The Birds

 Keeping pets is a popular pastime here. Well, small dogs and even smaller birds.

Chihuahuas (I think I spelled that right) are the most popular dog and can be seen everywhere. Larger dogs can be seen too but one thing you’ll rarely see is someone walking their dog. It seems pets are for looking at and it’s not uncommon to see a largeish dog in a cage that is barely big enough for it to move around. The Chihuahuas are often left to roam free though but look rather frightened on the streets with all those bikes whizzing by. There are a lot of dog meat restaurants around but I’m told that the dogs are bred specially for them. That’s probably true but if I had a dog, I’d keep a close eye on it.

The birds are kept in cages too of course. Wicker ones – they’re put out to hang in the morning and brought in at night. Some people really go to town and have loads. If they don’t have enough they get on their bike, put a red cover over the cage (it’s always red it seems), and drive over to friends for a sort of ‘bird get-together’. Even birds need to see their mates I suppose.

I was walking home the other day and came across this fine-looking chap sitting on the railings of the bridge near my flat. It’s an eagle I believe, possibly a greater spotted eagle (any experts, please advise). It’s got a wingspan of about a metre and a beak that could take your finger off so I thought I’d keep my distance. It was on a wire so it could be trained to fly to its owner on the other side of the small lake. If I lived in Britain and saw this, I’d probably ring the police, the RSPCA and everyone I know. In Hanoi, I took some photos and wandered by. I think I’m getting accustomed to life here.

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My latest news is that I’ve moved flats. I now live in a flat in a quiet street 

 and with a balcony that looks out across Tay Ho – the largest lake in Hanoi. The view is pretty good…

The building to the right is The Hanoi Club, a rather expensive club where I could play squash if I was prepared to pay the silly prices. In the foreground you can see the golf driving range where you practise your swing by hitting (floating) golf balls into the lake. 

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Haircuts can be had on the street. There are disadvantages – the barbers don’t speak English so there is a chance of a misunderstanding. I know of people being virtually scalped (very short hair is quite popular). However, I found this chap (that isn’t me in the chair) who does a very good job for the equivalent of £1. He has a large battery in a box sunk into the ground that powers the clippers.

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We recently had a half term holiday so I went to Hoi An – a town in the centre of the country. The first thing I took a photo of was at the airport. The Vietnamese must wonder why so many westerners crowd round this taking photos …

I got to Hoi An and came across this in one of the backstreets …

And here they are for sale, should you need a swallow’s nest or two.

Hoi An is a lovely place. The Old Quarter has been preserved well and is delightful.

 

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Bike photo of the month

It’s not unusual to see young girls holding umbrellas while riding a bike but this lady has been quite imaginative I’d say.

Life since February

At last – it’s over. I have now finished studying and normal life can resume. 

Hanoi continues to baffle me in various ways and there’s a whole list of things to mention. I’ll go back to new year which, as you may know, was on the 10^th February this year …

At The British Council we always have a combined Christmas & Tet (new year) party. Last year I was dressed as a tree. This year I got roped into the traditional dance. We had a few rehearsals but I would say that I wasn’t totally ready by the performance. Part of my routine was to wear a mask and run around causing mischief during part of the dance. That bit came easily but I had a lot of trouble seeing out of it so I just bumbled around. Nobody noticed or cared. They loved it. 

 Parties here tend to consist of performances and games, with a bit of dancing thrown in. Some of the Vietnamese staff performed the ‘Hat dance’. It was lovely.

Some lions popped in to perform too.

   

The teachers had to perform something of course. We sang ‘The 12 Days of Christmas’, with audience participation. It went down well.

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I’ve decided to measure the weather here by how many showers a day I need to feel human. In the hot weather any trip out requires a shower when you get back in. Today is a three-shower day I’d say; it’s been raining and is fairly cool. After heavy rain we get a few two-shower days and then it creeps back up. If we hit six-shower days I’ll be staying in and keeping the aircon on.

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One thing I love about Hanoi is the multi-cultural nature of the place. Any event is likely to have half a dozen or more nationalities. I’ve been to a few functions where the common language has been French or Spanish. This caused me a few problems. Having learned at school (a while back), I can have a crack at French but made a bit of slip when I was chatting to a French girl and wanted to say ‘I love French’ but it came out all wrong as I said ‘Je t’aime’, which means ‘I love you’. I knew something was wrong as her face dropped rather sharply. I recovered quickly though and managed to get the correct version out. Think I’ll stick to Vietnamese.

Talking of Vietnamese, the language continues to confound me. Just saying hello is tricky. What you say depends on the age of the person you’re speaking to. ‘Xin chau’ (sin chow) is a general greeting but it should be modified to chau em, chau chi, chau anh, chau ba or chau ong, depending on the age and gender of the person you’re talking to. Now, if I address a woman my age or a bit older than me, I should use chau chi. However, if I use chau em, I’m suggesting she’s younger than me. I tried it at the dry cleaners, where the lady is older than me and got a smile. She was probably thinking ‘He just called me ‘em’! What a nice young man.’

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This is the local ‘wet market’ – the ‘wet’ refers to the state your feet are in after a trip there. 

You can buy all parts of an animal in here – no part is spared. First thing in the morning the meat is as fresh as you could buy anywhere, but as the day wears on and gets hotter I imagine eating the meat would put me in hospital for a week. 

I buy most of my fruit and veg in here though. I always go to the same lady. She’s very nice and smiley and discards anything which looks too old.

