January 2016 – here we are in…

4-letter word

January 30, 2016 by Beth 2 Comments

Last week was a cold snap all throughout SE Asia. Schools here in Hanoi were closed for a few days because the temperature stayed below 10 C. They are unheated, as are many of the houses and businesses, as was our apartment. We bundled up in everything we owned, draped in blankets, constantly holding cups of hot tea, trying not to think about how long this winter might last. We’re from drizzly, cold Seattle, so we’re tough, right?

We picked up the air-con remote for the first time (what we thought was the air-con remote) and read it; in English. Duhh.

On the last day of the cold snap, we cracked open some local rice vodka, moved the chairs directly under the flow of the warm air, and celebrated heat.

Bamboo Street (how to solve a 1st world apartment problem)

January 23, 2016 by Beth 5 Comments

Zoom Cafe, which hosts tours for photographers, as well as makes a great cà phê sữa nóng (hot coffee with sweetened milk).

The small cups of coffee are served in dishes of boiling water to keep them hot. Coffee always comes accompanied by diluted herb tea. These were lemongrass.

Drinking our coffees and contemplating the complexities of the world. Here’s the view from across the street.

A bicycle vendor stops to buy some produce from the basket vendor, and wins “best home-made kickstand” award.

At the end of the street we spy bamboo. Walls of it. A light bulb goes off. We can’t put any holes in our walls. We need a place to hang things, instead of dropping them on the floor (not naming any names).

Ladders. Yes. That could make a nice hanging rack. And they’re beautiful!

This place?

or that?

Closer…

Sold. For the bartered price of $200,000 VND ($8.50).

1.5 mile walk home.

Made it. Yay!

Independence-Freedom-Happiness

January 21, 2016 by Beth 2 Comments

We’re legal. Here’s the top of our lease. For some reason, I love this piece of paper.

Here’s what it translates to. A sweet, one-room studio apartment on the 2nd floor with a little balcony.

And a cool bathroom door. Even more cool than the bathroom door is the bum gun. Heh, heh. Who knew we needed one of those? If you don’t know what that is, you’ll just have to come out and visit us.

The outside of our apartment, with the abandoned building next door cut out of the frame.

We have our own little alley to get to the street behind us. It’s the “good acoustics” alley. Every day the same food stand is set up at the other end. Each day we all smile and repeat, xin chao. Hallo.

Our market run for the day. The green leaves are morning glory, called rau (which translates as “vegetable”). They’re stir-fried into everything, or sautéed as a solo dish.

The big purple thing is a banana flower. Take the leaves apart, roll them up, then slice super thin. Soak in lime-water, then toss in a salad and dress with lime, garlic, fish sauce, sugar and chili. A little crunchy, like a cross between an apple and a daikon.

This big dude looked too good to pass up. Gac fruit. Turns out, it cures pretty much everything.

Also new to us were the little, round, reddish fruits. Fresh passion-fruits. Their aroma is heavenly.

Outside our gate a vendor walked by with the 2 baskets hanging from a pole, with these freshly baked sesame crisps. The smell was as good as the crunch.

Just another day in the country of independence, freedom and happiness. So far, so good.

Hoàng Hoa Thám aka Plant Street

January 18, 2016 by Beth 4 Comments

The desire to spruce up the balcony took us in a new direction today. We wanted some live plants to alter the forsaken, empty pots. Could we find herbs? Other edibles? Occasionally, bike vendors peddle by with plants, but they’re large, ornamental houseplants. Not what we want. Where should we look for a nursery? Shopping here is concentrated by product and street. There’s guitar street, wok street, bathroom street, shoe street, muffler street, pet street…the list goes on. These “streets” can be anywhere from 3 blocks to 15 blocks long. I had read about Plant Street, so we headed westward to find it. We strolled along the boulevard on the southern side of Hanoi’s big freshwater lake, called West Lake. The lake is over 10 miles in circumference. It seems to be the lungs of this city. It’s beautiful, yet scruffy. There’s an odor that permeates the area, a mixture of earth, dead fish, runoff, garbage and fresh air. Visually, at times it felt a little like standing on Alki beach looking towards Seattle.

Swan paddle boats. They’re out everyday…not sure if it’s tourists or locals. Probably both.

Many coffee shops line the street. Like this one called Xương, which means bone (bone?) which is decorated with stacked tire tables and beer bottle lights. The forlorn looking pooch caught our eye.

Also along the street is a famous high school, called the Chu Văn An (10-12th grades). It is one of 3 hard-to-get-into magnet schools in Hanoi. This (gorgeous) school library is an example of the French influence, built in 1908.

Fishing. Always people fishing, either on the banks, or from boats. Netting, too.

Grin House coffee house, complete with coconuts for sale outside.

Getting closer to Plant Street. Street vendors set up anywhere and everywhere. This one is selling bird cages. Chickens and roosters seem to appear out of nowhere.

We made it to Plant Street. Over 10 blocks of greens, plants, trees, bonsai, birds, planters, tools and soil amendments. Browsing while walking requires a lot of concentration. I’m certain we missed a lot. We’ll definitely go back another day.

