Saturday - Xmas Eve

Up at six, taxi to the airport and I’m lifting off the tarmac by nine.

Goodbye for now grey Hanoi. About a third of the way into the hour and a half flight I can actually see the line of the thick blanket of cloud that has been covering the north, thin out into scattered cloud.

From the airport (an old wartime US airstrip) it’s a forty five minute taxi ride into town, it seems I overestimated the sun but not the temperature, it’s overcast and breezy but after I check in to the hotel I can get into thongs and a T-shirt again.  

Technically when I booked the room through “agoda” they weren’t lying, for seventeen dollars a night the room is an “ocean view” but the photo was obviously taken from the next floor up.  

I’m not complaining, I can see the ocean and more importantly, hear the waves crashing but there is a vacant block between my room one street back, the main road, the park and then the beach and through the afternoon there is a wall being constructed around the vacant block and the welders are doing their best to block my view.

I go for a walk and find what I’m looking for. “Something Fishy” is a restaurant run by an Australian guy called Bob who I met a couple of years ago through Max. He’s not here today but that’s not the point right now, after too many months without it, I order a hamburger with BEETROOT! 

I go for a walk around, the place has changed a bit since I was here two years ago or maybe I just remember it differently, lots of buildings coming down and going up. It is however much more relaxed than Hanoi which is a good feeling, Nha Trang has a population of only about three hundred thousand. It’s breezy and I’m sore so I go for an afternoon rest back in my room. 

Just after dark I wander out to find a vibrant, exciting town. Seems although Vietnamese don’t know what Xmas stands for there are kids dressed as Santa, decorative lights everywhere, a big stage on the beach with performers and awful Xmas music everywhere. 

I find I great little restaurant among the festivities on the main road running along the beach that’s not playing Xmas music and treat myself to grilled tiger prawns, an Australian sirloin and a couple of cosmopolitans. 

I enjoy the lights and sights on the way back to my room.

On The Road Again

They were wrong about the weather turning cold yesterday, it was thongs and T-shirt weather but it did get cold again today. That was all the encouragement I needed to get out of this cold apathy.  

I don’t want to be alone at Xmas sniffling and shivering so I booked a ticket for Nha Trang, I may as well be on a warm beach. I leave tomorrow, damn alarm at six in the morning! 

Watching the weather on TV I don’t feel so bad compared to poor Louise in Seoul, she’s going for a top of minus five today! 

Does anyone know this guys OH&S officer? He's level with me and i'm on the fourth floor.

Nothing much else happening today, I ate, I read, I got a facial and fell asleep during the head massage, it was a quiet day so they left me there for an hour, snoring, they thought it was quite entertaining. 

I had a couple of Bia Hoi waiting to pick up some washing then went out to dinner. I tried a new place with a balcony on my street. Some ladies sat down at the table in front of me and after about two minutes one of them literally leapt onto her chair screaming “rat!” and pointing under the table. I didn’t see it but hey, it’s Hanoi. They left shortly after.  

I payed up and left, invigorated at the thought of packing and travelling to another destination, tomorrow is a new day.

Thursday

I slept in a bit this morning, made it out of the room about nine thirty and sat down at my breakfast street stall, finished my cigarette in time for the Pho Ga to arrive at my plastic chair “table” then wandered around for my coffee. 

The only thought today is to get out of here to a warm beach for New Years Eve so I drop by a travel agent I’ve visited a couple of times with enquiries. We go through some possibilities and I head back to my room to do the research on my laptop. Sihanoukville in Cambodia was top of my list but I’ve left it too late and there’s no accommodation left so that’s off the list.  

Phu Quoc was next on the list, an island in the south of Vietnam where you can actually see Cambodia from the north of the island but it’s more of a resort place and probably not going have much of a NYE party crowd. 

I head to the lake for a coffee to relax my over thinking brain, narrow down and research the logistics on the iPhone, then grab some lunch. 

I think I have a solution so now my next thought is a haircut, mainly so someone can even up my sideburns, I can never get that right. Then I wander aimlessly and decide it’s time for an afternoon beer as I walk past “Spy Bar”.  

I stop in for a beer and get talking to a young English guy called Jamie. Karma has a funny way, turns out it’s his uncle’s bar that he’s watching over while his uncle has gone back to England for Xmas. 

Jamie is also here to teach English and through his uncle, who has been here for ten years and has many good connections, gives me the business card of the company he is working his way up through and should be able to set me up with some work. 

Everything is quietening down for the next month so that works out perfect, I’ll go south to warmer climes for a while and should be able to pick up some work when I return. 

The “Spy Bar” also turns out to be a bit of an ex-pat bar of teachers and westerners who are working here, the networking place I’ve been looking for! 

So after a few beers and exchanged details I head off, pick up the photos I got taken this morning for a VISA in case I was heading out of the country and get back to my room just in time, the sun is going down and I’ve been in T-shirt and thongs all day but I’m going to need a jacket and shoes to head out to dinner. 

The maid didn’t clean my room today she just took the dirty towels and left me a clean one. I think this is a hint that she likes me out of the room by nine so she can get her work done, for twelve dollars a night and a balcony I have no problem with this. 

There seems to be something happening down at the fountain centre near the lake so I go to the City View Café for dinner – I haven’t been there for a while. A couple is just leaving the primo table and I slink in to perch myself on the balcony over looking the lake and the stage set up at the fountain. 

