Son Doong (Vietnam): My AWESOME teammies

I've nourished my Son Doong dream for more than 2 years, since it first got published on National Geographic in 2011. That is quite some time to prepare for a one-week trip. (But it was definitely worth it!) During my preparation, one of the things I tried to do was to find somebody who had actually done SD to ask for advise (If you know me, you know I do that a lot - I spoke to a bunch of people before I did Fansipan, Himalaya, Mũi Đôi, etc. I'd like to know what I'm getting into before committing to it.) Problem was not a lot of people had stepped into the largest cave in the world. In 2012, Dr. Howard Limbert still compared it to Leschugilla cave in America, one that is permanently closed to public. "[Son Doong] is too deep and its river flows too fast for the safety of unskilled visitors" - Howard said. In fact, this is the first year it's open for tourism. 

After months of asking around, I managed to find someone who has tons of caving experience - journalist Lam Phong - a friend of a friend of a friend of mine (In other words, our connection is as far as the shooting range of a cannon T_T). He goes by several different pennames, so it wasn't easy to track him down. But as I was told that he usually went to a wine cellar - slash - antique exhibition place called City Star, I was there the next day! Lam Phong turned out to be a very friendly & helpful person (Thanks God!). He showed me tons of pictures & tips. But there were 3 things that Lam Phong was concerned about (all of which I will eventually get to in the series about SD): Physical ability, Financial issue, & the Team that goes with me. Speaking from experience, Lam Phong said these types of adventurous trips can really bring out the evil in each of us (think The Amazing Race). There were so many times he had to resist punching somebody in the face - "either those obnoxious douchebags or some whinning b!ches"
- Why don't you recruit your own team? They [Oxalis] just need 8 for a private tour! ~ suggested Phong.
- errr... uhm... hmmm... ya know... It's not exactly the easiest thing to find 7 others who either have $3000 of cash laying around doing nothing or a week off anytime to escape from work. ~ I hesitated ~ Besides, most of my girl friends like to spend their vacation on the beach.   
- Well, then you just have to go with your luck. Chances are: among the 7 others that you'll be grouped with, there will be at leat 1 person that you'll hate.

And now that I have come back from my trip, I want to go find Lam Phong to (first) thank him and (second) tell him that: I'm the luckiest solo traveler = I LIKE EVERYBODY IN MY TEAM!!!

~~~

Photo taken on our last day, when we got out of the cave. ALIVE!

Let's first start off by saying that: I've met Howard Limbert & Hồ Khanh! OH MAH GAWD! I'VE MET HOWARD LIMBERT & HỒ KHANH!!!!!!!!!! If you've done your homework about SD, you know these two names. I almost fainted when Toàn told me I would be going on expedition with them. Dr. Howard Limbert (blue shirt, sitting next to me), as introduced above, led the team that explored SD for the first time in 2009. He first came to Vietnam 24 years ago because he knew, all the way from back then, that there existed such underground wonder in this region. Hồ Khanh (grey shirt, standing, 4th from left), on the other hand, was the one who discovered the cave entrance in 1990 during one time he sought shelter from a storm. Khanh couldn't go in though because it's too deep (80 meters ~ about 25-story high). These two, despite how legendary they are, are actually very humbled in person. Khanh is even quite shy.

If you dig a little deeper in your research, you would also hear about UK excavator Ian "Watto" Watson or see pictures that feature Toàn Bamboo on National Geographic. 

Watto (picture below) to me is like Santa Clause to a 5 year old - except that he's the mean version of Santa Clause haha lol... nah, jk. Deep inside that rough & tough apperance is a soft heart. I liked him since the first day we met. He attempted to learn everybody's names beforehand. That's exactly what I do with my students too! So although during the trek, he teased me a lot and called me Crumpler (this is actually Mike's fault >"<), I adore that grumpling man. The day we said goodbye, he gave me a big hug, lifting me up 4 feet from the ground. 

