Tag: tet

Viet Nam #3. It’s Tet.

OK – to put you out of your misery … how to sit on the sidewalk and not get yr bum or feet dirty.  You remove ONE flipflop, which is what you will sit on. You keep the other on the spare foot and sit back, with yr legs crossed at the ankles, with the flip-flopless one in the air.  Go on, give it a try.  The guy I saw doing this was ancient too.  I would love to see just how he lined up bum with the flipflop and on one foot too.  HOW do you sit down on something that is half an inch off the ground ?

Tet is over, so this means the return of the rent-a-tree, which is huge business.  Those of you with good memories will remember last year, when I was here pre-Tet, I was happily engaged watching the park-full of flowering trees being debated over.  Think Christmas tree, except this tree is really living in a huge pot and is a sort of bonsoi-on-steroids. All manicured to perfect shape and ready to burst forth in bright yellow blossom at just the right time.  I shall have to ask Huy how they do it, as I doubt if they have acres of climate controlled greenhouses to hold them back until the optimum moment.  Well now they are all going home, so there are the scooters with the trees on the back, now flower and leaf-less being returned and I expect you get a deposit back. 

At the Café Nhi we have valet parking too.  You just abandon your bike any old place outside right on the street and the man in the yellow café t-shirt then moves it to a neat line.  Perish the thought that you can have just put it there yourself.   Also they are perpetually sweeping up and that includes the sidewalk, so they use a fan shaped soft brush for inside and then outside you get the big bundle of twigs.  It’s kind of like the Korean hotel where they provide plastic sandals just inside the room door and of course facing the right way and then inside the bathroom there is yet another pair, just to wear there.   I am all in favor of abandoning street shoes at the door and do so at home but the 2nd pair does seem a little OTT.

Lotus is the national flower of VN

Old ladies still sport the traditional conical hat and also the baggy pyjama suit.  Cool and comfortable for when things get sticky.   And for those of you who remember my immediate locale, the coffin shop did have two empty spaces for full sized adults when I arrived, but next day they had been filed in with a couple of monster boxes which looked like it would take several people to lift.  The owner was still stretched out on his lounger, looking dead to the world.

There is always a food cart only feet away … the VN eat all the time.

I have re-established frequent buyer status with the women at the bakery a few doors from my abode.  They appear to be open all hours and the business is brisk. I can pop along in the morning for fresh ultra crispy rolls – there is a huge basket of them and u just pick what you want and they proffer the plastic bag.   10 US cents for a mini baguette.  They will always make the traditional banh mi, which I can just live on.  The woman who is there in the evenings, who is all smiles, knows that I can take the slices of hot pepper (and they are HOT, be clear about that) and I saw that you can buy slabs of crisply roasted pork too, which I may do some dumb show that I would like just a crispy pork sandwich, with the ‘special sauce’ that goes on everything.  If that derails I can always just buy it all separately and assemble at home.  That’s the good thing about an airbandb accommodation is that you have a kitchen so I can get creative.  Just a one burner deal and a water jug heater and lots of equipment so that is all you need.   And a good big fridge and freezer.

And the is a lot of having a siesta also

I went to the supermarket to find a few things.  Looked like there was some kind of promo going on as a huge amount of bulk buying happening…. that or all the small hotels/guesthouses had decided to go on a mass toilet paper buying spree.  You can find everything you need, even if it takes a bit of searching for.  I needed salt and the more I looked, all I could find was monosodium glutamate, which is still much used here, esp as a dip for fruit.  A little bit of dumb show with a miniscule girl and she got it and showed me where.   Same happy looking and plump check out girl as the first day and I got a nice “Thang You’.

From a menu outside a restaurant: “Chopped Beef Fried Wine Burning” …. sounds great.  I have also seen “Pork Rids with Nodles/Bones” and “Clay Pot Frog Porridge”.

A woman almost bouncing down the street with two huge baskets of fruit balanced on a piece of split bamboo across her shoulders.  Each must have been heavier that I could pick up, but once she gets in to her stride there would be no stopping her.  No padding on her shoulders either.  Made me wince.

VN New Yorker

And the projected subway system is still nowhere near finished.  Huge chunks of land shut off behind hoardings. Huy says projected date now something like 2020 and he Is not holding his breath.  I told him not to give up hope as in NY we have recently had a new piece of subway line opened and that took lobbying for about 50 years and 10 years of work.  I can just see the locals here wanting to take their bikes on the trains and there will be a move for impromptu dining on platforms for sure.   

