Freezing Hanoi

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Ha ha ha ha - I wish it was 'Freezing Hanoi'!! It started raining yesterday, and I thought "Phew, now it will cool down!" Right? Unfortunately, it drizzles on and off, somehow staying the same temperature, while the humidity INCREASES (had no idea that was possible!)

It is HUMID. H.U.M.I.D. Strength-sucking brain-numbing boiling-hot humidity. I wake up sweating, then spend the rest of the day wiping my sweaty face - a nice look, really. And the Vietnamese?? Dry as a bone - very disheartening. Even worse, they talk about the upcoming months with fear - apparently THAT'S when it gets humid. And hot. Rumour is 38 degrees, 99% humidity.... Oh dear.

How do people LIVE here??? And how on earth can they speak bloody Vietnamese??? I can not even conceive of some poor defenceless child learning this gymnastic language.

After 18 hours of classes I have mastered "How are you?", "I am 25" and "Thankyou".

Actually, 'mastered' is a vast stretch of the imagination, seeing as each time I say these 3 things, people look puzzled and can't actually understand me...

I was just trying to give myself a little pep talk there.

I start work on Monday. An Australian woman who has worked at my organisation for 2 months says she finds it very difficult to find work to do (no, she said "VERY difficult"), and has spent copious hours 'Google-ing' things she's always wondered about...

Oh dear.

It is raining raining raining today. But still I have to get around on motorbike. Today I borrowed an absolutely foolish 'raincoat' - strikingly similar to a giant transparent plastic bag... I have actually seen people walking along the street in the rain with plastic bags over their heads - didn't their Mothers ever tell them about the dangers???

I am surprised that people seem to laugh at me less when I am wearing my giant plastic bag, than they do when I am just walking along normally on a sunny day... (in regular non-plastic clothes)

Sunday was Mum's birthday - Happy Birthday Mum!!! I was woken by a NOISY funeral procession going through my street - lots of people, instruments, a coffin in a van... Then I went to see President Ho Chi Minh (Ex-President, really, he's been dead for 30 years...) - He's embalmed, and you get to walk through a room and look at him. Incredibly macabre. The poor guy wanted to be cremated, but after he was dead he couldn't really argue, so they embalmed him. Apparently he goes to Russia for a few months each year for 'maintenance'...

I'm quite sure it was the first time I've seen 2 dead bodies on my mother's birthday.

I went out on Saturday night for dinner with some volunteers that have been here for a while. I expected dinner, maybe a beer, then home. But boy can these women (aged 53, 38 and 35) party!! They drank me under several tables, as we went on a sponaneous (or perhaps routine???) pub crawl. We got motorbikes, taxis, and walked our way around trendy Hanoi night spots, until I was EXHAUSTED, and they were just perking up for the night!!!

After very few hours sleep I went off to see Ho Chi Minh, and had a severe nausea attack upon entering his room (fatigue-related, clearly. Nothing to do with 11 beers the night before...). You are not allowed to 'wear tank tops', 'act disrespectfully', or 'put your hands in your pockets' while visiting 'Uncle Ho'. Imagine if I had vomitted on him!!! I'm sure I would be in a Vietnamese prison right now...

Monuments, museums and the like often have lists of things you are not allowed to do inside, out the front - saw one that included "No Frolicking" out the front!!! It brought on the strongest urge to frolick that I have ever experienced...

I have had a slight persistent headache ever since I have been here. But, strangely (considering India!), have not suffered a single stomach upset. Oh dear, have I just jinxed myself???

I am attempting to get some photos of Hanoi on here. I have found a friend with a laptop, and have put my photos onto her computer. Now I just need to find out where to buy CDs, burn them onto one, then find a computer that was made in the last 50 years and actually has a CD drive... (forget USB ports!!!)

My hotel is playing the Spice Girls (loudly), which is following an equally voluminous rendition of the Venga Boys 'Boom Boom Boom Boom, I want you in my room' - seems quite inappropriate, really...

Inexplicably, I hear Celine Dion's 'My Heart Will Go On' playing loudly from the street several times each evening.

I'm so pleased the Vietnamese have embraced the best of Western music!!!!

Not sure how the 'sending you the email telling you I've updated this' thing is going. You can look at the page at www.travelblog.org/bloggers/karyn any time you like, and can 'Add Comment' after you've read something, or can 'Unsubscribe' yourself if you don' want to get the emails. Hope that's clear!

Well it is probably time to study Vietnamese, so I think I will actually go and try to find a cheap sandwich instead. Or anything without noodles or 'beef'!!! (why is the 'beef' here so pale?? That troubles me...)

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Comments

[Simon]

Hey you
Hey you! I have several inappropriate things to say about almost all of your experiences to date that really shouldn't be read be your run-of-the-mill blog whore (yes that IS the rest of you... get your filthy eyes off my private thoughts, please!). Which email address (out of your several) are you yousing (hee hee I've been reading a lot of Joyce recently). Ahem... using? Oh and for the rest of you run-of-the-mill blog whores... I'm sure her majesty will allow you to cast your filthy eyes upon her email address too. Maybe. Ha ha ha ha. Sod off.