Andrew Engelson - Where is he now?
Hello from Vietnam! Some of you may remember me - Andrew Engelson, the former editor of Washington Trails magazine and the Signpost Blog.
- Former Washington Trails magazine editor Andrew Engelson is now living in Hanoi. Here he summits Vietnam's highest peak, Fansipan, in January 2010.
It's been six months since I left Seattle for Hanoi, and time has really flown by during our family's adventure abroad. We moved to Vietnam for my wife's work - she's with the Seattle-based nonprofit PATH and is helping the Vietnamese government improve its vaccine distribution network. Her work has been rewarding and challenging.
Our two girls, Fiona (6) and Matilda (4), have adjusted incredibly well. They're in superb international schools, and they've made friends from all over the world, from Belgium to Tanzania to Australia. Fiona is quickly surpassing all of us in her Vietnamese language skills - she's always correcting our pronunciation! Probably the biggest challenge raising kids here is that Hanoi is incredibly dense, urban and busy. Amid all the motorbikes, smog, and noise, it's hard to find any natural green space. There are no easy or obvious ways to "green-bond."
We do have a few options. We live near a quiet little lake where the girls can play and ride bikes. We've been exploring the city parks of Hanoi, which if nothing else, offer trees and relative quiet. But as nice as the parks are, they're not really wild: busy with food vendors and badminton players and decrepit-but-fun amusement rides.
We've succeeded in getting out of urban Hanoi occasionally, and those trips have been fantastic. Vietnam is a lovely country with varied landscapes. We took a fantastic excursion to Ha Long Bay, a beautiful place where steep, rocky karst formations soar out of a vast inland sea. It's a great location for sailing on a traditional junk or paddling kayaks. We did both, and did some hiking at a place called Monkey Island, which indeed had some rather intimidating monkeys.
I've also been able to do a few solo hiking adventures. I drove my trusty old Minsk motorbike out to a place called Mai Chau, a lovely mountain valley west of Hanoi. It's a place oozing with classic Vietnamese scenery: rice paddies and water buffalo and soaring limestone formations. The hill tribe culture here is fascinating, and I took a trek that included a night in a Hmong village, where people wear traditional dress and cook food over open fires.
As an avid hiker, though, the highlight of my stay here so far has been a trek to the summit of Fansipan, the highest peak in Vietnam. It's a two-night hike up a steep and winding trail (think a couple of Mailbox Peaks stacked on top of each other and you get some idea of the challenge). It was great to be in clear air at 3,143 meters (10,312 feet) and surveying green mountains in all directions and a sea of clouds far below.
And what, you ask, am I doing with my time here in Vietnam besides hiking, drinking iced coffee and eating delicious Vietnamese food? Well, I've been writing my blog, which you can find at www.onlyok.net. It's about the fun and frustrations of an American family living in Hanoi. But my main project has been writing a novel, which is progressing well. I've met some other expat writers here and we meet regularly to share and improve our work. The book is set in the Northwest during the early to mid-twentieth century, and there's more than a little hiking and mountaineering in it. It's a bit strange, writing about the mountains of Washington in the midst of the urban craziness of Hanoi. But the distance makes you appreciate just how incredible the landscapes are back home.
Of course I miss the great staff and volunteers at WTA. I've continued to follow WTA's great work via their fantastic website (which just keeps getting better and packed with more information). I missed being at WTA's annual Hiker Lobby Day, and I'm impressed by all the great work WTA has done lately to draw attention to issues like funding for DNR lands. As I expected, Lace Thornberg is doing a fantastic job with Washington Trails magazine. I'm sorry to see Elizabeth Lunney is leaving WTA, but excited for her new challenges ahead. And I was impressed to see that WTA volunteers set a new record for volunteer hours in 2009. You guys are awesome and so dedicated!
If you're interested in following my family's overseas adventures, have a look at www.onlyok.net. And I always appreciate hearing via e-mail from all the great folks in the Washington hiking community!
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