Hanoi

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Well I am safe and sound in Hanoi!!!

It's so strange to cross the world in a day - it's like being dropped onto another planet. It's so easy to forget that this other world exists day in day out, when Australia is so QUIET!!!

There are quite a few motorbikes here. With HORNS. It seems that Vietnamese motorbikes don't operate unless one hand is on the horn all the time. And when I say 'quite a few motorbikes', I mean MILLIONS of them. Just millions. (which equals 'quite a few' horns, as well...)

The trip here was quite good, but felt long. Have not airport-waited for quite some time. I flew from Brisbane to Singapore in the fanciest fancypants plane I've ever been in - each seat has the equivalent of Foxtel Digital - you can start and stop programs whenever you like, and pause, rewind, fast forward etc. There were 100 movies, and 160 TV programs to choose from!! So instead of getting the restful night's sleep I needed, I stayed up ALL NIGHT watching 'Fun with Dick and Jane' (not bad, actually...), 'The Family Guy' and 'Will and Grace'. It also had Nintendo, including SUPER MARIO BROTHERS!!! Enough said.

I waited in Singapore for a few hours, then flew to Hanoi. I was SCARED by this stage (well actually I'd been scared for 3 days, no 3 weeks... or was it longer?) Fortunately I was exhausted from winning at Super Mario Bros all night, so I had a nap.

The flight was smooth except for some bumps as we came into clouds over Hanoi. As we descended through the clouds I was surprised to see mountains, a lot of quite significant mountains around. Hanoi is in a flat part, but apparently the mountains are a lot closer than I thought. All the flat bits were green (rice, I'm assuming...), and everything was WET. (goes with the rice, I imagine).

Vietnamese customs let me through which was nice. I was a teeny bit worried about the trip from the airport (petrified), because I have 4 cumbersome and ridiculously oversized bags that weigh 43 kilos (seriously) and I am unable to carry them all at once (one at a time is no problem at all). I did not think that 4 trips from the airport and back sounded like a plausible solution.

I was hoping to be picked up by someone from the organisation I will work with. And hoping that the 'pick up' was not by motorbike, with 43 kilos of aforementioned 'extra passenger'. Imagine me on the back of a motorbike with 4 giant bags, being driven by a skinny little Vietnamese man, who is thrust upwards and drives wheelie-style on the back tyre, for an hour into central Hanoi...

Thankfully this was just imaginings. There was a lovely lady to pick me up in a taxi *CAR*. She brought long-stemmed roses to welcome me! We chatted on the way from the airport. All seems good, but I think she expected me to speak Vietnamese... (I can say 'hello'. I mean really, what do these people expect???!) There is another Australian woman working with them now, who's been with them 5 weeks, is staying for a year, AND spent 12 months learning Vietnamese in South Vietnam!!!! Oh dear. I start Vietnamese tomorrow (Monday), and have classes 3 hours a day for 2 weeks. I shall be STUDYING in the evenings, to learn as much as I can!!!

Yesterday I had the standard Vietnamese dish for the first time. I was feeling very fancy because I ordered it in Vietnamese. It is rice noodle soup with vegies and meat called 'pho'. I even described the type of pho I wanted, 'pho bo' (with beef). I said 'pho bo' like it is written, and would be pronounced in English. Blank-faced woman, then she pointed at a seat, and brought me a bowl of noodle soup. Clever me! I ate away, also feeling clever because I was eating slippery noodles with chopsticks, which I can't use (but no one else knew that).

Then I went about my day. Later I found out that 'pho' sounds sort of like 'fur', but more nasal, sort of like the sound you make when someone is being dumb and you say 'DDEEERRRRRRRR'. And 'bo' rhymes with that.

I got the meal that I wanted simply because it is the only thing they make at that shop.

I am occasionally ever-so-slightly less fancy than I think I am.

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Comments

[someone]

hi!
I read your other post (the palace), i am glad you are liking vietnam already. just wanted to let you know that pho and bo in 'pho bo' is not supposed to rhyme when you say it. pho rhymes with duh(i guess ddeerrrr without the r sound) and bo rhymes with saw. at least thats how i'd translate it to someone with an american accent(keep saying 'duh saw' over and over and replace with 'phuh baw' that should sound pretty close to what it should sound like), i can't really imitate an australian accent too well to see what would be the best way to translate it to someone with an australian accent. also there is some tonage which are depicted by those symbols you see over and under some of the vowels. i hope you learn well in your vietnamese classes and enjoy your stay in vietnam.