general

Happy Lunar New Year! Chúc mừng năm mới!

February 6, 2016 by Beth 2 Comments

Tonight is the eve of the Lunar New Year (Tet). It is the biggest holiday here in Vietnam. Consider it a combination of modern customs, ancient traditions, religion and superstition. It’s been interesting and fun to see some of the traditions in action. Here are a few that we saw over the past week.

Some streets are dedicated to red and gold decorations. It’s a little like that street in your neighborhood that goes all-out at christmas time.

Most homes put up either a blooming peach branch or a fruiting kumquat tree. They’re called kumquats but they sure look like orange trees.

I wonder if people rotate from year to year, similar to rotating between, say, noble fir, scots pine or douglas fir if putting up a christmas tree?

There are peach blossom stands everywhere.

It’s also time for photos taken in the park. There are many photographers offering their services. These are from our nearby Hoan Kiem lake.

The kitchen god Tao must be celebrated. To do this, 3 goldfish (representing the 3 legs of the kitchen, translated into 1 wife and 2 husbands) are released into water to swim the prayers to heaven. We saw this continually the week leading up to Tet. Yes, sometimes people just slowed down on their scooters and tossed the bag with the 3 fish into the lake. But most stopped and ceremoniously let them out. Then threw the bag into the lake.

Lucky money and ornate paper artifacts are burned all during Tet to send good wishes to ancestors for many reasons. Some to get out of hell faster, some to honor the newly deceased, all as a means of sending love and respect to the dead. We saw fires all over the place as we walked about, including outside our kitchen window, every night.

Altars are also cleaned up and replenished with new offerings. This is the altar at our favorite neighborhood phở place.

As I understand it, people believe that what they do on the dawn of Tet will determine their fate for the whole year, hence people always smile and behave as nicely as they can in the hope for a better year. Not a bad practice, actually. It was definitely a nice day for us.

This year Tet is celebrated from Feb. 6- 14. Many shop owners decorate their doors before they leave. She is putting up sugar cane on her shop.

Doug and I are planning on taking advantage of the reduction in traffic to practice driving a scooter before the crowds return. Wish us luck!

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!

mèo trấng

January 10, 2016 by Beth 3 Comments

white cat

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.

Hello, Hanoi

January 3, 2016 by Beth 2 Comments

After hours of help from friends and family (thanks!) the house got packed and we were delivered to the airport. 20-some hours later, we made it. Our studio is a block away from Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum, a revered and busy site, in the Ba Dinh neighborhood. It’s a place of non-stop movement and noise, beeping and barking. We have figured out how to cross a street that is full of scooters and cars and bikes all in perpetual motion. Lights exist but appear to be suggestive only. We’ve navigated some alleys and dined on satisfying unknown street food.

We saw a griddle, a big pot and some little bowls of things, with this sign on the wall, and were ushered in by a friendly young woman. We needed breakfast. It turned out to be super thin rolled up rice pancakes with a savory filling of pork and mushrooms (ba ̉nh cuổn) and chicken soup (ga ̉ tân). Herbs, limes, chilis and sliced pickled garlic were added.

Tomorrow we will do it all again.

here we are in...

Vietlandia

Happy Lunar New Year! Chúc mừng năm mới!

Hoàng Hoa Thám aka Plant Street

mèo trấng

last day on Ngoc Ha street

Hello, Hanoi