Belated Farewell to Hanoi

A long and rambling post. 

I'm writing this from Dili, which you already know because if you're reading this you are my friend and you've seen one of my three dozen facebook posts about moving to Dili. So, anyway, it's warm, I'm very busy with work and I don't live in Hanoi anymore. I lived in Hanoi for one year (past simple, used for an event in the past which has finished). 

When I lived in Hanoi, I lived on a small island called Lang Yen Phu on the great big lake called 'West Lake' or 'Tay Ho' in the local parlance. Some people argued with my designation of Lang Yen Phu as an island and put forward that it was, indeed, a peninsula. As much as I love peninsulas (one in particular, Otago peninsula you absolute babe), I remain convinced that Lang Yen Phu was (and is) an island. It looks like an island, it acts like an island and it feels like an island. It feels completely different to the surrounding area. 

Above: some street scenes on Lang Yen Phu, including the division between two cafes (yellow chairs versus green chairs). 

Below: one of the local motorbike drivers saw me taking photos and grabbed my arm, taking me to this parked new Lexus and posing with it. I don't think the car belongs to him, but he was very pleased with the photograph. 

Of course, the hardest thing about leaving and also the hardest thing about setting up camp in a new place, is losing the incredible connections you find with people. I said to a colleague, and it wasn't a lie, that I have never before worked somewhere where so many of my colleagues are my kind of people. Where I would happily go to a work party. Where lunch breaks are glorious and your coworkers tell you tales of colonial piracy and adventures in rural China over your iced tea.

Picnic Electronica

On my last night in Hanoi I met my dear friend Charles in the Old Quarter and promptly dropped my tele lens in an empty bar - the sound of the crack was startling to all. In Vietnam, if you lose or break things in August it is good luck and means you have warded off any bad ghosts who had you in their sights, so I tried to take this happening with good humour. In any case, I took the lens into a shop in Bangkok and got it fixed for ... $4. So. 

Below, photos taken with my broken lens. 

Inimitable Charles

Leaving home

On my final morning before heading to the airport I took a quiet walk around the island with my cup of coffee and my camera. It must have been about 5 a.m. so the light is just starting, and it's raining. I didn't mean for my final pictures of Hanoi to be so brooding and melancholic, but that's the way it was. And it's pretty accurate in the end. 

Colonel Mustard visits imperial Ha Noi

I can't tell if this post is a love song to my dear friend Tobias (alias: Colonel Mustard) or to what appears to be the official colour of the Vietnamese state.

Either way, it is embarrassing. 

Looking dapper in the dapple

My favourite cafe is near my house on Yen Hoa (a lane which winds around grand old Tay Ho/ lake). The gentleman who runs it is pictured below, in the fatigues, with his vast and impressive stereo collection, from which he plays the greatest hits of the 20s, 30s and 40s. 

We also had the good fortune to luncheon with David McCaskey (I want to say 'esquire') at one of the best (and, incidentally, well known) pho places in Hanoi. Pho is usually served for breakfast and dinner, and not lunch, but no one tells us what to do. Also, David is a man who literally wears sock garters on a normal office day. Inspirational. 

Before Tobias arrived in Hanoi I described him to my local friends as 'Colonel Mustard' - given his dual qualities of wearing a lot of mustard coloured clothing and his general Colonel-like demeanor (this really came through on our rural island adventure, featured next). In any case, on this particular day he was wearing my favourite of his shirts so I made him stand in front of various government buildings/ the Presidential Palace. The end.

I love Anthony and I love Hanoi

Ok, so it's been veritable ages since I posted, or at least, a lot has happened in the world of Lei and I still don't have a camera so my only option is prattling on about it. Also, I realised I broke my ONE blog rule and raved about a temple in the previous post, if you are boy-cotting my blog as a direct result of this, I am truly sorry, but you will never know.

For those of you who thought you'd give me another chance: I spent one week in Bangkok with my Anthony and MY GOD. There's nothing like three months apart to put the spark back in your relationship. Just kidding. But, Bangkok was fabulous as always and seeing it with Anthony was ridiculous. I took some photos on his camera, which hopefully he will email to me and I will post. Right now he's busy drinking in Dublin though so I don't rate my chances.

Right now for me: it is my second evening in Hanoi and I feel more complicated and emotional about this city than any of the previous ones - probably because I know I have to make a life here for the next six months. First of all - it is NOTHING like New Zealand. Of course not, you say, it is a major city in South East Asia, why would it be?! Ok, of course not, but the other places I went felt more homey and comfortable and slick and everything modern and etc, but Hanoi is just insane. On first impression, it looked kind of like something out of a Sean Tan picture book, if he liked to paint what a person on LSD might imagine when they think of Asia. The skyline is so busy, because heaps of the buildings are multiple stories high (around three or four) but only about 6 metres across. And they are multi-coloured. This is because the Vietnamese government taxes you based on the WIDTH of your HOUSE, so people keep their houses narrow to save money and just build upwards.

The Vietnamese people are also nothing like the Thais, Laotians and Cambodians I've become so used to. Everyone warned me about them to be honest, especially those dwelling in Hanoi, but so far I like them. They are definitely not submissive like the Laotians, false like the Thais or obnoxious like the Cambodians (can be, overall Cambodians are my favourite people on the planet, so - NO OFFENSE intended). The Vietnamese are curious, but reserved, they are dignified and graceful, and only smile when they feel like it, or if they're a con-artist (which some of them are, I have met a couple), they seem slightly suspicious, but seem like to like it when I make a fool of myself. And once they've sussed me out, they're constantly offering me something for nothing.

Obviously, this 'in depth analysis of the Vietnamese psyche' will become much more varied and complex as I stay here for a longer time, but those are my first impressions. They're also much more liable to rip me off than anyone else, but I'm getting used to it (to being able to tell when it happens and to say no).

Job front: I had two interviews today, one was dreadful (I still got offered the job, it pays very well, but I think I would hate to work there) and one was charming (starts only part-time, pay is ok, the place is wonderful). I think CHARMING wins... (I'll never be rich) - the womans first question was "The most important thing is that the teacher loves the children, can you love them?"

Awww!

(Yes I can)