I spend more time in Huy’s office, proof-reading brochures. I get there by taxi, as he has moved too far away for walking.  Taxis are many and cheap and beautifully air-conditioned.  I have my address and his written down and only have to show it to the driver. Don’t even think of trying to pronounce anything, as you will derail for sure. Drivers are all male, well dressed with neatly ironed short-sleeved white shirts and practically the only persons you see wearing ties.

I go out for lunch with some staff and with his manager lady, Tracy, who he freely admits runs the place and who speaks excellent English.  She is mid-30’s, pretty and certainly on top of everything. The food looks better than it tastes.

And now I am off to the former French hill-station of Dalat.  At 4,500ft above sea-level, it will be a lot cooler and fresher than swampy Saigon.  The inestimable Mr Hai come to collect me and we pick up Huy en route.  He has several boxes to take up there to the Ananda Retreat, but first we had to stop for food and then we stop at the check in counter where a boy who did not look old enough to be employed, checked them in.  Huy declared he needed coffee, so even through the flight was only 50 mins away and the security lines are never short, we still had to go back outside the terminal and visit the Starbucks for his express espresso.  Then back upstairs in the terminal, where there was a good conga line and my passport was checked and I set off the bells on the security arch, so the girls there ran her hands up and down me, front and back.  They would think men doing men and women doing women as vaguely perverted !   And then the flight was announced for 30 mins delayed.   I find a timetable and quiz Huy as to how many flights a day are there on VN Airlines and it’s cheaper offshoot, Jetstar Asia, between Saigon and Hanoi.  He guesses 20 – it’s 34 !  And at least half of them on huge fat planes.

So we board our A321, which is about 2/3 full for the all of 35 mins flight.  It’s that or a 7 hour road trip, which is how I shall return. Captain Speaking is an Oz.  We take off and land in quick succession and boy, it is Fresh !   A taxi is taken and all our many pieces fitted in and it is a 35 min drive to the meditation and yoga retreat that I am being allowed to visit.   Huy is much carried away with all this and feels I should see it all, so I already said that two nights would be plenty (it’s usually a three day package for foreign devils) so I am booked for one night in a small hotel in town, which is somewhere over there but not visible.   It’s all hills here.

And how I made out will be the start of the next epistle.

  Tim

Vietnam #2 Immigration and food and then more food.

So the arrival in Saigon goes without a hitch.  I present my copy of the pre-approved visa info to immigration (and of course fill in another form) and sit and wait patiently until my name is yelled.  Fortunately the girl used the full name, as the only bit that I understood was “Valentine”.  I am reunited with my bag and go to the taxi transfer desk and pay my 22,000 Vietnamese Dong and am sent out in to the humid air to rendezvous with the driver. There only seem to be about 500 people awaiting the arrival of loved ones.  It is not as busy as later when many flights arrive and the crowd will be at least 1000.

Saigon is just coming back to life after the Tet holiday.  Today is Friday and everyone will be returning from visiting the rellies and by Monday all will be in full swing.  I return to my airbandb accommodation and Mamasan and Papasan are there to let me in.  Quite like coming home. I lug my bag up four flights of stairs.  Enough exercise for one day.

First stop is the supermarket, to stock up on the necessities of life.  Always great to push a cart around a  place like this and see what is happening.  Masses of staff, of course, many standing around just gossiping and some not even managing to do that… they just stand.   Foreigners have ceased to be a novelty, so they ignore you.   At checkout, the international “I’ve only got one thing, can I go ahead of you  ..”? look from a sweet looking grandma with a small girl, so I do and the child is prompted to say thank you and I wish her a Happy New Year and she is overcome.  Prolly her first interaction with a foreign devil. The nice lady rings it all up and I hand over the cc with the right hand and have the left limply holding the top of my right wrist.  That is VN polite.  She does the same when she returns it to me. 

Fridge stocked, I even manage to unpack as plenty of places and hangers.  I am here for 6 weeks, so I really do move in.  Good not to be living out of the proverbial suitcase.  

