Leaving Vietnam

It must have taken me approximately one year to adjust my global compus to set Vietnam as home. Only when leaving am I now realising what an amazing opportunity it was going to live there. I experienced a new culture, tried new activites and every day had new exciting things. I didn't cry at the airport because really that's not what I'm going to miss. If you still live there have a think about your favourite things about the place and you'll soon realise there are simply so many. Mine are below: 1. Xoi yen - Sticky rice, a new discovery of mine, can be bought for around 5 thousand dong off the street and is soooo delicious, there are also restaurants which sell it with toppings such as dried pork, egg and salami. 2. Cycling everywhere and being safe. 3. Knowing everyone western and smiling at them in the street. 4. The school ( just a little), it really was a beautiful campus and I made some Amazing friends 5. Speaking of friends, hopefully I will keep in touch with and see in future all of my new bfls :) 6. The weather, I moaned all the time whilst there and now I miss it, CRAZY! 7. Swimming 8. Eating out really cheaply 9. Rice and chopsticks I'm sure the list continues further but right now I'm suffering from a huge case of brain frazzle due to jet lag ( I spent thirteen hours watching all of season 3 of modern family).

Home - Aerial Photography film

This post has nothing to do with Vietnam apart from the fact that I think I saw some clips of the rice fields in Sapa. I'm currently writing an article for my school newspaper about this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqxENMKaeCU&feature=watch-now-button&wide=1

Breathtaking aerial photography this film teaches the masses about the depletion of our planet's resources. The woman's voice is rather soothing so I would suggest watching it in several parts!

Developing fast

Whilst waiting for a computer back up I decided to do a little research about the development rate of Vietnam. Here's some indicators of development which I looked at or found interesting:
DEVELOPMENT:

GDP-
In Vietnam the government created a huge plan of action known as Doi Moi reforms which meant that there was a huge effort to increase the amount of exports and production of products (namely rice). This meant that the GDP (gross domestic product) has been steadily improving, meaning higher wages for Vietnamese people.



Calorie intake -
The number of people suffering from malnutrition has dropped and people are eating more protein. In Hanoi at the moment there is Pizza Hut and I think KFC however not the influx of other fast food restaurants, people much prefer asian food which makes them a lot healthier than the average western population.

Infrastructure -

The whole of Hanoi looks a little like a building site with machine powered cranes and endless noise. I'm not sure how well built it is however structures are definitely going up quickly!

I looked at the CIA Factbook for Vietnam and learnt some really interesting things: 93% of the population can read and write after the age of 15, and even in the countryside there were schools for children to be educated.

Mai Chau

A 3.5 hour bus ride from Hanoi leads to the picturesque countryside of Mai Chau with sprawling luminous green rice paddies and workers in conical hats. Cycling through the lucious landscape is a perfect weekend getaway from the bustling city. Here's some of my pictures of the trip:

A little exam break

There's becoming a little bit of a theme with my posts recently. FOOD! As exams are getting closer I need a perfect excuse to get away from my desk to "revise" with friends. Joma on To Ngoc Van is great since they let you sit there for hours (my record is 5) with only one drink, however the service is rather slow which is fine if you're not in a hurry. One tip is not to wear your ugliest clothes because it's almost guaranteed you will see someone you know.

I recently cycled a bit further down Xuan Dieu to Saint Honoré which is one of the only bakeries in Hanoi to use real butter. I love the bread, pain au chocolat and tarte au citron. Delicious!

Trip advisor's top twenty

I'm working my way down the list of top 20 restaurants in Hanoi on the trip advisor website (http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurants-g293924-Hanoi.html). In general this is a great website to find reviews for any country as so many people use it. On Friday night it was Madame Hien, although actually I think this is now no. 29, where I ate in the beautiful courtyard, which was very atmospheric. The only problem was that there were lots of tourists and this definitely meant the prices were higher than normal Vietnamese restaurants. I ate this amazing duck with delicious mushrooms followed by coffee and caramel ice cream. The only slight hitch was when they lost the bill, which is actually fairly common (maybe just to me, I'm not sure)…

Picture taken from the Trip Advisor website.

Sapa Round 2

After describing the length of the hike, the burning muscles and the sun beating down on my neck to the rest of my family they decided that it was a great idea to take the weekend train down to Sapa AGAIN!
This time though we brought along a tour guide and I learnt a lot about death and marriage rituals. Warning: The information on death is truly shocking!

Note - The pictures are completely unrelated but I love them anyway.

