22 - Tet and Australia Day in Hanoi

Three flights interspersed with several hours lying on a bench outside Saigon airport in the middle of the night and I finally arrived in Hanoi where Jordi was waiting for me with 2 dozen red roses and a ‘year of the ox’ balloon. I think we were both a bit overwhelmed and speechless for a few minutes but we soon clicked backed together and it was like we’d never been apart.

Arriving in Vietnam from the Philippines it didn’t feel like I was arriving into another developing country. Where were the slums? Where was the rubbish? Where were the beggars? It is very different in comparison to the Philippines, not least of which was the weather. It was freezing! I’d left all my warm clothes in Australia. Luckily Jordi had saved some jumpers and jackets for me, left behind by another AYAD who’d recently returned to Australia.

As I had visited all the toursity places in Hanoi as part of a trip with my Mum 3 years ago, I was content to spend these 10 days discovering the Hanoi of Jordi Bates. This involved a lot of bike riding through Hanoi traffic and ‘joining the dots’ between his favourite cafes, restaurants, bakeries, bars, parks, lakes etc. During the 2 weeks I became quite good at weaving through oncoming motorbikes and scooters in order to turn left! It is a great city for riding being predominantly flat and it felt great to get back on a bike after so long. Thanks to Jordi’s flatmate, I had a bike for the duration of my stay. Although, I was quite unnerved by the statistics that an average of 4 people die each day on the roads of Hanoi.

Meeting Jordi’s colleagues, seeing his workplace and talking with him in more detail about his work, really highlighted the contrasts between our AYAD experiences. While working for an international corporatised NGO such as UNESCO means Jordi gets his own workstation and has regular working hours with free weekends, it can also mean that the nature of the work is more high level Project Management. For me working with a local grass roots level NGO, the work is more hands on with almost immediate tangible results. Another difference is that GK is a Filipino organisation, by Filipino’s for Filipino’s, with a smattering of long term international volunteers while Jordi works with half/half locals and ex-pats. There are very few paid staff in GK, most are volunteers and the organisation relies on the power of their Christian faith as motivation for the work. The staff at UNESCO are all employed, albeit on meagre salaries, and the organisation is non-religious. Perhaps, as a result, Jordi has more scope to be able to tell colleagues about a weekend trip without being made to feel like a rich foreigner or have a drink or two with colleagues after work without being made to feel he’s doing something sinful.

For the middle weekend of my stay, Jordi had planned a getaway to the mountains 4 hours North West of Hanoi in a place called Mai Chau. The area is known for its communities of ethnic minority groups. We stayed in the very nice Mai Chau lodge. We visited the caves – a former Vietcong hideout. Our guide took us on a tour of a ‘White Thai’ minority village in the valley where the houses are all built on piers with post and beam construction – the space below used for weaving and the sale of home made goods. In contrast, the Hmong ethnic minority we visited prefer to live high in the mountains and their homes hug the ground with a concrete or earth floor. Both types of houses are constructed from timber with ratan or tile roofs and are typically one large long room. The Tet holiday had begun and in the White Thai village we came across all the men celebrating together in one of the houses. They invited us up and we sat cross legged with them on the floor while they offered us food and copious amounts of rice wine! On our walk back to the lodge, our guide, who had done the polite thing and not refused when they kept topping up her glass, was amusingly tipsy and suddenly her English improved out of sight. I won’t forget her classic line “oh dear, I’m frying tru da sky!”. In the afternoon she had luckily recovered enough to take us on a beautiful bike ride through several villages and along the edges of rice fields. That evening after dinner we were treated to a show of traditional folk dances of the various ethnic minorities.

My 2 weeks in Vietnam, as it worked out, was timed perfectly to experience bustling pre-Tet Hanoi followed by Hanoi during Tet – when it becomes almost a ghost town by comparison. Tet is the Vietnamese name for the Lunar New Year, or what’s known as “Chinese New Year” elsewhere in the world. We saw in the New Year with the crowds of Vietnamese and tourists who flocked to Hoan Kiem Lake for the midnight fireworks. I guess we’re spoiled in Australia with arguably the best fire works in the world, so what intrigued and entertained me more about the celebrations was all the coloured paper lanterns that were realeased into the sky by individuals in the crowd.

The first day of the Lunar New Year also happened to be Australia Day this year. There are quite a number of Aussies working or volunteering in Hanoi. Around 20 or so came to Jordi’s Triple J Hottest 100 party. We streamed it live over the internet. Due to the time difference, it started at 6am local time, which was quite a challenge after getting home from the New Year celebrations only 4 hours before! But in true Aussie style, it was a pretty laid back day. The Australian open on the TV, the cricket on one laptop, and the hottest 100 streaming on another laptop! Snacks, beers and bundy. One guy came dressed for the occasion in stubbies, footy jersey, Aussie flag cape and, for a bit of a local flavour, a green and gold Vietnamese hat! For another Vietnamese twist, we had a red envelope lucky dip containing song lists for the random sweep. Jordi had obviously done his homework as he ended up being crowned Hottest 100 Sweep Champion for guessing the most number of correct songs in the top 10!

On day 2 of the Lunar New Year we had the privilege of experiencing how the Tet holiday is celebrated in the provinces. Jordi’s counterpart from UNESCO invited us to go with them to her husbands family in Hai Duong, a town 1hr east of Hanoi. Tet is very much a family time, in a similar way to Christmas in the Philippines, and around the world. It was a wonderful insight into Vietnamese culture and family life. The religion is based around honouring the ancestors. Every house has a shrine to the ancestors where offerings of food, money, alcohol etc are made. We arrived for lunch at the family house, a typical long narrow house where the room fronting the street houses the family business, in this case a clothing store. But for Tet all the goods had been taken down and the room cleared as the main eating space for all the men of the family. As we proceeded through the house there was a room with all the women next to the kitchen, at the back a room with all the elders, and plenty of children running from one room to the next. The children had reason to be excited as it is tradition that children be given crisp clean money. It doesn’t seem to matter how much money is given, it is more important that the note be clean and crisp for the new year. I also learned it is important to give and receive with both hands as a sign of respect. I noticed since the last time I was in Vietnam, the country had adopted the Australian mint technology and Vietnamese Dong notes are now plasticised like the Australian notes.

First of all we were taken to meet the elders in the back room and both of us were overcome with emotion at the sentiments expressed by the head of the family, welcoming us to their home and celebrations and wishing us a wonderful stay in Vietnam. We then joined the men in the front room where plenty of rice wine drinking was taking place to the sounds of “Mot, Hai, Ba Gio!” (one, two, three Go!). This was accompanied by delicious roll-your-own fresh Vietnamese spring rolls and noodle soup. After lunch we accompanied the whole family (about 50 people) down the street to the steps of the bank where a family portrait was taken. We ended up staying the night and visiting a nearby Pagoda which is also tradition during Tet.

It was a fabulous 10 days – the perfect balance of cultural experiences with time spent together. I was very impressed with the life Jordi’s carved for himself in Hanoi, the friends he’s made and his grasp of Vietnamese which puts my Ilonggo to shame. Now when we talk I can picture who and where he’s talking about. I’m already looking forward to going back.