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Here are the last of the photos from Halong Bay:
The money shot. Jac spent the trip back to Hanoi taking photos through the window of a moving car. This is one of them. I reckon it could be the cover of the next Lonely Planet.
So, aside from some random bites on my arm that caused me to have some peculiar side effects, the trip was a success.
On the advice of our friend, Avi, Jac and I decided to spend a night on a junk in Halong Bay, about three hours out of Hanoi. It was the right thing to do.
This is our boat. We spent a night on it in the middle of Halong Bay. Everything about it was great except the steep price of spirits and wine. I wasn't prepared to pay U$15 for a GLASS of wine or US$10 for a GLASS of JD and coke, especially given that the whole trip to Halong Bay cost only US$77, including magnificent food. I thought this would be the night I would learn to enjoy a beer (which was only $2), but it was not to be. I think I can safely say now that, because it didn't happen then, it will never happen.
On our second day, we decided to go kayaking in the morning (included in our package). It was one of the most fun things I have ever done. It was so serene and beautiful and also fun to try something new. Lucky for me, Jac was born in the ocean and is all over any type of water activity, so I was in good hands.
We got to see floating villages.
There is a beautiful lake in Hanoi that is quite scenic. Because it is cooler than Bangkok, you can actually walk around and not want to die.
It's very Monetesque, isn't it?
Lovely, cheap food with European influences. Though I have to say that Thai food is more flavoursome.
This is a photo of a song we caught on TV. We thought it was hilarious that these children were dancing merrily around a tank.
My office decided to hold their annual retreat in Hua Hin for three days. Before they left, we all attended two very interesting days of training, where we discussed many aspects of the commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC), such as child protection models of care and the Make-IT-safe campaign. After those two days, the office then went to Hua Hin to discuss management issues and, since I and the other interns are not permanent staff, we were given three days off.
I decided to use that time to take advantage of the myriad cheap airfares that are available in the region (Air Asia rocks, for those of you planning to travel around Asia) to go to Vietnam. Luckily for me, Jac decided she could take time off and come too.
Accommodation is so cheap in Hanoi. There are heaps of boutique hotels in the old quarter, a beautiful area of Hanoi near the lake. My only recommendation would be to make sure you get a room off the street, as the street noise can be a bit much. That's another thing we noticed straight away: they LOVE to ride their horns in Hanoi, probably because there are so many motorcycles (many more than cars). It made us realise that, despite the fact that there is so much traffic in Bangkok, the Thais don't use their horns a lot, which is probably because we would all go deaf. It was so interesting to travel to another country from Thailand rather than Australia because, after two months, Bangkok feels like home and it was in that context that we were making our first impressions and comparisons.
The streets of the old quarter are lined with colonial terrace houses with beautiful facades in varying states of repair. There are lots of cafes and boulangeries - a remnant of french colonialism (we love the French and their colonial ways!) - where the pastries are perfect replicas of the treats you would find in Paris. My companion is the biggest coffee junkie I have ever met and, for the most part, she enjoyed good coffee, which is largely absent in Bangkok. These places are a great place to people watch as there is something interesting to observe everywhere you look, whether it is an elderly gentleman emerging from his home in his blue pyjamas (complete with pink shaving towel around his neck) to buy some vegies from a street vendor or this:
These vendors sell everything from fruit, flowers and food to beer and clothes. They walk the streets selling their goods to the shop owners and tourists. Don't stop for minute to watch them if you are on the street or they'll pounce on you and have their basket on your shoulder and their hat on your head for a photo opportunity before you know it. Then you have to negotiate an acceptable price for their goods whether you want them or not, as happened to us. It makes for a great photo, but their shrewdness left us with a bad taste in our mouths. It is not all cynical tourism though; people do actually dress this way all over the country and wear those hats everywhere.
My trusty travel buddy. Those baskets are actually really heavy.
There are many gorgeous shops in Hanoi too:
Me outside the world famous Ipa Nima handbag store (for some reason called Tina Sparkle). Ipa Nima is a designer handbag store which is like the Mollini of handbags. Each one is beautifully handcrafted with silks, leathers, suedes, beads and tassels - all in gorgeous colours. They retail for between US$200 and US$350 on Amazon.com, but are between US$30 and US$150 in Hanoi, where they are designed and made. Gorgeous!
And now to Communism. The best thing about Hanoi (for us anyway) is the visible Communist influence at every turn.
