Trees 1 Humans 1

It appears man and tree are doing battle outside my apartment window. 

Until yesterday, my view outside was primarily of the ugly green wall you see at bottom, but was enhanced by, what were, three beautiful tall palm trees which sat directly behind the yellow villa behind me.  They were as tall as the house and I'm sure provided some much needed shade from the summer haze-shine around here. 

Before I went to work yesterday, I noticed three guys constructing some scaffolding next to the left-most tree and was around long enough to see them cutting the fronds and thought they were just doing some tree trimming.  They trimmed alright; right down to the root.  All three trees are gone.

What's doubly weird is that at the same time I made notice of this today, I also saw for the first time the new tree they apparently planted just outside my window yesterday as well.  Until now, the area outside there was just dirt, but now it's got this big, beautiful tree from out of nowhere!

I'm not sure if both tree events are related or coincidental.  From the gym next door, it appears that, and I would expect, each tree event took place on separate pieces of property as the big ugly green fence splits them right down the middle.  Weird coincidence, eh? 

A Nice Way to End the Day

It was a long and busy day today at work, so you'll pardon me if I keep this short tonight.  I'm bushed.

Today was what one of my American friends here calls "a Vietnam Day"; one of those days where you're reminded where you are because nothing seems to go right and there's frustration around every corner.  A couple of big events all seemed to hit at once this afternoon (government approved fare increase, schedule approval and subsequent need for changes) and I couldn't make headway on any of it regardless of which direction I turned.   

So it was especially bad timing that tonight, of all nights, we had dinner plans with Air Mekong's Board of Directors; The Chairman, Mr Viet, his son, Mr Huy and decorated Vietnam War Hero, Mr Soat (about whom I'll tell you more someday).  You don't shrug off this dinner and you're certainly not late, so in the midst of my crisis, I had to drop everything and head out.

The occassion was a farewell for Air Mekong's VP of Maintenance, Gaylen Campbell.  Gaylen is a native of SE Oklahoma and there are times when I have an easier time understanding my Vietnamese co-workers than I do him!  He's been here for his full year contract and has done an outstanding job setting up a complete Maintenance Department from scratch.  His wife joined him for their year here in Hanoi but apparently personal issues dictate that they return home, in spite of his desire to stay.

So tonight the Board of Directors honored his service with a very nice dinner at the Hanoi Hilton (no, not that Hanoi Hilton).  It's a very nice hotel downtown next to the beautiful Hanoi Opera House.  They had reserved a private room for our party and treated us to an outstanding meal featuring all sorts of Vietnamese cuisine (unfortunately, we didn't order ourselves, so I have no idea what it is we had).  We ate and toasted Mr Gaylen with Smirnoff Vodka shots (it should be no surprise that some things Russian still hold sway here) and shifted uncomfortably once or twice when their English or our conversation ran dry. 

After desert, Mr Soat got up and gave Mr Gaylen a very touching toast in Vietnamese and spoke about how honored they were to have him here in Vietnam and how they wished him health and happiness.  Gaylen's a good 'ole Southern Boy who isn't much on idle chit chat, and I can't say I know him well, but I think he actually got a little choked up.  It's really a shame he's having to leave as I think he's thoroughly enjoyed his year here.

Finally, to close the evening, they presented Mr Gaylen with a big, beautifully wrapped box.  He carefully unwrapped and opened it to find several other beautifully wrapped boxes inside.  They insisted that he open just one, sitting on top of all the others.  Inside was a beautiful plate commemorating Hanoi's 1000 year anniversary which was celebrated during his stay last year on October 10 (10/10/10).  It was a beautiful momento of his time in Hanoi and a nice way to finish what was otherwise a very taxing day.

Change of Plans

Tonight I got halfway through writing a post about today's lunch at Bun Bo Nam Bo Cafe next door to our office building.  Halfway through, I realized that the picture I had taken of, well, lunch didn't turn out.  Of course, writing about the main dish without the picture is like trying to pick a recipe out of a cookbook without knowing what it looks like.

So, I'm punting tonight.  I'll hold off on my "My Xau Bo" blog and instead post this picture I took outside my apartment tonight. 

Flower on a stick

I noticed it tonight for the first time and have noticed several small rose bushes and other flowers have all started blooming the last couple of days.

This flower stands about four feet tall and sits atop a tall green stem.  Pretty pretty, huh?

Breakfast of Champions

I guess before I go any further, I should explain my blogname.  On Sunday when I started all this, I was all set to whip out a nice first post.  Not ever having done a blog before, I didn't realize that you had to come up with a name before the blogging actually began.  So I sat here for 45 minutes desperately attempting to come up with something catchy.

