Realised it's been a while since
I've written, but as I
have been spending a lot of time in Hanoi lately, I don't have many exciting
weekend trips to rave about. Instead, I think the 4 month mark is a good time
to write about the little things that I love, hate and find amusing about
Vietnam.
Laughing: That the temperature has dropped to an icy 25
degrees as Hanoi heads into Autumn. Everyone is now getting around in scarfs
and fur-trimmed puffer jackets (ok, ok, so I am in a puffer jacket too. The
Sydney girl inside is laughing, but the Hanoi-acclimatised Beck is shivering
under her doona and heading out to buy gloves).
Hate: That I have now
been here long enough that good friends are starting to leave. Had farewells
two nights in a row last week. This sucks.
Love: Tofu and tomato. Oh
baby this is good stuff.
Hate: That I am going to spend my first
Christmas ever with no family around. Will have to distract myself with a
foreign country I think. Anyone keen to meet me in Sumatra (Indonesia) for a
week? I wanna go chase some Orang-Utans (Hopefully more successful than the
sheep chasing, Til!)
Love: That I am learning so much about sustainable
development and environmental protection in developing countries (though what
I am going to do with this knowledge about animal waste and methane emissions
from farms I do not know).
Love: That there is so much to do on the
weekends here, so close to Hanoi. Last weekend we conquered "The rooftop of
Indochina" - Mount Fansipan. Now that the pain in my legs has stopped, I am so
happy to have done this (Victory photos on Facebook at
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=68614&l=9a391&id=697505314).
Laughing: That a
lunch break between 12 and 1:30 in reality means that you leave at 11:45 so
that you are at home in time to start your lunch at 12, and then leave your
house at 1:30. Travel time comes out of the workday
apparently.
Laughing: That when I went to buy a pair of men's boxers to
sleep in I had to buy the XXXXL.
Love: That people get so excited
because I can (very barely) string together a sentence in Vietnamese. And use
chopsticks.
Hate: That people will wear face masks to keep out the
exhaust fumes "for their health", but not a helmet, despite 1100 people dying
each month from falling off bikes. The slang name for a helmet is a 'rice
cooker', and I get this pointed out to me pretty much everywhere I go. I still
wear mine. I feel very safe when I look at the large 'Australian standard'
sticker on my helmet.
Love: That policemen don't have motorbikes and
the registration system is non-existent, so if a policemen tries to pull you
over and you keep going, there's absolutely nothing he can do.
MWAHAHAHA!
Laughing: At the 'exercises' people do. You really have to
see it to believe it, but it involves large groups of women standing around in
a park and thrusting their hips while trying to touch their elbows behind
their backs. Highly amusing to watch. I get strange looks as I jog past
(nobody runs here). Need a cardio workout? Simple, do laps around the park -
walking backwards. I try not to giggle, telling
myself that they probably think I look strange for running, but then, the
immature side of me points out that I am not hip thrusting in
public.
Love: My motorbike and
the challenge of Hanoi traffic. It's not actually that crazy - there is some
pattern to it, it's just impossible to see with the naked eye! Driving will
forever seem boring after this. Dad has been trying to get me to get a
motorbike for years, saying it will make me a better driver cos it teaches you
to watch the road. Yeah, well, just send people to drive in Hanoi for a bit.
Three second rule? Hmmm. You know how many motorbikes you can fit in 3 seconds
worth of road?? A half a metre gap is wasted space.
Hate: That a nice man
spent literally an hour fixing my flat tyre and wanted to charge me 40 000
dong (~$3). When I gave him 50 000 he nearly wet himself. I hate the extremes
of poverty here.
Laughing: At the bluntness. "Oh, you are climbing Mt
Fansipan? Maybe you will lose some weight." But my colleagues are actually
pretty good, that is one of only about 4 comments. Another girl on AYAD
placement here (a perfectly normal-sized Aussie) actually had her
colleagues bring to work a measuring tape so they could measure her butt, cos
they couldn't believe it was so big.
Laughing: At the 'lost in
translation' moments. E.g. Everyday one of my male workmates makes this little
joke to each of the women here "Good morning, you are looking especially
pretty today". First time he said this to me, one of my female colleagues (who
is lovely and one of my good friends here) says "No no, you are not, he is
just joking. He says that everyday. Don't believe him." Nobody in the room
understands why I am laughing so hard.