Acupuncture

My wrist has been hurting me for quite few months now, and in the last week it has gotten pretty bad. So bad, that I could not type or even drive my electric scooter.

My co-worker suggested to me I try her acupuncture doctor. Cheaper than "Western Medecine," I thought, why not? I had never been acupuntured (hehe) before, but definitely would try it.

The acupuncture doctor practises from the bottom floor of his home. It's about 4 metres by 5 metres, and is divided with a small wooden screen. He was really excited to have a foreigner come to him, and he was even more excited to know that I could speak a little Vietnamese!

The treatment lasted about 5 minutes, where he poked my wrist with the same needle a couple times, and massaged my nerves. You could imagine how great that felt. I told him I was dizzy, so he made me lay down. He then proceeded to feed me longans, not allowing me to feed myself. I was lying there on the hard bamboo table while an old bearded Vietnamese man fed me fruit. Next time, he told me I should eat before I come over.

It cost me about 3 dollars for the treatment, but I was kind of hoping for something a little more therapeutic. In the end, I decided to go over to Yakushi Centre on Xuan Dieu to try out their treatment. It was definitely worth it. I paid twice as much, but it lasted a whole hour. They even attached an electrical source and soft shocks pulsed through my arm and hand.

In the end my wrist is doing a lot better... But still having difficulty typing and riding my bike. As for the cause, apparently it is tendinitis.

One Year Perspective

Ok. It hasn't yet been one year since I left Montreal and came to Vietnam, but being in Japan again visiting Jeannette and soon making my way back home for the holidays has got me thinking.

Interestingly, I found an old document in my Google Documents titled "5-year goals". I hadn't even looked at it in a year and a half, from the day I had an inspirational chat with a friend and ran home to write exactly what I think I should do in the next 5 years.

Out of the 5 I had written down, two of them have been achieved. The last goal, however, is to figure out what my other goals are. Seeing that I can knock two off the list, I have started to think hard about what I want to do next with my life (not an easy feat).

I like Vietnam, and I love living there. I love learning this new language, and discovering new things everyday. I can see myself there for a little while. But I need an escape plan for when the time comes.

I think I want to go back to school. I mean, I know.

I thought about going back to Montreal for school, but I've quickly scratched that out. I think that if I plan on eventually making my way back there, and I do, then having a degree from somewhere abroad is probably a better idea.

I'm thinking France, England, Germany - even Thailand or somewhere in the Pacific.

Now I just need to figure out what field I want to study in... and edit my Google Document.

Love Café

So what happens when you live in a society where opposite-sex intimacy is not acceptable in public? And what about if, in the same society, people live with their extended family?

You get Love Cafés!

Little cafés where you can sit in a booth that's hidden from view. Near work there was this cute love café down the hill from the main street. Little bamboo huts with bamboo blinds could be had with coffee or a smoothie. All of them come complete with a table and ONE long bench.

I tried once to get one. My Vietnamese teacher and I were trying to find a private place from the prying ears of Vietnamese youth (who had taken a liking to hearing me speak Vietnamese, going so far as sitting in the next table and silently observing me). The owner of the love café would have nothing of it, and refused to allow us in a booth. No same-sex couples (it's not like that... I pay him for lessons).

It doesn't matter because the Love Café has been destroyed by a storm. One day, while I was heading for a lesson, the main section where non-lovers would sit had complety collapsed. Nothing but a crushed straw roof.

Vegetarian Hanoi

I've been here for about 9 months now. On the first day I arrived, I headed straight to this vegetarian restaurant I found on the New Hanoian. It is still one of my favourite vegetarian restaurants, and I go there at least once a week, if not several times a week. However, I have discovered quite a few vegetarian places within a 15-20 minute radius of my house. I use places because most of them are not really restaurants. They are usually people who set up some plastic stools and tables on the main floor and cook out of their kitchens once or twice a day (the picture above is of a street vendor who sells vegetarian Bun Cha and spring rolls at lunch).  Just counting on my hand, there are 6 of these places, if I include the lady who sells vegetarian food out of her freezer in my alley.

I imagine there are many more of these places, as about 4 of them were discovered just by chance of walking by and actually paying attention to what a sign says (ie. there was a certain threshold I passed in learning Vietnamese where I realised I can read and understand the world around me). The best places are usually these, the ones that are far into the alleys and are serving food in their living room! They also usually sell food for less than a dollar.

Gratuitous Video Scene #7: The Mekong Delta

Here is a video of driving through the Mekong Delta. This is one of the most important river systems in Asia. Covered in jungle but densely packed with people and rice fields this is a beautiful corner of Vietnam.

If you find this video somewhat dizzying, imagine 10 hours in a car that is swerving back and forth into oncoming traffic at speeds you doubt are suitable for the poorly maintained and potholed road.

