I better not lose this one too!
Trip Start
Jan 06, 2005
1
9
20
Trip End
Apr 13, 2005
Hanoi,
Vietnam
Thursday, February 17, 2005
we're still in hanoi and a lot of our time has been spent just wandering around and lazing about. since i was here 4 years ago, i've seen most of the 'tourist sites' already so that's not been any sort of priority. also, the vast majority of shops, offices, museums, etc. are closed for a few days around tet (which was on the 9th).
aside from our fateful first night here (which involved good things like cold, rain, misery, tiredness, a scary fight, being ripped off, etc.), it's felt good to be back in hanoi! i have this thing where i sometimes judge places by how they just feel to me, and this is one of those cities that just feels good to me as soon as i set foot on its soil. i guess i'm also biased since i was born here but the city also boasts numerous lakes, tree-lined boulevards, and tons of life on the streets: motorbikes whizzing by with whole families piled on the back, steaming bowls of pho (beef noodle soup) or pineapple dipped in chili powder or che (soupy desserts of various kinds) or xoi (sticky rice), all sold cheaply at stalls (or just a small table surrounded by a pile of small plastic benches) by the side of the road, cafes where people sip strong vietnamese coffee, and people just talking to each other everywhere. that's one of the things about vietnam: there is this sense of camaraderie here, as if it's a small town, but it's actually a big city that more than 3 million people call home. people speak to each other here less like strangers (like we often do in toronto) but more like neighbours, or at least like people who share a place to live (as in the city - something i don't notice we normally do in toronto).
that said, it's also something else to be a foreigner here, and something else to be a viet kieu (outsider vietnamese). i find that most people welcome me and are curious about me as a viet kieu (and especially since i don't look vietnamese - i've gotten chinese, japanese (a lot), korean and even (strangely enough) lao.. at least the chinese one makes sense since i am that too), but it's always very obvious to me that this is not home. language is one of the biggest barriers - i speak it fluently since it is my first language but there are many words i don't know, and i speak it broken sometimes, thanks to the pressures and process of assimilation in canada. when you speak a language in broken tongue that you're supposed to know, it feels much worse than speaking a language that is not necessarily native to you. i'll struggle through the few words i learned in lao without embarrassment but i'll speak much better vietnamese with slight embarrassment. since language is so important to culture, i have undoubtedly lost some of the culture through the loss of language. i obviously feel this most intensely when in vietnam. that said, it is good to be somewhere where i can actually communicate well enough with people, even if not at a level that is 100%. i've also been learning to read a tiny bit and i find myself mouthing the words to myself whenever i pass by signs and posters, etc.. much more to learn when i get back home!
when i first came back here 4 years ago, everything seemed so different and foreign to me, and the experience was a very different one from my current visit (as it would be when returning to a place where your roots are for the first time). i was struck very deeply by a lot of things, including the poverty. this time around, i'm almost 'used to it' since i've been here before.. to the naked eye, it seems like all is okay here, not the image of a 'third world' country you have in your head. in hanoi (which is much wealthier than the countryside), there are telephones and washing machines and hot running water (some places) and motorbikes and stylish young people and all the rest.. but then i remember things like the fact that the life expectancy rate is still much lower than in the west, the tap water is still not safe to drink without boiling it first, and the inadequate healthcare system here in which you have to bribe nurses and doctors to get half-decent treatment (something my uncle is experiencing right now since he broke his hip recently and had to get surgery). my aunt (uncle's wife) also happens to make 20,000-30,000 dong per day (currently, 12,300 dong = $1 CAD) at the market where she sells shoes, and my other aunt (mom's cousin) told me she made 26,000 dong per day at her old job at a dvd store. a bowl of pho at a street stall or resturant costs 5000-10,000 dong.. so it costs them 1/4-1/2 a day's work for a bowl. at minimum wage in toronto (the still too-low wage of $6.85/hour), it costs about an hour's work (1/7th-1/8th of a day's work) to get a bowl pho in toronto.
anyway, aside from hanoi (where i have mainly just visited family and family friends, visited my grandfather and great-grandmother's graves to pay my respects with incense, fruit and paper gold, wandered through the various streets of the city, and lazed about a lot), we have also paid a visit to halong bay, a world heritage site with its limestone formations jutting out of the red sea (and also my point of exit when my family left the country via boat all those years ago), and chua hung (perfume pagoda) where you have to drive for a bit outside of hanoi, then go down a river by boat to the boat landing where the temples are.
tonight, we head to sapa (near the chinese border) by night train. we'll be there for a few days, then back to hanoi for a day, and hop on a plane to nha trang, a beach town in the south.
by the way, everyone who reads this (whether i know you or not - this means you too, jessica's people! :)) should write in my guestbook. i'm just curious who all is reading this thing.
