I call this jousting – people carrying long things on their bikes. It’s
usually building materials or ladders and you just have to keep your eyes open
for fear of having your head taken off.
I came close to losing a leg when someone carrying about 20 steel
bars on a ‘motorised trolley’ pulled out of a side alley, right into my path,
just missing me. The chap below is doing something similar but on a much lighter scale. I didn't hang around to watch how he negotiates corners ...
You need never fear running out of fuel or getting a flat tyre in Hanoi. There is someone ready to jump out and help you on every street corner it seems. They advertise themselves with a bottle of fuel or a pump by the side of the road. I’ve never bought the fuel – no idea what is actually in the bottle – but had my tyres pumped up for about 30p the other day.
*****
I was invited to the wedding of my colleague Nhung and her
husband, Minh. Here they are, pictured with someone’s little girl, who felt she
should be in every photo.
It was lovely but there were several notable differences from a
wedding in the UK. It’s complicated, to say the least.
A Vietnamese wedding includes 3 important days. The first day is when
the boy’s parents come to the girl’s house and ask for the two to become a couple.
They are not allowed to date before this.
The second day is like an engagement; the boy’s parents go to the
girl’s house to ask if her parents agree to the marriage or not. They also have
to take some gifts with them - based on requirements set down by the bride’s
parents. Normally, they are tea, lotus seed, cake, fruit, wine and cigarettes.
I suppose saying ‘a Ferrari’ just isn’t allowed.
The last ceremony is the wedding
itself. During this event, the bride and groom don’t make vows but the parents make
an announcement on their behalf that roughly translates as “these two are
husband and wife now. Thanks to you all for your attendance and good wishes”.
In Vietnam (in fact, most of Asia), you are expected to get
married by the time you are 30 and enormous pressure is put on young people to
conform. This is reflected in the language: The common way to ask if someone if
they are married translates as ‘Are you married yet?’ Nobody asks ‘Are you married?’ This is fine as long as the
couple really do want to marry each other. Luckily, Nhung and Minh did.
Everyone has a 'hometown' - this is where you were
born and brought up and, for most young people, it is where their family still
live. It’s common to ask ‘Where is your hometown?’ or ‘Are you going to your
hometown for the holidays?’. Now, Minh’s hometown is Thanh Hoa
city and Nhung is from Hanoi so they had two wedding parties (receptions). These took place several
months after the actual wedding. I went to Nhung’s reception in Hanoi. There were about 400 people present. You’re
expected to invite all your friends, colleagues, parents’ friends and
colleagues, relatives and assorted other folk from the neighbourhood. The room was beautifully laid
out. A few words were said by the MC and the couple and someone sang a song or
two, then we all ate lots of rather nice food. There’s no boogeying in
Vietnamese weddings, they tend to last a couple of hours and then people begin
to drift away.
The reception in Thanh Hoa was a little bigger. I asked how many
people came. It was 1,500. 1,500?!!! As Minh’s mother has a high
position, deputy director at the Ministry of Labour in Thanh Hoa city, she knows
a LOT of people. It was
spread over three days but still … I
tried to imagine how I would get that many to my wedding - walk out onto the
street and say, ‘Excuse me, you don’t me
but I’m getting married today; would you like to come?’ Being introduced to
them all must be tricky for the bride and groom: ‘This is the man who sat next my mum at work 30 years ago.’, etc etc
…
Well, they’re happily married now and settled in to their new
home.
*****
I was asked by the Customer Service team to be the voice of
the British Council. ie. the voice that speaks to you when you phone. You know,
“We’re sorry there is no one to take your call – please hold for 3 hours.” My
apologies to everyone who phones and goes mad choosing which number they need.
I did my best to speak clearly at least.
*****
We had an ‘Equality, Diversity and Inclusion’ week at work a
while ago. There were several events.
One I took part in was a ‘Diversity lunch’ – people brought traditional dishes
from various parts of the world to share. I decided to do Bangers and Mash.
It was the first time I’ve seen people eating mash with chopsticks and I expect
it’ll be the last.
Here are couple of happy colleagues actually about to eat my dish
*****
Wildlife abounds in Vietnam and I’ve seen a few unusual sights
recently – 2 lizards basking on our tennis court in the morning sun and lots of
frogs hopping onto the court in the early evening. The best though was the
snake falling out of a tree next to where I was climbing. It hit the ground and
crawled into the grass. It was only the thickness of my finger but I still
wouldn’t want one landing on my head.
*****
I’ve heard it said that there are more coffee shops in Hanoi than any
other city per head. This might be true – they’re everywhere. Anyone can open a
café it seems – just open your front door and start serving. There are several
different ways of serving it too. Some make no sense to me. Here’s one way –
make the coffee and then put it in a bowl of warm water. The best you can hope
for is tepid coffee this way.
However, not all places do this and many provide a jolly good cup. One thing to be aware of though, is that if you ask for milk, you can expect it to be condensed milk. This
surprised me the first time but I’ve grown used to it and drink rather too much
at work.
*****
I haven’t seen any recycling bins around Hanoi. This is because
there is a whole recycling industry operating around the city in the form of
people collecting anything suitable and ekeing out a living from it. At home, I
collect anything that I consider to be recyclable and put it into a bag outside
my block of flats. It’s gone when I next look. This
means that not only do I not have to sort and store my recycling, I don’t have
5 plastic bins covering half my back garden.
Recycling on an industrial scale – a one-man recycling
machine
*****
The walk to
the climbing wall and tennis courts
never ceases to interest me. In Manchester I’d jump in the
car and jump out at Stockport. Here, I walk along my road and around the corner …
through the street market …
around the corner …
and I’m there.
It’s
interesting every time.
If I walk on
a bit further, I reach an island on the edge of the Red River which appears to
be an enormous banana plantation. The homes there look as basic as they get so
I was surprised to see solar panels on top.
*****
It was my
birthday a couple of weeks ago but not a significant one so I just had a small
gathering on the balcony at my place. This is not the place for birthdays for
anyone who is rather touchy about their
age – you have to add one here. So, if you think you’re 39, you’re 40.
Basically, everyone starts life age 1 in Vietnam.
*****
Temple
festivals are quite common. Here’s a procession I met just around the corner
from home one day.
It’s hard to
assess the nature of religion in Vietnam. It’s officially atheist but there are
Buddhist shrines everywhere and a lot of Catholic churches. Ancestor worship is
common too. Figures vary widely but these three appear to account for at least
80% of the country. I haven’t asked the others yet.
*****
I had a
brief trip to visit friends in Kuala Lumpur & Singapore a few months ago.
Wandering
the streets, I came across this group of happy graduates and thought it made a
lovely photo.
The climate
is similar to Hanoi’s but I displayed enormous resilience to
the heat.
Singapore
has some pretty amazing architecture and thunderstorms to be proud of every day.
*****
OK, that’s all for now but I’ll be back soon with news of my next
posting. I’m on the move …