I MISS YOU, WATTOOOOOOO!!!! ^_^

And then we have Toàn Bamboo (brown tank top, most right), our tour guide. 2 things I'm impressed about him: great singing voice + mesmerizing long eyelashes. OMG! I'm jelly of his beautiful lashes - well, at least, compared to the average Asian - his is so long that I feel like if I stand underneath them in the rain, I won't get wet! 

In the picture, you can also see anh Kỳ (light green shirt, right to Mr Khanh) & anh Minh (yellow shirt, right to anh Kỳ). Anh Kỳ is a gentleman, he held my hand every time we crossed a difficult path (Now that I think back about it, I held a bit too many hands during that trek -___-) And anh Minh, he just became a father one day before he went on the expedition. Without these two and 20 other local porters, this expedition wouldn't have happened. For a full series of all of their portraits, check out this INCREDIBLE WEBSITE (click here).

Who took these photos? You may ask. Here comes the best part: In our team of 8 tourists, there is a professional photographer. HOW AWESOME IS THAT! Jason (grey shirt, 2nd from left) is an a-ma-zing talent. Check out his other albums, especially the other one he took in Vietnam (click here). Or another one that I absolutely love is the "Orange & Grey" in Chile (click here). 

Next to Jason is Mike - the guy with the cutest "half-smile." And that's obviously why he got chosen to be our "Model of the Day" all the time!!! nah, jk, he got chosen simply because he wore bright neon green a lot (with the type of caving photos we took, a cute smile doesn't do much - picture below). In all seriousness though, Mike is a very kind person - he lent me his T-shirt on the last day when I ran out of clean clothes to wear (without him, I would have had to walk around town naked like a three-year-old minority kid T_T). He's also super duper funny. Cracked me up all the time with the way he impersonated other people.

Jason taking photo of Mike. And Howard... I don't know what Howard was doing there :|

Speaking of cuteness, Norman - Olivia definitely won "The Most Adorable Couple I've Ever Met" award. Just look at the first picture & guess which ones they are... That's right! The kissing couple. Cuteness overload!!! Both are doctors from Singapore. Norman is my age & Olivia is the youngest of the group, 24. The way they talk to each other just melts your heart.

Olivia with a butterfly on her gloves   

Another couple in our team is Magnus & Mary, the M&M couple (standing behind Norman & Olivia). As their nickname suggest, they're extremely sweet people. Magnus is half Korean, half Australian, and Mary is - like me - a teacher! You can't imagine how happy we were when we found out we're both teachers. Howard said there were quite a number of doctors and tech people among the 200 that have done SD, but he couldn't recall any educators. So of course, Mary & I claim to title of "The First Teachers that Conquered SD" right away. haha... Besides that, what I love most about Mary & Magnus is how well they got along with the local porters. We had so much fun playing cards together the last few nights. This reminds me of my treks in Nepal, where the Western clients all had dinner on the table, while the porters sat quietly around the room, waiting to be called & serve their clients. I found that scene very very sad. Here in Son Doong, everybody in our team was friendly to the locals. There was no language barrier, no cultural barrier, no barrier between the ones who pay & the ones who get paid :)

 This is how much fun we had...

Compared to a typical night on the Annapurna: 

Western clients on the dinning table, local porters sitting around waiting to be called.

I know the barrier didn't exist on purpose. But it was just there. Depressing!

Last but definitely not least, Wayne! Wayne oh Wayne! (blue shirt, standing between Jason & Hồ Khanh) He's not only our team clown but also an incredibly thoughtful & caring man. He gave me a free-dried ice cream for my [pre] birthday celebration - the type that astronauts bring with them to space :D How sweet is that! Wayne has 2 daughters - 2 beautiful girls. He showed us their pictures with pride. I always admire dads who carry their kids' photos around :)

My birthday astronaut ice-cream

~~~

So that's all about the team I went with into the cave. Regarding Oxalis, the back office people are all fantastic. Start with CEO Nguyễn Châu Á. Many Vietnamese people thought that Oxalis is a foreign-owned company (because of its high standard of professionalism), but it was in fact founded by a "son of Quảng Bình" - anh Nguyễn Châu Á, who has devoted his life to promote tourism of his homeland. Heard many good things about him & was even more impressed when I met him at the airport.

