So, on my exploration of the old quarter in Hanoi, I came across some interesting sights.  At first I wasn’t sure what I was seeing, however it became pretty obvious, Dog.  Now, I am not sure what it tastes like, but I have probably eaten it.  What struck me was that it is cooked like a pig on a spit roast.

Going onto something that looks more appetizing, I found some dried fruits and at the front is coconut.

I went on a field trip out to the Phu Tho Province which is about 2 hours south west of Hanoi.  For lunch we had black spring rolls and a pork mince with cartilage.  The cartilage was very crunchy and the texture of it overpowered the taste for the pork mince.

I went on a field trip while visiting Hanoi to the Phu Tho Province which was about 2 hours south west of Hanoi.  The main source of income is agriculture; rice, corn and livestock.  It is one of the poorer provinces and about 50% of the rural population don’t have decent toilets and drinking water.

We visited two houses that Habitat has helped to build through a combination of grants and loans.  The first house was built by 8 University volunteers from Boston and the technical parts are being finished off by a tradie when we got there. The house consists of 2 bedrooms, living room, outside toilet and bathroom and an outside kitchen. It houses two parents and 3 children.  This is the family, the father is a farming labourer.

The bricks they use up here are a lot different to the bricks used in the south.  These ones weigh 8 kg and therefore don’t need reinforcement in the walls when built like in the South.  Here is the living room and toilet of the house.

The second house we visited was built by the home owner and a tradie, no volunteers worked on this house.

The last house was a grant from Habitat to help the home owners build a toilet which is being built to the right in the picture.

Here are some of the children and the audience we had that followed us around:

I flew up to Hanoi on Sunday afternoon and when the plane landed I watched as everyone put on hats, gloves and jackets.  I thought, what is going on, have we landed in Antarctica? Well I found out once I got outside, it was 8 C and it was the coldest day they have had in Hanoi in 35 years!!!!!!!!!

I am off to the field tomorrow, so can’t wait to have a look around and see what the houses are like here.  I have found that the taxi drivers are not as nice as the ones in HCM.

This is a picture of some conduit outside a restaurant we ate at last night.

Well, one good thing about the weather here is that I can have hot chocolates, and this is my view

Just did my first presentation here in Vietnam and it went well I think.  I even needed a translator, however I introduced myself in Vietnamese and asked them what their names were.

As Vietnam is predominately a Buddhist country, Christmas and New Year are not celebrated.  Instead TET is the main celebration.  Tet Nguyen Dan, or Tet for short, is considered the biggest and most popular festival of the year in Vietnam. Celebrated on the first day of the first month in the Lunar Calendar.  Tet’s celebration is the longest holiday which may last up to seven days

Tet is the occasion for Vietnamese to express their respect and remembrance for their ancestors as well as welcoming the New Year with their beloved family members. Moreover, in the past, Tet was essential as it provided one of few long breaks during the agricultural year, which was held between the harvesting of the crops and the sowing of the next ones. To make it easier, one can imagine Tet as a combination of Christmas and New Year: every family will get together to have big meals, decorate Tet trees and eat Tet food but to welcome the new year instead of a religious cause.  .Since Tet occupies an important role in Vietnamese’s religious beliefs, Vietnamese will begin their preparations well in advance of the upcoming New Year. In an effort to get rid of the bad luck of the old year, people will spend a few days cleaning their homes, polishing every utensil, or even repaint and decorate the house.

So at Habitat we have a Family Day where everyone’s families are invited and we give gifts to each other and eat some delicious food.

During the night, games were played with the children and some of the parents and this produced much laughter.

You know you are becoming more familiar with a place when the following things happen:

• When you drop off your laundry they automatically write down your name
• When I am walking to work I get at least 2 hellos from the same people
• I go to lunch at a certain place and they know what I will order
• I can get to a lot of places now without getting lost or using a map
• I can understand a few things on the menus now
• “Breaking” the road rules comes naturally
• I automatically walk on the right side of the road and look left right left when crossing the street
• If it gets below 28 C it is chilly
• I am use to sleeping on a 5 cm thick mattress
• I have found some sporting events to go and watch

However, I still miss chocolate, they don’t have that much of it here…

I have tried many dishes here in Ho Chi Minh, and so far my favourite dish is Bún Chả and it is a dish from North Vietnam.  I can’t remember eating this in Australia and I think the reason for this is that the majority of Vietnamese that came to Australia in the 70’s were from South Vietnam.

