Sunshine On My Shoulders

I awaken to the depressing prospect of another sunless day of which I should probably spend most of it in my room seriously investigating work prospects here in Hanoi. I begin searching to find there is plenty but it's a bit of a paradox, I really don’t want to be here in this winter anyway, then something odd occurs.............

I feel it first on my back and spin around to see something strange in the sky. It is still overcast and cloudy but through the clouds I can see a bright, round, strange yet familiar object through the haze, it is the sun! It disappears shortly after but I did manage to get a photo.  

Well this changes everything, with the possibility of more sun my spirits lift and I head outside to investigate. I drop some washing off and stop at a street stall of locals for breakfast. The stares screaming “what the heck are you doing here amongst us tourist?” bounce off me as I order “Pho Ga” and “Café Sura”. When they hear me speak they all turn back to what they were doing and ignore me again.  

After breakfast I head off for an exploratory walk on the sunny side of the street to the west of where I am staying and after a few blocks I turn left and then left again which should place me somewhere near the ice cream shop on the lake but after a few blocks, just short of pulling out my iPhone to check where I am on Google maps, I catch sight out of my peripheral vision of a familiar building and turn left once again to end up at the ice cream shop.  

This makes no sense, one of the streets I walked must have curved or something, I’m glad I didn’t keep walking or I could have ended up a long way from where I wanted to be. Anyway, there is a table at the ice cream shop IN THE SUN and it is MINE! I sat there for an hour and a half, sipping coffee and fruit tea, playing WWF and reading, even Stephen Hawkins “grand unified theories of quantum mechanics and quarks and antiquarks” seem to make more sense, a feeling of happiness comes over me, what a difference the sun makes. 

Apparently everyday is "bridal photo shoot" day by the lake, I walked past at least six today.

I wander around the lake and even my shoulders feel better which backs up a theory developed by Max and myself during a Sydney winter that the cold makes one “hunch” their shoulders and therefore increases shoulder blade pain, today I am not “hunching” from the cold and have no pain in my shoulder blades. 

I walk past a “Lotteria” and can not resist the call of greasy chicken. After my fill I stop at my corner “Bia Hoi Bar” which is a few plastic chairs and a lady pouring freshly made beer from a keg. It is made daily and delivered to these corner “Bars”, it is only about three percent but very refreshing and cost me fifty cents for two tall glasses. 

From my balcony, that's my local "Bia Hoi" under the tree on the corner and looking the other way the "City View Restaurant" at the top in the distance, five minutes walk - and on the other side of that, "Hoan Kein Lake"

After this I return to my room to do some writing, emailing etc, and see how my back feels after a couple of hours on the laptop and see if I can put off a massage for another day.

It is hilarious to watch when one these tiny street corners gets blocked, it took a while to clear, I couldn't even walk through this one.

After dark I leave my room in search of food. I end up at “Le Pub” which plays mostly good music, tonight we had Sex Pistols blended with REO Speedwagon. 

I have a quandary so I’m going to run my first readers poll. 

If you had easy access to Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand – where would you spend New Years Eve?