Fishing

Happy New Year. I hope you had a lovely Christmas. I spent new year in The Peak District and still think it’s one of the most beautiful places in the world.

Now I’m back in Hanoi and can tell you all about fishing. It seems to be a national pastime, but more for a source of food as much as for pleasure. I’ve observed several methods …

In Hanoi the main method seems to be what I call dragging. The fisherman has a line and a multi-hook. He casts it and then drags the line back. This can be a problem if you happen to be cycling by at the time. I’ve had to duck a few times. If the hooks get stuck in a fish, he’s caught something. Frankly, I think the fish are rather glad to get out of the lake, which is the most polluted I’ve seen anywhere.

I saw this in the countryside. The fisherman has a makeshift battery on his back and zaps the fish between the two electrodes. I’m told this is illegal as it kills too many fish but you don’t see many police out here.

Catching fish from boats is common too. Rowing with feet seems to be the norm and if you don’t have a boat, you can make one from polystyrene. (My thanks to my friend and roving reporter Amanda for this and a few other pics used in my blog.)

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In my last blog I mentioned that dogs aren’t looked after very well here. Well, I came across this in a side street. It’s a dog-walking machine – the dog is suspended in a cradle and walks on a treadmill. This one was really going for it. The owner was looking at me as if to say, ‘Why are taking photos of this?’ I thought he had quite an enlightened attitude for these parts and was pleased to see a dog getting some exercise.

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I have had real trouble buying clothes and, especially, shoes, in these parts. It seems I’m rather too tall. I sometimes wander into shoe shops and say ‘size 46?’ in my best Vietnamese. They laugh. So, I buy my shoes at home. This Christmas I bought some sandals as my last pair had fallen apart from overuse and I’ll need them as soon as it starts warming up. When I got them home, I looked at the box. It said, ‘Made in Vietnam’.                                                              

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I went for a meal on the street with a few Vietnamese friends a few weeks ago. We were eating our Pho Ga (a chicken broth dish) when one girl jumped up screaming as a cockroach had run across her bowl. Soon after, someone else jumped up because there was another one running under her stool. They were everywhere. I love street cafes.

I was at a street bar in a similar location with my cousin Brian who had popped in for a while.   

We were having a beer when everybody suddenly jumped up and did their best to hide in the doorways. We didn't know what was going on. Then a police car drove past the end of the road and when it had passed, we all sat down again. This place continues to baffle me.

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As my flat is next to a lake there are flies everywhere at night. Where there are flies, there are bats and they can be seen flitting all over the place. Now, I like bats and love watching them but it became a bit much the other night when I was hit in the face by something reasonably heavy. I can only assume it was a deaf bat.

Before Christmas there was an added hazard was just a few doors down from my flat. There was a sign saying ’Beware of cow’. It’s gone now. Probably eaten.

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I continue to see silly things on bikes. Here are three more examples:

I think it’s fair to say that most small businesses in Hanoi would go out of business in no time if there were any laws about goods on bikes (maybe there are, but they aren’t enforced). One such biker nearly knocked me off my bike the other day when the (very large) bags the passenger was carrying hit my handlebars. Fortunately, I kept control and avoided the streetlamp.

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You get ideas about Vietnam’s political affiliations in several places around town. Here’s Lenin in a prime location and the hammer and sickle can be seen all over town as well as propaganda posters such as the one below:

Another way messages such as this are passed around are the early morning tannoy announcements. They start at about 6.30am and can be a pain if you live near one (I don’t any more).

There are statues of Vietnam’s ancient emperors too. This is Ly Thai To, the emperor from 1009 to 1028.

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I haven’t given up on learning Vietnamese and still meet up with friends to practise. We had a get-together before Christmas on the balcony of the café where I live.

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Hanoi has many attractions. Here is a butterfly I found sitting on the pavement near home and a sunset taken from my balcony.

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Best wishes to you all in 2014. I hope you have a great year and look forward to catching up with you when I can.

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 Wiring photo of the month

I have no idea how he knows what he’s doing ….

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 …