Vietnamese

Officially, I have now given up any attempt on learning the language. A language made up of monosyllable word-sounds, where you dont even pronouce the last consonant, with six different tones and I dont know how many vowels, is just too much for me.

But sometimes it would be nice to be able to read, or ask. What is this? Something for sale? Can you take a sip? Or is it a warning sign? For cooking? For the motorbike? I have no idea.

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At least one good thing about Vietnamese, is that it makes Japanese feel so much easier, and I have decided to give it a serious try again. Just have to find a private tutor, as all courses at the many Japanese language centers around town (its the third most popular foreign language to learn, after English and Chinese and almost all staff at the many Japanese restaurants are bilingual!) turn out to only teach Japanese "in Vietnamese", and that would definitely be way too much for my brain ...

Autumn break on the beach

After a number och changed plannes (a typhoon destroyed plans for Central Vietnam and a Thai public holiday any plans for anything close to Bangkok) we finally ended up spending autumn break in Southern Thailand.

To get to Railey Beach we flew down to Krabi, took a taxi to Ao Nang, spent the night at a comfortable hotel and did some shopping before we took the boat around the cliff to "our" beach. Only a fifteen minute boat ride from the busy charter town it felt a million miles away. No cars, no motorbikes, no shops, no streets, not even beach vendors. Just a white sandy bay with turqoise water all surrounded by high cliffs and green djungle. And a couple of simple bungalow resorts, a few restaurants on the beach, a place where to get a Thai massage and a tiny shop where you could get beer or a new beach ball if yours would get lost.

And we are very happy our plans got changed. Now we just have to do some serious thinking and planning on how to get back to live in tropical paradise again, preferably on the beach!

Two nights in Bangkok

On our way back from autumn break in Krabi and Railey beach we had a two nights stop-over in Bangkok and after two days in this incredible city, I realize how far Hanoi is from "true" economic development. It really does feel like a small village in comparison. I am just not sure yet, if I prefer this or that...

We had a busy schedule, went to the huge weekend market at Chatuchac for some arts and handicraft shopping (conveniently they also had extremely big bags for sale, that actually fitted all the big Thai cushions and other important stuff I had to buy), the somewhat smaller Suan Lum Night Bazaar just down the road from our hotel, and also spent one day at the Acuarium and walking around mouth open in the absolutely enormous Paragon shopping mall. I didnt even see a temple, much less the river. Maybe next time. Which definitely will be soon!

Brave girl!

Hard to choose...

Lounging in the hotel lobby.

Big city life is tiering...

The bored room

Yesterday, Keisuke and I went for a drink at the Wine, one of the neighbourhood's fancier places, where they have a mace of small and intimate rooms for wining and dining, a special cigarr room and even a board room for very important meetings, the door sign wonderfully mis-spelled "the bored room".

Two shops

on our street.

From the city's millions of "hole in the wall" you can get everything you need, and more. Here, pieces of iron, plastic tubes, bamboo sticks, sort of any kind of long objects, or go next door for a Cơm Bình Dân meal: the Vietnamese version of smorgasboard.

More than that, today's problem (dagens i-landsproblem) have been centered around the fact that it turns out that next week is not only autumn break at Kai's school but also some kind of Thai holiday, meaning all hotels on the little island we finally decided to go to, are fully booked. Plane tickets to Bangkok already booked. What to do, what to do?

Girl in a purple dress

The dress has been inherited from good friend Sille, the bags are full of plastic toy animals.

Today baby Hana stays at home, recovering from the first autumn flu, coughing, sneezing and in bed with a slight fever. Hopefully she will be fully recovered by the weekend, ready for autumn break vacations!

In black and white

The road to town.

Classic festival children's snack.

Going home.

Walking the Long Bien

Built 1903 by Gustave Eiffel, the Long Bien bridge managed to survive the heavy bombings of the American War and still connects Hanoi with the neighborhoods on the other side of the Red River. Today it is a motor bike and train bridge but this weekend they closed it for traffic during the Long Bien Arts Festival. The whole bridge became a wonderful pedestrian area, so needed in Hanoi, and you could even get down for a stroll among the corn fields on the river banks. We stayed until late.

View of a foggy Hanoi and the close by Chuong Duong bridge.

A little later.

Somebody's kitchen?

Scary monsters with scary shadows.

Moon festival

Traditionally, after working hard on the fields, the parents wanted to do something special for their children after harvest. On the 15th day of the 8th month of the moon calendar, when the moon is at its brightest of the year, moon festival is celebrated, with parades and masks, brightly colored lanterns and drums, dragons dancing, all day long, in every neighbourhood and on every street. Of course, we had to go into the Old Quarter to check the real chaos out, too.

School celebrations

In Kai's school, they never miss an opportunity to celebrate. This Friday all classes had prepared masks and the oldest ones were doing the dragon dance, everyone parading. Afterwards, picnic snack time in the big garden. Moon festival really is children's festival.

In the morning, all dressed up.

Waiting for the dragon to arrive.

Afterwards.

Eating out

Even though Hanoi is full of great restaurants of all types, the best moments we often have on the street.

Hana, taking a break from crowded moon festival streets in Old Quarters this weekend.

Ketsana

Even up in Hanoi it is grey and rainy, and extremely humid. After two nights without aircondition, I already miss the heat...
This Tuesday tyfoon Ketsana hit the central regions of Vietnam, and completely flooded Hue and Da Nang leaving many dead and missing. Keisuke had a bumpy flight back and forth to Ho Chi Minh and we have to rethink travel plans for autumn break, as a couple of days in Hue, a train ride to Da Nang and the rest of the week at this small bungalow resort on a tiny island just off the coast now doesnt seem like the best of ideas (definitely "dagens i-landsproblem").
Sometimes it actually is good not having booked early. Hana and Kai had a lazy rainy afternoon at home, watching dvd together.