And then we have Luke & Jamie (below), who went way above & beyond their duties to help me out, answering all of my silly questions & more importantly putting up with my last minute planning. What I most appreciate about them is the fact that although they're foreigners (Luke is Australian & Jamie American), they truly love & care for this country - even more than some of my fellow Vietnamese friends. Besides, Luke is a great singer (he rocks "Em của ngày hôm qua" - how cool is that :D) and I just love Jamie's bubbly personality. You can't help feeling happy around her. One cool fact about Jamie is that she was one of the first tourists to Son Doong. And she fell in love with it, with Quảng Bình, & with Vietnam; she decided to come back & then work for Oxalis.

The last night, we were invited to an Oxalis karaoke party - Nhân's birthday, where we got to meet Thoại, Thảo, Yến, and many more young & energetic Oxalis-ers. Words can't describe how much fun we had, it's better to show you our video:

~~~

I know this is not exactly a helpful tip & trick type of post, but rather a big show-out to the amazing team that I was very fortunate to work with. I can wholeheartedly reccommend Oxalis but I can't guarantee you'll have great group dynamics. Like anh Lam Phong said, you'll just have to go with your luck. But hey, regardless of who you'll get grouped with, you'll always have beautiful lakes, rivers, waterfalls, forests, animals, even rocks to friend with. Sơn Đoòng is breath-taking - you have my words on that. In the next post, I'll write in more detail about the 7-day itinerary as well as discuss the physical demand of the expedition (Lam Phong's 2nd concern), plus some tips & tricks.

The Train of Nightmare

In the last post, I said taking the night train would be a good idea. Well, I lied! Or to be more specific, I didn’t tell you guys the full story: if you plan to do so, please book your tickets wayyy ahead of time! – to avoid what we had to go through: the Train of Nightmare.   We’ll get to that in a second.   ~~~ During my time traveling in Vietnam, I’ve come across a lot of foreigners. Majority of them love their experience here. But it’s also not difficult to catch a few complains. My Dutch friend, Niek, asked me why Vietnamese people litter so much. Steve, a Texas veteran, who spent 3 months biking from North to South Vietnam, found it annoying when street vendors kept following him around nagging him to buy their stuff. Or Watto, the British cave expert who took me in Son Doong, was outraged when he walked in one of the first caves he discovered and smelled urine everywhere – he couldn’t understand why people could pee in world heritage sites.   It is never easy to listen to criticism. But it is actually good to hear complaints from friends – foreigners who actually care for this third-world country. And what they say is right. In those situations, I’m always torn between joining them in complaining about those Vietnamese who shame this country OR finding reasons to explain for my fellow people. And the one thing that I keep coming back to is: Poverty! It might sound like an excuse to you. But it is a fact. ONE out of every EIGHT Vietnamese earn less than ONE dollar A day. Just a bunch of numbers? I didn’t fully comprehend those numbers either. Until I got on the Train of Nightmare.   ~~~ It was a day that Mai & I forgot to buy our train tickets in advance. We got them only a few hours before departure time – and as a result, we couldn’t get our usual preferred seats: “soft beds” – that is how it’s labeled. If you’re familiar with the train system in Vietnam, you’ll know that there are many seat categories, ranging from soft beds to hard beds to soft seats to hard seats (in order of price reduction, obviously – and then with or without AC). If we travel during night time, we usually get the soft beds; day time, soft seats. Always with AC. The hard seats without AC is the cheapest and apparently least comfortable cabin, so it’s never in our consideration. But they ran out of other options for that night. They didn’t even have 3 seats in a row. “That should be fine” – we discussed, “we can ask whoever sits in that number to switch for us.”   