Linh Phan is a 17 yr old rising senior here in Hanoi. She stands about 5' 4" and has dark black hair that down well past her butt. Her face is round and reminds me of that of southern Chinese girl. That is, she is very pretty. She has a distinctive style already (she wore a beret the first day we hung out), and so when she walks down the street with me she gets beckoned by the street vendors and motorscooter taxis with everything from "Bonjour!" to "Hello!" to "Korea?". Everything except "Sin Chow":Hello in Vietnamese. We made quite the pair: a young Chinese manwho is always mistaken for Japanese and Korean, and a Vietnamese girl who is mistaken for everything but Vietnamese.
Linh traveled outside of the country for the first time last year to Singapore and wants very to study in university there. When I asked her why not the U.S., she says because she doesn't want to be so far away from her mom and dad. She's not quite sure what she wants to study, but when I told her I majored in International Relations she became quite excited.
Linh and I met through couchsurfing.com. She told me to call her when I arrived in her city, which I was more than happy to do this since I don't know a soul in this country. After dodging the 2 million* mopeds and moterbikes infesting the city while running some errands my first morning in Hanoi, I called Linh.
I know that my voice was overflowing with enthusiasm on the phone which I tried to taper a little. Fortunately I heard that excitement reciprocated on the other end. "I am so happy you called me today!", Linh said in her polished English. We decided to meet at Huc Bridge, which connects the Old Quarter of Hanoi to a small island in the middle of Hoan Kiem Lake. I told Linh to expect me to be dressed in a light blue longsleeve shirt carrying my red bag. Oh, and also that I'm a 6' 3"with long hair. Despite each of us knowing what the other looked like through our respective couchsurfing profiles, I felt obliged to not change my clothes even though I was dripping with sweat by 12:30pm from wearing that long sleeved dress shirt.
The first thing we did was eat. When in Viet Nam, what else but pho (noodles in soup)? I wasn't full after my first bowl, but Linh firmly, yet politely said that we should go somewhere else to try something different. If I wasn't sure before, I was sure then that I really liked this girl! Shaved iced with tapioca, fruit and condensed milk: a staple of the Asian dessert menu. Helping me bargain for some small things, sitting by the lake and enjoying some drinks and having great conversation about Vietnamese culture and youth rounded out our first day together.
We spent the second day visiting Uncle Ho's mausoleum and the Museum of Ethnology. Like China, Viet Nam has over 50 ethnic minorities. Since I am planning on going to Sapa (in the Northwest) to trek in the villages of the Hmong, Dzao and various other minorities, this museum was a great precursor to my trip. The models of the hill tribes' houses were impressive. One towered over 40 ft! Imagine the shape of a hatchet with its blade pointing up and you have the shape of this house. The museum also had a moving exhibit of the time of the Subsidized Economy in Viet Nam. This was a time of extreme hardship where food, cloth and soap (among various other things) were rationed at portions no middle class person today could imagine doing with. I was impressed by the openness and candor of the exhibit.
The Old Quarter of Hanoi is teeming with backpackers. Everywhere you go you hear an Australian accent. Brits run amok, and I've even met a few Israelis. Everyone has a Lonely Planet upon arrival, and if they don't pirated versions are sold here for $2-$5 (any country you want), which means that virtually every traveler is using the same information. While you can accomplish almost anything you would normally want with a Lonely Planet at your disposal, the assistance and friendship of a local has been just wonderful. Cam on (thank you), Linh.
* actual statistic
No comments:
Post a Comment