I love this photo. This is the mausoleum where the beloved Ho Chi Minh rests. We weren't able to get in since it has the most obscure opening hours known to man (I think three hours in the morning three days a week). When we drove past, there was a queue around the corner, mostly of locals, to get in.
From here, we went to the Ho Chi Minh museum, probably the most bizarrely curated collection I have ever seen:
Some soldiers go to learn more about their history. We were the only farang there.
There was a national assembly election while we were there, so we were treated to campaign material all over the streets.
Uncle Ho says: "Don't forget to vote!" These kinds of signs become more common as you leave Hanoi and enter the countryside. We stumbled upon a street stall selling hundreds of propaganda posters, so we spent about an hour trawling through them to add to our collections.
The old quarter of Hanoi is divided into streets that specialise in a particular things, such as ugly toys, shoes, motorcycles, handbags and, wait for it, headstones. On election day, everyone was out and about in their Sunday best to cast their vote. On tombstone street near our hotel, this lovely gentlemen struck up a conversation with me. I am still not sure why. I was strolling along doing my own thing when he turned around and started speaking to me in French.
He was a gorgeous remnant of colonial times with lovely warm eyes. That should be the opening line of a book! The first thing he asked me was why I was not married (a common question in Asia). Then he wished me luck in finding a nice husband and went on his way. Notice the headstones behind us. They had the most bizarre people on them, including a Brittany Spears headstone (when she was still on top of her career, bless). Maybe they know something we don't about where her life is headed?
It appears that Hanoi is a mecca for adoption. Everywhere we went, we saw foreigners with their brand new Vietnamese acquisition. Having lunch one day, we were in the presence of an adoption party of sorts. There were about six couples all with new Vietnamese babies complete with matching strollers and toys.
There are lots of children out and about in Hanoi. They are all gorgeous and we could not stop taking photos of them.
All the little muffins walk around holding hands or in a line holding onto a piece of string or a piece of each other's clothing. It is so sweet!
Isn't it the cutest thing you ever saw? The older kids are cute too. We stumbled upon an earnest breakdancing circle outside the Ho Chi Minh museum.
And some giggly girls:
Hi again,
I'll have another go at this - blogs can be finicky things, for me anyway. I'm slightly paranoid about this whole blogging thing. My supervisor, whom I like and respect very much, absolutely hates blogs, youtube, MySpace, Wickepedia and anything else that provides a forum for people to express themselves on any topic they wish with reckless abandon. He called the internet 'a cacophony of noise' (an expression I quite like) and argues that people shouldn't be allowed to say whatever they like about nothing in particular, that it is narcissistic and potentially dangerous as people's opinions are often presented as truth or fact. To the last point I argued that anyone with any any critical analysis skills at all can make up their own minds about what is credible or not and that those critical analysis skills should be developed by parents and external sources. This led us into a long debate about education in England and then eventually the virtues of papier mache, tango, breakdancing and the imports/exports trade - all of which my supervisor has tried his hand at in one way or another. The point is now I am self-conscious that I am one of those annoying people he and most people in the office loathe and despise and that I am prattling on about inconsequential things that no-one cares about except me. Of course, I have not told them about this blog and will never do so. I apologise in advance if I appear self-obsessed. I justify this whole exercise in terms of effort expended. It is much easier for me to keep in contact with everyone this way than to compress all my photos and send large emails on hotmail.
To provide a bit of background on my supervisor and his opinions, he was a BBC journalist/documentary maker for a long time and is concerned that the proliferation of Joe Bloggs's (pardon the pun) opinions on the internet marks the demise of the clear distinction between author and audience. He is concerned that people will no longer be able to listen to anybody else because we are being inundated with useless and poorly-crafted opinions at every turn. It is not that I don't accept some of these arguments. For starters, I would never cite Wickepedia as a source (as I recall Senator Nettle once did in the Senate), but I also think all these forums reflect a diverse and sometimes fascinating facet of popular and political culture that can enrich us all. I also think that his opinion underestimates the younger generations, who can be quite savvy and discerning. There is so much to choose from out there on the net. You can dismiss the crap easily enough. Thanks to my good friend (for the purposes of anonymity, we shall henceforth call her 'Goo'), who has a gift for finding the most bizarre and random things on the internet, I have been exposed to some of the most interesting and creative ideas. It could be that I should just read more books though.
