Having spent the majority of today asleep on a seven hour bus journey, I have decided to take this opportunity to tell you about some odds and ends of Vietnamese culture that I have picked up along the way:
Exercise: we walk past parks at six or seven in the morning and the sane time in the evening. They are a hive of activity. People are using the free exercise equipment, jogging around the paths, doing exercise classes, yoga and zumba, or practicing salsa in band stands. O tells us her parents get up at three in the morning to exercise until five. Exercise is a big deal here.
Food: the Vietnamese cuisine is rice based but also hugely varied. This and the green and jasmine tea, combine to make a very healthy diet. We have not drunk much alcohol except dalat wine in Moi Ne and the odd bia hoi. I feel fantastic. Having had quite major surgery before travelling I have not had any pain or digestive hitches since being here, except once when I ate European food again for a couple of days in tourist heavy Moi Ne.
We have generally eaten only two meals a day. Breakfast because the breakfasts here are substantial and really set you up for a day of walking and general overstimulation. And dinner because O cooks beautifully and we like the opportunity to sit down with her. She has an addictive personality in so far as you can become addicted to it! In between we often don't bother with lunch because we don't need it!
I ask O how people eat here expecting the midday meal to be light or one of the meals to be skipped given the size and variety of each meal. Vietnamese, she tells me, eat breakfast, lunch and dinner and often afternoon tea into the bargain! Vietnamese are not purely naturally slender. They eat a healthy diet and they exercise with real commitment. They don't necessarily eat less. Take note, fat Britain! I suggest to M that our government supply free exercise equipment in parks. M reminds me about the English weather.
Toilets: are often western, and in poorer areas or ones which are less touristy, are more traditional. The traditional ones involve a careful squat over a hole, while you try to avoid accidents involving your clothes, if you are an ungainly westerner. Again Mr Binh's comment about western bottoms being too fat to sit, swims through my mind. Once you are finished, you flush the toilet using a saucepan shaped plastic bucket, usually supplied in a larger tub of water outside, scooping up water with it, and pouring it down the hole.
These toilets look to be gradually dying out. The majority are western but they have something in common with the more traditional versions. Toilet paper is sometimes supplied but not always. What is always supplied, however, is a small showerhead or at the least, a bowl of water. What I at first took for an accidental oversight in respect of toilet roll is I think a provision for you to shower yourself clean. When you think about it, it's probably more effective than a cursory wipe.
Also, to our dismay we recently found out that Vietnamese toilets are not designed for you to put toilet roll down them. You are meant to put it in the bin. I dread to think how many Vietnamese toilets M and I have blocked in our ignorance. We are the toilet blight of Vietnam. Perhaps that's why they don't supply toilet roll. It lessens the damage caused by tourists.
Dogs: "The dogs here are much less scary than in Thailand" we overhear a tourist remark to her partner. Having holidayed once in northern Thailand, we know what she means. The dogs there tended to be strays and often had thin faces. They didn't look angry or overtly threatening, but they did look a little as though they thought it might be fun to give you a nip on your bottom.
Vietnamese dogs are often pets and seem to be fluffy with little friendly faces. Why they are fluffy I don't know as it's always hot here, there are two seasons, wet and dry. The temperature doesn't dip much.
I apologise to any dogs who are reading this. I appreciate I am judging you purely by your cover.
Street Drinking: is not what you might imagine and does not always involve tramps with brown paper bags. There are plenty of little drinking establishments set up on the street, which consist of some cheerful little plastic chairs, the size that a western primary school might have, and you sit on the street sipping your beer and people/ motorcycle watching.
Street Entertainment: when, as O tells us, you are having a drink on the street with your friends, someone might come past on a motorcycle and give you a short performance of some kind. After, he will sell you a snack to have with your drink and you pay him for snack and entertainment. "It's sometimes annoying" says O, "when you are trying to talk to your friend and you have to stop and listen to some song or something." We stand corrected. We had heard piped music from motorcycles and sometimes speech, and assumed it was a political message. "No" says O, "either they are selling something or they are an entertainer."
Shop and Restaurant Service: customer service involves the shop keeper following you round the shop. Sometimes it's a hard sell but often seems to just be part of serving you. It can be awkward as a westerner because our associations are different. Similarly in coffee houses, restaurants and street restaurants, the waiter or chef will hand you the menu then wait while you decide. For us, being both hopelessly indecisive about these things, this does speed up the choosing a bit. When your indecision means you are tying the poor waiting staff to your side, its a pretty good advert for getting a move on!
The cat: Chiba the cat, O tells us, has missed us while we were away. This is lovely. Though it's possible that what she missed is getting into our room and hiding in our rucksacks.
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