How naïve! Thought you were taking an airplane? We soon realized it was mission impossible. (Just to clarify: the Reunification Train is the one that runs from North to South Vietnam and vice versa. We were going from a Central city to another, which means we were catching it in the middle of its route.) I walked in our cabin first, I literally froze for 10 seconds and then I started screaming for Niek: “Niek! Niek! You gotta take a picture of this!” and I reached for my camera also.	Blog lần trước, tui có khuyên mọi người nên đi tàu đêm để tiết kiệm tiền & thời gian. Tui nói xạo đó! Nói đúng hơn là tui chưa nói thiệt hết: Nếu bạn tính đi tàu đêm, thì làm ơn mua vé thiệt sớm! – để tránh trải qua những gì tụi tui đã trải qua: Chuyến Tàu Ác Mộng.   Mở đầu dzị đi cho hoành tráng, từ từ kể.   ~~~ Trong những lần đi du lịch trong nước, tui có dịp gặp khá nhiều khách nước ngoài. Phần lớn họ đều rất thích Việt Nam. Nhưng cũng không hiếm để nghe một vài lời chê. Người bạn Hà Lan của tui, Niek, hỏi tui sao người Việt Nam tụi bay hay xả rác vậy. Steve, một cựu chiến binh Texas đã dành ra 3 tháng phượt Xuyên Việt, thì lại cảm thấy bực mình mỗi lần bị chèo kéo mua hàng. Hay như ông Watto, chuyên gia của Hiệp hội Hang động Hoàng gia Anh, người dẫn tui đi Sơn Đoòng, thì lại rất bất bình khi bước vào một trong những hang động mà ông khám phá và ngửi thấy mùi hôi thối khắp nơi – ông không thể hiểu nổi vì sao người dân có thể tiểu tiện trong di sản thế giới.   Chẳng dễ để nghe chê bai. Nhưng thật ra thà nghe những lời than phiền đó từ những người bạn – những người nước ngoài có thiện chí với Việt Nam. Mà suy cho cùng những điều họ nói là đúng. Những lúc như thế, tui luôn bị dày vò giữa việc theo hùa họ phản đối những người Việt Nam làm nhục quốc thể HAY tìm ra nguyên nhân để giải thích cho đồng bào mình. Và cái lý do mà quanh đi quẩn lại tui luôn tìm về là: CÁI NGHÈO. Bạn có thể coi đó là lý do lý chấu. Nhưng đó vẫn là sự thật. Cứ TÁM người Việt thì có MÔT người kiếm dưới MÔT đô-la MỖI ngày. Chỉ là một đống con số? Tui cũng đã từng không hiểu hết chúng. Cho đến khi tui lên Chuyến Tàu Ác Mộng.   ~~~   Đó là một ngày Mai & tui quên mua vé tàu trước. Tụi tui lấy vé chỉ vài tiếng trước giờ khởi hành – và hệ quả là, tụi tui không mua được vé yêu thích thường mua: Giường mềm. Nếu bạn quen thuộc với hệ thống đường sắt Việt Nam, bạn sẽ biết rằng có rất nhiều hạng vé, dao động từ giường mềm đến giường cứng đến ghế mềm đến ghế cứng (theo trình tự giá giảm dần, dĩ nhiên rồi, và kèm hay không kèm máy lạnh). Khi tụi tui đi đêm, tụi tui thường mua giường mềm; đi ngày thì ghế mềm. Luôn luôn có máy lạnh. Ghế cứng không điều hòa là loại rẻ nhất và vì thế cũng kém thoải mái nhất, thành ra tụi tui chả bao giờ them để ý đến. Nhưng lần này họ hết sạch vé các toa khác rồi. Thậm chí, họ còn không có 3 ghế cạnh nhau. “Chắc cũng không sao, mình lên đó “ngoại giao” xin đổi ghế với người ta vậy” – tụi tui định bụng thế.   Thiệt là ngây thơ mà! Bạn tưởng bạn đi máy bay chắc? Tụi tui sớm nhận ra đó là chuyện không tưởng. (Nói rõ một chút: Tàu Thống nhất đi dọc Bắc Nam và ngược lại. Lần đó, tụi tui đang đi từ một tỉnh miền Trung đến một tỉnh khác – tức là đang đón tàu giữa chuyến.) Tui bước lên toa đầu tiên và tui đứng cứng đờ đúng nghĩa chẵn 10 giây. Sau đó tui bắt đầu gào Niek: “Niek! Niek! Mày phải chụp hình cảnh này!” rùi tui cũng bắt đầu lôi máy ảnh ra.
