Vietnam (part 1)

Vietnam. A land where the food is cheap and delicious, the people are plentiful, and crossing the road is a death-defying exercise in dodging an oncoming wave of scooters - much akin to the game "Frogger" (see picture to the right). We (Aunty M and I) would have cars and scooters coming us like bats out of hell from every which direction, and like frogger, getting to the other side of the road would require a highly complicated combination of forward - back - forward - left - left - left - forward - back - do the hokey-pokey and turn around - scream - run to the other side. And then when our fearless frogger would be negotiating his way over logs and crocodiles, we had to weave our way through cyclos and over drains and pass vendors to make it to the relative safety of the sidewalk (see photo below). My frogger skills are now perfected.


In fact, this photo was taken from a cafe with a good view of the city. That's originally why I went up there, but then the waitress shoved a menu in front of me, so I had no choice but to order lunch. I decided to go the mango juice, and I flicked through the menu for something to eat, and the cheeseburger just sort of jumped out at me, so I decided to have that without even thinking. As I was giving my order to the waitress, I was halfway through saying "and a cheeseburger" when I suddenly started to regret it - here I was on my first day in Vietnam, and the first thing I eat is a cheeseburger! Sure enough, the waitress smirks and says to me "Big culture day, huh!" and walked away shaking her head.

I just wanted to die. I wanted the balcony to collapse and bury me alive. I felt so stupid. I told Aunty M, and as far as I know, she still hasn't stopped laughing at me. She even went out of her way to tell everyone we met on the trip all about it, and promised a horrible retribution if I didn't write about it on the blog. So here it is. I now have a complex about it. 'Nuff said.

Anyway, here are some photos from around Hanoi. Part 2 of my time in Vietnam will come later.











NB: I'd just like to point out that the last three photos were taken by Aunty M. Thank you.