Asian Realisation #1 - I am Handsome

Dislaimer: This is an old photo, and I am slightly more handsome than portrayed in this candid shot

It didn't take me too long in this country to realise that people find me handsome. The first day in the office sitting around a table full of Vietnamese women (95% of the staff were female) all blushing telling me they didn't realise I would be so handsome kind of tipped me off. Many times when I visit a store, storekeepers tell me how handsome I am or call me dep trai - handsome in Vietnamese. It makes me feel awkward and sometimes I pretend that I don't know what I am supposed to say.

Even more embarrassing is when these shop owners go and grab their daughters from upstairs in an attempt to kindle some sort of multi-cultural romance too strong to be stopped by the limits of language. The other night, in Can Tho, I stopped by a smoothie street stall to grab a custard apple and avocado smoothie (my favourite). A girl in her mid-twenties served me kind of giggling. She immediately called over her mother and they began chatting to each other and trying to decide on words to say to me. The girl told me I was some hand. And they were grilling me trying to find out if I was married.

She ran inside her house and came out with a younger girl - the other girl's sister. She looked rather messy, as if she had been plucked from her bed. Her hair was tied up and she had pink pyjamas on. Her mother pushed her towards my direction and was telling me to talk to her. I just smiled and awkwardy stirred my drink.

Her mother then pointed to her daughter and leaned into me saying I love you me, and giggled. Her daughter just stood there unamused - this was obviously not the first time.

I wouldn't say that I am ugly - but I am definitely not worth the credit I am given here. I don't know what it is they see - the large nose, the big ears, maybe way my eyes widen out in the centre...

I am also popular with the men... I won't go into too much detail in this blog, but I have been in situations where straight men cannot stop mentioning how handsome I am (something that, now that I think of it, is somewhat of a fantasy for many gay men...). I must mention that it is much more acceptable her for both men and women to complement someone in this way.

But let's just say... I don't want to get used to this attention... or else I'm in for a depressing reality when I get back to Canada!

I'm Back and Here for Good!

My internet has finally been fixed! First it was my keyboard, then the internet connection.
It's like Buddha has a personal grudge against me.

The tech guy literally left 2 minutes ago. Sorry, I should call him my friend, as he said he wants to be my boyfriend (I just assume he means guy friend, Vietnam is not that type of place).

I've cancelled my ticket back home. I've decided I'm staying in Hanoi for a while. I am both not ready to go back to Montreal and also want to experience a little more here in Vietnam.

I've been applying to jobs here and there. Hopefully I get snatched up by something.

There will be more posts to come, and I promise to update more often.

Gratuitous Video Scene #3: Van Hung Commune Teaser

Sorry for the delay in posts. I've now bought a USB keyboard.
Here's a short teaser from Van Hung Commune.

Every workshop I have attended here (all 2!) has had someone come up and sing traditional Vietnamese songs during the break. Just some random participant. I was hoping they would ask me to come up and sing some Celine Dion.

Scoring Cheap Food #2

Armed with my new knowledge of numbers in Vietnamese, I decided to venture out to the street market near my house. I wanted to make a soup for lunch and I was missing some key ingredients.

I surveyed the street quickly to decide which vendor I would buy my produce from. I decided on a smiling old lady who didn't seem frightened by the prospect of communicating with someone who obviously had a loose grasp on the Vietnamese language.

I pointed to everything I wanted and shot numbers out like a rookie. After having picked a lot of vegetables, I panicked. shit. I only left the house with the equivalent of about $2.50 Canadian. I was a little ambitious about being able to haggle to a low and acceptable price. I didn't know how to say i'm really sorry, but I just realised I only brought 30,000 dong. I surely had passed that price, even if she were ripping me off. I pulled out what I and was making a face and gestures and saying xin loi to excuse myself.

She pulled the 30,000 out of my hand and then gave me some more bills back. I imagined she would then only leave me with the kilo of potatoes and I would shamefully be on my way back home. But then she dumped all the veggies I had chosen into by bike basket, and sent me off on my way.

I guess I had enough.


The damage: 26,ooo dong (2$ Canadian) for a kilo of potatoes, 4 tomatoes, 4 hot chilies, a handful of green onions, a yellow onion, and a giant bunch of some sort of spinach-like vegetable.

Field Visit to Ninh Thuan Province

All I have to say is "wow". I just spent a week travelling around South-Central Vietnam for work, and I am incredibly impressed with the beauty and tranquility of the place. The reason for the trip was to assess the potential and readiness of the communities to jump starting a Community-Based Eco-Tourism project around a National Park. As well, I had the opportunity to spend some time in a project site where the organisation has resource management projects, and wishes to develop some eco-tourism activities.


