Friday, April 30, 2010

My 31 Birthdays...


Six days before my actual birthday, I was given a surprise party by the Level 1 students at Apex. The five girls in the class bought me 31 roses and a chocolate cake. Needless to say, I was quite surprised at the gesture since we had one more class before my actual real birthday.

My second 31st Surprise Birthday party came two days later during my Level 2 class at Apex. On this occasion I wasn't very surprised because, well, almost all of my students showed up on time which is a rarity. Generally people trickle in for about ten minutes once class time is scheduled to start. On this day most of the class was seated at their desks with mischievous grins on their faces. Huyen told me that she needed my help downstairs in dealing with the landlord for the school. Immediately I knew something strange was brewing because Huyen is a terrible liar. Eventually Huyen got me to go downstairs with her and then almost right away said we could go back upstairs. As we approached my classroom door I saw that the lights were out on the inside and made a joke to Huyen about the oddity of the power having gone off when we left the room. After teasing Huyen for another couple of seconds, I went inside and was greeted to my second surprise 31st birthday party.



This was a great way to spend my pre-birthday. However the icing on the cake was to be the motorbike trip over the next few days...

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Dorms

Everyday before class at Apex, I grab a cup of coffee at a cafe. I always sit at a table on the sidewalk and read a book. The periphery of my vision always sees this:

That's a picture of the dormitory for the Vietnam Trade Union University. Seeing the dorm always reminds me of my freshman year in college at Syracuse University. From what I can tell, there are a few differences between my dorm (Day Hall on The Mount at Syracuse) and this typical Vietnamese dormitory. Here's a couple that come to mind:
1. I had a split double which meant there was just myself and my great frosh roommate Bill Bunting. These dorms have at least eight people per room.
2. We did our laundry in the basement of Day Hall. As you can see, they do their laundry in their room.
3. We had a food court in Day Hall and a cafeteria between our dorm and the one that housed future-Emmy-Award-winner Alex Bertsche next to it. Here, they do the cooking in the room and/or eat at cheap places on the street.
4. Our parents paid good money for us to live in dorms. From what I've been told, usually the poorer students in Vietnam live in dorms. The students have to prove they come from a poor family to live in the buildings.
5. Day Hall was coed on every floor. I'm pretty sure this dorm is all female.

I'm gonna end this post right now before I start to get depressed because of the fact that I lived in Day Hall 13 years ago!

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Emmy

Yesterday I checked my email in the teachers' room at a school I'm working at part-time. I had an email from my buddy Alex with a picture attached to it. Immediately upon seeing the picture I started to laugh and said out loud, "No way!" Everyone in the room at the time happened to be Vietnamese and looked at me oddly so I blurted out, "My best friend from college just won an Emmy." Apparently I was the only person impressed. My guess is they didn't know what an Emmy is.

Congratulations to Alex for winning an Emmy at the 31st Annual Sports Emmy Awards. I already knew that I was not the most successful person out of my high school friends and I'm now I'm certain I'm not even close to being the most successful out of my college friends. Way to go!

Check out Alex and his golden trophy:

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Click It Or Ticket



Two new laws have been passed in Vietnam:

Law 1: If you run a red light -- and get caught -- the fine is now 500,000 VND. I believe this about double from what it was in the past.

Law 2: If you don't buckle your helmet, you will be fined 200,000 VND.

I'm actually really proud of Vietnam for passing this second law. I've commented to Huyen many times how silly people are for wearing helmets but failing to buckle them. In fact, I've seen many helmets that don't even have buckles. This is basically equivelant to the "Click It Or Ticket" campaign in America. If you don't buckle your seat belt -- and get caught -- you will get fined. Here it's now the same deal but with helmets.

Monday, April 26, 2010

My Famous Girlfriend

Last week I got an email from Yen, a long time Ahoy Hanoi reader/frequent commentor, that said: "Your blog made Huyen so famous, I recognized her in my friend's photo in her laptop last weekend."

Yen sent me this picture of her friend from Thailand and Huyen at a Thai party from last summer:


I told Huyen about the coincidence when she came home from work and she thought it was really funny. She said, "Hanoi feels really small to me now. I feel like I know people everywhere I go."

I lived in LA for seven years but I had to move to Hanoi to date a famous person!

