Dollars to Dong-Bahts

Plant Exploration in Northern Vietnam and Northern Thailand
8/9/2005-9/2/2005

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Tuesday 8/16/2005

After paying the small admission fee, we began the hike up the mountain, knowing that we didn't have the time or energy to make the 2 day trek to the summit. Our young guide, Uoc had climbed to the top of Fansipan 98 times and had even been presented with an award for such, far outdistancing his closest rival at 56 journeys to the top. It didn't take long to appreciate how impressive this feat really was.

The trail started off mushy, steep, and rocky but got progressively worse. The steep rocky path was often covered with several inches of standing water from the seemingly constant rain. It was almost possible to overlook the condition of the path because of the wonderful plants...I said almost. First, there was Exbucklandia populnea, which I am already growing from my 1996 China trip. Camellias were everywhere, from small-leaf species to large, with camellia flowers littering the ground. The most amazing camellia was a huge 70' tall specimen with a 2.5' diameter trunk that resembled a giant oak.

Lithocarpus, illicium, stewartia, and schefflera were dominant among the woody plants as we hiked. The most unusual tree along our route had to be the hot dog tree. I'd love to grow this as a conversation piece in the garden. The rain became more frequent as we continued to slog our way higher. The hills were dotted with calanthe orchids, a hardy aglaonema, disporum, disporopsis, polygonatum, smilacina, impatiens, goodyera, peliosanthes, liriope, an ophiopogon with 2' long flower spikes, and much more. The ferns were downright incredible, with the highlight being what appeared to be several species of upside-down fern (Arachniodes).

There was quite a bit of Arisaema consanguineum in the area, and I even spotted its foliar look-alike, paris, growing here as well. The begonias were also amazing, from tall angel-wing types to short rosettes of silver leaves. Did I mention the two species of perennial impatiens and the yellow-edged disporum that Alan spotted? It would be quite easy to spend several days in this wonderful area. Our time, unfortunately, was much shorter.

As lunch time came and went, we finally decided to turn back and retrace our steps. Muddy and wet, we returned to the park headquarters to rest and enjoy our box lunch. Afterwards, we continued to botanize back up and down the roadside adjacent to the park, stopping often to study the many hedychiums that lined the hilly roads. Hedychium maximum clumps were everywhere, growing beside another 9' tall white species that also superficially resembled H. coronarium. One plant that continually caught our eye was a delightful 3' tall osbeckia (related to tibouchina), which was widespread around the Sapa roadsides.

We returned to the hotel around 4pm, and most of the group headed off to the market where the group got to see firsthand how the Vietnamese prepare dog for consumption. We had learned early in the trip that the word for cooked dog is Thit Cho. It was not unusual to see the strange juxtaposition of pet dogs sitting by the Thit Cho signs or watching their brothers being prepared. We can only imagine what the numerous signs advertising Bun Thit Cho might mean....doggie burgers.? It was quite surreal to see dogs watching anxiously as their relatives were carved up for a meal. As you can imagine, we carefully avoided any eating establishment with Thit Cho on the menu. If you have a queasy stomach, do not look at these photos.

While eating another terrible dinner at the Son Thuy hotel, we got to watch the Vietnamese version of 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire,' replete with the same music and sound effects that Americans enjoyed for so many years. After dinner, we picked up our laundry to find it still quite moist and everyone's laundry was mixed together, despite our pleas to keep the laundry separate. We returned to our rooms to work, only to find out that the hotel acoustics were so good that the sound on the lobby television was magnified by 100 times in our rooms. It's sad, but until the Vietnamese hotels learn more about the hospitality industry, they will never become a major travel destination.

Wednesday 8/17/2005

We were so tired of bread and cheese breakfasts, that at Uoc's suggestion, we went to Victoria Sapa for their buffet breakfast. This was my first experience with eating Rambutans. These tropical fruits look like those fake eyeballs that are so popular around Halloween. Overlooking their appearance, which can be difficult, these are actually quite tasty. At a price of $8 US each, we had no problem getting our money's worth from the wonderful buffet breakfast. Hayes stayed back at the hotel to catch-up processing his accessions, but we were able to get a doggie bag...probably a inappropriate choice of words here in Vietnam.

We returned to the Son Thuy Hotel to rendevous with Uoc, pick up Hayes and check out of the hotel. From there, we stopped around the corner to replenish our supplies of water, soft drinks, and look for packing boxes. It was here that we realized that getting a hotel receipt had been so complicated for the hotel staff that they had forgot to return Wade's passport, so we had to double back. The requirement of most Vietnamese hotels that you turn over your passport to them while you are staying at their hotel is most disconcerting.

Most of the road up to the Chinese border town of Lao Cai was pretty unexciting as we descended rapidly down to 500' elevation along a road lined with modest dwellings. We stopped along the route to admire several nice patches of the forests of Livinstonia chinensis, Amorphophallus paeonifolius, including a stunning 8' tall specimen. One of the most frustrating parts of the trip was not being able to cross the rivers when the flora on the opposite side looked quite enticing. When we finally found a bridge crossing the river, the quality of the bridge still left us wanting. I'm thinking that jet propelled backpacks may be the answer for plant exploration into remote areas.

We stopped for lunch in the small town of Pho Rang and then proceeded south again for the final 150km drive northeast to Ha Giang. As we rounded a curve, we spotted a wet draw across from a straw hut that looked enticing...except for the water buffalos who were not exactly friendly and welcoming. Although we were still below 1000' elevation, this turned out to be our first sighting of aspidistra as well as a re-discovery of Amorphophallus coaetaneus and A. tonkinensis which we hadn't seen since the road from Mai Choi to Son La. Interestingly, by drawing a line straight down on the map, we were almost exactly due north from our former discovery of these two species. Several small kids from the home across the road followed us throughout our exploration of this area, watching what plants we were examining and then finding and digging them for us. We spent the rest of the time here trying to get them to stop digging and replanting many of their excavations.

As we headed into Ha Giang, we noticed signs for a Hot Springs resort area. Realizing that cool plants often grow near hot springs, we turned around and headed down one of the few side roads in Vietnam. We arrived to find a concrete jungle and accompanying concrete pond, devoid of plants except for a few planted specimens. Asking around, Uoc found that there was another hot springs waterfall several kilometers away, so off we headed. We arrived to find the main road washed out, so it was off to the falls on foot. Along the mile-long walk to the falls, we found mostly low elevation ferns, with the highlight being a central-variegated kudzu...a shame we couldn't dig out the tuber.

Dark was approaching, so it was off to our hotel, the Xin Binb Chao. This hotel that Uoc had chosen in Ha Giang had a first for our trip...an elevator, which made our trip up to our 5th floor room much more bearable. After a difficult time finding the restaurant that Uoc wanted take us to for dinner, we finally arrived. They gave us the special dining room, which only had two large tables. When we arrived, the room was empty, but soon after, a party of 12 Vietnamese, who were obviously celebrating something, sat down at the other table. Before long, the non-ventilated room was choking with cigarette smoke, at which point we retreated out of the more spacious main dining room to enjoy the brilliant lightning show from the fierce storm outside. Everyone agreed that the cooked minnows were the most memorable highlight of the meal.