More accurately, I travelled around these amazing fishing communities, ate delicious food, toured parks, coral reefs, pagodas, lounged out on the beach eating coconuts and iced coffee, and got a great tan. And this, all-expenses paid. Things were off to a good start when I arrived on a beach-front resort complete with my own beach-side bungalow. I spend a couple nights in there with four cockroaches (may they rest in peace) and three gecko's (the first of whom I named Jimmy). The first day the other Canadian and Australian foreigners and I had the whole day free. We spent the afternoon laying on an abandoned beach strewn with straw basket-boats (and the occasional garbage bag), drinking beer while swimming near the shore. It was great to finally get to know them, as they don't work in the same department as i do and never join the rest of us for lunch. Unfortunately, they left the next day as I continued on the trip (and this was their last week at MCD).


The National Park was amazing. It's the only dry tropical ecosystem in Vietnam. Giant rocky hills jutted with rounded and well-worn behemoths stacked on top of each other meet the ocean in a pristine-white sweeping beach. The communities in the park were amazing examples of how i imagine a Vietnamese fishing village. Bright blue and red boats swaying on the water in a bay surrounded by hills filled with cacti and evergreen-tropical plants. The village themselves were amazingly colourful, the bright houses set on narrowish streets that had only white sand as a surface. People were eager to smile at me (and stare), but not as eager as the kids were to giggle and yell "hello" to me. As if word spread as quickly as an ice-cream truck's jingle, kids flocked to the beach-front road where I had decided to take a rest on the sea-wall (I was incredibly sweaty, feeling sunburnt and had been hiking the whole day). They surrounded me on all sides and began using all five words they knew in English: hello what is your name!? I don't think they've ever seen a foreigner in the flesh before.


On top of the hill from the fishing village, was another village but this time with an ethnic minority village. It seemed like children outnumbered adults 10-fold, and this village was noticeably poorer than the fishing village below. Many houses were made of mud and straw and the houses were much smaller. We hiked our way through the village passing by groups of children cutting medicinal plants, chickens running wildly among the houses and pigs lazily wobbling about, passing through cow pastures until finally reaching a rather large stream. There were many children just hanging about on the rocks, towards the part where the stream takes a sharp jump, winding its way vertically through a maze of giant giants until forming a waterfall. One of the kids took a liking to me. He would shake my hand and give me a thumbs-up. He would hold my hand and help me jump from rock to rock. I taught him how to take a photo with my digital camera. They didn't speak Vietnamese in this community, and so they limited language I had learned didn't take me very far. He didn't understand that I had been asking him his name.

I see this post is getting long, so the second part of this trip will have to be another post. So stay tuned.

Revelation # 1: Work can be fun

I've now realised work can be fun, even if you're not getting paid for it.

I have to say I am thoroughly enjoying working at this organisation.
But let me clarify: I am not doing anything like partying, chatting all the time, drinking, or going to karaoke. At least not anymore (those were more for the weeks preceding and following Tet), that is not why I am enjoying work now.

I think one of the main reasons I am enjoying it is because I feel valued. The directors of the organisation as well as my co-workers feel that they can benefit from something I can offer (whatever the hell that may be), and I feel like I have a lot to learn from them. I think this mutually-benefiting situation motivates me, and helps me enjoy whatever work I do.

Next week they will be sending me on an all-expenses trip to the south of Vietnam in the surrounding areas of Nha Trang. For seven days I will be busily visiting communities, a national park, participating in workshops as well as relaxing on some of the best beaches of Southeast Asia. That could also be why I enjoy this job. But really, they are investing in me because they believe I can offer them something in return (in the form of a long and thorough report). This in turn motivates me to try my best to prove that I am a valuable investment.

They are learning a lot from me, too. After spending about 10 minutes trying to find a lemon tea in the cupboard but only finding lime tea, I taught them about the difference between lemon and limes. It turns out there is no distinction between these two fruits in Vietnamese.

In the spirit of learning, I have been reading a lot about Non-Violent Communication. I'm interested in learning more about this type of communication. I think that when I communicate, I often express the root of my feelings, but still phrase it in a way where I am blaming the other person for making me feel that way. And because of this, the person I am communicating with forms a defensive block where we can't come to a solution.

So cheers to feeling good about life and wanting happiness for all!

Chúc Mừng Năm Mới !

I've been almost embarrassed to mention that I am now on vacation. Almost everything is closed now, and the entire country has been celebrating Tet, the lunar new year. It's strange, but many Vietnamese follow the lunar dates. It's not uncommon for someone to say 'the 23rd' and mean the 23rd day of the lunar calendar which is really, let's say, the 30th of a given month. Awfully confusing for the foreigner. I wonder if it affects the time of day too, because the Vietnamese tend to be consistently late!

