Category: Vietnam

In the market I gaze at dragonfruit, bright red, green purple and orange unknown vegetables. Next to them meat, innards, bubbling seafood containers, giant slabs for cutting off heads, slicing giant fish. I turn away when I see a large pile of large, skinned, half chopped frogs twitching and heaving on top of each other,…

I sit by Hoan Kiem Lake writing a postcard. A small turtle swims by.  

We have spent two of our weekends in central Hanoi. Hotels are cheap and it’s fun being here as a contrast to the University campus. On the balcony of the WIFI café opposite the Golden Buffalo Hotel I chat to a guy from Cameroon/New York and discover we are both teaching at the University; he…

Different streets specialize in different produce and artifacts. I like to explore. Behind the street children’s hostel the order of the day seems to be intricately woven flower arrangements for funerals and whole barbecued dog with all teeth intact. The image of these well marinated roasted snarling faces will, I know, add an unwelcome tone…

I find unexpectedly that I have become fond of the students in my classes during the month I have taught them. One class takes a long time deciding what Vietnamese song they should sing me to say goodbye. Another has hand knitted me a grey scarf to protect me against the cold foggy English winters.…

At Monday’s early morning breakfast meeting with Phoung at a French Deli in the Old Town we are told that where we are going to teach next is a 'non-designated area for foreigners' and the communist party in this province will require copies of all our educational qualifications before we are allowed to reside there…

Did you hear the dog in the night? Sh..It’s too early ‘It was singing ‘Sh.. I heard the rain ‘Really singing ‘ Yes, I heard it. And yesterday afternoon I heard Killing Me Softly from our kitchen window, in Vietnamese. But the rain, the rain, it never stopped.   All packed up and ready to…

All porch steps have an integral ramp for access for motorbikes to parking in the front room. If the ramp were just 10″ wider Vietnam would be the most sophisticated country in the world for disabled access. During the night people in the block opposite drive their motorbikes up the steep stairwell above ground level.…

We need to get out, to catch the arranged train to Phuto Province. I had bought well fitting plastic shoes for sea bathing. I feel well equipped to wade groin deep in the brown water with my plastic mac tucked into my swimming costume and a rucksack on my back, negotiating submerged low walls, debris…