We found some starts for shiso, cilantro, mint, basil, chives, and thyme, along with a little shovel. I can add them to the cuttings I’ve been surreptitiously nabbing on our walks. Yay!

Chợ Châu Long wet market

January 13, 2016 by Beth 7 Comments

5 minutes away from our apartment is one of the permanent established wet markets called Chợ Châu Long, taking it’s name from the street where it resides. We’ve heard that grocery stores are starting to appear around Hanoi, but we haven’t seen them and most people still use the wet markets. These markets have everything food-related, except fruit, which is sold outside the market from bicycle vendors. Just-butchered meats, offal, birds, seafood, frogs, all shapes and kinds of eggs (fertilized, goose, chicken, quail) fresh tofu made that morning, rice, sausages, pastes, patties, vegetables, herbs, spices and layers upon layers of fresh noodles. It’s all available and all for sale. The only priced items we saw were the rices. The numbers here are 1000 VND per kilogram. (1 kg of Tám Thai = 2.2 lbs = 18,000 VND = 80 cents)

See the shrine? They’re everywhere. The market wouldn’t be complete without a small shrine and the daily offerings and burning incense.

The market looks messy but is in fact totally organized. With all the meat and fish laying around you’d expect to smell a certain aroma. But no. It’s a good smell (except for the scooter exhaust.) The meat is fresh and sells quickly. The fish, seafood, frogs, snails, clams and prawns are all kept alive until sold. It’s impressive. The tables and aisles get hosed down every night in prep for the next day, hence the name. Super crowded every morning (scooters! people drive their scooters in here!), it slows down mid-day after the meat and fish are sold and packed away. Nap-time rolls around every day from 12-2, so most vendors cover up and rest, or hang in a hammock, or pull out a cot, while others played cards with each other. If we time it right, we might be able to see what card game they were playing.

Skinning the frogs. Wow, she was swift.

These banana-leaf wrapped bundles are appearing everywhere the closer it gets to Tet. Modern folks are getting too busy to make them at home (it’s a 2-day process) so they’re buying them instead. Bánh chưng. Rice cakes for Tet. The story goes that there was a family competition for their father’s throne. The winner was the quiet, youngest son who created banh chưng based upon a dream he had. In his dream, a genie had told him to take sticky rice (which symbolized earth), wrap it around a ball of mung bean paste (which represented the sun), wrap it in a square shape (at that time the ground/earth was thought to be square) then boil it for one day and one night.

The longer we’re here, the more we hope to figure out how to use all the interesting and unknown market products. The vendors are friendly and willing to share their knowledge. The weak link is our language ability. We’re working on it. Meanwhile, we’ll be getting some bánh chưng soon.

How to make bánh chưng Tet rice cakes

ra vao đơng cưa

January 11, 2016 by Beth 5 Comments

While sitting in this sweet restaurant, it occurs to us that the only writing we recognize are the numbers on the clock face. We’ve been here in Truc Bach a week now. (Yes, it feels longer.) Our daily life rotates between the inside of our quiet, peaceful, little apartment and outside in what sometimes seems like a non-stop noisy frat party that’s spilled out onto the streets. Doug likens it to being on acid out there. (Ummmm…) Our needs right now are simple. How to go out and find the one thing we need for the day, how to ask for it, and how much to pay for it. We’re gleeful when it works, and shrug it off when it doesn’t. There’s always tomorrow.

For dinner tonight we decided to just walk in somewhere nearby and order without prepping ourselves. Like the olden days in Seattle. We must’ve retained some language this week, right? We think we’ve found a place. From the outside, it’s sometimes difficult to tell if we’ll be walking into a restaurant or into someone’s private living room. Everything is intermingled. From the outside there are signs (which we can’t decipher yet) and scooters parked everywhere. Signage is common. Some are valid, some are old. We figure if it’s someone’s living room they’ll yell at us and we’ll quickly and graciously back out, saying “rất xin lỗi. So very sorry.

Our first hurdle is this sign on the door. ra van đơng cưa. Does it say “stay out, private party” or “come on in” or “leave your pets outside” or “beth and doug don’t you dare come in here” ? We walk in and stand there. A big table of people turn to stare at us, and no one returns our smiles. Not even the children. They all go back to their loud family dinner. We smile at the woman in the kitchen sitting on a tiny red plastic stool washing the dishes in a plastic tub on the floor, hoping she’ll usher someone out to help us. She doesn’t smile either. A little panic starts to well up. Is it a restaurant? We think so. There seem to be a lot of tables. Then a petite teenager comes out with 2 menus. Yay! They’ll let us stay. The sign must not say “private party”.

We look at the menu, and we look at the chalkboard, and the waiter looks at us. (You can see where this is going.) She asks us something and points at the chalkboard. Uh…hai bia. 2 beers. While she goes to get them, we confer and try to find a few words that are familiar. Thịt bò. Beef. Rau. Vegetable. She delivers the beers and we point at 2 dishes. She nods and waits. It seems like enough but why isn’t she leaving? “Enough?” I ask, then decide to be more clear. “Good.” Then “cảm ơn”. Thank you.