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Bumper Cars



Twice this week I've gently bumped motorbikes in front of me at red lights. I've also been bumped about three or four times over the last couple of days. To me, this is just another big difference between Vietnamese traffic and American traffic. If someone gets bumped in America, you can be sure they will get out of the car, inspect the possible damage and perhaps exchange insurance information. On top of that, you can bet that many Americans will suffer a slight bit of anger if there car gets bumped. And, furthermore, most likely the person doing the bumping will feel some kind of regret or embarrassment. In Vietnam, not so much. The first time I bumped someone this week, they didn't even turn around. The second time I bumped someone, they turned around, saw that I was a foreigner, and smiled. As far as all the people who bumped me, well, they just sort of acted like I was a pothole.

With the roads becoming increasingly narrower here because of all the cars, I find that more people are bumping into each other while stopping at traffic lights. Sometimes all the bumping and jostling for position feels like a giant game of bumper cars...

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Happy Birthday To Me!!!!


(PICTURE: In case you are wondering, I'm now 31.)

Happy Birthday To Me! Happy Birthday To Me! Happy Birthday Dear Me...Happy Birthday To Me!

To celebrate my 31st birthday, Huyen and I are taking a three day motorbike trip to Mai Chau and Ba Khan Islands. I think this will be the first time in my life that I don't have phone (most likely) or internet access on my birthday. So, this is a little head's up that:
A) I might not call or email you back on my birthday.
B) You should still email me so that I can feel good about my old self when I come back from this trip.

On a side note, I find it almost inconceivable that a year has passed since my bowling fundraiser for Habitat For Humanity. I swear it feels like less than six months ago...such is life. Enjoy my birthday, everyone!

Friday, April 23, 2010

Stop Picking Your Nose!



Yes, I pick my nose. I occasionally do it in bed or on a couch when I'm too lazy to get up. I even do it sometimes when typing my blogs on Ahoy Hanoi. It's the truth. Now that I've said that, you might think the rest of this blog entry is hypocritical but I'm gonna write it none-the-less.

Listen up people of Vietnam: STOP PICKING YOUR NOSE. I used to think it was sort of funny how people pick their noses all the time in Vietnam. However, I think I just snapped when it comes to nose picking. A few days ago I was on my motorbike at a red light and looked around me and saw countless people picking their noses. It was like a moment of clarity right out of the Matrix. There was one security guard, sitting on the sidewalk, who seemed to have two knuckles up his right nostril. I found myself wincing at the thought of his booger covered fingers. Since that moment I've been extra sensitive to nose picking. I even have this little game in my head where I look around me and count how many people are presently engaged with a finger up their nose. Lets just say there is always at least a couple people.

Well, tonight, I finally had it. I was teaching a private student who was digging in his right nostril as if he was expecting to find an ipad in there. What he did find was a giant piece of snot which trickled down to his lip. I instinctively shouted, "DUDE! Are you kidding me? Stop picking your nose and get a tissue." After he got a tissue I demanded that he go and wash his hands. After coming back from the bathroom we got back to doing some book exercises. It took less than a minute -- and this is no lie -- before I looked over and he had ONE FINGER IN EACH NOSTRIL. I once again said, "Come on! That's disgusting." He laughed and then touched my textbook. I don't often get angry but at this moment I was kind of furious. I said, "You can't be touching my stuff right after your fingers are exploring your nostrils." My student didn't really seem to get my annoyance. I tried to explain to him that it was not only gross but also really unsanitary. I told him that's how germs spread (at this point he took out a dictionary to look up the word germs). After, I said to him, "You know when I was young we used to make fun of people who picked their noses." The student said to me, "What did you say to them?" I said, "We used to call them names." "Like what," he said. I said, "Like nose picker." And then he said, "Is that bad?", which pretty much sums up the point of this blog entry. Yes, picking your nose and touching people/people's stuff is bad. It's disgusting. It's gross. It's unhygienic. It's filthy. It's uhhhhhh.

Now, I know lots of Vietnamese people read my blog. Sometimes I write things on here and people comment, "That isn't true. It's just one person" blah blah blah blah. No, it is true that people in Vietnam pick their noses in public exponentially more than Americans or any other country (except maybe China) that I've visited. Somebody once tried to justify nose picking to me by saying the air is very dusty. Well, my nose is triple the size of any Vietnamese person's which means I'd have triple the dust. Yet you don't see me picking my nose anywhere except in the confines of my home!!!!

