Thanh, the owner's daughter has taken a bit of a liking to me, so today I had my own personal tour guide. She's really quite sweet and so excited to hang out with me. It's quite amusing. Today she was really helpful because she took me to the hospital so I could get my throat and lungs checked out. I've had this sore throat and pain in my chest for the past three weeks and they just haven't been getting any better. Anyway, two German interns first checked me out and then a nice Vietnamese doctor checked me out. They all said I was okay but the doctor recommended that I get an x-ray just to ensure that I don't have an infection. Anyway, lungs are all good. You can see for yourself! I got to keep the x-ray, the best souvenier to date!
After that, Thanh took me to a pharmacy, which looked more like a corner store where you might be able to buy some illegal drugs versus legal drugs. I'm hoping that I got the right meds or that the ones I did get make me feel really really good. Haha.
Because the weather has been so crappy and cold and because I didn't bring any appropriate attire for this weather, we went to a big market, Dong Ba Market, to find a rain jacket. Thanh did all the bargaining for me and was able to knock off 1/3 of the price of a not too ugly rain shell. Oh and I've learned that it pays to take a taxi with a local. The cost is about 1/4 of what it would cost if I was by myself.
I took Thanh out for lunch to a popular Indian restaurant here, Omar Khayyan's Indian Restaurant, to say thanks for helping me out today and showing me around. It was fun because I got to introduce something new to her as she had never tried Indian food before. The food was fantastic and made me look forward to India even more! And better yet, Thanh enjoyed it.
Tonight Thanh took me on her motorbike to her favourite coffee shop. A very popular coffee shop for the locals here - it was difficult to get a table. We continued our conversation there over tea and ice-cream.
Thanh and I have been talking a lot about life here in Vietnam. It's very interesting to get her perspective as a vibrant young Vietnamese woman. She is really full of life and sometimes makes me feel like I'm this cynical old woman! We've talked about everything from family life to dating, marriage, school, career, travel and so much more.
She is so curious about the rest of the world and loves to hang out with foreigners because that's how she learns the most. She's in college learning English so that she can be a tour guide. But she'd rather skip a day of school to hang out with and talk to foreigners. Her family owns the hotel I'm staying at so she has a lot of great opportunity to do just that.
Her family lives in the hotel. The two parents and three daughters, aged 24, 19 and 10 all share one room as their living space. I can hardly imagine. She considers themselves a poor family (which is probably very true by Vietnamese and definitely our standards). They don't have a car but one motorbike to share between them. She doesn't ever see herself traveling outside of Vietnam because it is too expensive so I think talking to tourists allows her to travel in her own mind. The average Vietnamese will never leave the country. A lot of Vietnamese only make 2,000,000VND per month, which is is about $112 CDN.
At 19 she's never had a boyfriend and will probably live with her parents until she gets married, at which point she'll move in with her husband's family, for a little while anyway. She said that people are getting married later in life here too, she guessed that 27 - 30 was the age that most were tying the knot. Personally, I think she wants to meet a foreigner, ideally Italian because they are "so romantic and well dressed."
The Vietnamese are very traditional and most are Buddhist. Family is of the utmost importance and they spend a lot of time together working, eating and sleeping. They work a lot here (and we thought we had it bad) but a good portion of Vietnamese work 7 days a week and up to 12 hours a day. One of the reasons Tet is such a big holiday is that it's the only holiday many Vietnamese take in the year.
There is definitely an increase in the night scene for young Vietnamese but for the most part, the night life seems to be made up of mostly foreigners. Hue is quit a small city and there are a few bars and cafes that are busy. Some with foreigners (those would be the bars) and some with locals (those would be the cafes - some of which play music so loud you'd think you were in a club.)
I haven't heard a lot of English music yet, mostly Vietnamese or Abba's "Happy New Year" - of which they just put the chorus on repeat, repeat, repeat. I never need to hear that song again : ).
The people in Hue seem to be happier than the people of Hanoi, who seemed a bit hard. I've been told that as you head south the people become happier, freindlier and more relaxed. So far this seems to be true. Drivers seem to be a little more curteous here and there aren't people trying to sell you something around every corner like in Hanoi or Thailand. It's really nice here. Even though it's very grey and cold, there is a warmth to the people and the city. I like it much better than Hanoi.
More soon...
xoxo
Hey Maureen,
ReplyDeleteSounds like you are having a great start to an amazing journey.
Keep Bloggin"
Joanne