Di Bo

Walking around Hanoi

Dinner at Anh Tuyet with Huong and Sit

Now

where am I?

Bokashi Plant Food.. now that's familiar!

Lunch with Michael

on Hai Ba Trung Street

A decent palanquin outside a pagoda

on Phan Huy Ich (still lost)

Di Bo in tieng Viet means to walk, as opposed to di xe may (go by motor bike), di xe buyt (go by bus) or even di xe dap ( go by bicycle). Well, I have to say that I've been "di bo" -ing a fair bit this week, especially this morning when Michael and I took bus 33 and it didn't go where we thought it would. He got off at Truc Bach Lake, (our future abode) and I stayed on until streets started appearing that I didn't recognise and I pressed the panic button. Actually, I really pressed the button to ask the bus to stop and, another few streets away, it did.

I wasn't feeling stressed until I found I had no map. So I just started walking and passed the same Cua Bang Catholic church twice. I was feeling a bit pushed by this stage. I did however see some terrific things on the way and found myself eventually in Ly Nam Dai street where several of you (Marilyn, Sue and John) will remember a wonderful dinner with Anh Dai and his family followed by a riotous cyclo ride home in the middle of the night through the misty streets of Hanoi way back in 1994). Walking down Ly Nam Dai I came across a pile of bags of fertiliser with the name Bokashi...now there's a familiar term.

I stopped for a drink of lemon soda with ice and salt (soda trang da va moi) ( I know my spelling's out here), a lunch on the street in Nha Tho where my table companion told me I seemed to be eating enough for two. (I told her it was because I was fat and she was thin, before she told me I was fat, as every second Vietnamese person in our street has done!!) (Beo qua!)

Then off to our Vietnamese lesson at AVI ( your taxes at work). Tonight La Boheme. I think we'll di xe taxi!!

This week Dvorak, Faure and Rossini. Next week Puccini. Can this be Hanoi?

Everywhere you look, there's something of interest!

A flautist and singer by Hoan Kiem Lake.

The passageway behind a photography shop in Ta Hien Street.

Down a laneway off Hang Buom Street, someone is getting a haircut.

In another laneway off

Hang Buom Street, people are eating breakfast.

A delicate terracotta tile on the ground

outside a pagoda near our hotel.

On Thursday evening we accompanied my friend Thanh to hear the Vietnam Symphony Orchestra at the Hanoi Opera House. The building is a replica of the Paris Opera House and beautiful. This past week we heard Rossini, Faure and Dvorak. On Tuesday evening we are off to hear La Boheme with some AVI friends. I was regretting not getting to La Boheme in Marysville today and here it is in Hanoi. This is a city of many surprises and so many sensate experiences.

Last night we ate at a wonderful restaurant called Anh Tuyet with two of my very old friends from UNICEF days: Sit and Huong. Anh Tuyet is a traditional Vietnamese restaurant and has been operating for possibly over a 100 years. The food was wonderful and the dessert, well just a bounty of flavour. It has a base of green bean sauce which looked opaque and gelatinous,, to which had been added the flavours of grapefruit flowers and betel nut flowers, We all added teaspoons of young rice and both the flavour and the perfume was wonderful!

Hanoi April 2010: noisy but beautiful

Eating Bun Rieu Cua today for lunch. Rat Ngon! (very tasty!)

Michael with Tung and Binh at their home last night

Fisherman, Truc Bach Lake

Our future home (well 3 storeys and 65 steps up!!)


AVI volunteers, Hoa Sua, April 15, 2010

The Apology, Australian Embassy, Hanoi

Hang Duong Street, Hanoi

Painting houses in Hang Duong Street, no safety harnesses

Family farewell, Tullamarine

Nat, Chloe, Melissa, with Michael

Chloe and Grandpa

We will have been here a week tomorrow and as usual have packed the week almost as full as our suitcases. We started with a nostalgic cup of coffee on Hoam Kiem Lake last Tuesday afternoon, followed by acquiring a sublet apartment for 4.5 months on Truc Bach Lake later that evening. Then it was Michael's AVI orientation which I joined for three days. Our hotel is in the Old Quarter and named the Melody Hotel: quite apt for the melodies of car and bike horns, loudspeakers and the buzz of people on the narrow streets.

This year is the 1000th year anniversary of the founding of Hanoi by King Ly Thai To. Saturday evening we attended a gala performance by an indigenous Australian didgeridoo player and a number of aboriginal hip-hoppers as Australia's birthday gift to Hanoi (your taxes at work, so thankyou!).

We have been walking (carefully) and climbing many stairs to get ready for the the 65 stair climb to our small lakeside abode.

It's been good to catch up with Hanoi. On Friday when we went to lunch I met a friend I hadn't seen for 15 years. What joy!

We've also enjoyed getting to know other Australian volunteers and people with whom Michael works. I'm still working on a possible diversion!!

And this morning: Vietnamese language classes with Mr Hung. We have learned about the 9 vowels plus two, and the different uses of personal pronouns according to relationships. Tomorrow we start on vocab. Michael has been a star. I'm recouping...plus knitting!

Raining cats and possums in Abbotsford

It's Sunday morning. We're sitting up in bed listening to the water cascading through the holes in the guttering that I've been asking to have fixed for two months. Things work slowly with an Owners' Corporation. We've finished our list of things to do at the farm and have left the dogs in the company of our delightful house-sitter there. Our bags are packed. And basically we're having an easy weekend in Melbourne before the rush and jostle of Hanoi. From cool to hot and humid. I think this year we'll miss winter.

While Michael is volunteering I don't know yet what I will do, but I'm open to what comes. Maybe I'll do some more cooking classes or delve into Vietnamese history. Maybe I'll just sit and think. Maybe...maybe...

Here in Abbotsford the cats give the possums a run for their money...up and over fences screaming as they go. Maybe even Hanoi will be quieter than this!