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Random Kids In Huyen's Village

Whenever I go to Huyen's childhood home, I inevitably bump into a few very confused children. The kids all look at me like I just beamed down from some far away planet. This past weekend, while Huyen was picking fruit from a tree (see yesterday's video), I noticed a whole bunch of eyes peering through holes in the gate of Huyen's house; a group of children had gathered and were staring at me like a specimen under a microscope. I quickly walked towards the children to say hi, but they scattered down different corridors and alleys before I could get to them. I can only imagine that they thought I was planning on snatching them up and putting them on my spaceship which they must have thought was hidden in a rice field.

There were a couple of kids left in the alley along with some adults so I decided to shoot a tiny bit of video. In this video you can see Huyen's old neighborhood as well as some cute little kids:

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

My Tree Climber



(PICTURE: Can you find Huyen in the tree?)

This past weekend Huyen and I went back to her village to see her parents. Going to Ha Nam these days means one thing -- free fruit! Huyen and I went back to her old house to pick more Hong Xiem...or I should say, Huyen picked Hong Xiem. Honestly, I never thought I would date a girl who is a better climber than me but....:



As I said on the video, I think it is a fair statement to say that none of my friends' girlfriends/wives back in the states could/would do that!

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Can I Take Your Bike For A Spin?


(PICTURE: Yes, my bike helmet is on this guy's head...backwards.)

Every now and then I stop in at this pho shop near my gym. The food there isn't particularly good but the service is excellent. By "service" I mean the waiters/cook/every-hand-on-deck basically runs outside shouting, "Hey! Hey! Hey! Hello! Hello! How are you! Hey! Hey!" every time I pull my bicycle up to the shop.

The last time I went, everyone started to laugh about how tall my bicycle is. One of the waiters asked if he could take it for a spin and I gave him the thumb's up. He quickly put on my helmet in what could only be attempt to mock me. However, he put it on backwards which now allows me to mock him. Ha! You put my helmet on backwards!

Before I knew it, all of the waiters were taking my bike out for a ride around the block. Perhaps coincidentally my bike chain broke within a day or so of these guys joy riding on my sweet ride.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Google Analytics



It's been awhile since I've had an entry with viewer statistics. So...

- Ahoy Hanoi has had 93,586 page views.
- Nearly 14,000 different people have spent time on Ahoy Hanoi.
- My blog has been read in 122 different countries.
- Every nation in Asia has read Ahoy Hanoi except North Korea (Do they have the internet there?), Kyrgzystan (apparently they've got more important things to do recently), Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Georgia. I know what you're thinking and no, I have no idea why the Stan-nations hate Vietnam so much. And as far as Georgia goes, next time they battle with Russia lets just say I might not pull for the underdog.
- Every nation in Europe has read Ahoy Hanoi except Belarus, Iceland and Svalbard and Jan Mayen (I believe these last two are territories and not countries but they're still showing up as no shows on my google analytics world map). I'm personally offended by Belarus because for some unknown reason Belarus was my #2 nation that I rooted for during the Winter Olympics. Unless someone there starts logging in pronto they're gonna lose my support in 2014.
- After being the last state to read Ahoy Hanoi, South Dakota has now sky-rocketed in its readership. A whopping TWO people have now been to my blog from South Dakota. This ties them with one other state. Can you guess which one?.....
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The answer is North Dakota.
- New York is still Ahoy Hanoi's greatest fan. However, California is just 550 visits behind.
- Shockingly, Livingston, New Jersey has only logged into my blog 1.388 times. I've had over 700 blogs which means my mom is reading each entry less than two times. Seriously, Mom, what's up with that?!!!!
- Finally -- and I always love ending with this -- people have found my blog using 1,878 different word combinations in google. The last google entry to find my blog was "where can find sex massage in hanoi". Yup, that's for real.

Thanks for all the support from around the world!

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Tight Quarters


Before I joined my gym, I read a review that said something like, "Nice place but small locker room." Well, the review wasn't kidding because the locker room is unbelievably small. I've got about an inch between my head and the ceiling. In fact, there is a smoke alarm in the locker room that I've hit my head on a few times.

A small locker room can be a problem for a few reasons. Firstly, I hit my knuckles on the ceiling about once a week whenever I take off my shirt. Secondly, when there are two people in the locker room there is no room to maneuver. I've had a couple of butts way too close to my face.

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Wash Me


People are the same everywhere. All the time I see dirty car windows on which someone has written something with their finger that I'm assuming must mean "Wash Me." Well, this dirty car stopped in front of me the other day and I definitely recognized one four letter word written on the window. Can any Vietnamese readers tell me what the other words mean?

