Taking the bull by its horns

 Imagine London without traffic lights… welcome to Hanoi!

To be fully clear, there are traffic lights, few and far between, but a red light doesn’t necessarily seem to mean stop, just for road users to be more careful when going through the junction. Weird! You may be wondering how pedestrians cross the road safely. The answer is they don’t. You literally have to step out into traffic and walk at a steady pace until you reach the other side. The first time you do this you are on edge… the 100^th time, you’re still on edge. I should point out that the traffic is mainly mopeds, lots and lots of them, with the occasional car and bus. Moped drivers can skilfully weave around people, larger vehicles obviously cannot (personally learnt that one a few years ago) so you choose a moment when there volume of traffic is slightly less and just go for it.

You'd be amazed at what they transport on a moped

 

As the capital of Vietnam, Hanoi can’t be avoided, especially if it’s the Vietnamese cuisine you’re after. The most famous dish of Vietnam is Pho Bo (beef noodle soup), which certainly deserves its popularity as it is delicious! Though eating with chopsticks is a skill to be practiced. Strangely, the chicken version is a typical Vietnamese breakfast dish, which I did have, and yes it was strange stomaching noodles and chicken first thing in the morning.

English speaking locals are more common and we were politely-stopped several times by students learning the language, who just wanted to practice with us. It gave us an insight into the local lives too so a win-win situation. Amusingly, some locals liked to come up (or just call out as you walk by) and say how beautiful you are, as white skin is desirable here as in China (or maybe the Vietnamese population suffer from short-sightedness…I jest). I’m surprised all Caucasian women don’t choose to emigrate here… now there’s a though.

We learnt about the folk lore through the medium of water-puppetry, a popular show telling that Vietnamese people were born from a cross between a dragon and a phoenix…unusual. Though if you take it on Vietnamese symbolism, then the dragon represents power and the phoenix is a symbol for beauty.

We got an opportunity to interact with rural people through Bloom micro-ventures project* with the help of a translator, which was a great experience, learning about Vietnamese agriculture, political and community life. We spoke to an agricultural worker, the chief of the local commune (village network) and a nurse (his wife) who showed us her workplace and the local primary school. This was also a fun trip as we got to try our hand at fishing, though I lost my first catch as I was so shocked I managed to hook something I pulled it in too quickly. Second time I succeeded.

Idyllic countryside

Not scheduled on this trip was an impromptu buffalo ride. To explain the story properly, it was actually harvest time for the local rice growers so our drive around the area was frequently held up by road blocks of people with carts and machines used to gather and sort the rice crop. On one such occurrence, there was a water buffalo with the contingency (some rice farmers own a buffalo to help with the manual labour). On seeing the buffalo, our driver hoped out of the mini-van and onto the back of the animal (apparently children try and do this… though our driver was probably 40 years old). Someone in our group then jokingly said ‘Whose next?’ only I being me thought ‘Sure!’** On hindsight I should have really thought twice about climbing on a horned beast several times bigger and heavier than myself. And did I mention that I’m normally get nervous just walking through a field of dairy cows. But in the moment, it seemed like a cool ‘once in a lifetime’ thing to do… and how true that nearly was. Only when I found myself sitting on top I did begin to think ‘This is a risky situation’. Then after 20 seconds or so the buffalo confirmed my thoughts and suddenly got spooked and bolted, dumping me unceremoniously off its back and onto a conveniently placed haystack. Not wanting to make a scene (bit late there) I got quickly onto my feet and came away from the encounter with a bruised glutamus maximus and a few scratches... a souvenir that lasted a few days.

                                          On                                              Off

So, on that painful yet comical note I’ll end Hanoi there and include the rest of the experiences in my next blog.

*For more information on Bloom micro-ventures see the link:
http://www.bloom-microventures.org/vietnam/

**For more questions on my sanity, see my pet aardvark.