What I Miss

I have been in Vietnam for over a month. While I have thoroughly enjoyed my stay here, there are a few things I miss:

• Friends and Family. Obviously! Imagine if internet and e-mail didn’t exist …
• Cooking. Although we can technically cook, we don’t because food is cheap and we’re not that comfortable using the kitchen. I used to easily spend an hour preparing a meal, even numerous hours on the weekend, and I miss that.
• Seeing baby P grow up. But her picture is used as my computer background so I see her every day! And I'm sure she'll hold off walking and talking until I get back.
• Recycling and Composting. I just feel terrible every time I put something in the garbage. Blame it on my guilt-ridden, catholic, green conscience!
• Not having to negotiate. We’ve already determined I’m bad at it and I hate having to think that everyone is out there get me. The good news is that I’m improving, I think…
• My house. I do love my house so very much!
• Smoke-free indoor spaces!
• A number of needless things. Like my clothes and shoes I left behind, my comfortable bed and pillow, TV shows like Lost, Design Inc. and Giada shows.

And some things I don’t miss:

• Snow and boots. It sounds like there’s been a massive amount of snow in Montreal and Hamilton. What can I say, except laugh evil-y! And I’d be happy wearing sandals year round!
• My car. It’s not like I would even consider driving here. I don’t mind walking, except for the heat.
• Working. I miss the interaction with co-workers and some routine things, but I don’t know that I really miss work.
• Having to clean/do laundry. Our room is cleaned every day. However, I’m not sure mopping the floor without sweeping and dousing the bathroom with water really count as “cleaning”.

Sapa-Lao Cai-Hanoi: Minibus, Train, Taxi & Cubbyhole

We took a minibus to catch the 8 pm train in Lao Cai. Although The Boyfriend did not enjoy the ride from Lao Cai to Sapa, I didn’t have too many problems except feeling a few bumps. Unfortunately, the return trip was not as smooth. The bus was going up and down, around mountains, lurching forward then breaking; it was horrible. I am not the type who gets nauseous (unlike The Little Sister who used to get car sick as a child). It seems this ride made up for all those times I never felt sick.

When we arrived in Lao Cai, an hour before departure, the people from our minibus decided to go into a restaurant before the train departed. Smoking has not yet been banned inside buildings here in Vietnam. In my condition, I couldn’t bear to be in a restaurant with numerous smokers, so I sat outside with The Boyfriend.

The Boyfriend was approached by a Viet Kieu who asked if he spoke English and indicated he came from BC. Supposedly, the simple bond of being Canadian is quite strong abroad. After speaking to him, we found out he was born in Quang Ngai (my parents’ hometown), where his father used to be the chief of police. Five minutes later, we’re sitting with him, his wife and friends at a table outside and The Boyfriend is having rice alcohol shots (37% alcohol, yikes!). I pled car sickness and had a tiny sip, which was sufficient.

We then went on to catch our train. In our cabin was a young Vietnamese man. Now, not too sound judgmental, but this guy looked like a SNORER! While The Boyfriend and I played cribbage, our new roommate fell asleep while reading his newspaper. We were definitely not wrong about the snoring… When we decided to go to bed, I turned off the lamp – our roommate’s individual light was still on. Two minutes after I turn off the communal lamp, our roommate awakes, turns it back ON and starts to read again. How rude!

We finally arrived in Hanoi at 4:00 am. After the previous taxi fiasco, my first question is “Meter?”. “Yes, meter”, I am assured. We’re then pretty sure he takes the longer drive home because it still cost over 40,000D. You just can’t win with these cab drivers.

When we arrive at the hotel, it’s 4:30 am now and the owner wakes up to greet us. Before we left, he was 80% sure of having an available room that night. He actually did have a room for the night, but it would only be available at 8 am. However, he did offer us a “platform”, he called it, where we could lie down until a room was ready. It was literally a cubbyhole – you couldn’t stand in it and the width barely accommodated our bodies. Now the hotel was not in the wrong. It was actually generous of them to let us come in and stay there at 4:30 am – we didn’t actually pay for this. I was out by 7 am, surfing the free internet and we had a nice room by 9 am. I will try to avoid cubby holes from now on though.