On the street

It feels like we have been here for months but it's only been three weeks! We've done a lot. Firstly - I ate toad. I didn't know it was toad. It didn't taste right. It didn't taste like the 'fish' they described it as, and I only ate one piece. It was about a week later that I saw them chopping them up in the markets that I realised it was what we had. I DO NOT want to talk about it again. Thanks.

Here are some photo's of our apartment. This first one is of the street we live on.. we live right near one of the lakes in the north of Hanoi called Truc Bach.

This is the front door the the building we are renting, they have an apartment on each floor and the there are 6 floors. The family who own the building live downstairs in a room off the main foyer, and everyone parks their motorbikes in the foyer, just beyond these doors.

This is the main window in our little lounge room, just ahead of shan is our kitchen which is kind of in a corridor on the way to the bathroom. Behind him is our bedroom.

This is the view of the lake from our balcony off our bedroom.

And this last shot is from today, Shan watching Collingwood beat the Western Bulldogs - there's no hiding from AFL - even in Vietnam!

Work has been good. I went and did a site visit on a day spa that we're designing. This would usually involve hard hats, council vests and steel cap boots... I was in ballerina flats. I had to balance across 10cm wide metal beams that had a 4m drop below to get across an unbuilt stair well.. there were bricks stacked along the side of the building ready to drop below and potentially kill someone, there were bits of timber with nails protruding from them the ready to impale me. The complications of working in Vietnam are like nothing I've experienced, on one hand it's great because I can design anything I want with basically no restrictions, and if I reckon it can be built, then it probably can, by someone.

A few more pics:

Duck anyone?

Lunch

My new red shoes - the only pair I've found in my size despite the millions of stores and millions of shoes...

The markets

This is of Shan and I getting some food on the street - an on-street bbq.. more photos on that another time but it was wonderful! Basically you chose what you want to eat from a table of vegies and skewered meats and they bbq it for you and bring it to you bit by bit - we ordered waay too much and had three beers between us and it cost $8!

Oh! What's that??? Look! It's my bag!

So, Stay tuned.......

Jobs, apartments, friends..

Just over one week has past! So much has happened we both feel like we've been here for months. We have just moved to into our apartment which feels like the biggest piece of news. More on that in a minute.

WORK - It's been a really full on week, work is so busy. We are working in a 5 storey terrace in the city, with lots of really cool little areas around, and, as I just discovered, there is a Western Supermarket! We bought wine and a Hershey chocolate bar. Wine was great, Hershey bar was overrated! This is important news - take note!

Shan and I work in very close proximity to each other (see photo) and we are adjusting .. We will be moving to a new office building sometime in the next couple weeks. The builders have 2 weeks to get the fitout completed which is crazy. On Friday I chose the carpet from a 50 x 50mm sample,... so we'll see how that looks... Things will be a lot less cluttered and the fitout will be nicer (and a better standard of dunny I hope!).

We went to a great restaurant in an area called Truc Bach - its up near the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, this is where we have now rented our apartment. We get 10 rice paper rolls with beef for 30,000VD which is about $1.80 plus some rice paper squares that are fried with beef and green leafy vegies dumped on top for 35,000VD.. you do the maths... so good. Last night we bought our first lot of fruit from the markets, $1.30 for a dozen passionfruit (DAD!!) and the same for the limes!

Pho Cuon - fabulous!

These photo's are from my iphone - I have other photo's from my camera of our apartment and Shan and I about town that I want to upload - but I just can't find the cord to do it at the moment... so hopefully tomorrow night. Goodnight.

Day 1 & 2 - Hanoi

Well - we've made it here! It was a pretty long flight- no sleep and longer than I expected. The weather is cool - definitely requiring the warm clothes that I didn't pack!

The company we have gone to work for arranged a car to come and pick us up which was great. He dropped us off at our hotel which is a really nice place! The trip in the car was fun - people drive with their fist on the horn constantly, bikes loaded with families and stock dodging cars and motorbikes, everyone moves pretty slow but do what they want. We have to get used to just stepping out on the road and having everyone weave around us.

We pretty much dropped our bags, had a shower and went outside. We are staying in the Old Quarter which is amazing - overwhelming! So much is happening on the streets - selling, cooking, motorbikes. There are 36 streets in total in this area. Each street has a name that explains what they sell, so one street will just sell shoes, the next silk etc. I thought that this is where we would like to find an apartment when we move here, but it's actually so crazy that we couldn't handle living in this area.

Our old digs from 2003!

This woman was selling these little fried fritters stuffed with pineapple - and fritters stuffed with mince and spinach which chilli sauce.. not the healthy option.

We ended up having dinner at a place that we used to go to last time we were here 7 years ago - it hasn't changed a bit. We had our first Pho, along with some vegies, tofu and steamed rice, spring rolls and a couple of beers - came to a grand total of $5.

When we got back to the hotel there was a message from the company we are working for saying that we were expected in the office the next day! They sent their driver to come and pick us up at 8.15 the next morning and we were taken to a 5 storey terrace in a really cool area. As soon as you get out of the Old Quarter things change so much. I was expiring with excitement looking around the city.

The director of the office lives on the 4th floor of the terrace, and on the 5th there is a cook and cleaner who makes lunch for everyone. The day was good - very productive - they helped us get our sim cards and new phone numbers, arranged a driver and agent to show us apartments and we went and looked at 3 apartments to get a feel of what is around. We really liked the first place we looked at - is was small, two bedroom, lots of light, in really cute tucked away area, fully furnished for $900US per month... it looks as though we will have to pay something like that to stay close to the city centre which is a bit more than I expected.

I have so much update you all on - we cant access facebook here unless it's via our iphone at the moment so it makes it hard to upload photos so it will be this and emails for the time being. We're still jetlagged, and have been up since 4am this morning.. but we're about to go downstairs (with my jar of vegemite) for breakfast and then do some clothes shopping! We had to dump about 15kg of clothes and shoes at the airport so we in dire need! Will back soon!

Goodbye Monkey you saucy little minx!

Getting ready to leave....

It is 9 days until we leave Australia, but we still seem to have time to sit on the lounge, crack a bottle of red wine and watch some television. Shannon and I are moving to Hanoi, Vietnam - we have sublet our apartment, secured work, and have two weeks accommodation lined up.

Our apartment is half packed and in a series of piles - selling, packing, storing and the procrastination pile. I cannot wait until we close the door and have everything done, living in limbo is agony.

Stay tuned over the next few days for updates on the mayhem...

PS - I have a prescription for Valium for the flight over and my doctor insists I try one out before I get on the plane! Yay!

IMG_0007.jpg (Goodbye Monk)