I’m pretty sure she charges me local prices too as they are ridiculously cheap (bananas 3p each, tomatoes about the same). There is something known as the ‘Tay Tax’ here. ‘Tay’ means western or westerner and this unofficial ‘tax’ is basically the markup that anyone who isn’t Vietnamese gets charged. How much Tay Tax you pay depends on your haggling skills. I tend to pay what I’m asked if I buy fruit on the street – some poor old lady has been carrying her baskets around in the heat all day, but some shop owners might triple the price and I’m wise to that now. Learning how to say numbers and ‘dat qua!’ (that’s expensive) has served me well.

The best time to visit the market is at about 11:30am I’ve found. That’s when the market ladies do their daily exercises – they put pop music on (quite loud) and start dancing around. I was a bit taken aback the first time but now just join in. That amuses them quite a lot.  

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Now I’ve got the time I’m off to the climbing wall as often as I can manage and cope with in the heat. There’s no aircon in the main wall area, just fans. As mentioned above, there are climbers from all over the place at the wall – there are probably a dozen nationalities there on a busy night. It’s a bouldering wall – not my first choice but it’s the only wall in town. Bouldering is a form of climbing which involves short, intensely hard climbs up to about 4m high. It requires you to get into some rather improbable positions. There are no ropes or harnesses, you just fall back onto the thick crash mats. It’s a young person’s sport really so, having hit 49 recently, I have no idea why I’m there.

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In April I went to Cuc Phuong National Park – a protected forested area about 3 hours south of Hanoi by bus. I took a guided night hike into the forest. We were looking for wildlife but the larger mammals stayed well out of sight. However, I got within a foot of a black and white striped snake. Well, I swung my torch around and then saw it. ‘Don’t go near – it’s very poisonous!’ was my guide’s advice. I took it. I came across this thingy too (see pic below) - ‘Don’t go near – it’s very poisonous!’ was the advice. I began to get a bit nervous. Still, I survived the experience and got some decent photos.

They do a lot to protect various species there. Here’s one happy camper.

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To end, a little street food. I’ll let you figure out what it is.

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Bike photo of the month.

7 years’ bad luck for this chap if he makes a false move …

2013

This fine-looking beastie is easily the largest spider I’ve ever seen outside of a zoo. It was on the wall on the ground floor of my block of flats – very close to where I park my bike. It’s a Huntsman spider, I’m told.

Now, I can’t stand any spiders which are bigger than my fingernail. This one is about the size of my hand and gave me a bit of a wobble I can tell you. I wouldn’t usually get near it but I found myself within inches to take this photo. The things I do for you lot.

Should I find one of these in my flat there will be a long wait for the next blog while the doctors try to restart my heart.

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I've been home a couple of times recently. In November it was a mad dash home for a long weekend so that I could attend Chris (my nephew) and Kim’s wedding. It was definitely worth it and everyone had a lovely time.

I got back at Christmas too. At new year I headed north and for some wet and windy walking. We even had a bit of snow. Perfect. 

I made a friend ...

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As you might have guessed, food is a bit of a novelty and an issue for me here. There’s a lot of nice food out there but there’s definitely stuff to be avoided. I’ve found a few items on menus that I immediately decided just weren’t for me.

My friend found this too (item 24 has to be a misprint – surely?!)
 (Sorry - I couldn't get it to rotate)

I also came across this packet of ‘hygienic drink suckers’ (also known as straws).

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A doctor came to work the other day to talk about keeping healthy in Hanoi. I think the gist was that if you don’t drink the water or breathe, you’ll be fine. Oh, and don’t get bitten by dogs that look like they’re about to collapse. I went straight out and had my final Rabies jab (which I’d forgotten about). Generally, I’ve been fine but got struck down with a stomach bug the other day. Rather inconveniently, it came on as I was teaching and I was in no state to go and find someone to cover so I just sat down before I fell over and told my teens to finish their work. They did just that, bless ‘em. A colleague went to Laos and came back with eColi, which she attributed to bathing elephants at the elephant camp. My advice to you all is: Don’t bathe with elephants – something to bear in mind as you go about your daily lives.

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I have finally been climbing outside. We went to Huu Lung – a rather picturesque place about 3 hours NW of Hanoi. We climbed on a steep limestone cliff and I was well out of my depth so to speak. The ‘easy’ climbs were ridiculously hard (for the climbers amongst you, that’s F6b) and I soon realised I have a lot of work to do at the climbing wall. It was a great day out though and I’ll try to go again before it gets too hot.

Tough, hard-core climbers …

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I occasionally get asked what my address is. Well, post is a bit of an issue here. Most houses don’t have letterboxes and several houses seem to have the same number. When I was last flat-hunting I agreed to meet the estate agent outside 19C Ngoc Ha. When he didn’t arrive I rang, only to be told that he was outside 19C Ngoc Ha. ‘So am I,’ I said. ‘Wait one moment please,’ was the reply and then he turned up: ‘I was outside the other 19C Ngoc Ha’. I have no idea how the postman copes.

So, if you get an uncontrollable urge to send me a parcel, please address it to:

Floor 12,

20 Thuy Khue,

Hanoi

Letters can be sent to:

The British Council

20 Thuy Khue,

Hanoi

The reason for the difference is that parcels to companies are sent to a different sorting office – miles out of town and I have to go and get them. It’s a pain.

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Bike of the month – taken in the history museum, this bike is carrying supplies weighing about a third of a tonne. I bet he didn’t pull any wheelies. I’ve seen motorbikes about town with loads that must be close to this, but never a bicycle. Bradley Wiggins would have a spot of bother getting this thing moving.

Actually, there are two bikes this time. Here is one way to transport a  pig carcass. The inside provides a handy place to put your bag … (try it - it works!)

And a little bit more Health & Safety on a building site 6 storeys up …