I have been lucky to meet some pretty interesting people with diverse experiences. Even being exposed to the assignments of the other AYADs is a joy. I am not really able to go into much detail about them here but, in general terms, we have someone who is putting out a Muslim publication, and people working for the International Organisation for Migration, WWF and various UN agencies. It is a learning experience to be exposed to the kinds of projects they are all involved in - visiting refugee camps full of Burmese with TB, meeting asylum seekers at the airport and being the first to interview them to assess their case for the UNHCR, Kayaking down the Mekong in remote China on the border with Tibet. It was a world I always new existed, but I am just so happy to be part of it. For so long it was out of reach and now I feel like I am seeing the inner workings of this industry and using and developing the skills I devoted so much time to studying. It is a realm in which I feel entirely comfortable. I am certain that a lot of the reason I am able to feel so at ease is that I have the support of my loved ones and so I have not had to worry about anything but getting this whole thing right. I know how lucky I am in that regard. It is not something I take for granted.
Interestingly, the UN has lost some of its appeal, but I think I am still a bit in awe of it. To compensate for this awe, I tease my friend Avi relentlessly for being part of the UN set. Those kids know how to party and always go to hip and expensive places. There has come to be a customary banter in the group as we speculate which post-modern venue the UN kids will grace of a Friday night. It's all a bit of harmless fun, which somehow culminated in my being given a tiny plastic guitar for my birthday.
My work has been interesting of late. Aside from the e-bulletin, I have been conducting desktop research on various African countries in the context of evaluating and monitoring their progress in upholding the Stockholm Agenda for Action, which is closely linked to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. So far, I have been involved in preparing the reports for Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya and Mauritius and have partaken in the phone interviews with our counterpart NGOs in South Africa and Nigeria. It is all fascinating stuff. Our office is off on a retreat tomorrow and, since I am not permanent staff, I have been given three days off, giving me five days in a row to do something exciting. I have chosen to go to Hanoi with Khun Jac. I will try not to have too much fun as it is something I wanted to do with D in the first instance.
And now to tie up some loose ends:
This is my office in the heart of Bangkok, five minutes from MBK. For those of you who haven't had the pleasure, MBK is an eight-storey mega mall that people have been known to get lost in, never to emerge again. At least, that is what I imagine they'll say about me when I am never seen again.
This is the scabby office cat, who screams like a banshee day and night for food or whatever. I like cats, but I don't particularly like this one. The poor little thing has had a hard life though. She was always having litters so the office paid for her to be desexed. She gets harassed relentlessly by a tom, who is also very screechy but only slightly larger than her, which makes him only half the size of Australian cats. Incidentally, I read that female prisoners in Lard Yao Prison all keep cats. A lot of Thais don't like cats as they are seen as a pretty low form of life to return as when reincarnated. There is only one thing worse than coming back as a cat and that is as a reptile of sorts that I was never told the name of.
These are some locals in my building. The chap in the middle is my landlord. My building is not without its dramas. It turns out the maid's 14-year-old daughter has been lured away by a 23-year-old in her village. The maid and her husband moved to Bangkok to earn money and left their daughters with their parents to look after them. The daughter has been led astray and has not been seen for three months. It is a terribly thing, made all the more sad by how frequently this kind of thing happens. Mum, before you freak out, this happened in the maid's home town NOT ON MY STREET. I am not going to be lured away by anyone never to be seen again (except maybe if they are peddling discounted Jim Thompson items). Unfortunately, this daughter fits the profile of a child vulnerable to commercial sexual exploitation.
The wondrous, spectacular and enchanting Jim Thompson. I spent hours in here deliberating and salivating over my purchases. I nearly had one of those little foot stools you see on the left upholstered in a silk of my choice as a throne for my little Pepina, but I think it is too small for her (not that it is too excessive or anything!).
I just realised that Pepi is googleable now that I have mentioned her here. To google. Let's conjugate that into French, shall we? Je google, tu googles, il/elle google, nous googlons, vous googliez, ils/elles googlent. That was for the benefit of my conjugating editor friends out there. You know who you are. 
AAAARRRGGHHH!!!! Beautiful silk everywhere! It's almost too much to bear. I think I fondled everything in the shop, including the ties. Then I put a pile of things on hold while I legged it to the other side of town to make sure they didn't have the same items at the factory outlet (they didn't, but they had plenty of other nice things), in what amounted to a typical Danielle-style expedition of ridiculous and epic proportions. I can just see my mother's face as she reads this. Don't blame me mum. You created this monster! Did I mention there are five storeys of this?
My computer is no longer being cooperative, so I have to cut this post short and save some random images for next time. Stay tuned for Hello Kitty mania, my friend's ordination into the monastery (ordination is the Thai term for it) and maybe something of substance for a change as I describe what I am actually doing in my job.
Ciao!
