QuendisEoL-Veteran Chatterbox
Joined: 24 Sep 2007
Posts: 254
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re: Life is freaking awesome!
 by Quendis on 2009/07/11 14:17
Good day all!
I haven't sent any big email to anyone lately, a.k.a. near forever. Which of course is very bad from me!
So hereby I will let you know how I am and what I have been up to so far.
I'm still living in Hanoi, Vietnam.
And yes, I am still having a good time!
Recently I have rented out a new house together with a good friend of mine that I have met here in Hanoi. It's a four story house, starting with a kitchen then two bedrooms en then the crowning jewel, a balcony big enough for about 20 people easy!
All that for 400 dollar a month!
The guy I'm sharing the house with has become my best friend here in Hanoi. His name is Andrew and he's a little bit off the scale mentally.
So that suits me just fine!
We've been sharing a house for the last 6 months now, and so far both of us haven't had any murderous intentions towards each other. Guess we can keep on going just fine!
The previous house, my first in VN, was 10k away from the city center. Of course that wasn't acceptable for the long term. And after that contract ended we went looking for a new house, and found it.
We live 10 minutes away from the main bar streets, so we are right in the center of Hanoi now!
For those we are interested to look it up somewhere; the address is 11 Ly Nam De 10000 Hanoi.
On google map it should be about 800 meters north west of Ho Hoan Kiem.
It's a good neighborhood and very safe. At any given time we have at least 25 communist guards walking around in the street with AK 47's (there's a big military base across the street). Makes you feel as safe as ever.
Meanwhile, I've learned a bit of Vietnamese of course. But simply put; I suck at it!
It's a tonal language and it sucks. If you hit the tone even just a little off, the Vietnamese won't understand you.
My first experience in that was with lemon juice. Nuoc chanh. Said it 6 times in VN and the waiter just didn't understand me till I said it in English. Then he repeated it to my ears in VN just the same way I said it 6 times before....
But after being here longer, I'm beginning to grasp it proper. Although I am not investing in really learning it. Which is a bit of a bad thing.
Not that I am not learning their culture and there ways. And also forming myself to that in the communication with them, which is the best part when they truly see the effort you make and fit in.
But I really should make an effort in getting my VN right.
But for now I am focussing on getting my Japanese right.
Yes I am learning Japanese, speaking, reading, writing.
The reason for that is, that I've met this sweet Japanese woman. And yes she is the sweetest. (Also sending this mail to her, so need to score some love points telling her she's awesome)
Anyways, we've met about 5 months ago in a bar on Ta Hien street.
My favorite bar with the worst pool table ever (to small, uneven on all sides, bad balls, bad cue sticks, and so on), but I loved that bar. Lots of weird people popped up every now and then. But they have closed already, sucks.
Anyways, drifting around and about to much, we've met in that bar about 5 months ago.
And after meeting 3, it was clear where it was going.
Since then we've been to Sapa and Bangkok together.
To Sapa was that she came to look me up in the weekend.
In the middle of the week I drove out to Sapa, northwest mountains of VN, what took me 15 hours straight on my motorbike. But goddamn that was an awesome trip!!!
Driving trough the mountains on an Atilla automatic, which everybody proclaims to be the worst bike ever to do something like that on, with rain, wind, fog and sheer drops of 100's of meters, is just the thing to feel alive.
I was invited by a very good Hmong, local people from the mountains, friend to come see a wedding of one of her best friends with a white guy. I've enclosed a picture of her in her traditional clothing.
So day one I drive 15 hours straight in dreadful conditions.
Day two I get woken up at 9am, arrived at 2am at the hotel, that I need to get going already towards the wedding.
As it turns out, a Hmong wedding is nothing more then a drinking contest in the mountains in the early morning.
What a bummer...
Now I have to drink my liver into the hospital....
It's a dirty job, but someone has to do it!
So it's now 1pm, and everybody is hammered!!
Hmong people, white people, black purple yellow. It didn't matter when stumbling down the mountain after dozens of bottles of local rice wine. Brilliant!! Enclosed some pictures of the party itself too for your viewing pleasure.
Anyways, I stayed in Sapa for well over a week. And in the weekend of that week, Megumi come to Sapa and we had a hotel room looking out to the mountains. Very nice. Further details shall not be mentioned for the overall appropriateness of this email.
Three weeks ago, I went to Bangkok to pick Megu up from the hospital. She broke her elbow previous January and needed to get all the metal taken out.
Picked her up from the hospital and spent the a long weekend in Bangkok with her.
But I shall stop writing about her because I would write pages upon pages about her and I think not all readers share my love for her and are interested in reading a grand love manifest!! (bet that sentence has scored me some love points)
I have the feeling that I also should tell you about my work. Always nice to know something about that.
Work is work.
Work stays work.
Personaly, I am doing good.
It's not an easy thing building up a life abroad. Certainly not the way I planned things ahead... Did I plan things... Can't remember... Oh yes... I just packed up and left!
But so far, so very good!
I've met many people on many travels. Met good friends that stayed around.
Seen landscapes I've never imagined or seen.
And my mind is buzzing faster and harder then ever with new ideas, cultures, languages and much much more.
Also, should anyone ever feel like coming out here, you are more then welcome!
Let me know and I'll make sure there is an extra bed.
Anyways, enough for now. Have to go do something.
See you all later, and I promise to send some more emails.
Martijn.
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