http://homepage.mac.com/skingsley/blogwavestudio Our Hanoi Blog skingsley@mac.com 2006-01-20 08:09:03 +0700 hourly 1 2006-01-20 08:09:03 +0700 http://homepage.mac.com/skingsley/blogwavestudio/LH20041221200541/LHA20050911103834/index.html http://homepage.mac.com/skingsley/blogwavestudio/LH20041221200541/LHA20050911103834/index.html

We've Moved...

Date Created: 11 Sep, 2005, 10:39 AM

Click to go to our new blog!

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Delicious Dairy

Date Created: 09 Sep, 2005, 06:53 PM

One of my lovely students lives in the Moc Chau/Son La area in the north of Vietnam. This is quite a famous area because of its dairy farming. So she brought back a pack of the milk sweets they make there. They are "semi hard condensed milk" lollies and VERY sweet, but very popular with Russell and Bella! Anyway, it got me thinking about the whole dairy thing in Vietnam. Milk, icecream, cheese and butter have a sort of novelty and excitement about them that we just don't have in Australia. I found this article I thought summed up the reasons really well: More Milk For All

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3 Views from outside our front door...

Date Created: 03 Sep, 2005, 05:46 PM

This is when the street to the left of the pic was cut off in preparation for a 60th Anniversary of Independence practice march on Sunday night. The traffic immediately came to a standstill!

One morning before work, it absolutely bucketed down rain - check out the poor people out there in their plastic macs (de rigeur for every wet-weather motorcyclist!).

Later the same day, absolutely gorgeous and about 35 degrees C and about 100% humidity!

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Goods Transport

Date Created: 03 Sep, 2005, 05:29 PM

In the category of "look at all the stuff they can fit on the back of a motorbike", I bring you the following couple of pics taken this morning.

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60th Anniversary of Independence... The Flags, Banners and Balloons!

Date Created: 03 Sep, 2005, 05:20 PM

All over town, people were flying the Vietnamese flag (red background representing VN's bloody history with a yellow star in the middle representing the shining future)from their homes and businesses.

All around the lake were banners representing aspects of Vietnamese life, goals, and advice from Uncle Ho.

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60th Anniversary of Independence... The, umm, Great Statue!

Date Created: 03 Sep, 2005, 05:03 PM

No national celebration would be complete without Uncle Ho. This big statue is next to Hoan Kiem Lake. If you're wondering why it is a big pink bubble, it's actually the shape of a Lotus flower which is the national flower of Vietnam.

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60th Anniversary of Independence... The Crowd!

Date Created: 03 Sep, 2005, 04:57 PM

It took a bit longer to get down to the fireworks as the crowd was amazing. All around the central part of town it was absolutely packed out. Madness!

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60th Anniversary of Independence... The Fireworks!

Date Created: 03 Sep, 2005, 04:57 PM

On Friday night, we went into town to see the fireworks which were being exploded to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Vietnam's independence. We were on the 6th floor rooftop of the Highland Coffee cafe, right near the lake. It was absolutely amazing when the fireworks started, because we were so close! I've never seen fireworks explode so near before. We actually had bits of the exploded fireworks dropping on us - it was so bizarre! Here's a photo!

It was also amazing because we could not only see the central fireworks right near us, but the fireworks at West Lake, and also at Lenin Park, south of the city. Here is a photo to give an idea - the red splodge is a dying firework - but it gives you an idea of how it was, just surrounded by fireworks. It really brings out the overawed child in me!

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Scotch and Coca

Date Created: 28 Aug, 2005, 09:20 PM

When James was here we went out for a drink one night at a certain coffee chain in Ha Noi. They handed us the menu and one of the choices was "Scotch and Coke". Also on the menu was plain soda water. I decided to have the scotch and coke (or scotch and coca as they say here) and James wanted some scotch and soda. He asked for scotch and soda and the waiter said that they could only serve what was on the menu. James enquired as to why they couldn't bring some scotch and a can of soda and he was told they only knew how to make the items on the menu. The waiter pointed out that while there was soda on the menu, there was no "scotch and soda". James relented and had beer instead. Amusingly this is what they brought out for my order of scotch and coke...

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Coles express? Note quite...

Date Created: 21 Aug, 2005, 11:22 PM

One of the things that I actually miss here in Hanoi is the "servo" like we had in Australia. You know, the type where you get your petrol, and a cold drink and chocolate bar or whatever. This is the type of place where you fill up the car and you fill up yourself with Farmer's Union Ice Coffee. (you South Australians out there know what I'm talking about!) The petrol stations here in Hanoi serve petrol and that's it! Interestingly on our trip to Hoi An we saw this establishment which may be ahead of it's time. Notice the petrol pumps on the left and the selection of refreshments inside. Add self-serve petrol, a bit more variety inside the store and about a hundred billion dong face-lift and you have something like the servos back in Australia.

