The Grotty Face - plus some trivia

So why the grotty face? Well, its the traffic. The motor scooter is only a new addition to Hanoi roads. But is has taken off like hot cakes. The amount of polution that shoots out of exhaust pipes, in ANY small stretch of road, is enough to make John West reject a DECADES worth of profits.

There is one particualr make of motor scooter. I like it the best, its very offensive. The exhaustpipe is angled in such a way, that were you to be behind it about 3 metres.. then it can shoot a hot jet of carbon monoxide straight up your nostrils.

When I lived in the city, I used to feel shell-shocked when I got home from work. The sound of 100 motor scooters revving off when the lights go green, is like a cloud of gargantuan bees trying to get honey out of your head.

Theres a lot of dust about ... you need to clean your face twice at night to get the grot and carbon out.. other wise you look like me in this pic.. or worse. Perhaps shoud make it a photgrahic study? please give your comments on that..

Oh yeah.. point of trivia... The dogs in my village do the HUGGEST turds I have EVER seen! Bigger than ANYTHING I have seen produced from a human backside.. They are like great long black hairy cucumbers. I only ever see them in the morning.. on my way to work. Perhaps there is some beast of folklore, which comes at night, when all are sleeping, to lay his evil cable upun the moonlit alleyway...and in the morning, hushed and fearful villagers clear away the dreadful reminders of its foul deed.. and dietry habits.. Maybe THAT should be my photograhic study? To catch this creature on film, and bring it to the world.. like the movie bloke did with King Kong. Guns didnt kill this beast! CONSTIPATION killed the beast.

I'd like your vote.. in the comments. Who votes for the grotty face study? and whos up for the Cable-Laying Cucumber Beast pic?

Do uong cua Viet Nam so mot!! re va ngon!

"Beverages of Vietnam are number one! Cheap and Tasty!!
... is the title of this blog...

So refreshing! I know I’m always going on about the alcoholism in this country.. but really that’s completely overshadowed by Vietnams effort for tasty refreshing beverages. The alcoholic drinks are kinda average… the wine is just rice wine style rocket fuel, its quite and nice musky with snake blood, but that’s very expensive. Hanoi beer is nice with ice or on its own and Saigon beer is a nice clear option for a hot day.

But no. Viet Nams true genius comes with its inventive range of non alcoholic numbers!! They are delish (delicious) and they are VERY cheap!!

I will talk about a daily staple of mine.. first is the sua chua đánh đá (yoghurt mixed with ice).
The yoghurt here is a little runnier, and much less sour than European or greek style yogurt. You just mix it in a glass with ice, and a slice of lime. The weather is so hot, the ice melts quite quickly and you have a yummy sloppy yoghurt drink - Perfect for soothing those nasty carbon monoxide burns at the back of your throat!


I usually drink my favorite coffee while waiting for the đá to melt in my sua chua đánh đá. My absolute summer time favorite coffee in the morning is… Café Sua da. It is served in a variety of ways.. pictured below is my favorite way.


As you can see, it’s a layered drink. At the bottom is a thick, oozy puddle of sweetened condensed milk, the black stuff in the middle is obviously coffee, its drip brewed, then chilled and then poured onto the milk. The ice floats in the coffee froth on top. (you might notice how grotty my face is in this pic above.. more on that later).

The next step with this tasty beverage, is to make it look like the pic on the left.. that is.. stir it all up with a spoon.. then you drink it .. I'll publish some more on summer drinks a little later.

The Bedroom and the Balcony

Just so you all can get an idea, here are some pics...
first we have the view from my balcony at dusk, with the sun setting in the west (as usual)

Now heres a more panoramic view from the balcony... but daytime of course..


and here's a view of the blacony itslef, from inside my bedroom.

My new dwelling.

Today after work, I went for a quick spin on my motorcycle, to check out my new area. I really think I have hit the jackpot, its beautiful. I am on the very edge of HaNoi city. Just up the street is the beginning of the rural north, with rice fields, open roads and.. of course, Buffaloes!! It has the smell of water, rain, trees and grass.

To the west it is open skies, and the tropical clouds are just like the storm heads that Darwin gets in the wet season. Everynight is a new piece of sunset art, with majestic pinks, blues, greys, purple and oranges, hazing off into the infinite distance, and glowing upright, quartzite clouds forming big beautiful mountains in the sky… ahhh.

There is an enormously wide road, its all very new, without much infrastructure, so it doesn’t get much traffic, and the local folks can use it for playing football, or setting up a drink or market stall. Its also where the new national stadium is, and the national aquatics centre is about 400m from my house, so swimming is easy! The Vietnam government is spending a lot of money there. If you follow the wide road out of town, all the cafes and restaurants for the new area are already in place, and they look good, I will try them out soon. The housing industry is yet to catch up, maybe in a few years, it will be an urban nightmare.. but for now, its perfect.

This huge wide road attracts other interests. Apparently on Saturday night, there are illegal motorcycle races, so I will go this weekend and photograph it.

On the OTHER side, where my house is, its an old village. About 3 years ago, it was just that, a small village on the outskirts of Ha Noi. Now it has undergone some development. There is a mixture of huge tall French style houses, all quite new, and the old ramshackle single story village houses, with small vegetable gardens, ducks and chooks.. and the odd pig sty! With fat pigs rolling in mud saying “oink oink”.

The village itself is really cool. It’s a maze of long narrow alleyways, perhaps wide enough to get a small car thru. At night there are people EVERYWHERE, young and old, and lots of tiny little cafes and internet houses and small beer shops and places to buy vegetables etc. A lot of students are moving into this area, I think, because it is cheap and there is the university district not far.

My house is quite beautiful. I am on the 3rd floor, and there is a small balcony. With a view, about 75% of the sky is visible, and the moon shines right onto that balcony at night. I can see across to the other side of the village. The old village centre is still there in the middle as is a temple. At night, I sit up on the balcony and play my guitar sometimes, or just listen to the sounds of the village.

I have a large bed, but across the mattress is a bamboo spread. Vietnamese like to sleep on this because it is cooler in the summer. It is hard and I am not used to it, yet, so I wake up a few times in the night. It is quite pleasant and peaceful to lay there alone, I sleep with the balcony door open, and the moonlight shines through. I can get up and look over the sleeping village.

I found a gym which I can go to on my way to work, and there is a pool there also. It only takes about 12 minutes now, to get to work, instead of 25.

Its nice to be living with some Vietnamese people. Le, is my old teacher, and the house belongs to her younger brother, Hoang, who is studying French and Law. Also, their Mother, Co Hoa (Mrs Flower – aint that cute?) lives in the house. Le didn’t mention her mum before, but she’s quite a traditional Vietnamese mum, and kinda comes with the house. She cooks Vietnamese food REALLY well.

The neigbour is a nice lady. She lives with her 4 grandchildren – all under 10 years old. I can't remember her name, but I call her “Ba”, which is grandma. She has all of her teeth still, but they are all black, as black as charcoal!! She is so lovely, but when she smiles I get scared.

On the other side is a flimsy hut built from sticks and a plastic tarpaulines. There are 4 or 5 builders who are staying there. They are from another part of town but are building a 3 story house in the village, so they live close, so they can start work early and finish late. They heard me playing guitar, and they want me to teach them. They have no radio and no television to keep them occupied at night, only conversation. So I will give them a lesson on the weekend, and loan them my guitar if I go out. It will be good for my Vietnamese language because they dont speak any english - actually there are no other foreigners in my area, so not many people speak english here.

Life is starting to sweeten up for me. I’m very glad I left the noisy city centre.