Autum in Hanoi - Birds and Pickpockets
There is a little family of birds who next in the broken air exhaust fan of out office. It’s a hole in the wall, with a little grill and a fan, I guess used to help air circulate from outside the building to the inside. Anyway, it’s broken (probably never worked, judging by the way Vietnamese do things! Hehe) so the birds are making good use of the free space and I can here the little birds chirping away as I type this blog!!
Autumn in Hanoi is gorgeous. Its like a spring day in Perth, or a mid-dry season day in Darwin. Cool dry air, warmish sun. Absolutely lovely. Its incredible how it affects your mood, and the motorcycle makes it all the more fun. Its really nice to be wizzing along on a bike, (dangerously not wearing a helmet, but anyway) in the cool dry air.
Aaaaaaaaah. For those of you who don’t know, the b@#stard cops evicted me from my house a few weeks ago, they rocked up with no warning and said “Sayonara” to me at 9pm at night. Being in charge of public security for the area, they didn’t like the idea of a foreigner getting mugged or robbed or attacked – and them having to be responsible for it. So they said I should go find a more appropriate “foreigner designated area” to stay…. Obviously being in charge of public security, it seemed a little stupid to kick me out on the streets at 9pm at night, however, I guess they reasoned that if I’m not actually a member of the public anymore, then I’m not their responsibility.
So I’m back in the tourist centre at the moment, chillin’ out, ignoring anybody who tries to sell me something, and just enjoying the weather. It is still quite interesting. Pickpockets, for example….
I saw two Singaporean (??? Perhaps..) backpackers staggering down the street under the weight of their oversized backpacks. The bloke in the lead, and his poor girlfriend in tow behind, she looked pretty tired. Anyway, there’s this little punk Vietnamese kid, about 15 or 16 (maybe older, its hard to tell with the kids) and he’s rifling through every pocket in her back-pack!! She was none the wiser. I was on my motorbike at the time so I thought I’d follow for a while, and putted along behind as the little brat did the left pockets, the centre pockets and then the right pockets. He was still empty-handed at this point, so the audacious little sod decided he’d rip open the straps and have a proper rummage through the main compartment.
At this point, I thought I’d do the poor Singaporean girl a favour (fancy getting to the hotel finally, and finding out all your moisturizer cream, Cosmo magazines and hair-drier were no longer with you!!). So I revved up the bike a bit, and ran the front wheel across the back of the little punks ankles (which were bare, and hopefully gave a nice scrape), as he turned, I gave it a last little burst and knocked properly into him. He looked surprised of course, and I apologized as sarcastically as possible (actually- I don’t know how to use sarcasm in Vietnamese, so I might have come out sounding completely sincere….. except for the bogan “IS HE GETTIN’ SMUARRRRT IS HE??” scowl on my face). He actually looked like he wanted to turn it into something more, (which was worrying, I don’t think it’s a very good look getting into a fight with a child in the street!) but he had bigger fish to fry -ie that is relocating his victim and continuing the search of her backpack. I hope she got to the hotel in time!!
Autumn in Hanoi is gorgeous. Its like a spring day in Perth, or a mid-dry season day in Darwin. Cool dry air, warmish sun. Absolutely lovely. Its incredible how it affects your mood, and the motorcycle makes it all the more fun. Its really nice to be wizzing along on a bike, (dangerously not wearing a helmet, but anyway) in the cool dry air.
Aaaaaaaaah. For those of you who don’t know, the b@#stard cops evicted me from my house a few weeks ago, they rocked up with no warning and said “Sayonara” to me at 9pm at night. Being in charge of public security for the area, they didn’t like the idea of a foreigner getting mugged or robbed or attacked – and them having to be responsible for it. So they said I should go find a more appropriate “foreigner designated area” to stay…. Obviously being in charge of public security, it seemed a little stupid to kick me out on the streets at 9pm at night, however, I guess they reasoned that if I’m not actually a member of the public anymore, then I’m not their responsibility.
So I’m back in the tourist centre at the moment, chillin’ out, ignoring anybody who tries to sell me something, and just enjoying the weather. It is still quite interesting. Pickpockets, for example….
I saw two Singaporean (??? Perhaps..) backpackers staggering down the street under the weight of their oversized backpacks. The bloke in the lead, and his poor girlfriend in tow behind, she looked pretty tired. Anyway, there’s this little punk Vietnamese kid, about 15 or 16 (maybe older, its hard to tell with the kids) and he’s rifling through every pocket in her back-pack!! She was none the wiser. I was on my motorbike at the time so I thought I’d follow for a while, and putted along behind as the little brat did the left pockets, the centre pockets and then the right pockets. He was still empty-handed at this point, so the audacious little sod decided he’d rip open the straps and have a proper rummage through the main compartment.
At this point, I thought I’d do the poor Singaporean girl a favour (fancy getting to the hotel finally, and finding out all your moisturizer cream, Cosmo magazines and hair-drier were no longer with you!!). So I revved up the bike a bit, and ran the front wheel across the back of the little punks ankles (which were bare, and hopefully gave a nice scrape), as he turned, I gave it a last little burst and knocked properly into him. He looked surprised of course, and I apologized as sarcastically as possible (actually- I don’t know how to use sarcasm in Vietnamese, so I might have come out sounding completely sincere….. except for the bogan “IS HE GETTIN’ SMUARRRRT IS HE??” scowl on my face). He actually looked like he wanted to turn it into something more, (which was worrying, I don’t think it’s a very good look getting into a fight with a child in the street!) but he had bigger fish to fry -ie that is relocating his victim and continuing the search of her backpack. I hope she got to the hotel in time!!
posted by Pseudomys at 9:26 PM
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