, Loum, would be with us for the next couple of weeks.

Reluctantly, we finished our paperwork and walked down the busy neighborhood street to eat lunch and check e-mail and purchase a case of bottled water. I got back into the van, examining the receipt, to see that we had just purchased 240,000 dong worth of 'joy.' I can only imagine explaining my purchase of 'joy' to both the IRS auditors as well as my wife. We were fascinated to see very few cars in Hanoi, but lots of mopeds. By our estimate, 99% of the vehicles in this town of over 3 million were mopeds. By 3pm, we were loaded in the van and headed west out of Hanoi on Highway 6.

We made our first couple of stops just a few hours outside of Hanoi at 2300' where the road was washed out because of a rockslide and found a couple of interesting ferns, including an adiantum and what appeared to be an unusual climbing fern...something related to coniogramme. This would be it for the night, since it was already getting late, and we needed to find a hotel for the evening. We indicated to our driver via hand signals that we were ready to find a hotel for the evening and within a few minutes, we were pulling into the village of Mai Chau.

This quaint village was composed of dozens of thatched treehouses, called Thai stilt houses, surrounded by agricultural fields. We were welcomed to the village and directed to our treehouse for the evening. Each treehouse was about 12' off the ground, obviously due to past issues with flooding. The treehouse floors were made from thin slabs of wood with enough cracks that you must be quite careful about what you laid on the floor. Three stars...hah, I could see hundreds of stars from our bedroom floor.

After about an hour, dinner was brought to our treehouse, where we ate and soon were ready to retire for the evening. Beds were blankets laid on the floor and once we laid down, our host family came by and strung mosquito netting above each of us. The toilets were outside, down the stairs, and about 100' across a slick multi-level concrete pad. With the howling winds and soaking rains persisting through the night, it was a real adventure to make your way to the bathrooms when nature called. Things really got fun when they shut off the electric power to the entire village at night. If ambience is what you're looking for, the Mai Chau village is for you.