Author Archives: helenaworthen

Joe and Faruk, having  a discussion. Our last adventure in Viet Nam. We left Hanoi and went to Halong Bay, about 3 hours east, and got on a little cruise ship (about 30 people) and spent 3 days and 2 nights moving around through the most amazing gorgeous seascape I have ever seen, beyond imagining.Continue reading “Halong Bay”

Tuyen drove us around the north side of Hanoi on what looked like a new highway. Here is where the new developments are happening: huge apartment buildings that look like “projects” but aren’t. They are expensive and desirable. No streetscape, all high-rise, at least in this picture. This is called “Singapore-style.” Nearby, one developer, Vinhomes, has covered manyContinue reading “Hanoi, discussions”

Looking into the breakfast room at the hotel The Sapa Express train from Hanoi arrives in Lao Cai at 6:30 am. It’s still dark. There are vans in the parking lot and a lot of talking about who belongs in which van. Then uphill around hairpin curves for about an hour to Sapa. Sapa has been inhabitedContinue reading “Sapa”

See update at end of post, about ethnic minority experience. When we set out from Sapa, heading into the valley towards a series of ethnic minority villages, these three women immediately began “following” us. “Following tourists” is a job. They followed us the whole 6K , chatting in English with a very limited vocabulary, andContinue reading “Questions that someone from the US might ask about the lives of ethnic minority people in Viet Nam”

An on bus #86 It turns out that the Ben Thanh market, which I found overwhelming, is not the real market. It is the market for tourists. The real market is Cho Lon, which means “big market.” You go into HCMC on the 86 and get off at the Ben Thanh market stop, Then you changeContinue reading “Cho Lon and Last Days”

  We told An and Vy that we wanted to see Star Wars. They weren’t sure that we were serious. However, they looked up where it was playing and it turned out that it was at an IMAX theater a 10 minute walk from TDTU, at Vivo City, a fancy new enclosed shopping mall, and that thereContinue reading “Star Wars at Vivo City IMAX”

Setting up for the TPP Seminar on January 14; Kent Wong’s delegation on the right I feel as if I am in a country that is like a box that is changing shape all the time. The walls are not at right angles to each other. Also, first something is a wall, then I walkContinue reading “The flow of information”

Joe took this on one of the first of ten or twenty tiny ferries that carried us back and forth among these islands. I was very proud to have been able to ride over 35 K that first day. The vegetation on the island behind me looks like jungle, but in fact it’s full ofContinue reading “Thanks for traveling with us”

VTUU Vietnam Trade Union University I appear to have lost my photos of the VTUU meeting on Tuesday, Jan 12. I will take some more when we’re up in Hanoi after Feb 1 Kent opened by referring to a conference that brought together TDTU, the TUU, and ULSA at the beginning of the partnership amongContinue reading “Hanoi Conversations (3, VTUU)”

Nguyen Thi Hai Yen, Director Chang-Hee Lee, Philip Hazelton, and two women whose names I did not get After the meeting with the VGCL, we met with people from the ILO, but in the VGCL offices since some kind of construction was going on at the ILO office. Present were Nguyen Thi Hai Yen, the ProjectContinue reading “Hanoi Conversations (3, ILO)”