Hey
Chore Day
We spent our first day in Hanoi doing 'chores'... it's a fact that long term travel is not always as glamorous or adventurous as it may sound. Much effort is spent, especially when first arriving in a place, in planning, exchanging money, setting up a rough itinerary, cleaning laundry, obtaining a visa for the next place, learning a few basic words in the local language (enough to get started), getting the lay of the land. It's especially difficult after a period of laziness, such as it was towards the end of China, to get back to the rigors of travel.
But doing chores is, also, a quick indoctrination to the new place we've arrived in. Looking for English books to read (there is a paltry supply in China), we went out in search of a book store... The best way to get familiar with a place is to try getting from one place to another. It's also a good test of the local's patience and kindness by asking for directions. In India, people wanted cash for a friendly point in the right direction. But here, in Vietnam, people have been helpful. It's a bit of a measure, I suppose, of what's to come in a place... the willingness of people on the street to help a foreigner without expectation of a commision for an everyday act of kindness.
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Hanoi: sidewalk shops -- rather, entire streets as shops devoted to the sale of a particular product, such as towels or funerary plaques; sunny blue skies; women in conical hats selling fruit from baskets slung from a pole balanced on their shoulders; old, faded buildings stained with black mold and green swaths of lichen; cheery yellow structures, a reminder of French colonial days; crazy traffic -- crossing the streets, which are alive with a zillion motorbikes, is easier to do if you don't think about it too hard (walking purposefully and slowly is the trick... things avoid you).
At night, sights from the perch of our hotel room's balcony: families line the streets, fanning themselves in the stagnant heat; women have pulled plastic chairs into the road, thoughtless of traffic, and chat; children play badmittion and soccer in the street, amidst the traffic of passing motorbikes (one driver nearly lost control of his bike when hit in the head by an errant badmitton); a chihuahua barks at the goings on from the doorway of a home across the way, so tiny is the street, that the place (and dog) is almost within arm's reach. I can see into the home on the second floor across from our hotel: a man in shorts and nothing else lays on the tiled floor, listless from the heat, trying to cool down by playing dead. His wife, in a silky purple nightie, adjusts the fan, giving me a glance. They have little privacy with me standing there, watching them.
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Our first day's chores were fruitful. Our passports are at the Cambodian embassy -- we will be entering that country in 1 month and we thought we'd free up some time in Southern Vietnam by taking care of our visas here in Hanoi. We booked ourselves on a Halong Bay boat trip -- we leave tomorrow. We secured train tickets to Sapa, where we'll go upon return from Halong Bay. We found a few English books to read. We planned our entire month in Vietnam, which proved to be the most difficult task.
We're used to having 2 months at our disposal (India, China), and we are not used to being diligent with our time. We have a tendency to be thorough and want to see everything when we're in a place. But there is not enough time, so we've had to make hard decisions about what not to do, decisions about what's the most important to us. We've decided to add some time to the Southern end of the trip for a motorcycle tour (on our own) through the Mekong Delta. It seems fitting to 'end' Vietnam and prepare for the 'beginning' of Cambodia by touring an area of land that once (not too long ago) belonged to the Khmer people.
But doing chores is, also, a quick indoctrination to the new place we've arrived in. Looking for English books to read (there is a paltry supply in China), we went out in search of a book store... The best way to get familiar with a place is to try getting from one place to another. It's also a good test of the local's patience and kindness by asking for directions. In India, people wanted cash for a friendly point in the right direction. But here, in Vietnam, people have been helpful. It's a bit of a measure, I suppose, of what's to come in a place... the willingness of people on the street to help a foreigner without expectation of a commision for an everyday act of kindness.
---
Hanoi: sidewalk shops -- rather, entire streets as shops devoted to the sale of a particular product, such as towels or funerary plaques; sunny blue skies; women in conical hats selling fruit from baskets slung from a pole balanced on their shoulders; old, faded buildings stained with black mold and green swaths of lichen; cheery yellow structures, a reminder of French colonial days; crazy traffic -- crossing the streets, which are alive with a zillion motorbikes, is easier to do if you don't think about it too hard (walking purposefully and slowly is the trick... things avoid you).
At night, sights from the perch of our hotel room's balcony: families line the streets, fanning themselves in the stagnant heat; women have pulled plastic chairs into the road, thoughtless of traffic, and chat; children play badmittion and soccer in the street, amidst the traffic of passing motorbikes (one driver nearly lost control of his bike when hit in the head by an errant badmitton); a chihuahua barks at the goings on from the doorway of a home across the way, so tiny is the street, that the place (and dog) is almost within arm's reach. I can see into the home on the second floor across from our hotel: a man in shorts and nothing else lays on the tiled floor, listless from the heat, trying to cool down by playing dead. His wife, in a silky purple nightie, adjusts the fan, giving me a glance. They have little privacy with me standing there, watching them.
---
Our first day's chores were fruitful. Our passports are at the Cambodian embassy -- we will be entering that country in 1 month and we thought we'd free up some time in Southern Vietnam by taking care of our visas here in Hanoi. We booked ourselves on a Halong Bay boat trip -- we leave tomorrow. We secured train tickets to Sapa, where we'll go upon return from Halong Bay. We found a few English books to read. We planned our entire month in Vietnam, which proved to be the most difficult task.
We're used to having 2 months at our disposal (India, China), and we are not used to being diligent with our time. We have a tendency to be thorough and want to see everything when we're in a place. But there is not enough time, so we've had to make hard decisions about what not to do, decisions about what's the most important to us. We've decided to add some time to the Southern end of the trip for a motorcycle tour (on our own) through the Mekong Delta. It seems fitting to 'end' Vietnam and prepare for the 'beginning' of Cambodia by touring an area of land that once (not too long ago) belonged to the Khmer people.
posted by Cheryn at 12:46 PM
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