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.......