Friday, April 16, 2010

Dog On A Ledge


Being a dog in Vietnam can definitely be stressful. However, I think this dog was just enjoying the view and not thinking of jumping:

Thursday, April 15, 2010

North Korea


(PICTURE: North Korean food is spicy.)

Huyen works with a South Korean man who recently told her about a delicious North Korean restaurant. Yeah, who knew that a South Korean would think anything North Korean was good. For me, I was just excited to try a new cuisine. The idea of eating North Korean food had never before crossed my mind (outside of when Ryan and I saw a North Korean restaurant in Cambodia last year). In fact, when I usually think of food and North Korea, it's about how millions of people are supposedly starving in that country.

The restaurant's name was Pyongyang. Yup, it doesn't get more North Korean than naming a restaurant after the capital of the country. I mean, do you know of any burger restaurants called "Washington, D.C."

When Huyen and I got to the restaurant we were greeted by a few sweet waitresses. They escorted us upstairs to the nearly empty dining room. There were a couple of tables of patrons all enjoying their meals. The food was pricey but really really really good. We had a duck dish and dumplings that were absolutely fantastic. Overall though the food was just like South Korean food which I've had many times. This actually made me think of the Dr. Seuss book "The Sneetches & Other Stories."

To me though, the most interesting thing about the restaurant wasn't the food but the North Koreans working there. It struck me while eating, "These people are from North Korea and are in Hanoi? I thought nobody leaves that country." It also struck me right after that though that this was probably a pretty ignorant thought. I asked Huyen to ask our waitress a couple of questions. You know, like "Why are you in Hanoi?" The waitress -- who only spoke a little Vietnamese -- said that she was going to study in Hanoi. We tried to ask a follow up question but the waitress basically ignored us and wandered away. In fact, none of the girls working there wanted to answer any questions. They just seemed, well, nervous that we were asking them anything personal. I quickly got a vibe that I should shut up. There was something very strange about the environment there and I couldn't help but think that socializing with an American was probably something they were told by their government never to do.

The next day Huyen told her coworker that we ate at the restaurant. She asked the coworker a few questions about the restaurant and quickly learned that the restaurant is OWNED AND OPERATED by the North Korean embassy.

By no means am I going to claim to be an expert on North Korea. I read a lot in the news about North Korea but frankly my knowledge beyond that is minimal. However, this little brush with North Korea makes me feel that the things we read about that country and their human rights are probably as bad and probably worse than we're led to believe.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Book Review: Audacity To Win



Speaking of divisive politics, here's a great excerpt from the "Audacity To Win", a great book I just finished:

It concerns me-- and this is strictly a personal observation -- that some quarters of the Democratic Party seem to worry that the effort it will take to pass health insurance reform, and then energy reform, could do damage to the party, because some recent polls have shown a not insignificant amount of unease among voters. In my view, this is looking three yards downfield instead of thirty. In the long run , the economy will be healed, and growing; landmark health insurance reform has has languished in Washington for seventy years will have been passed; and we will have done the hard work required to make us the worldwide leader in new energy and green jobs for generations to come. But to make that happen, we need to lay the groundwork now.
I hope Republicans will assist with these efforts. Only a few helped to push through the stimulus package, which I believe will come to be seen as an important cornerstone in our economic recovery. When the smoke clears, the Democrats will have a remarkable record of leadership that moved the country forward and will consequently have great political appeal. Contrast that with Washington Republicans, who will likely have played little role, with the exception of a few principled individuals. And let's not forget that the economic politices they still embrace played a large role in creating this crisis.
When their fearmongering on health care proves to be just that -- when reform passes and voters still have their choice of doctors, care remains unrationed, and Sarah Palin's death panels have killed only her political prospects -- the Republicans in Washington will truly be exposed as the emperors with no clothes. They will have zero credibility. They are putting all their rotten eggs into one basket, using misinformation and outright lies to try to deny the president a victory.

If you got involved in the last election, you should definitely give David Plouffe's book a read. Plouffe, Obama's campaign manager, gives a no-holds-bar insider look at the campaign. I personally found it fascinating to learn about Obama's strategy to win the election. To me though, there are three reasons to read this book:

REASON 1: Obama comes across as an even great leader than I already believe him to be. If Plouffe is to be believed, Obama always took the high road throughout the campaign. Plouffe takes full credit for all the negative things the Obama campaign did when it came to "politics as usual". I often got frustrated during the election when I would read or hear about a negative ad released by the Obama camp. I understand fighting fire with fire but I remember thinking, "I thought Obama was above this." It's good to know that apparently he was.

