I'm in bed - baby is feeding, and i'm typing with the 2 longest fingers of my left hand. this morning i was grumpy and we went out for breakfast to a new cafe entitled cafe Hideaway, down 2 flights of steps fron the cookery school on Xuan Dieu. it had a fountain, spraying into a rocky pool which wound between the seating areas, nd a jungle of plants. Old-looking grey fish and a laid- back turtle nosed around in the shallows and a little bridge connected the seating areas. we ordered shakshouka, moroccan style poached eggs. instead of losing ourselves in our laptops, we started talking about plans for redecorating the living room. inspired by the cafe's natural surroundings, we made plans to buy plants and ornamental rocks. we stopped short of planning to install an indoor water feature!
Last night nicholas said very sadly: we are losing touch with vietnam. he is right. now i don't even work in a vietnamese environment, and we rarely go to the city centre. the result is that on a sunday we don't have a clue what to do. dad visited a couple of weeks ago and there was nothing, literally nothing, i felt like doing in hanoi which would be fun and interesting. we forgot how just walking in the old quarter is an incredible assault on the senses.
But reading blogs like sticky rice reminds me that it is possible not to feel jaded, and indeed that our jadedness can only last so long before we rediscover this amazing place. Last night was the Mid-Autum Festival. Instead of joining the fun we went to an Indian restaurant with N's friend Sarah who is going into the forest for 6 months to search for rhino dung. In the taxi on the way back we saw a dragon dancing with a man who was juggling fire. We saw gangs of teenage boys roaming the streets wearing masks; we saw community groups drumming dragon processions; we saw people on motorbikes with exotic feathers in their hair. We didn't dare to go to Hang Ma, the centre of the action, where the streets would be full of families watching the dragon dances and buying paper toys and lanterns. Because 'full' means completely insane, with motorbikes and people gridlocked to a standstill and loud drumming everywhere, and I was worried that the baby would be frightened.
3 comments:
Hannah, it's really good to hear what you're doing. The blog is a great idea and you write really well.
Maybe you could base your nanowrimo on it :)
Sorry to hear you've feel like you've lost touch with the city. Perhaps it's one of the feelings that comes with a new baba wherever you are?
x x Jess
oooh that was a lovely surprise! you may be right but i think it comes with the expat scene in vietnam. you only have to read grahame greene's the quiet american to see how foreigners get jaded so easily here. but it comes in waves. i meet people on the verge of leaving who can hardly buy a plate of food without erupting into childish rage, and yet a month or a year later they're still here, or have gone home and come back to vietnam again.
its really funny mum was saying the same thing about london. how she was moning about having to go to a service at westminter abby and it being so cold and she stepped out of the tube station and there were australian turists just so amazed by the houses of parlement. she sayd she felt like an old bag for not apresating the amazing architcture around her.
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