Obviously I failed miserably.  I resigned myself to "Arizona Buffapho" out of sheer desperation.  So the Arizona part is obvious.  And anyone who knows me for, oh, say the last 25 years knows that I'm probably the worlds biggest Colorado Buffalo college football fan.  So adding a Vietnamese reference like "pho" seemed like a pretty good idea at the time.  Arizona Buffapho, get it?!

Ok, so it's a huge blogname fail.  But aside from being cheesy, it's also not even really correct.  In Vietnam, pho, which most English speakers would pronounce rhyming with "show" is actually pronounced "fa"...as in "FA!  A long, long way to run!"  (I never did get that by the way.  So would "CA" have been "a thing I drive to work!"?  But I digress).  So technically it's "Arizona Buffafa".  How sad is that?

If you're not familiar with pho, it's pretty tasty and pretty much a staple of the Vietnamese diet.  I imagine there are quite a few variations, but it's essentially something like mild chicken broth poured over rice noodles, scallions and often peppers.  I like it best with chicken, but you can also get it with beef or pork and I imagine other things I'd rather not know.  Best of all, you can eat it any time, day or night.  So I get my daily dose of Vietnamese pho at breakfast.

Before

Those red peppers are fire hot.  And with a squeeze of lime, it makes for a tasty way to start the morning. 

After

    

Today at Lunch

Noontime at Air Mekong is like the lunch bell going off in junior high school.  There is no bell, but the minute the clock strikes noon, there's a frantic dash to the elevator.  I'm not sure where everyone goes, but they sure can't wait to get there. 

Today was actually a pretty nice day by Hanoi standards, so I decided to walk down the street, enjoy the haze-shine and grab something to eat. 

Ok, so Tay Ho (West Lake) doesn't look much different today than it did on Sunday when I last posted a pic.  Gray, but definitely less hazy today than over the weekend (which is not to say sunny) and there was a nice breeze blowing so even the humidity didn't seem too bad.

With nothing but gray skies day after day after day, it's no wonder folks around these parts could use a little color.  And one of the best things around my neighborhood are the Flower Bike Ladies (and, today, a single Flower Bike Dude).  They park their bikes at various points along the street side and sell their flowers to passersby. 

Bargain bin Flower Bike Lady



Flower Bike Dude

As I took the last pic below, I couldn't help but notice in the background one of the weirdest things about Vietnam.  In a country where 98% of the population moves around on bikes of every variety and where traffic is nothing but a daily knot ball, there's an amazing number of nice wheels.  Sure, it's just a brand new BMW 7-Series...

...sitting right next to a brand new Mercedes!  (They're the only two cars in sight). 

I've never seen so many Bentley's, Lamborghini's, Porsche's and Rolls in one place.  Isn't Vietnam supposed to be Communist?!  Where there's an equal distribution of material wealth?!  And why anyone would want cars as nice as those here is beyond me.  "Yeah, I opened 'er up last night on the Nghi Tam Expressway and got 'er all the way up to 30mph!"

Anyway, back to the flowers.  They're a very nice touch for a place that seems terminally drab.  Someday I should probably buy some.  If my mom was here, I would.  But she's not. 

And besides, why do that when there's Jicama Bike Lady instead! 

Jicama on the left, sweet mini-pineapples on the right

It seems there are also quite a few entreprenuer-iettes who, instead of flowers, sell vegetables and fruits.  I was especially glad to see Jicama Bike Lady today because the last time I saw her out, I was on my way to lunch and thought I'd buy some on the trip back to the office.  But by then, she'd moved on and I've been out of luck for weeks.  The pineapple ladies, mango ladies, ginger ladies, lime ladies and every variety of other strange fruit and veggie ladies show up without fail every day, but Jicama Bike Lady apparently pedals her wares all over town (no pun intended) and doesn't frequent Tay Ho often. 

No sooner had I pounced on her and picked out three jicama, I realized I had no idea how much they cost and in spite of my half fluency in Vietnamese, don't know a single number.  So I pulled out a 100,000 dong bill (that's about $5; in Vietnam, every American is a millionaire!) and handed it to her not knowing how much I'd get back. 

First she handed me a 50,000 note.  And paused.  When I looked at her expectantly, she pulled out 10,000 note.  And paused.  When I looked at her again, she reached for a 5,000.  At that point I realized I had paid all of about $2 for my afternoon snack and told her to keep it.  (I'm sure she spoke no English, but quickly understood what I meant and snapped back the 5,000 note).  I shared the story with one of the Vietnamese women I work with and she told me that had she made the purchase, it would have cost all of about 2,000 dong...or about 25 cents.  Obviously I don't know squat about buying vegetables.

My pride and joy...and well worth the $2 I paid for them.  I think. 
I still have no idea, would that be a lot at home?

