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:

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.

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!

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.

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.

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!

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."