REASON 2: It was really entertaining to read about how much Plouffe despised Hillary Clinton's Campaign and staff. It was a political book but it felt like you could have been reading about the Red Sox vs. Yankees or any great rivalry.

REASON 3: If you're still on a high from Obama winning, this is a great way to relive the moment. When I read the last words in the book, I had chills running down my spine. Just like on election day, I felt proud as hell to be an American.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Book Review: NIXONLAND


I recently read "NIXONLAND" by Rick Perlstein. If you like non-fiction you should definitely pick up this book.

The premise of the book is how Richard Nixon used a turbulent time in American history to his favor by making politics more divisive and thus helping himself rise politically. I actually don't agree with part of the thesis of the book -- I think American political parties have always been divisive since the formulation of parties; Nixon just appeared to have mastered the game.

The book though is a fantastic read. Perlstein's writing style is both informative and often hilarious. The guy can take a major moment in history and sum it up in a paragraph in a way few other writers can. As a lover of history, there were so many anecdotes in this book that made it a constant page turner.

Naturally Vietnam is a story line weaved throughout the book; you can't have a book about the era without Vietnam being a major part of it. It was really fascinating reading how Nixon used Vietnam for his political gain while actually having no concrete plan to end the war. As a reader, looking back on history, it is unbelievably frustrating to see how the game of politics was played out and how it cost America and Vietnam so much more than it had to.

Monday, April 12, 2010

Product Descriptions




I always love reading the back of products in Asia. Here's a fun one I read today on the back of a pack of lotus seeds:



In case you can't read the small writing it says: "The product is manufactured from the modern technology chain, assuring the foods hygiene safety and obtaining high crispness and sponginess, but always maintaining natural colour and flavour of fresh ripen fruits and especially the chemical substance is not used in the process of production."

Who knew something could be spongy and crispy!

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Serenity Now

Hanoi is a busy city. There's tons of traffic. Incessant honking. Vendors screaming out the sale of their goods and a billion other noises that could give one a brain numbing migraine. However, the beauty of this city is that there are so many places that are quiet and serene. One of the things I love about my apartment is that the only noise during the day is from birds chirping and my neighbors praying.

Recently I started tutoring a girl that lives on the far side of West Lake. The girl's house is right near the lake which -- on this side of the lake -- is one of the quieter places in all of Hanoi. I've been showing up at the girl's house twenty or thirty minutes early every time so I can go to the lake and read a book and soak in the silence. Here's a video of one of my favorite spots in Hanoi:

Saturday, April 10, 2010

No Playing Games

Picture this scene:

A girl comes up to a boy and says, "My friend likes you and was really sad when I told her you had a girlfriend."

If this happened in America you would picture this being a side conversation between two people. Perhaps you would assume this conversation is taking place at a middle school or in a university cafeteria. Regardless of where this conversation is happening, again, you would assume it is just between the boy and the girl.

Well, this morning I was the boy and one of the girl employees at my gym was the girl. However, there was just one little difference from our assumption -- the aforementioned friend was standing right next to both of us, smiling from ear to ear. As flattered as I was, I just thought this was a great example of how many Vietnamese girls don't play games. One thing I love about Huyen is that from Day 1 we never played games with each other. This is a stark contrast from dating in America and well, I think it's a breath of fresh air.

Friday, April 9, 2010

Breastfeeding



Do women breastfeed in public in America? I feel like I've seen it in some movies but I can't remember ever seeing it in person. Well, in Vietnam I've seen it in person a hell of a lot. Many mothers here have no shame when it comes to whipping out their boob and letting their little one have a drink. I've got countless stories of being in awkward situations with women and their exposed breast. However, I'm writing this blog because this morning, when riding my bike home from the gym, I was eye to eye with a woman's breast and a baby's lips. As I was riding my bike a bus pulled up besides me. I turned my head and BAM right in the window was a booby. This woman was on a public bus, with a window seat, driving on a busy road yet had her child sucking away. I'm not complaining but frankly Vietnam traffic is dangerous enough without having to be distracted by breasts!

Thursday, April 8, 2010

White Socks

I may have written about this before but I can't help myself from writing about it again.