Night Market Night

About last night's evening.  It was great.  Unfortunately, between poor lighting after dark and not wanting to be rude to my hostess, I only have a couple of pics to share.  I'll make up for it next time.

As for the night, just as I suspected, Ms Hang pulled up in front of the hotel on her red scooter at 6pm with extra helmet in hand and said "hop on".  Of course, I'm probably twice her size, so I might as well have been a big ole Tet tree strapped on her back.  I kinda felt like I was on the back of a 6 year old's bike as she first learned how to ride without training wheels, so it was touch and go to start.   Fortunately there were only a handful of life-threatening moments on the trip downtown and we definitely had the advantage of both size and bulk versus our fellow "scooterers" (cars and buses, not so much). 

(I should add that Ms Hang is a very attractive, mid-30s native of Vietnam who spent four years in London and a year in Boston recently.  She has an amazing British Vietnamese accent and, she told me, is considered far too cosmopolitan (read: different) for most of the locals so is hopelessly single, she says). 

We arrived downtown and pulled up to our "Scooter Valet" where we paid all of 25 cents to have her bike parked while we decided to walk around Hoan Kiem Lake in Central Hanoi.  It's "the" lake in Hanoi and marks the center of town.  There's an ancient pagoda in the center and it's also home to a giant lucky legendary old tortoise (or, as they recently suggested, more than one) who recently made the New York Times due to its elusiveness (they made several unsuccessful attempts to catch it for medical care before finally succeeding a few weeks ago).

Afterwards, we took our lives in our hands yet again as we walked across the main traffic circle to a restaurant overlooking it all.  

The chaos at the traffic circle is beyond belief.  Picture hundreds of scooters, dozens of cars, pedestrians, all converging on this spot simultaneously (note handy map below; traffic "circle" is to the left of the "A"), each going in a different direction, like three intersecting lines of marching ants, none yeilding to the other. 

  `
View Larger Map

Anyhow, after dinner was the big event, Night Market on Hang Dao Street.  The ratio of streets to traffic in Hanoi is horrible, so they can't close the street during the day.  Instead, it's closed on Saturday and Sunday nights from 6-11pm, hence, "Night Market". 

Unfortunately, after spending 45 minutes of bumping into hundreds of other Vietnamese window shoppers last night, I'm sorry to report that aside from it's sheer size - it goes on and on and on for blocks - it's nothing but cheap, Chinese made schlock!  Of course, if anyone happens to be in need of label underwear (mens or womens), $1 leather belts or designer sunglasses, let me know, I can get 'em cheap!

All in all, it was a nice night out on the town.  And especially nice to spend time with one of the "locals".  Too often I'm reluctant to leave my comfort zone and don't venture too far out, so this was definitely good.

Lazy Sunday

Ok, so today I'll introduce you to one of my favorite things about Vietnam.

Earlier this afternoon, I walked down the street to one of my favorite little places, a little Vietnamese tea house called "Ochao".

 
It's a very nice, very "Zen" cafe with a terrace that overlooks West Lake.  West Lake also happens to be the name of the district where I'm living.

There are times I'm kinda reminded of Minneapolis, especially at night.  In Minneapolis, though, the most critical components, say, um, color, are bright and vivid, even in the winter, I think.  Here, not so much.  The lake and sky, for example: blue in Minneapolis. In Hanoi, both are just various shades of gray.  Always.

And I guess there are a few other differences.  I'm not sure you'd see anything like this on Lake Calhoun:

Or this:

                                                 Or this:

Dinner!

So anyway, back to the Vietnamese Tea House.  They have a million kinds of tea, which are all totally lost on me (Sorry Buns!  Sorry Bill!).  They do, however serve up a commonly found beverage here called "ca phe sua da".  It's Vietnamese coffee, which is outstanding unto itself (and I'm not even a coffee drinker!), but it's served over ice with sweetened condensed milk!  YUM!!

So they bring you each serving which is brewed in its own little "pot".  Once it's done, you pour it over ice and add all the condensed milk you can handle, stir and voila!

Nirvana in a cup!

(Try not to notice the difference between the color of the brewing coffee in the first pic and the color of the end product above.  I'm sure it's just different lighting and has nothing to do with the volume of condensed milk I added)

I try to limit myself to one of these a day.  A couple of weeks ago, however, I managed to have five. 

Before noon. 

Yeah.  So I'll need to watch  that.

Tonight, a new friend from work, Ms Hang, has invited me out.  She won't tell me what the plan is: "we'll be spontaneous", she says!  But I think we're planning to head to the Old Quarter in downtown Hanoi for the Night Market.  She said to plan on walking, so that'd fit, since it's huge. 

Anyway, I'll report on that in my next post.  Wish me luck!