It consists of noodles that are cold, a plate of fresh herbs and lettuce (coriander, lettuce, spinach, mint, Vietnamese mint, morning glory and bean sprouts). The last part of the dish is the ‘soup’.  It has pork meat balls, bacon bits and soup.  You place the broken rice in a new bowl, add some soup and then had the greens.  The soup has a sweet and sour flavour.

I like all the greens except for this one

It is called rau diếp cá and in English it translates to heart leaf, fish mint, fish herb or lizard tail.  It has a fishy taste and it is hard to detect when they put it in amongst the other green leafs.

I had a great ride yesterday on my mountain bike.  We road about 60km and visited a Pagoda.  

It was quite a climb up to the top for someone who hasn’t been training much.  We also had to navigate around a funeral procession where part of it is to throw paper money (fake) along the way.

After the ride my bike was a bit dirty and without my bike mechanic :(, I went and got Shrek washed.  When I pulled up their comment was that it has no motor.

After the soap wash it was dried off by compressed air and then the rims of the tyres were brushed with a white liquid.  Only the best for Shrek!

The evening was spent watching the Saigon Heat play the Pilipinas Kings.  It was a great basketball match and I went with two fellow Aussies.

It was a great atmosphere and a packed crowd and the stadium was at the Canadian International School.  Unfortunately The Saigon Heat lost.

I was involved in a Big Build near Vung Tau, about 2 hrs north of Ho Chi Minh near the coast.  We had over 200 volunteers from Korea here in Vietnam and we built 12 houses in two weeks. The volunteers are from a company called POSCO and half are employees who donate 1% of their salary to this and the other half are university students.  POSCO is a steel company and they have factories in Vietnam that make car bodies for all over the world.  There mission to to create a “Dream Village” and they have built a total of 40 houses so far.  To help get the volunteers started, Habitat builds the structural part:

And when it is finished it will look this this which is across the street:

Again I was sort after for my skills so I helped lay brick and move bricks which is a very exhausting job.

There has been comment from a party who will remain nameless that the bricks are not straight.  This job is harder than it looks and I was being supervised, so I have no issues with the QA!

Here are some of the kids in the play ground that has been build a previous time and a painting that was going up

As normal I am always getting asked for photos, don’t know why:)

PS, he is not doing the fingers, that is what we do over here.  Also just to show you that I am living it up, this is where I was staying while was on the build.  I was sharing with 3 other girls:

I conducted an interview with Niels on his thoughts here in Ho Chi Minh:

• You were here in 2012, are there any differences that  you have noticed since you have been back now?
  • The city appears to be cleaner, roads in better condition.  I would put this down to the 40th anniversary celebration for the end of the Vietnam War that took place in 2015
• What have you enjoyed the most about your visit and you can’t say seeing me:).
  • Discovering the different districts of HCM on the back of an expertly (I added this part) driven motorbike.
  • Still can’t believe the roar the motorbikes make at the traffic lights when they turn from red to green.  Something you just have to experience to truly appreciate.
• What has surprised you the most while you have been here?
  • How the traffic just works here while not following many, if any road rules.
  • How much the Vietnamese get into Christmas when it is a predominately Buddhism culture and the crowds that were at the Nguyen Hue Pedestrian Plaza at New Years Eve.
• 
• What food have you enjoyed?
  • I have enjoyed the spring rolls and the traditional northern Vietnamese sticky noodles in soup.

It always amazes me what people will do for that perfect photo.  Well, my husband is one of them.  After he took the following photo, he told me that it smelt like a urinal and that it was made of plastic and he felt it flexing.

What was he standing on? Some sort of communication box I think.  The most funny part of it all was that we attracted the attention of a local group picnicking who started waving and laughing at us.

Note: from the quality of this photo, the publisher was unable to determine who this is.

In Vietnam they do the power and communication cables a bit differently than Australia or New Zealand and most of Europe.  There seems to be an awful lot of cables.  I was told in Cambodia this is because when I new tenant moves into a house or apartment instead of using the existing cabling, they just add new cabling.  Not sure if that happens here, but it does make it an impressive sight.