No title today

Photo: My first rain storm in Hanoi, I actually think it might have been the tailend of a typhoon. Alex and Sarah are wading through the water - this is the end of my alley and let's just say I am applying what I learned at SURP, Hanoi has awful stormwater managment, there is pavement everywhere even where there are trees there is pavement right upto the trunk! It flooded within minutes and the hail was hail I never seen before. It was litterally the size of golfballs and I first thought who the heck is throwing rocks at us. I don't even want to get into what might have been floating in the water since garbage is regularly thrown onto the street. But I will say I took a very hot shower and used disinfectant when I got home ...

I went to Lang Son City yesterday for the day, it's about a 3.5 hour drive one way (even though it is only 162km from Hanoi - I will never complain about traffic or highways in Canada again ... it takes about an hour by car just to travel about 50km). I really got a good feel for the town which is in a northern province that borders China. I will be there next week for a week where I will be working with the City of Fredericton and Lang Son City on a Tourism Development project that has been underway for the last year. They went over their workplan with me and it looks like I'll get to do some neat activites and visit some cool places when we arrive.

I am heading to Sapa tomorrow night to hike the tallest mountain in Vietnam, Mount Fansipan. Melissa just did the hike and described it as wild, hard, and at times scary. Her group did it in 4 days (though they were doing research along the way), we are going to do it in 2 days. I am not in very good physical shape and I have been breathing in smog for the last 2 months, so this will be interesting ... I will likely complain (a lot), but I am sure we will feel very rewarded after we get to the top.

The autumn weather is setting in, people are in pants, jackets, and turtlenecks. I, however, am still wearing my short sleeved shirts and capris and everyone thinks I am crazy for sporting such light clothing for this time of year. Winter is suppose to be very cold here, not cold like Canada, but cold because it is damp and there is no indoor heating. Many people wear their outside clothes inside. I remember Lily telling me the top thing people generally talk about is the weather and I completely agree. I keep bringing it up in this blog ... but another thing I wanted to add is that I miss seeing blue skies! I always think it is going to rain because it looks cloudy but really it is a thick cloud of haze and pollution.

Hospital Clinic and Water Filtering Program in Phu Ly

Phu Ly Town is the capital in Ha Nam Province and it's about an hour drive by motorbike from Hanoi. Steve's organization, Samaritan's Purse (SP), has a couple projects in Phu Ly and I was able to tag along on one of his field trips. We visited a small clinic that just received donated medical equipment and supplies from the US, but much of the equipment they had not seen before so they got a Canadian doctor to visit and look through it all to see what the clinic could really use. Although the donation was hugely generous (some of the items alone were worth hundreds of dollars), there are some things that hadn't been taken into consideration - some of the equipment was electical and there is a different voltage between North America and Vietnam, luckily they had not yet plugged in the equipment but if they did, it could have caused an electrical fire and ruined the equipment. But there is a simple solution, they will just need to buy a voltage converter which SP will purchase and donate.

Another project SP has in the town is a water filtration program - these filters are actually a Canadian product, invented at the University of Calgary. The filters are made locally (material and labour) and are given to each household that has given a week's work to the project. It uses a natual filtration process using sand to remove iron and arsenic from the water to produce clean drinking water. Not sure if you can tell in the pic, but you pour the well water through the top and the clean water comes out of the spout.

I didn't crash the motorbike!

I knew I couldn't really experience Vietnamese life until I rode a motorbike. I just was not going to drive one in Hanoi. I was out of the city yesterday for a field trip with my friend Steve to visit one of his projects in Ha Nam province. It was a nice small rural city with no traffic and Steve suggested I try to drive his organization's new bike since I wouldn't have to worry about learning how to use a clutch since I don't know how to drive a standard (to Kate's dismay).

I had to learn completely from scratch - when Steve showed me the nozzle I think I worried him when I asked what it was for ... but he rode with me so he could tell me step by step what to do. It actually wasn't very complicated and I got up to 40 clicks for a few seconds. We rode down a long not very windy road but somehow I still almost got into a few accidents! I kind of got nervous when trucks when pass us and I wasn't use to using the foot break that I had to swerve and a truck stopped and yelled some profanity at us ... oh well. I made the locals laugh with my very not smooth starts and stops. I have to say I am impressed that Steve actually trusted me with his life - I did warn him that I have a reputation for being slightly clumsy, but now I am excited to go motobiking again!

Change of Weather

I was in Nam Dinh City which is in Nam Dinh province which is about 2 hours southwest of Hanoi for work last week. It is known for their pho and they took us to one of the popular pho restaurants on our last morning. In Canada there are lots of pho restaurants opened by south vietnamese, but it is actually a northern vietnamese dish.

Well, it is technically automn but it is apparently unusually warm for this time of year. Can it really be fall when it is 30 degrees? It was cool for a few days (which I welcomed with open arms) and took out my zip-up sweater from my suitcase for the first time. I hear it has already snowed in Canada and although people are envious of my non-snow winter, I will miss walking in snow and can't believe I am not going to see it until next year. I was talking to Kersten yesterday (thanks for calling!) and in Yellowknife right now it's -30 with 20cm of snow ...