People sleep everywhere. On the floor, on the table, even under the seats. There is no order whatsoever. Hence, the first challenge would be to find a way through this “pile of bodies”. And next is to find your seat – which, now that I think back about it, doesn’t make much sense. You just find an empty spot (which is almost impossible) or squeeze in with anyone who is nice enough to scoot over (most of the people would if they’re awake). So after I literally jump over these sleepers like a skilled acrobat (with my 40-liter backpack on my back), I finally got to my seat, just to stand there awkwardly as another girl was lying (and snoring) on my spot already. After a while, the guy next to me woke her up and asked her to make room for me. He looked at me, giggled and asked: - First time? - Yes. And thanks for helping me. Otherwise I wouldn’t know what to do – I spoke with gratitude. - No problem. Next time, don’t be shy to wake people up. We’re all used to that. You’re nice enough to jump over sleepers. Some just don’t care and step on them. Well, I’m experienced so I’m well prepared. I brought my own chair to sit here. (the part that connects the two cabins of the train)	Người người nằm khắp mọi nơi. Trên sàn, trên bàn, thậm chí dưới những cái ghế. Chả có thứ tự nào hết. Vì thế, chỉ việc bước qua lổn ngổn những than người này để đến số ghế của mình cũng đã là một thử thách – sau này, nghĩ lại, tui thấy mình dại ghê. Ngồi đại đâu chả được, miễn là tìm được một chỗ trống (việc này hơi khó) hoặc nhờ ai đó ngồi xích vào (đa số mọi người đều sẵn lòng giúp đỡ nếu họ đang thức). Vậy là sau khi uyển chuyển nhảy qua những tấm thân đang ngủ như một diễn viên xiếc chuyên nghiệp (với cái ba lô 40 lít trên lưng), tui cuối cùng cũng đến được chỗ của mình chỉ để phát hiện ra có một cô gái khác đang ngáy khò khò ở đó. Được một lúc, thì anh chàng ngồi gần đó đánh thức cổ dậy và nhắc nhường chỗ cho tui. Ảnh nhìn tui, cười cười, hỏi: - Lần đầu hả? - Dạ. Cám ơn anh nha. Em đang chưa biết làm sao. – Tui nói với giọng chân thành. - Có gì đâu. Lần sau đừng có ngại gọi người ta dậy. Ở đây quen rùi. Em là còn lịch sự đó, nhảy qua người đang ngủ. Có đứa còn dẫm lên người ta nữa. Anh thì anh có kinh nghiệm rùi, anh thủ sẵn cái ghế này để ngồi đây. (chỗ nối hai toa tàu)
- Wait! Are we allowed to sit there? – I pointed to the sign - Who cares? – he laughed out loud. And trust me! You’ll beg for my spot later. It’s difficult to sleep in that crowded space.   He was right. I could only close my eyes for 40 minutes the entire night. Partly because of crowd. But mainly because I was shocked with what was going on in front of me. When I was a kid, our family took the train maybe a couple of times. My parents always bought the soft beds, saying that the seat cabin is too messy and “complicated.” Now I can see what they mean.  Jus walking from one cabin to the next in the same train, you can already see different social rankings – each trapped in their own space with not much interaction with each other. I had always trapped myself in the “happy cabin,” so I couldn’t imagine what it was like in other cabins before. And if you were like me, I guess it could be difficult for you to visualize too. So here are a few photos.	