The most important things for a man in Sapa are:

1. A House
2. A Wife
3. A Buffalo

I predict that in the first world people would more likely say:

1.  A house
2.  A bank account full of money
3.  A car/ ipod/ television or another consumerist item.

COURTING:

There is a dancing and singing ritual where the men dance to music and the women sing in response, the couple get closer to one another until they can see each other's faces. If they like what they see then they carry on going for one hour (if not then the music dramatically stops and one partner runs away, which I suppose is very unfortunate if you're very ugly). After one hour they escape to the mountains to talk till the early hours about their lives, hopes dreams etc. and agree to meet again 3 times.

I own no rights to this adorable baby - I'm only 15

 Once they have met three times the man will describe the woman to his family and they must go and kidnap her from the market and keep her in his house for three days. This sounds rather unnecessary to me but maybe it adds a little adventure into their lives? If she chooses to stay with the husband's family for three days then one month later the couple will marry. So if you're like me and can't dance to save your life you would have no hope of finding a partner.

DEATH:

The dead are taken to a fortune teller who bathes them in spiritual water and leaves collected from high up in the mountains. Then the body is suspended from the ceiling of the  family's house and lowered each day according to how old they were. So if you're 80 you hang 8 days, being lowered by 10cm each day.

Once the body reaches the floor the strongest men in the village must run with the body down a long and winding path so the spirit will not remember the way home as the family doesn't want to be haunted.

What is most interesting is that this tradition is the opposite in the rest of Vietnam where people want their dead relative watching over them.

Snake guts really do look appetizing don't they?

The sky isn't the limit?

The world's tallest building is currently the Burj Kalifah situated in Dubai which cost a whopping 1.5 billion dollars to build. In the lifts your ears are popping from the amount of pressure change and there are futuristic space style disco lights. Once you reach the 124 floor's observation deck then you have amazing views across the country.

There are some really interesting design features such as the silver tinted windows, giving a beautiful reflection of the bright sun, but also keeping the building cool.

It takes 3-4 months to clean all the windows with track lines, a series of ropes and for the spire: men hand cleaning! Just like in Vietnam really.

What's even more shocking is that there may be an even taller construction in Saudi Arabia, adding just over 100m and breaking world records. It seems like the sky simply isn't the limit.

Here's a link for more information:
http://www.smartplanet.com/photos/plans-revealed-for-new-tallest-building-in-the-world-photos/6271252?tag=thumbnail-view-selector;get-photo-roto


I don't think there's any building in Hanoi as amazing as this one!

Culture shock again?

There is such a thing as 'reverse culture shock', never before had I encountered this term until I faced it head on during my break. I took a trip to the Middle East (well just Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Bahrain), where camels roam freely and the landscape consists of many thousands of grains of sand. I felt out of place not wearing the traditional long black burka like all the other women and unlike Hanoi there didn't really seem to be any well; culture.

In years gone by the Middle East was a haven of different foods, traditions and differences to the Western world. Now I fear it may have fallen to the conformity of shopping malls, designer labels and fancy cars (and boy do they drive fast). Their driving makes Hanoi look tame.

I still really enjoyed my trip and here are some pictures I took along the way; I went out in search of mosques...

Yum, olives in chocolate, now that does sound great.

This was actually the ceiling of the shopping centre, but I thought the tiling was spectacular and no one was making an effort to look up!

Well this sign was a little bit of a joke.

Apparently the gold souks used to be out on the streets but now they are mostly all inside. The jewellery was such a radiant yellow shade I couldn't believe it was actually real.

Strolling around Hanoi

One of the best places to meet up with friends is Joma, a Vietnamese cafe equivalent to Starbucks. After tons of schoolwork I met up with friends there and tried out the carrot cake and caramel latte, YUM! Afterwards we just strolled around taking pictures of random things, here's some of mine:

Sapa

This last week I took a trip to Sapa, recommended by all the guidebooks because of the tribal people living there and the beautiful countryside, perfect for hiking.

You can take an overnight train from Hanoi sharing a cabin with 3 others in bunk beds (since I was with friends it was fun on the contrary sharing a room with a stranger is not my idea of fun) and then you arrive in Sapa at four in the morning.

Staggering through the train station onto a bus you travel on these horrifically vomit- worthy winding roads, the sunrise is a welcome distraction.

