Looong weekend

Saturday April 30 - Tuesday May 2, 2006

Well after feeling very jealous about missing out on the recent public holidays in Australia – Easter then Anzac day, I’m pleased to say I’m enjoying a 4-day long weekend this weekend.
It involves Liberation Day and Labour day. While Liberaton day falls on the Sunday, Tuesday is made as a public holiday instead.
Yippeeeee!

A group of nine, including the VIDA’s in and around Hanoi, went to Tra Co beach, on the coastal border of Vietnam and China, but I decided to stay and have some quiet time. The opportunity to stay at home and have the place to myself was just too good to refuse. So here I am, enjoying the quiet of the house and catching up on some work, emails and letters. It is heaven! Being one of the elder of the crew – I enjoy time to myself.

Friday

Short day today - everyone was in good spirits in preparation for the long weekend. We had lunch to welcome the new crew of VIDAs and then I had my first language lesson with Le since when I first arrived. Suzanne and Dan were down for the lunch and for the beach trip, so we went out for dinner and a few drinks.

Saturday

Spent the day wandering through the Old Quarter. Purchased a quilt cover for the bed – I’m very stoked. Picked up a Vietnamese-English dictionary and an exercise book for my language lessons.

Had lunch at Puku Café and went and bought lots and lots of DVDs – The Family Stone, In her Shoes, Capote, North Country, Cinderella Man, The Quiet American and Get Shorty. Bonus! I’m getting quite a CD collection up now. Very nice.

Went to the local markets and got some fruit and veg, and tofu and then headed to Citimart (Hanoi Towers) to get the obligatory water, some wine etc. All set now!

Ordered some awesome vegetarian indian takeway and sat down and watched The Family Stone. It wasn’t bad, but I didn’t enjoy it half as much as I thought I would. I then waited up for Ben to get home. We’ve both got Google Chat happening, so when he got home we spent a couple of hours chatting on the net – it was great! Immediate responses – just gotta be able to type quickly :)

Sunday - Liberation Day

A public holiday marking the liberation of southern Vietnam from US occupation and the day Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) fell to Hanoi in 1975.

I was meant to go to the parades this morning, but slept in – and while it would have been good to see them, didn’t really get too upset – really needed the sleep.

Spent the day working on all my photos for my blog and emailing people. Very relaxing.
It was great as well, I could hear all the families in the houses around us all celebrating, chatting and having a good time. When I went out for a walk it was a really nice vibe around the streets. And it feels like the traffic has been halved since the long weekend started. It’s so much more quiet – such a welcome change. I was told everyone gets out of town for this weekend – it is certainly quite apparent.

After some assistance from the lovely ladies at the markets, I made myself some nem for dinner – Vietnamese fresh spring rolls. Amazing how easy it is – and they were delicious. Tofu, cucumber, herbs, pineapple and lettuce. Yum yum. I made the vinegar-based dipping sauce for it as well, but added too much chilli, so it was quite hot.

I then watched In Her Shoes. The quality was terrible, but I kept at it and really enjoyed the film. It was very touching.

Then got online again and Ben and I spent another couple of hours chatting online.

Monday - May Day/Labour Day

I’m feeling very proud of myself! I just went for my first proper bike ride!! I feel so exhilirated after finally braving the traffic. I took my bike to Ba Trieu and a couple of guys worked to get the seat loose again. Took them a little while, lots of banging and crashing, and lots of oil - but then it finally loosened up. Soooooo happy.

The seat was just way to high for me, so its now lowered and at a perfect height! They pumped up my tires as well and then only charged me 10.000!!!! How awesome. I couldn't believe it, so I have them 18.000 knowing that they'll continue to look after me. They were very happy - so everyone was happy.

I then toddled along to the second lake (near Lenin Park) to see if I could purchase some rattan photo frames. I really want to get the Rattan style, to match my room. I couldn't find anything at any of the Rattan shops on the corner, but one lovely lady pointed over to a frame shop. You know, I can get my propoganda poster fully framed and mounted for 80.000, but in a proper frame, not rattan.

The woman in the shop annoyed me after a while - she yelled into my ear the whole time and while I thought I understood what she was saying, I kept asking her to write the prices down and she wouldn’t. Think she was trying to confuse me. But there was a nice boy who helped and actually gave me what I wanted, which was a quote for two smaller photo frames and then the poster one. inidivdually.

So I got him to write it all down and left it at that. I'm going to continue looking around for the Rattan frames - not gonna give up that easily.

But if I can't find anything, I'll return to that shop. Can't beat photos properly mounted in lovely frames for 30.000 each!

Unfortunately, it started raining so I cycled all the way home. I feel so stoked and proud of myself. I'm gonna start riding to work now - just gotta find an easy way to get there where the traffic won’t freak me out too much. I certainly hugged the gutters the whole time :)


Here's my bike! I bought it off a parting AYAD for 600.000. A bargain.

Tuesday

I went to the Thu Cuc exotical spa (yes, exotical!:) this afternoon and had the most amazing indulgent three hours of pampering.

It started with a private sauna, then a steam bath that had bunches of herbs in the room, so it smelled divine. I then sipped Vietnamese tea in the warm spa before jumping into the cool spa to relax and cool down. From there is was off to the most incredible one hour massage. I was truly in heaven. It was soooo good and then I had a 30 minute facial. I was so relaxed after the massage that I think I dozed off. I felt refreshed and incredibly relaxed as I floated out of the building. Thanks again to the VIDAs for the amazing birthday pressie!

Then had another treat for diiner - sausages and steak! Sausages have never tasted so good - and while Ben has since teased me that it was proably a mix of rat, dog or cat, I didn't even think about it. The restaurant was packed - and I chose to ignore the flying cockroach that flew around our table before landing on the chefs shelving :)