- Ủa? Em tưởng hổng được ngồi đây? – tui chỉ cái bảng cấm. - Chả sao?!  - Ảnh cười lớn – Mà tin anh đi, lát thế nào em cũng đòi giành chỗ anh cho mà coi. Chứ ngồi chật vậy sao ngủ được.   Ảnh nói đúng. Cả đêm tui chỉ chợp mắt được chừng 40 phút. Chật là một phần. Nhưng chủ yếu là do tui bị sốc với những gì đang diễn ra trước mắt mình. Khi còn bé, nhà tui có đi xe lửa mấy lần. Ba Mẹ tui lúc nào cũng mua vé giường nằm vì ngại toa ngồi lộn xộn và “phức tạp.” Giờ tui mới hiểu ý Ba Mẹ hồi đó. Chỉ cần đi từ toa đầu đến toa cuối của cùng một chuyến xe lửa, bạn đã có thể thấy những tầng lớp khác nhau trong xã hội – mỗi tầng lớp mắc kẹt trong không gian riêng của mình và không thèm giao lưu với nhau. Tui đã luôn mắc kẹt mình trong “toa sung sướng,” vì thế tui không hình dung được những toa khác như thế nào. Nếu bạn cũng như tui, chắc bạn cũng khó tưởng tượng được cảnh ấy. Nói nhiều, chi bằng cho bạn xem một vài tấm ảnh.
People sleep everywhere. Người người nằm ngủ khắp nơi.
I mean: E.V.E.R.Y.W.H.E.R.E. Thật sự là K.H.Ắ.P.N.Ơ.I.
This man was lucky enough to find a table to put his feet on... Bác này còn hên, tìm được chỗ gác chân trên cái bàn…
…while this man is not. He put his feet on another man. I’m pretty sure they don’t know each other. Trong khi chú này thì không được “diễm phúc như thế.” Chú gác lên một người không quen biết.
Underneath him, there were 2 other people. Dưới ghế chú còn có 2 người khác đang nằm.
5 seconds of advertisement for Coca-cola. 5 giây quảng cáo cho Coca-cola.
In the foreground is my foot. And across from it is another lady lying under someone else’s seat. Gần máy ảnh là chân tui và đối diện với chân tui là một cô đang ngủ dưới ghế một người khác.
This father stayed up almost the entire night to watch for his daughter. Ông bố này rất đáng nể, bác ấy thức gần như nguyên đêm để canh cho con gái bé nhỏ đang ngủ.
After a while, he finally fell asleep. But only for a little bit. Gần rạng sáng, thì bác cũng chợp mắt được một chút.
My Dutch friend couldn’t sleep because of discomfort. When we got off the train in the morning, he said in tire he never wanted to do this again. I got it. But secretly, I was thankful that I had that experience. I couldn’t sleep either though, because of the bitter truth. The Nightmare Train slapped me in the face, woke me up, and put me in perspective. It made me realize the world I had been living in was too narrow. I live in a gated community. I carpool to work in a closed-window car. With AC on, of course. For God’s sake, I even work out at a gym with restrooms that – according to my foreigner friends – look fancy like those of a nightclub. The school I teach at has 2 locations, both are located at the richest districts of Ho Chi Minh City. Except for about 10% of the students on scholarship, majority of my kids are from the most well-off families. They never travel by bus or train. Private cars & airplanes are their only options. In fact, they go BUSINESS CLASS. I brought these photos in my lessons to teach my students that there is a whole different world out there – and that world is actually not that far away from them. It could be the world of their nannies or their drivers. It could be the world of the kids living down the street from their villas. It could be anyone surrounding them. This is their Vietnam. This is MY Vietnam.   