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Published: December 3rd 2009
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While I was at my first full day of my in-class course on
Wednesday 14th October 2009, Luke-e was busy looking at rental apartments for us to move into. We’d had enough of living out of our bags, and wanted a place to call home, with a kitchen, for the next 6mths. He looked at 5 places and, with the two we’d already looked at together in mind, he favored a place in Dong Da District - about a 10 minute drive from Old Quarter. He showed me photo’s that night (Wednesday) and we decided to sign the lease the next day! Very excited - we had some celebration drinks with Steve and Maja.
Even though it stretched our budget a little, we both decided having a kitchen was well worth it. It was funny cause the whole time he was looking at apartments, the Landlords would always get his name wrong. Mr Lucy was common, haha, I loved it when he’d get a text message saying “Hi Mr Lucy…”
So, the first time I saw our new house was after class on
Thursday the 15th of October. Luke picked me up, on the motorbike he’d hired from Viet,
the first landlord we met with, and it took us about 45minutes to get home - even though Luke had no trouble finding his way to The Old Quarter, it was different going home - with one way streets confusing him. One wrong turn and it took us forever to get back on track.
Poor Luke-e - I’m still so fascinated by the streets and people of Hanoi, that the whole time we’re lost, I’m in a daze watching everyone - while he’s stressing out trying to figure out where to go, and ride in the hectic traffic - doesn’t help that I can’t really read a map! 😊
I was so excited when we got to our street, Van Mieu, and then our Alley, Than Mien - off Van Mieu, we’re number 1 / 43 Than Mien Alley, Van Mieu Street, Dong Da District, Hanoi Vietnam! - that’s how we say it - but it’s spelt differently, with little strokes here and there, and dots under letters - very confusing.
We parked our motorbike in the foyer of our apartment block, walked up one flight of stairs to our front door! Our bathroom is first, on the
right, and then our bedroom, then off that is another room, just the right size for our lounge room, kitchen and dining room.
Our first night in the apartment was…interesting. There were a lot of noises; that seemed to be in bed with us - like dogs barking, cats meowing, and peoples TV - the TV was the worst - at 5am in the morning, it was wayyyyy too loud. It was the same the next night, so Saturday Luke contacted Long, our landlord, and he said he’d speak to the noisy neighbor.
Sunday morning,
18th October 2009, we slept right through till the alarm - it was great! And Monday morning the same - no TV on - it was bliss to have an uninterrupted sleep.
After two, much needed, great sleeps there was a lot of unexpected noise and commotion Monday afternoon.
Our Landlord, Long, was down stairs, and told Luke that the old man next door had passed away that morning - the man with the loud tv! We found out that we were not the only people who had complained his early tv,- we’re still not sure why so much commotion though, a
man sounded very angry towards a woman. The celebration of his life went on for a full week - may he rest in peace - which I’m sure there’s no doubt of; the size of the shrine that his family made, took up most of his house.
It’s fun buying groceries for our new little home, loading up at the Supermarket, then us both jumping on the motorbike, me with 4 full grocery bags in each hand, and a back pack full of more, others balancing in between Luke & I, and then riding home - weaving in and out of the traffic, trying not to hit anyone as we ride past.
The apartment is in such a great location, right across the road from Hanoi’s Temple of Literature, and there’s an Arts Museum on the other side of that. Luke’s been cooking such tasty meals; everything is so fresh here. The more we walk around our new district, the better it gets - we keep finding different shops, grocery stores, and food stalls.
I’m so stoked with our Hanoi-Home! 😊
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