There are many traditions and superstitions regarding Tet. People spend the week before Tet shopping and preparing traditional foods and an equally long time figuring out who should be the first person to enter their house in the new year. It's believed that the first person can influence the fortunes of the family, and so someone is chosen based on their age, their year, and some other characteristics ( like honesty, purity, blah blah all those things that only exist in fairy tales and legends). To follow the tradition I have cleaned my office and bedroom, paid my credit card and been subjected to hearing my neighbours slaughter the rooster that has been waking me up every morning.

Last night I joined some Vietnamese friends for the festivities. We met up at someone's house that had been decked in Tet decorations. Cumquat trees, branches with little flower blossoms, and fruit was dutifully stacked on the alters commemorating loved ones long gone.

After eating cucumbers and sticky rice and watching pork, chicken and meaty spring rolls be enviously eaten before my eyes (dumb for me not to remind them of my vegetarianism, but I had really already eaten) we headed out to watch the fireworks and street festivities.

In Vietnamese style, we basically left 5 minutes before midnight rushing through the streets. As we walked the anticipation was amazing, motorbikes and people rushing in one direction, as if we were going to watch the end of the world.

As soon as it hit midnight and the fireworks started, the crowd erupted. I made a wish and sent up a lantern into the sky. Not so successful, as it got caught in the power lines. It got freed by some people in the crowd who were throwing things at it to get it free, but then got caught in a street decoration. It finally became free again, and it seemed like the crowd was just as happy as I was, as my wish is likely to come true and they were safe from a potentially disastrous electrical fire.

Happy New Year, or Chúc Mừng Năm Mới!

Countdown: 3 Weeks

Everything is pretty much coming along fine. Today was my last day of work. I can now focus my energies on packing my stuff and making last minute arrangements. My room-mate Jasmine's boyfriend will be moving in for the four months I'll be gone, and so I'll have to clear out some stuff from my bedroom.

I'll also be able to come up with my 'volunteer's work plan'. Basically, because I've organised this all myself, I have a lot of freedom in terms of what I'll actually be doing. I'll be looking at all their activities on their website, as well as some documents that they've sent me. I've found a couple old volunteer offers on their website, and so I will structure a sort of proposal that will outline exactly where I would like to help and what my capabilities are in those areas. I really have to look at where I want to be in 5 years, and how this experience can help me achieve those goals. Not as easy as it sounds.

I found this awesome resource from Idealist.org, the International Volunteerism Resource Centre. They have a whole section on the pros and cons of joining a volunteer organisation, or going it alone. And there's a whole section about tips and advice on organising it by oneself and on fundraising. It would have been helpful had I come across it earlier, but I feel like I've done a pretty good job.

I have still to organise a place to stay while I'm there, but I've decided not to stay with a Vietnamese family that I've been in contact with. I think that I would enjoy it a lot more if I stayed with expats who are experiencing the same thing.

Learning Vietnamese is going alright. I've kind of been stuck on lesson 6. I soaked up the first four lessons like a sponge, and now I find myself repeating the last couple lessons over and over again. The lessons have been getting more and more bizarre. I now know how to ask a woman if she'd like to eat at my place... no wonder I'm having a hard time learning, I have no interest in that!

Learning Vietnamese

I've started learning Vietnamese in preparation for my trip. I've decided I will not pull a Jeannette, and so will arrive with at least enough knowledge of the language that I will be able to ask someone if they understand English (sorry Jeannette!).

Or announce to everyone that I am American! Even though I am not American.

There is no doubt that the series of CDs I bought, Pimsleurs Conversational Vietnamese, is American. This is how a typical lesson goes (note these are phonetic spellings, because there is no guidebook that shows me how these words are actually written):

Man's voice: Imagine you are an older American man, and you walk into a café and notice a young woman from your hotel. Say hello to her.

Me: Chao Chi-i

Vietnamese Woman: Chao Aum
Man's voice: Ask her how she is doing.

Me: Chi co kray-ay krom?

Vietnamese Woman: Doi kway-ay làm, cam unh ang.

Man's Voice: Ask her if she understands English

Me: Chi co héa-ho din Ang krom?

Vietnamese Woman: Krom

Man's Voice: Tell her you are American

Me: What?! How is this normal?!

In about every lesson, the man makes me say this! It's quite funny (and typically American) that before i learn how to say 'Sorry', or ask someone what their name is, that i know how to say that i am American, and even know how someone would ask me if i'm American.

And why an older American man picking up some young girl in a café?

I'm still waiting for the man to teach me how to say that I am Canadian. Or Australian. Or British. Or how about how to order a bowl of pho?