A sad, long day today as Declan has woken up sick (but COVID test negative) and gets worse during the day. He started with a sore throat and then has a nap at 10am before we check out and doesn’t have much energy after that. It’s a difficult city to be sick in, made worse by the fact our overnight train leaves at 9pm, 9 hours after our check out time. I am also worried we won’t sleep well on the train (it’s reputed to rock a lot and we are sharing a cabin with two strangers).
We do a light wander, check out a bookstore, get a coffee but it’s all very low enthusiasm. Declan is glassy eyed and aching. The unknown and potential discomfort of the night train hangs in the air like humidity. Our only real activity of the day is a cute Vietnamese lesson booked via Airbnb Experiences. We learn all the basics: counting to 10, the differences in tone, how to ask for a banana and how to say no to streetside hawkers. At dinner I think I ask for the bill correctly in Vietnamese but the bill never arrives so I chalk it as ‘needs improvement’. I do a poo in here but the flush button doesn’t work. I don’t know what to do and walk away ashamed and equal amounts grateful my hospitality days are over. All in all, an average day.
Writing this as we kill an hour in the lobby of our hotel before getting a taxi to the train station. Await tomorrow’s edition for the debrief on the overnight train adventures.
This is the infamous Cau Long Bien bridge designed by Gustav Eiffel and failed to be destroyed in the Vietnamese War. Maintenance seems to be a low priority and the entire thing is rusting. In this area an old Lady approached us and tried to speak to us and everyone was confused. DW. Songbirds in cages are a common sound around Hanoi. This bothers me and it’s taken me a few days to ascertain why. It’s not so much the caged animals – these birds don’t seem that smart and I am sure breed easily. What irks me is the pretense of nature and beauty, in a city that in no way values either of those concepts. The tiny gesture towards something that is apart from the wear and tear on the environment at the behest of humans only serves to highlight how far you are from aloneness, quiet and variation. CR.Tying modern mechanical impact to human historical fable sits as a much truer representation of Hanoi, in my eyes, and this demonstrated in the artwork found by bridge Declan photographed above. CR.The description of the artwork above. CR.A clothes hawker walking her cart on the highway. CR.There is a lot of verticality to all of the buildings. They are between 4 to 8 stories typically and often there is commercial on the bottom and residential above. Anything can be on the bottom floor from a scooter service centre, cafe or clothing store. DWCaitlin continues her sterling negotiation skills. When attempting to buy 1 banana and handover money, she encountered a confused lady. A nearby man, clearly amused, burst out laughing and they kept piling bananas onto Cait. Whatever she is paying, it is well under market rate. DWA typical street meal on the ubiquitous plastic furniture. You can see cyclos in the background which we are too afraid to try after smart traveller has identified them as a scam hotspot. DW. Smart Traveller identified them as a safety risk, not a scam, but nearly everything in Vietnam has the veneer of being both. CR.My fifth book completed while overseas. The Lover by Marguerite Duras was one that I picked up at Sapphos in Glebe with no background. In fact, I picked it up and put it back multiple times that day before deciding to buy it for $14. I was drawn in my the author’s foriegn name and the slimness of the volume. I was put off by the unappealing front cover and contrived title. What swayed my decision in favour of the book was the ambiguous and lyrical opening two pages. Research post finishing the book revealed that it was made into a movie. While the blurb and title convey an erotic storyline, this is misleading, and the thrust of the very simple plot is a fifteen year old French girl searching for an escape from her present (her family and her predicament as one of the only white girls in her Saigon boarding school). I would recommend this novel, even for those not travelling in its setting (Vietnam). I very much enjoyed it. Like The Cove, The Lover benefited from being on holidays. It needs a close attention span to get the most out of it – tenses and phrasing can be difficult to follow, and first person swings to second which was confusing until I realised it is the narrator as an older woman addressing her younger self. An atmospheric read.
An excerpt from The Lover that resonated with me while travelling through Vietnam:
The noise of the city is very loud, in recollection it’s like the soundtrack of a film turned up too high, deafening. I remember clearly, the room’s dark, we don’t speak, it’s surrounded by the continuous din of the city, caught up in the city, swept along with it.There are no panes in the windows, just shutters and blinds. On the blinds you can see the shadows of people going by in the sunlight on the sidewalks. Great crowds of them always. The shadows are divided into strips by the slats of the shutters. The clatter of wooden clogs is ear-splitting, the voices strident, Chinese is a language that’s shouted the way I always imagine desert languages are, it’s a language that’s incredibly foreign.
Outside it’s the end of the day, you can tell by the sound of the voices, the sound of more and more passers-by, more and more miscellaneous. It’s a city of pleasure that reaches its peak at night. And night is beginning now, with the setting sun.
The bed’s seperated from the city by those slatted shutters, that cotton blind. There’s nothing solid seperating us from other people. They don’t know of our existence. We glimpse something of theirs, the sum of their voices, of their movements, like the intermittent hoot of a siren, mournful, dim.
How intriguing to read a book in its setting. Beautifully described Caitlin. Hanoi has certainly been confronting cant wait to discuss this with you. I had such a romantic conception about it before you went!!
Really hope Declan gets better sòn. Can only imagine how miserable he is feeling. Keep up the negotiations – it is fun to see what you end up with! Love you a bunch M xx
Feel sorry about Declan getting Covid but it now seems inevitable that this will happen with every holiday trip.