Whew.

In a very short time, she brings the 2 dishes we ordered. Sautéed beef with morning glory, and vegetable soup with rice noodles. Haha, didn’t know we ordered soup. Then steamed rice and a little fishy sauce. Perfect. And delicious.

We’ve learned that once seated, we can stay as long as we want. No one will bring the check until called for. Ever. There’s no pressure to hurry whatsoever. It’s becoming very comfortable. I know that once we have a few more words, the beginning part of this story won’t be repeated quite so much. In the meantime, we will continue to review the words on the chalkboard and hope to retain some of them for next time. At home, we sorted out what some of it said: Today. Fried frog legs. Stir-fried perch. Beef and rice. Crab hot pot. Kohlrabi and something. A spring roll of some sort. Some of it remains undecipherable. Blackberries and garlic. What? Arcade center? Bargain? Dad?

And finally, the sign on the door. Close door when coming in or out.

mèo trấng

January 10, 2016 by Beth 3 Comments

white cat

160 Trấn Vũ

January 9, 2016 by Beth 5 Comments

We’ve moved. We’re still in Hà Nội, along with 7 million other folks. It’s been the capital of Vietnam since the 7th century. From the outside, it looks like a jumble of chaos, noise and modern sophistication. We know it’s much, much more than that.

relocate

Our home for the next 3 months is a studio apartment on a lake. Hồ Trùc Bạch. (Sounds like “chuck bok”). We have the 2nd floor of the 5 floor building. That is our balcony with the blue and white striped awning. It’s an airy, spacious, high-ceilinged room. Comfortable.

Looking across the street:

Looking south:

We’re getting settled in and acclimated. Today we looked for and found some useful things. A shower curtain. A kitchen knife. Real honey. We even found baking soda and vinegar, my hair cleaning regime for the past 2 years, a’la the ShamPhree method. It’s the little things, right?

During the day, we duck and dive our way through the twisting streets. At night we play fiddle, then study the language. People have been kind and helpful as we practice our new words. We’ve found a cooking school and will soon suss out language courses. We’re part-time tourists, part-time job seekers, and full-time explorers here in the City of the Soaring Dragon.

Can’t forget dinner… cõm tấm sũờm (broken rice with pork chop), nộm xoài banh (green papaya salad) and bia hà nội.

last day on Ngoc Ha street

January 6, 2016 by Beth 2 Comments

Tomorrow we move to our new studio apartment. These first 5 days have been extremely fun, exhausting and definitely interesting. Here’s a sampling from our day.

Step out our door, walk down 10 steps, into this small courtyard. From inside, we can hear just about everything from our neighbors. Coughing. Chairs moving. TV. And they can hear us talking, practicing our Vietnamese words. Surely they can hear our fiddle playing. Privacy is definitely a luxury.

This view is past the courtyard, out into our alley, while standing on our stoop. The stoop usually has an old man sitting on it, who leaps up when we come out, saying “hallo” and smiling. The food stands and scooters belong to the residents here. Lively sounds, like chickens, children, radios, horns, engines revving, barking, yelling, laughing are non-stop. Ngoc Ha is the main street in the distance. See the central section of concrete blocks on the ground? That is the gutter. Some of the blocks are pried up on a daily basis after hosing off the alley.

We had lunch in a building today instead of a food stand; a beautiful 2 story place, with fresh, perfectly prepared dishes. So perfect that we forgot to take photos. 204,000VND. Under $10. They even had scooter valet parking.

Military building with flags and guards under the trees. It’s 80 degrees F. Wintertime.

While standing still for just a moment, this woman came up and put her twin baskets of bananas on my shoulder and her hat on my head. She was fast. We had a quick laugh, then to avoid the inescapable haggling I handed her a 2000VND bill (10 cents) for the photo before she asked. It worked. Still getting used to the tenacity of the vendors.

Improvisational skills. Check out the ad hoc stove hood. He’d carry a few coals inside to put under the cooking pots.

The revered and respected Ho Chi Minh is embalmed and observable in this mausoleum. This is a few blocks away from our apartment, on our evening walk route. Motorized vehicles are banned here, so it’s a much needed, quiet respite.

The mausoleum is in the huge Ba Dinh Square. In 1945 this is where President Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnam’s independence from France.

It’s 7pm. The sun sets every day at 5:30. Dinner is typically early, between 5:30-7pm. There’s a midnight curfew, but, like many other rules here, that, too, seems bendable.

lunch

January 4, 2016 by Beth 2 Comments

The best way to get better at wordpress is to post, right? So here’s a few photos from today’s excursion. We found a SIM card, noodles (pictured before the condiments came out), and other delights, including little pineapples that you can eat like corn on the cob.

We have an elementary school right behind our little studio.

No escaping Disney.

here we are in...

Vietlandia

Month: January 2016