So I am sick - not sick from the food, not sick from the water, haven't had to use any of the many prescriptions I brought (even though I got licked by Sarah's landlord's dog and was paranoid I might have gotten rabies for a few days), but what got me in the end after being here for almost 2 months was the common cold! I'm congested and my throat is really dry and scratchy which I didn't know initially if it was just from the pollution. But the part that drives me nuts is when I hear "you are sick because the weather has changed" - my mom says that to me all the time and I always tell her that colds come from germs! I guess the real explanation is that maybe when the weather cools, you're immune system is weaker and germs spread faster? I don't really know the science behind how colds get passed on, maybe my health professional friends can help me out here but I refuse to think the colds are caused by the cold, perhaps it is indirectly correlated ...

Last night I was invited by the family of my old hotel for dinner. They invited a few of their other former guests and made us a huge meal - fish, duck, beef, noodle soup, it was a nice spread and very generous. Even though I don't live there anymore, I still stop by to say hello.

Sunday Morning Tea

photo: Kids playing soccer after school, Ninh Binh City

I love having a huge brunch and relaxing with a cup of tea on weekend mornings. Now that I have a ktichen and a roommate I can actually do that! Alex has been living in Vietnam for a couple of years and is returning to the US next month. She spoiled me this morning and made scrambled eggs, bacon (real bacon), and toast, then I got to make some tea and just veg for the rest of this morning.

I been here over 6 weeks now and I keep saying how fast the time is going by, but I realize I have been saying that about everything since probably university. I remember someone telling me when I was kid how the time seems to go by faster when you get older and it is so true. I remember having summer break in school and thought 2 months was forever ...

I think about my first week here and not having a clue what was going on and thinking am I crazy for coming?! But I have settled in and have met some great people and am really getting to experience life in Hanoi. My footsteps aren't as ackward anymore and I move naturally through the streets and I don't need to carry a map with me every single time I go out. People actually understand me when I speak Vietnamese.

Last night a friend hosted a bbq and he went all out. He cooked for over 20 people and had crab, marinated chicken, several different types of Malaysian curries, and salads - it was a very impressive feast. I am thinking about having a dinner party but I think I will make it a potluck or invite him to be head chef :) I admit, I have not cooked while I have been here. To my defense I was in a hotel for a while but now that I have a full kitchen I should try, but it is just so much more convenient to go out and get a bowl of pho and even cheaper than to try to go and get the ingredients yourself. I don't imagine I'll be cooking very much or basically not at all for the next 4 months. My roommates and I said we might try to cook dinner once a week to learn to cook some Vietnamese food.

The system to pay your utility bills and take out the garbage is quite interesting. Our electricity and water are extra and when your bill is due someone comes to your door with the invoice and you are expected to pay at that moment. I am still not use to paying cash for everything, so you have to make sure you have a bundle of dongs ready - it is almost like a tax man coming for collection. And the garbage pick-up is quite different - there is no "garbage day", everyday is garbage day. For our alleyway, at about 5:10pm a garbage collector comes around with their cart and rings a bell (really loudly) and you come out with your bag of garbage and dump it in their cart or you can leave it outside your gate and they will pick it up.

Going to Nam Dinh tonight for a few days for work to participate on our Saguenay / Nam Dinh municipal partnership project which is to implement a land use management GIS database. It'll be a bit tiring since I will be only communicating in French and Vietnamese the whole time since we only have a Vietnamese-French translator.

King's Bananas

I was on a work trip to Ninh Binh City which is southwest of Hanoi over the weekend. FCM & ACVN are initiating a Communities in Bloom project and Ninh Binh is one of our pilot areas.

The bananas in the pic are known as the king's bananas because way back when, only the king was allowed to eat them - they are small and sweet, I have tried them in Canada a couple of times, but they taste much better here since you can eat them right off the tree.

I finally moved into a house! After living in a guest house/hotel and out of my suitcase for 5 weeks I was ready! It is a 4 floor house, really spacious and has a small pond with fishies and a turtle. As soon as I saw it I knew it was the one. Patience paid off. I will be dedicating a separate entry to my new home once I get settled in. I am already planning a house party ...

Hanoi is gearing up for APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) conference being held in mid-November. Bush and Harper are coming, the Chinese president, and leaders from the other Asian and Pacific countries. Security has definitely been heightened - more police on the streets, stricter enforcement of traffic control, special cars for the dignitaries have been practicing their routes, street vendors are getting cleared from the sidewalks. It will be interesting to see what happens and how everything is run.

I like to add random facts as I learn them: Vietnam has a 2-child policy, I did not know this at all (and feel kind of silly that I did not know this). You hear about China's 1-child policy often, but I did not realize that VN had a similar one. I heard that VN is the 14 densist country in the world. I just did some stats for my colleague's presentation and there are 258 people per sq.km in Vietnam while there is 3.6 people per sq.km in Canada - however there is a qualifer here, 90% of the Cdn population is within 160 km of the US border.