How did he go and how did it compare to your episode earlier in the trip.
I have noticed the previous absence of toilet stories which has been surprising considering the countries you have been in and your accommodation choices.
I’m sure that the local plumber muttered a few local swear words that day.
Had a chuckle about the artwork story. Another immaculate conception just like Jesus. In the old days women had to be creative to explain to their partners surprise pregnancies. The fancy story is much more interesting than saying mum had a fling with the local scoundrel.
Next time you feel a bit worn out by work spend a minute thinking about the clothes hawker. Your worst day is still easier than her best day.
The skinny buildings are fascinating. I wonder if the 8 story ones even have a lift. Would be interesting to see inside one of the units.
I’m continually impressed by your efforts to immerse yourself in the local language and culture. Your experiences will be so much more enjoyable and memorable because of your efforts even if sometimes you end up with a different quantity of food. I think the locals would also appreciate that you are making an effort and you might also be giving them some amusement at the same time.
Missing my Kopi’s. Egg coffee just doesn’t feel as good.
How would you rate the food compared to Thailand.
Declan went well with covid. He had two days that were almost full rest days and then just a blocked nose after that. I agree with what you said about it being inevitable. Declan thinks everyone with a sniffle/cough (at least half of all travellers) have covid and just aren’t changing anything about travel plans. I was sick for an extra day but otherwise pretty similar to me, which maybe means that he had the same strain as me and would explain why I didn’t get reinfected (I think you get immunity for a few months to a given strain?)
Toilet stories are hard because they are so frequently poor and unhygienic. I carry around toilet paper in my bag and have used a lot of hand sanitizer. Really happy that neither Declan and I have had stomach issues. I had a day where I felt off in Thailand, but it was super mild and didn’t impact anything about my day. Maybe the worst toilet was the one at Chang Mai zoo where there was an infestation of ants covering the entire toilet and toilet seat. I used the squat toilet instead…
I agree I think the locals would think my language skills are amusing and hopefully they don’t mind that I am totally butchering their tonal language.
Egg coffee has been good but I agree, Kopi is king. Kopi is the ultimate way to start a holiday day. It’s thick and sweet and strong all at once.
The skinny buildings would be really interesting to look inside. We even say some in the middle of no where on big blocks of land near the highway and they were still really narrow even though they didn’t have other buildings next to them.
Thailand was the best food. It had so much variety and flavour and such good desserts. Also had the most street food so wherever you went there was always interesting hawkers.
How intriguing to read a book in its setting. Beautifully described Caitlin. Hanoi has certainly been confronting cant wait to discuss this with you. I had such a romantic conception about it before you went!!
Really hope Declan gets better sòn. Can only imagine how miserable he is feeling. Keep up the negotiations – it is fun to see what you end up with! Love you a bunch M xx
Feel sorry about Declan getting Covid but it now seems inevitable that this will happen with every holiday trip.
How did he go and how did it compare to your episode earlier in the trip.
I have noticed the previous absence of toilet stories which has been surprising considering the countries you have been in and your accommodation choices.
I’m sure that the local plumber muttered a few local swear words that day.
Had a chuckle about the artwork story. Another immaculate conception just like Jesus. In the old days women had to be creative to explain to their partners surprise pregnancies. The fancy story is much more interesting than saying mum had a fling with the local scoundrel.
Next time you feel a bit worn out by work spend a minute thinking about the clothes hawker. Your worst day is still easier than her best day.
The skinny buildings are fascinating. I wonder if the 8 story ones even have a lift. Would be interesting to see inside one of the units.
I’m continually impressed by your efforts to immerse yourself in the local language and culture. Your experiences will be so much more enjoyable and memorable because of your efforts even if sometimes you end up with a different quantity of food. I think the locals would also appreciate that you are making an effort and you might also be giving them some amusement at the same time.
Missing my Kopi’s. Egg coffee just doesn’t feel as good.
How would you rate the food compared to Thailand.
Declan went well with covid. He had two days that were almost full rest days and then just a blocked nose after that. I agree with what you said about it being inevitable. Declan thinks everyone with a sniffle/cough (at least half of all travellers) have covid and just aren’t changing anything about travel plans. I was sick for an extra day but otherwise pretty similar to me, which maybe means that he had the same strain as me and would explain why I didn’t get reinfected (I think you get immunity for a few months to a given strain?)
Toilet stories are hard because they are so frequently poor and unhygienic. I carry around toilet paper in my bag and have used a lot of hand sanitizer. Really happy that neither Declan and I have had stomach issues. I had a day where I felt off in Thailand, but it was super mild and didn’t impact anything about my day. Maybe the worst toilet was the one at Chang Mai zoo where there was an infestation of ants covering the entire toilet and toilet seat. I used the squat toilet instead…
I agree I think the locals would think my language skills are amusing and hopefully they don’t mind that I am totally butchering their tonal language.
Egg coffee has been good but I agree, Kopi is king. Kopi is the ultimate way to start a holiday day. It’s thick and sweet and strong all at once.
The skinny buildings would be really interesting to look inside. We even say some in the middle of no where on big blocks of land near the highway and they were still really narrow even though they didn’t have other buildings next to them.
Thailand was the best food. It had so much variety and flavour and such good desserts. Also had the most street food so wherever you went there was always interesting hawkers.