There is no bigger fashion fopaux to me then someone wearing a suit with white socks. Call me a snob but I just think it's ridiculous. Every day I see guys wearing really nice suits that look foolish once their bleach white athletic socks peak out from their pant legs. Well, last night I was waiting at a traffic light when this guy pulled up:


I told Huyen why I was taking the picture and she agreed that it looked really silly to wear white socks with suits (she is in the sock business so she knows what she's talking about). However, Huyen told me that some Vietnamese guys think that by showing their white socks it gives off the impression that they are wealthy because they have brand new sparkling white socks. Lets chalk it up to a cultural difference.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Teeth, Teeth and More Teeth



One of the odder things about the Vietnamese dentist's office was that there were plaster models of teeth EVERYWHERE. Teeth, like in the picture above, were on every available shelf and in every glass cabinet. I asked Huyen to ask one of the employees what the teeth were for and apparently they were just decoration. I mean, I guess it goes with the theme of the place but frankly I found it pretty creepy.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Dental Hygiene?

You have to watch this video! I put this in the top five things I've shot in Vietnam. Watch the hygienist in the background as he cleans the AC unit with the air-blaster that goes into people's mouths...

This takes dental hygiene to a new level:



Huyen, sorry for showing a video of you getting your teeth cleaned!

Monday, April 5, 2010

The Dentist


(PICTURE: Me and about three other people getting our teeth cleaned.)

Last year I went to an American dentist in Hanoi. It cost me over $40 for a cleaning even though the American dentist did nothing more than to say hi to me when I walked into the office. Instead his hygienist from Belgium (or somewhere near there) did all of the cleaning. What made it worse was that the hygienist was extremely rude THREE TIMES to the Vietnamese staff. If she didn't have sharp objects in my mouth I would have said something to her at the time that she made demeaning comments to the people helping her.

In America, $40 would be a really cheap cleaning. However, in Vietnam, paying $40 is extremely high compared to going to a Vietnamese dentist where it costs $1.50!!!! I decided to give a Vietnamese dentist a shot...

When Huyen and I showed up at the dentist there was a long line of people waiting to get their teeth cleaned. We put our names down on a list and went next door to get a drink and play cards. After about twenty minutes the line was gone and it was our turn to get our teeth cleaned. We rode the elevator up to the fourth floor and were pointed towards a dental chair. Immediately I noticed three things:
1. There were five dental chairs in the room.
2. There was no dentist anywhere.
3. It wasn't exactly the most sterile environment.

I gave my typical shoulder-shrug-when-in-Rome expression and took a seat on the chair. A moment later a hygienist was inserting some mechanical tool into my mouth which I presumed was chipping away at plaque. The tool had an extra loud buzzing sound which really irritated my left ear; it sounded like a high pitched stereo system was in my ear canal. Luckily the hygienist only used the tool for about thirty seconds before she moved on to scrubbing my teeth. This portion of the cleaning took about two minutes...and then I was done. Huyen told me I was finished and I said, "Really? That was like three minutes tops." Huyen told me that the hygienist said I had really good teeth and there was nothing left for her to do. Basically I paid $1.50 to have a lady brush my teeth.

Huyen and I swapped spots in the chair and I watched the hygienist go to town on her mouth. Huyen has a little more placque then me which meant the cleaning took seven minutes rather than three.

I left the dentists with a better understaning of the saying, "You get what you pay for."

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Lemon Tea


(PICTURE: Huyen holding a "lemon tea" and a taro dessert.)

I've said it before and I'll say it again, there are so many great hole-in-the-wall places in Hanoi. A week ago a friend of mine mentioned a "famous" place called Lemon Tea. I had never heard of it so I assumed it couldn't be that famous. I mean, I am the foremost authority on Hanoi.

I asked Huyen if she knew the place and she said "of course" or something to that effect. Well, I of course had to try the place so the next time Huyen and I were in the area we went to Lemon tea. First let me say this, the place has no lemons. As I mentioned ages ago on the blog, Vietnamese call limes lemons. There are no real lemons in Vietnam...at least that I've ever seen. Secondly besides the tea, the place had lots of sweet soups. We tried two and I was totally won over by the banana soup. Man, it was good!

Apparently the place is really famous because it was packed despite being located on a really quiet street in the Old Quarter. Shows what I know...