On the Saturday, Huy turns up for breakfast.  “Is it too early for a g and t”? he says. I say most definitely.  I jump on the back of his motorbike and we cruise the thin Saturday morning traffic and go off to a noodle shop.  First plan is to sit outside on one of those dolls house plastic stools.  These are the lowest size, literally 8 inches off the ground and having already fallen off one on a previous visit, I nix that and we go inside where there is larger more human sized furniture.  We catch up.  He has just had his final interview at the US consulate and will be departing for LA with wife and daughters, probably in March.  He is almost an American already, as his mother and sister have lived there for years and he has visited often.  But it will still be a shock to arrive on a one way ticket.   I asked about the final interview, knowing all the dramas that have been going on lately.  He said they waited 2 hours after the sked time and then a woman looked through the papers and asked who his sponsor was (his sister-duhrrr) and how long had she been there and having correctly answered she said “Welcome to America” and it was over.  Somehow I cannot think it would that easy in Cairo or Islamabad. 

Then to his fancy new offices.  It’s normal in VN for them to work on Saturday mornings. The lease ran out in the old place, which was in one of those long tall buildings the VN love so they were perpetually running up and down stairs, whereas now all one big open plan offices and no one has a fixed desk either.  They all work off laptops and many 4-6 seater tables and all wired for everything. It looks like a mini-Silicon Valley start up to me.  Some of the old staff are still there and all happy to see Uncle Tim.  I am happy to see them too.  A few of them have been there since I first started doing business with his company which was I think in 1997, so we go back !

Before I know it, I am being given many sheets of paper, relating to tourists they have coming in and do some proof reading and editing.   And I am awarded several more to work on.  Huy says it will be good to do when I cannot sleep, as it will def. make me sleepy.   Then we have to go for lunch – (remember I am in the country of ‘we need food every two-three hours’) so we repair to a vegetarian restaurant. Turns out his has gone veggie and is also all into doing yoga etc and he wants to take me off to a retreat he has been helping set up, near Dalat, so who know what I might be transformed in to.  Don’t hold your breath (though I know you do a lot of that in yoga !)

It has been raining, which is ALL WRONG.  Just more evidence of global warming and we have a short but strong storm that night.  Does not stop the folks on their motorbikes of course and they produce brightly colored ponchos and splash along.

On Sunday I am invited to Huy’s house which is about 30 mins outside the city proper, so that I can see the wife and two teen daughters.  Mr Hai (pronounced hi) is of course sitting outside my residence at the appointed time and we stop to pick up Huy (who keeps a small pied a terre in town) … he has Beethoven blasting out, so no doubt as to which is apt is his.  Over the years he has developed a passion for western classical music, without really knowing too much about it.  I brought him some CD’s to add to the collection.   I should think the neighbors will be happy when he goes.

So we go home and the girls are happy and even happier when I produce some nice and tarty bright red lipsticks and nail polish.  Mimi, his wife, receives a calmer lipstick.  I have always noticed here that when they receive a present, there is not a great gushing forth of thanks.  They take it politely and say thank you and then put it down or away and that it is.  I usually bring stuff for the girls in his office too and no one jumps up and down or gets excited.  So if you are expecting a VN to get effusive with thanks, it is not going to happen.

I am back in my SGN street café, the Café Nhi and one of the girls is still there from last year.  The effusive (by VN standards) Ms Tan.  Her English has improved and no doubt I shall soon be doing impromptu conversational English lessons.  My tall glass of Café So Dah is produced and of course the obligatory ditto glass of jasmine tea, which comes whether you want it or not.  You are never going to dehydrate around here.  New furniture too, with folding canvas chairs for the pavement part and miracle of miracle, padded benches inside, so my poor skinny bum may survive.  

All human life is passing by outside.  It is a three way intersection so much in the way of crossing each other’s paths and somehow, without the help of lights or people waving batons, they all get to the other side unscathed.  It’s amazing just to watch.  Majority of the traffic is motorbikes, with anything from 1-5 occupants.  One beautifully arranged family formed a perfect wedge as the height decreased from front to back.  Then it is taxis and buses and even folks on good old sit-up-and-beg pushbikes – the real old iron monster things and always with a basket on the front.  It’s normal for a bike driver to be arched forward over the handlebars, due to the load on the back, just HUGE cartons and boxes that no one in the west would ever think could be carried on a motorbike.   A bike was seen with the passenger separated from the driver by an approx. 8 feet mirror, so the passenger had no idea where they were going and it may have caused center of gravity problems for the driver going round bends.

OK… enough for now.   Next time, if you are wearing flip flops and want to sit down on the sidewalk and don’t want to get your bum or your feet dirty, what do you do ?

Pictures may be forthcoming.  So far, I haven’t taken any.

Tim

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