I taught my students. But deep inside, I was teaching myself as well. To remind me that my beloved country is still a developing country, 12% of my people are still living under the poverty line. My Vietnam is still bending on those Trains of Nightmare. I, a 27-year-old, haven’t done any considerable contribution for my homeland yet. My brother always quotes this line: “My biggest asset is the shame of a poor country.” It was the Train of Nightmare because it woke me up to that bitter truth.   I want to end this post with one last photo: This boy put his feet literally only a few inches away from my face. Smelled “awesome.” Well, I honestly wasn’t bothered at all (at least, it was much better than the smell from the toilet nearby.) Sleep tight, young boy! And tomorrow, rise & shine! Be the next generation to bring Vietnam out of poverty. I have faith in you. In me. In us.   ~~~ July 2014	Người bạn Hà Lan của tui không ngủ được vì bất tiện. Khi tụi tui xuống tàu, ảnh càu nhàu bảo không bao giờ muốn đi như thế nữa.   Tui hiểu cho bạn mình. Nhưng thật lòng mà nói, tui thầm cảm ơn cho trải nghiệm vừa rồi. Tui cũng chả ngủ được, vì sự thật phũ phàng. Chuyến Tàu Ác Mộng như cú đánh trời giáng, thức tỉnh tui dậy, và giúp tui nhận ra cái thế giới mà trước giờ mình sống quá nhỏ hẹp. Tui ở trong một khu có cổng rào. Tui đi làm chung với đồng nghiệp bằng xe hơi. Lúc nào cũng đóng cửa sổ và bật máy lạnh. Thậm chí, ngay cả cái phòng gym tui tập cũng hoành xì tráng với cái toa lét trông như vũ trường hạng sang – cái đó là do những người bạn nước ngoài của tui nhận xét thế. Ngôi trường mà tui dạy có 2 địa điểm, cả 2 đều nằm trong những quận giàu nhất thành phố. Trừ khoảng 10% học sinh trường tui nằm trong diện học bổng, phần lớn các con tui đến từ những gia đình giàu có nhất. Mấy đứa nhỏ không bao giờ phải đi xe buýt hay tàu lửa. Chỉ suốt ngày xe hơi riêng hoặc du lịch bằng máy bay. Thậm chí, có nhóc còn đi HẠNG THƯƠNG GIA. Tui đem những tấm hình này vào bài giảng, để dạy cho học sinh tui rằng: còn có cả một thế giới khác ngoài kia – và thế giới đó thật ra rất gần với các con. Đó có thể là thế giới của cô giúp việc, của chú tài xế nhà con. Đó có thể là thế giới của những bạn bằng tuổi con sống trong xóm nghèo cách villa nhà con vài hẻm nhỏ. Đó có thể là thế giới của bất kỳ ai chung quanh con. Đó là Việt Nam của con. Đó là Việt Nam CỦA CÔ.   Tui dạy học trò. Hay cũng là đang dạy chính mình. Để nhắc nhở mình rằng đất nước tui còn là một nước đang phát triển, 12% đồng bào tui đang sống dưới chuẩn đói nghèo. Dân tộc tui còn đang quằn lưng trên những Chuyến Tàu Ác Mộng như thế. Tui, một cô giáo 27 tuổi, chưa làm được gì nhiều cho Tổ quốc. Em trai tui thường lấy một câu danh ngôn làm kim chỉ nam: “Tài sản lớn nhất của tôi là nỗi nhục nước nghèo.” Chính Chuyến Tàu Ác Mộng ấy đã đánh thức tui dậy.   Tui muốn kết thúc blog này bằng một tấm ảnh cuối cùng: Cậu nhóc này gác chân lên sát mặt tui, cách vài phân là cùng. “Thơm” ơi là “thơm” (nhưng vẫn còn đỡ hơn cái mùi hương “nồng nàn” tỏa ra từ cái toa lét cạnh bên). Thật sự, tui chẳng hề phiền lòng. Ngủ ngon đi nhóc! Để rồi ngày mai thức dậy, cùng vươn vai trở thành thế hệ trẻ tiếp theo mang Việt Nam ra khỏi đói nghèo. Chị tin em. Tin chị. Tin chúng ta.   ~~~ Tháng 7, 2014