Well I arrived last night, didn't see much in the dark apart from the sea of motorbikes. They've well and truly usurped the bicycle. I was tickled to see people using them as foot rests too and some even indoors, seems they're allowed everywhere, the oncoming lane, pavements, the front room...Another odd thing is that many people seem to be wearing pyjamas - could be my imagination, I'll get Becky to confirm or deny.
Pleased to be here but feeling a smidge out of my comfort zone cos of the language barrier, I'm used to understanding at least a bit, and I guess in Hong Kong most everything is bilingual and I'm used to seeing the Chinese characters, but this is all new. Not a big deal, people speak English, miss miss, you want motorbike? and the universal cries of 'you're tall' everywhere I went today. Despite the constant offerings of people trying to sell you stuff (especially in the market, naturally), even during lunch in a restaurant, people came in carrying stacks of books or trays of sunglasses or wallets etc., the people are really friendly, like, they do it in a nice way. So I've got a few Vietnamese phrases off the internet and from a lovely local girl who I had dinner with. She took me (on her motorbike, she laughed at me clinging on for dear life at the beginning, but it's death-defying riding these streets I tell ya! No helmets either, the government is making them compulsory from December, but none til then! Plus i'd never been on one before. Got used to it after a bit, it was fine so long as I didn't look at anything around us, basically other bikes and vans and buses coming at us from every possible angle, scary stuff, glad i did it!) to her cousin's restaurant. Really delicious food, not a touristy place at all, menu all in Vietnamese, had to do some convincing on the no meat front. I had some lush fish that you wrap in rice paper with lettuce and a bit of veg and dip in nice sauce. Anyway, was sooo good, totally delicious, and I paid for her too as a thank you for her being so nice, it came to 30,000 VND. Curious (and thinking it'd be sensible to try to remember the exchange rate - all those zeros confuse me no end), i checked how much 30,000 is in pounds, and incredibly it's a mere 91p - yes under £1 for a nicely filling dinner for two!!!!!!! Insaneness. Brilliant!