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Getting High In Hanoi

Last year, when my friend PJ visited, we climbed to the top of a the tower at the War Museum and were treated to a pretty amazing view of the city. The tower was only about five or six stories tall which is high enough to look down on most of the surrounding area. Well, that was last year. Since then, tall building have been spurting out of the ground like weeds. Seemingly everywhere there are now "Vietnamese sky scrapers." I'm not sure why I put that in quotes since I just coined that term.

The other day I started to teach two kids in an apartment on the 24th floor of a building. By New York City standards 24 floors isn't ridiculously tall. However, in Hanoi it is behemoth. When I exited the elevator, I was immediately drawn to the "window" (the quotes this time because the window had no glass. It was more of a hole in the wall.). From the window I got a spectacular view of Hanoi:

After looking back towards the center of Hanoi, I adjusted my view a little to the right. If you look closely at this picture you'll notice that there is barely anything on the right side of that major street and nothing for a few blocks after that one tall building. Well, that's because they're about to build rows of tall buildings.


In fact, I would estimate there are no less than thirty tall buildings starting construction at the moment. I often annoying harp how this city is changing before my very eyes and well, here's more proof:


Both of those building behind Language Link (Lang Ha) WERE NOT THERE 9 MONTHS AGO!

Friday, April 2, 2010

Don't Put All Your Eggs In One Basket

After yesterday's post, the only appropriate thing for me to do is to post a picture I took while driving...which is equally as unsafe as texting while driving. Yup, say it with me: Hypocrite.

Anyway, apparently in Vietnam they don't have the idiom, "Don't put all your eggs in one basket":

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Easy Writer: Biker's Risk Texting On Vietnam's Roads


Recently I've been complaining a lot that people here need to stop texting while driving their motorbikes. In perfect timing, Ryan sent me this great article from NPR:

Everyone knows that texting while driving isn't smart. Now consider this: texting while driving a motorcycle, in heavy traffic. It's not uncommon in Vietnam, where motorcycles are the primary source of transportation.

And it's got public health officials worried.

Pham Thi Thuy Linh is 21, a college student and — according to a recent contest sponsored by a mobile phone company — has the fastest fingers in Vietnam.

She says she can text 160 characters in 25 seconds, though she says she is a little slower texting with her eyes closed — or when driving her motorcycle.

"I think I'm about 20 or 30 percent slower texting on my bike. And it's easier to make mistakes because I'm trying to watch the road in front of me," Pham says.

She doesn't much care that texting while driving is both illegal and not too smart. And she isn't alone.

Vietnam may be a one-party state where political dissent isn't tolerated. But forget about traffic laws in this country where 29 million motorcycles, bad roads and a lot of people in a hurry make for a dangerous ride.

A 'National Calamity'

On a recent day, the floor of the emergency room at Hanoi's Viet Duc hospital is littered, literally, with patients. By early evening, there are more than 100 — the vast majority of them victims of traffic accidents.

Dr. Doan Quoc Hung, chief of the emergency room, calls traffic accidents a "national calamity." He says it is a public health emergency that's getting worse every day. And incidents involving people talking or texting while driving are becoming more common, he says.

It's dangerous not just for them, but for the drivers around them, too. Hung says the hospital performed 14 operations on this day, and all but three were the result of traffic accidents.

People know they shouldn't use their phones, Hung says, and they also know they shouldn't drink and drive. But they don't care, he says. New technology and more economic opportunity are great, he says, as long as people use both responsibly.

Most of these accidents simply don't need to happen, Hung says. And caring and paying for the injured and the dead puts a burden on both their families and society, he says. The hospital should be treating people with real illnesses, he says, and not spending so much time dealing with this.

Change Slow To Come

Tran Van Thanh is a senior official in the government's office of traffic safety. He understands the concerns about texting while driving, but says people's bad habits will take time to change.

He says that with limited resources, it's impossible to crack down on everyone for everything. Drunk drivers and reckless drivers are the priority now, he says, adding that the rest will come later.

At Viet Duc hospital, neurosurgeon Nguyen Duc Hiep is worried that later won't be soon enough. His head trauma unit is full of accident victims. And while he knows driving under the influence is still the chief cause of traffic injuries, he worries what will happen next month when local phone companies roll out cheaper packages for 3G phones. He predicts that those packages will lead to more people surfing the Web while on their motorcycles.

It's crazy, Nguyen says, the way people want to be on their phones, talking and texting all the time.

Meanwhile, the texting contest winner, Pham, says she can't wait to get one of the new iPhone packages.

She says it will enable her to text even faster than she does now, from everywhere — including her bike.