A Blog to help all those moving to hectic Hanoi, wanting to learn about the culture in Vietnam or simply interested in the opinions of an adventurous expatriate teenager!

Friday 25 November 2011

Zumba!

This week I joined a new class at school called 'Zumba' which is a combination of different spanish styles of dance plus some modern movements. We danced crazily for an hour: kicking, punching the air, doing salsa movements etc. At the end I was exhausted but hummed the song for two days straight. Who knew excercise could actually be fun?!


This song is actually  in french, but it's really catchy (Mam)!

Monday 21 November 2011

Can you hear those wedding bells?

(taken by me)
Everywhere you go there are motorbikes, pregnant people, and most often where I live: wedding photos being taken. The brides adorned in traditional white or red or less conventional florescent green dresses pose next to the statues of Ciputra as a symbol of their wealth. These pictures often costing around  $500 just show how much marriage means in a country where people are poor yet buy these ridiculous dresses. The hair is perfectly permed and sprayed into place and the make-up plastered on so their complexions glow ghostly white.



(taken by me)

This picture shows the traditional wedding costume.

In the west people are getting married later and later but here if you reach 25 and you haven't tied the knot you'd better hurry it up. In the countryside the Black Thai tribe women tie their hair into knots on top of their heads when they are married. The average woman get's married between the ages of 18- 25. The busiest wedding season is just after Tet where there are many wedding buses with the symbol of double happiness on them - an ancient Chinese character.

Thursday 17 November 2011

Moon bears

Last year I went to a bear sanctuary to learn about these beautiful animals which are almost critically endangered. The bears are often confined in cages disproportionate to their huge size and they have their bile removed. This bile is then used in the production of so called natural medicines which supposedly remedy all sorts of different conditions.




(Taken by me)

There is actually nothing chemically in the bile which is proven to be effective in aiding any of these conditions therefore the making of these medicines must be stopped.



(Taken by me)


In the sanctuary there were rooms stuffed with different types of foodstuffs including peanut butter, fruit and nuts. The carers are experts on each of the different bears personalities and there are even charts of what type of treat will provoke a bear to swallow a disgusting medicine (marshmallows, maple syrup and apple puree were very popular). 



(Taken by me)

The trees are covered in plastic so the bears cannot use their claws to climb them and therefore escape out of the enclosure.






(Taken by me) - This bear looks almost thoughtful staring out into the distance.

The zoo keepers provide medical care but also attempt to improve the well being of the bears by entertaining and training them using different games created from wood and other random items. This simulates the bears natural environment where they would have to scourge around searching for food. I'm hoping to go again soon since I here they have baby bear cubs freshly rescued!



DON'T LET EXTINCTION HAPPEN!









Sunday 6 November 2011

A funeral

Last year when attending a funeral I drank a little too much rice wine and my advice to all those planning to pay tribute to their Vietnamese friends dead relative... do not start drinking because one drink leads to another as you have to drink to every single member of the family and boy are Vietnamese families large!

Four funerals and a funeral...

When your Vietnamese neighbor loses a family member you will undoubtedly know by the sounds of the shrill wailing from the mourning relatives. There will later be a procession in the streets where family members are adorned with headbands of different colors (a different color for each different generation). One glance will tell you just how many generations of family are present if there's many they've obviously been drinking a lot of milk. People are not going to find this joke funny but it is - people in Vietnam think milk cures everything. 


Before the person has actually died the whole family must gather around their bed in silence and one member will lean in to hear the persons last words. The daughters and sons of the person do not accept the death and they place the body on a mat on the floor with a chopstick between the teeth in order to bring the soul back to life. Then the shirt is waved like a flag whilst the relatives sing for the soul to return to the body. After this the body is washed and cleansed, wrapped in white cloth and placed into a coffin amongst rice, gold and money - I suppose this is only for the rich. 


The colors of the flowers are also important and white flowers are the symbol of death especially the white lotus which symbolizes complete purification. 


The body is then buried - anywhere will do in the countryside. 90 days of mourning takes place where people wear special clothes and in the past certain things were not allowed to happen during this period of time such as marriage. 


Three years after the burial the body is dug up again and "cleansed". This involves washing down the bones with pure water, herb infused water and flower infused water. I don't know about you but I wouldn't really want to have to say hello to my dead parent or grandparents skeleton again...
Then the bones are rearranged back into order - they must pay a lot of attention in biology and the skeleton is placed back inside the coffin and reburied. This is actually quite a big issue in the city as every day there are people down at the grave yards digging up bones I suppose.


In Vietnam there are a lot of wandering souls from the war of people whose bodies were not put to rest and cannot be prayed to. 


If you have no family then your photograph gets taken to the local pagoda for the general public to pray for you.