Where I Live

Hello again. Well it's been a couple of weeks since my last entry. But never mind, better late than never. ..and hey, it could very well have been never! Anyway, I've just had my housewarming party this weekend so i thought i'd write a bit about the house and suburb i'll be calling home for the next year.

I moved in 2 weeks ago now. Fortunately, one of the flatmates from this house had recently moved out when i arrived in Hanoi and i jumped at the opportunity. And yes, it's an Aussie house: 2 other AYADs (Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development), Hugh and Pilar and 1 VIDA (Volunteers International for Development, Australia), Samitha.

Hanoi city is actually pretty small. Like most cities, the suburbia outskirts stretch out for miles but the city itself is very compact, with most of the interesting bits within a 5km by 5km area. The tourist area, which covers Hoan Kiem and the Old Quarter,is less than 2km across. I'll probably write more about Hanoi at some later stage but at this stage i'm still finding my way around!

I live in the Ba Dinh district, which is west of the Old Quarter. Most of the young volunteers live in this area. It doesn't quite have Newtown's funkiness but it's alternative enough while still being suitably close to the action of the Old Quarter (I can't imagine actually living in the Old Quarter!).

Ba Dinh covers quite a large area and i live pretty much in the centre of it. It's a good spot, close to the Botanical Gardens (for those morning runs...), the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum (Where you can pay your respects to "Uncle" Ho himself), markets, cafes and street food. I'm also less than 2km from my work.

My house is located in the Ngoc Ha area, which means "beautiful pearl". I haven't seen too many pearls around but apparently Ngoc Ha used to be very famous for its gardens. Unfortunately the gardens have now mostly been replaced with buildings but the area still has a certain charm.

My House is down a little lane 300m from the main street and the only access is by motorbike or on foot. I actually quite enjoy walking down my lane and i'm starting to get on nodding terms with some of my neighbours which include a bike repair guy who must be in his 80's, a butcher who cuts his meat up out on the street, and ofcourse the $1 DVD shop guy.

Mine is not a typical Hanoi house - it's not super skinny and it doesn't open straight onto the street. It does have lots of bedrooms though, 7 of them actually, which i understand is only slightly more than many Hanoi family houses. The house also has 6 bathrooms and a big balcony on the 4th floor (I'm already planning the Triple J Hottest 100 party up there!).


But a real selling point for me was the spiral staircase! I never thought i'd enjoy walking up and down stairs so much.

I have one of the smaller rooms in the house, which is fine by me, but i might consider upgrading when Jen comes over for a while mid next year. No promises Jen, but i'll do my best!

If nothing else, the bigger bedrooms have decent mattresses, which would definitely be an improvement on my current arrangement - 2 thin foam mattresses on top of each other.



I should mention the housewarming party although there's not all that much to say about it. Lots of Australians and a fair few tiger beers. Samitha's home-made spring rolls were a highlight though. Thanks Sam!


Ok, that will do for now. I've attached a few photos of my house and the area but as i'm sure i've told most you, the only way to really experience Ngoc Ha is to pay me a vist. Bye for now.

First Impressions and ICM

It's been 2 weeks since i've landed in Hanoi and i still hadn't written a word until now. So here it is....

First of all, i should mention that I spent a wonderful week with Jen in Bacolod, Philippines. See Jen's blog http://www.jeninthephilippines.blogspot.com/ for more info.

I landed in Hanoi on 29th September along with the 7 other AYAD's posted in Northern Vietnam. We are a motley crew from all over Australia and are working in a range of disciplines, including environmental science, IT, gender equality, commerce and marketing. But so far at least, we are sharing "The Dream"...

These first 2 weeks have been set aside for us as In-Country Orientation (ICO) which has been run by our wonderful ICO Managers, Hanh and Hien. One thing I've noticed here is a lot of people's names start with the letter "H" (my counterpart at work is called Huong).

Anyway, our ICO activites have included meeting other Australian volunteers already in Hanoi, learning vietnamese (4 lessons down so far), learning how to cross the road (not as easy as it sounds), opening a bank account (definitely not as easy as it sounds), drinking (Bia Hoi - Drink cheap but pretty ordinary beer while sitting on tiny plastic seats on the side of a road while trying not to be hit by a passing motorbike, the driver of which has probably had one or two Bia Hoi himself!) and ofcourse eating loads and loads of fantastic Vietnamese food (including the national dish,"pho" - beef noodle soup)

...Oh yeah, and karaoke!

We have had a couple of sessions already but the highlight was probably singing "Smells like teen spirit" with a bit of dancing on the table thrown in for good measure. We hear that karaoke is a serious business pastime in this part of the world and i now feel suitably prepared to start work next week.

Actually, the karaoke shop owner ended up charging us more than the standard rate because we were, in his words, "ugly singers". Tough but fair.

But on to more important stuff and my first impressions of this unique city. Having never visited it previously, the street chaos was initially overwhelming but it's actually organised chaos and its just another amazing aspect of what makes this place tick.

However, my second impression, and one that still surprises me now, is how green the city is. All the streets are lined with trees and there are plenty of parks, botanical gardens and lakes where the locals can chill out away from the chaos.

I have been staying in a hotel since i've been here and it's right in the tourist part of town, Hoan Kiem. Walking around Hoan Kiem lake has been a great way to start the day. There are plenty of Thai Chi classes (including one group of all ladies with swords), as well as games of badminton and foot badminton.

Ok, that's probably enough for now. Tomorrow i move into my new house and I start work on Monday!