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Lizzies

Date Created: 21 Aug, 2005, 11:14 PM

These little characters are everywhere. This picture was taken from our lounge room. The lizard was on the glass part of the door. It is funny that the little lizards creep around and stick to things just like spiders do but for some reason we find these little guys appealing. Spiders, rats and cockroaches are just as ubiquitous in Vietnam yet we find all of those appalling. I'm not sure exactly why but the lizzies seem nice to have around.

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Bong Da on the cheap

Date Created: 17 Aug, 2005, 01:43 PM

There's very little doubt that Bong Da (soccer for you Aussies and Americans, football for most of the rest of the world) is the number one game in Vietnam. This picture gives you an idea of the effort that is going into developing the junior game. Hmmm, possibly explains the current world rankings situation too...

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We've moved

Date Created: 14 Aug, 2005, 10:55 PM

Sorry about the lack of updates but we've been moving house. We've moved from Ba Dinh into the heart of the city in the Hoan Kiem District. Our previous place was far too big for us. We fell in love with the apartment and love the location in the old quarter. As a result of our move and the time taken to get reconnected to the Internet we have not been able to blog. Here's a picture of Bella making herself at home in the new place. Expect some more photos and stories from around the place shortly.

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Min' Moto!

Date Created: 31 Jul, 2005, 03:15 PM

My brother was here for 2 weeks recently and we had a fantastic time. One thing he did whilst he was here was hire a Russian-made Minsk motorbike and take off into the mountains. James told us that as with many words, the final /s/ and consonant sounds are not pronounced - reducing Minsk to Min, which sounds kind of cute! Anyway, this is the grunter that James took with him. More on his travels later! LATER: So my younger brother came to visit and of course, elder sis feels responsible for making sure he returns home to Australia - to our parents!! - alive and well. Needless to say, when James (said brother) told me that he wanted to spend about a week crusing on a motorbike, on his own, around the lower Northern Highlands of Vietnam, I was a leeeettle stressed out! But we went out to Cuong's Motorbike Shop in the Old Quarter and organised to rent him a bike - AND HELMET!! And this was the bike (see pic) The funny thing was that neither James nor I could ride a geared bike, so we had to ask one of the mechanics to take the bike (and James) back to our house! That afternoon James took the bike down to the lake behind our house to learn how to ride it. I went along to watch. About 100 Vietnamese people in the coffee shops and walking around the lake were also there as spectators! James managed valiantly to get the bike started and simultaneously freak out all those watching - it's a really LOUD bike! He spent about 30 mins in the hot, humid Hanoi afternoon going haltingly backwards and forwards along the side of the lake. Plans for a next-day departure were delayed when he realised he would need to be more proficient at the bike. A couple more practice sessions and a couple of days later, he was ready to go. James had the backpack full of equipment - water, clothes, VN-English dictionary, camera, whiskey, Panadol, wet weather poncho. Just like a Scout. He headed off at lunchtime after I pointed him to the right road which would become the highway he would follow. By nightfall, I was thinking "where is he?", hoping that he was safe and warm and not huddled by his bike on the side of the road or worse! I know! Since when did I become "like his mother"!??? Anyway, after a few worried days, James arrived home later that week. He had ridden during the day, stopping for bia hoi and directions where necessary. He had stayed in a traditional montagnard (tribal) house and was the guest of a family one evening when he happened to stop and was invited for dinner. He rode on brand new highways and through rivers and along rickety dirt tracks. Despite a pretty severe cut on his foot (which we treated by heading straight down to the France-VN Hospital for anti-biotics), he arrived home safe, well, sunburnt and happy to have had a real adventure, met and spoken to some lovely people, and generally had a whole lot of time to relax. My initial expectations, when I heard that James was coming to stay, were: Sapa, Halong Bay, Hue, Hoi An! Gotta do them! James went to none of these places, but I know he definitely feels he experienced "real" Vietnam - not the "big" sights, but the way life is lived all along the path that he followed. When James returned to Hanoi, we went to a bookshop so that he could buy VN-English dictionaries to send, along with photos, to his new friends in country Vietnam. The reason for this was so that they could continue to communicate by letter. So there you have the story of the Min'!

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Why is the power out?

Date Created: 30 Jul, 2005, 04:11 PM

Ah, I see now...

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