Today is the 67th anniversary of the formation of the VPA - Vietnamese Peoples Army.

Who's drunk in an elevator?

I have a spectacular chicken fillet in cream sauce with vegies and yet another bottle of vodka while watching the gathering below for the stage performance of magicians, gymnasts and well, I’m not quite sure what some of these peoples act is. Eventually I pay my bill and make an exit while the hooker who has been stalking me is not looking and retire for the evening.

Uncle Ho

So today after my breakfast/coffee routine, inspired by the scenes on TV of Kim Jong Il in his glass casket I will try once more……….  

I have been to Hanoi a few times and tried twice to see Uncle Ho’s (an affectionate term used by the country for Ho Chi Minh, 1890 - 1969) Mausoleum and both times it was closed for one reason or another so today I jump on a bike and try again. 

It was open and I got in! It is a huge area with his palace and gardens, a museum, various bits and pieces and his Mausoleum. He is kind of like what Ghandi is to India. The whole area is very regimented and controlled. There are guards kind of like the Beefeaters in London everywhere in exquisite white uniforms. 

For the Mausoleum I had to hand in my camera, take a numbered tag and collect it at the exit. I had to take my jumper off to get the camera from around my neck/shoulders and left it off, just a T-shirt for the rest of the daylight hours! 

He is mounted in his glass casket in the middle of the room about twenty metres square and there is just an endless line of people moving through and having a quick look.

All very formal inside with four guards on each corner of the casket and six guards around the red carpet you walk along for the viewing. Hundreds of school children go through there everyday.

Then I spent an hour walking around the grounds and being a tourist, unfortunately I was finished by about midday and the museum doesn’t open until two so I’ll see that on another day. It would be great to see and learn a lot of the recent (last hundred years) history of the country, but at least I did actually get to see Uncle Ho today. 

The Palace.

His "House on Stilts", a little get away from the palace on the edge of the small lake with huge carp.

Some of his old cars, hard to photogragh behind the glass.

The closed Museum.

I headed back to the Old Quarter with a very humorous bike rider who dropped me at “the” coffee place according to him, and it was damn good coffee. 

I had a hamburger for lunch and I’m indecisively thinking about moving on in the next few days to somewhere warmer for the next couple of weeks when just as I finish lunch “Wish You Were Here” came on the sound system, ok, that’s a definite sign. 

I was fairly depressed the first few days here and didn’t want to leave Hanoi feeling that way but now I am enjoying it again it seems like a good time to move on. 

My back is fairly sore now so I’m going for a massage, I drop by my room and have a quick shower and put on thongs, it only seems fair for the masseuse. The weather has been ok the last couple of days and I am acclimatising, though they say it will be cold again tomorrow. 

I find a great masseuse who works the knots out of my shoulders, cracks my back and generally puts everything back in place, all for a mere ten dollars. 

Back to my room for some writing and the sun fades as the neon rises. I head out in search of pizza. There’s a place across the road from my Bia Hoi corner. As I finish the pizza I see two girls stop at the Bia Hoi and there’s a spare seat next to them so I pay my bill and casually head over. 

I sit down next to them and order a beer. Before I have a chance to say anything one of them asks me if I would take a photo of them. Of course I agree and take her camera, they go into a “lesbionic” pose and I take the shot – I sure do know how to pick ‘em! That’s it for me tonight.

Good Day Sunshine

I forgot to close one of my blinds last night and after the street noise the second thing I notice when I wake is a glowing in my room, it is the sun again, it’s going to be another great day. 

I’m establishing a routine of breakfast at my corner Pho stall, just as the sun comes over the top of the opposing buildings. I walk that down a bit to let it settle then around the corner stop for a morning coffee in the sun. The coffee here is bitingly strong and together with food first thing in the morning seems to shock my stomach into……well it ain’t pretty! 

During breakfast the Bia Hoi kegs are delivered.

Given time to settle I then walk to the lake and stop at one of the lake side eateries for a second coffee, some WWF and some reading in the sun – I’m over halfway through “A Brief History of Time” – give me a break, there is a lot to absorb. 

The only unfortunate thing about having the sun out now is that it really highlights the pollution.

After a morning lunch I get my daily exercise walking the lake, stopping here and there in the sun for more WWF and reading. I’m waiting for “that look” from a single female doing the same thing but as yet I haven’t drawn the courage to say “Hi” to anyone, however I am beginning to become comfortable which means one of two things, I’ll step out of my shell and start socialising or start travelling again. 

Umm.....When you gotta go............

I wonder how much bunnies are going for at the Playboy sale?

I stop by my local Bia Hoi for a couple then retreat to my room for some writing and get distracted by a movie.  

Just on dark I head back to the Bia Hoi for a couple more before I pick up my laundry then just wander in different directions to see where I will end up for dinner. I come across The Irish Hound again and stop in for some shepherds pie and a couple of vodkas. They also have Jagermeister so I figure a shot of that can’t hurt.  

Argh, Xmas trees everywhere!

I’ve nearly had enough so one more Bia Hoi and I retire for the evening. 

Now I know I have an average of twenty five readers per day and I’ve only had two responses to yesterdays poll (both backing up what I was thinking anyway) so don’t be shy, forward your suggestions – where would you see in the New Year if you could - Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos or Thailand?

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?