I was in the 'Action' group where we did a 7 hour hike passing through four different valley sections. All the way I hummed Taylor Swift songs and it was amazing to see the people there in their traditional tribal outfits. We didn't go up Fan xi pan the highest peak in Vietnam but the walk was extremely tough with knees aching, thighs burning and sunburns all around. We saw so many interesting things and I took a ton of pictures along the way and the women we were walking with weren't tired whatsoever!

We were talking to one of the women and she told us that she dated her husband one week before he asked her to get married. They now have a son so she was extremely happy as sons are important here like in China to support the family.

There are many ethnic tribes in Vietnam including the H'mong people wearing these colourful outfits.

If you want an overview of the place check out the Lonely Planet website:

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/vietnam/northwest-vietnam/sapa

History

Here is a great video if you want to learn about the war and if you want more information I've put some affects of the war below on the people:

How people in the USA were immediately affected by the war:

Money was wasted and the people of America lost faith in the government. Those returning were not congratulated and many had fallen into drug addiction since drugs were extremely easy to get hold of in Vietnam.

Long term effects on America:

The Americans are still embarrassed today about the failure of not just their policy of containment but of their decision to become involved in Vietnam.

How people in Vietnam were affected by the war:

Vietnam became one unified communist country.

There were Vietnamese refugees who had migrated to other countries trying to get away from the war.

The environment and people had been affected by bombing and chemicals used, houses had to be rebuilt and Vietnam didn't have a strong economy to rebuild everything quickly. Many of the plant life had been destroyed because of the chemicals and weapons used hurt not only soldiers but also innocent civilians.

Lasting effects on Vietnam:

In the countryside there are still unexploded landmines and bombs which still endanger people today. As well as this many of the children being born still have disabilities due to the chemical used: Agent Orange.

The power of... milk.

In the book 'Blink' (blink) by Malcolm Gladwell which I recently read it said that statistically  those who are CEOs are on average over 6 foot tall (for men), and in Vietnam this is reflected by the strong belief in the power of milk. There are these milk shops everywhere in town, TrueMilk is one of the biggest chains selling only one product, guess what it is!

Happy Pancake day!

I organized a pancake day for charity and we played loads of Spanish music, I especially love Shakira in Spanish and this song by Los adolescents:

Question : Do people like this song if they don't like to dance? I have a friend who doesn't like dance songs because he doesn't dance, but even if you can't sing surely you listen to songs with words. Hard thinking going on right now!

This pancake endeavour wasn’t just because I felt in dire need of some carbs though, it was to raise money for the charity Helping Hands and so in honour of this event I would like to devote this post to the charities my school supports and problems throughout Vietnam.

The Cancer hospital:

The cancer hospital was my first ever project last year and it was really upsetting to see so many sick children. We brought them  toys and games which they appreciated so much and we blew bubbles and drew pictures with them.

Thuy An orphanage:

At Thuy An your eyes really open to how a LEDC (less economically developed country) copes with those suffering from disabilities. Since families don't have the knowledge, money or support they leave their children here. We learn about the different conditions such as cerebral palsy and downs syndrome and each time we visit we interact with the children through play, massage (which helps stretch out their limbs) and walks in the push chairs. My most recent charity project involved purchasing a washer and a dryer in order for all the nappies and clothes to get cleaned quicker which will hopefully help the carers a lot.

 I bought a washing machine and dryer with help from family friends, thank you everyone!

This child is sooooo sweet!

Here's the crepe recipe for you to hold your own day. We sold 100 total all of which we made ourselves (a giant bowl was required for that much batter!) and even though it took us a lot of time both to organize and prepare I really think it was a worthwhile event.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/basic-crepes/Detail.aspx

Look up

This post will mainly be photographs so I apologize for that but hopefully you will find it interesting anyway!

Tube houses are seen everywhere and I imagine are a little inconvenient for putting in furniture. Older people are on the top floor of the house so as to be respected by the rest of the generations of family but the main reason the houses are like this is because of the tax which was placed on Vietnamese houses. The law states that you pay tax on the amount of metres of house which are on the pavement so to avoid taxes the Vietnamese decided to build their houses tall and long.

The Embassy district is where all the ambassadors live quite close to the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum and here we see a lot of this ochre yellow colour and there is a large French influence. The French influence is very much seen throughout Hanoi (due to their occupation of the country before Independence was declared by Ho Chi Minh) with many shutters, intricate iron work and house numbers exactly as we see in France.

In town you will most likely be gazing at all the products sold in shops rather than stopping to look up however if you do then you'll undoubtedly spot something interesting. People generally sleep upstairs and have their business running underneath.

(all taken by me or my mother)