During the two and a half years I spent in Vietnam during my VSO/KOTO era I can recall only ever meeting one person who claimed not to like Hanoi.
The fact that it was just the once makes it stand out. I was in a bar chatting to a backpacker and they asked if I lived here. I said I did and they were astounded.
“How could anyone live here,” they said. “It’s horrible”.
I won’t tell you the miserable hellhole they came from. Each to their own.
But lately it seems no one admits to liking Hanoi.
There’s no doubting Hanoi has changed. Nothing stays the same in Vietnam but did it really change that much?
I came here first as a wide-eyed backpacker and was overwhelmed by many of the things that people still seem to be complaining about today. I was scared to cross the street. I was ripped off repeatedly. I got sick from the food. I had cockroaches in my room.
And yet people still seemed to like Hanoi – we liked it in spite of these things.
We loved it because it wasn’t like Singapore – now people seem to wish it was.
There’s no doubting that my circle of friends has changed and shrunk. Back in my volunteer days I’d be a regular around Hanoi’s bars and now I’m more likely to go out for a quiet meal with the missus. Are those pubbing and clubbing still loving it? Is it just the olds who are less positive?
Perhaps young and old expats want almost the opposite of each other. Cheap beer, illegal drinking dens, motorbike madness and the complete absence of a nanny state – all good for young volunteers and backpackers. Meanwhile the marrieds worry about healthcare and education, air quality and having somewhere for the kids to run around.
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But I’m tired of meeting people who talk only of escaping.
I wonder how much social media plays its part. In giving us platforms to criticise we forget the positives. Didn’t we we used to love Vietnam’s once-charming crapness? We’d giggle and order another beer and our Vietnamese hosts would giggle with us.
Do we expect more from the country now? Should Vietnam have grown up?
Did it change or did we change? Did it change too much or not enough?
For the record, I still love it. That’s not to say I wouldn’t one day welcome the chance to work somewhere else. I guess Hanoi now fits the role that Newcastle used to for me. It’s the place I’ll always come back to. And I know however much Hanoi grinds me down – I’d miss it if I left. Frankly I miss Hanoi during a weekend in Hoi An.
I sometimes think that expats are scared to love Hanoi. Loving Hanoi is for tourists. Being positive is seen as naive. You need to be brave to be positive.
I hear negativity from Vietnamese colleagues too. I hate that most. Is this something the more international, English speaking crowd have picked up from hanging out with tays? Did we do this to them?
So what did Hanoi lose? What stopped it being lovable? Is it just us? Do we ask too much?
your clothes smell like mildew
-Living in 90% humidity year-round means that you feel like a fish out of water when you visit drier places.
-you haven’t seen the sun in 3 months
-you’ve gotten used to being woken up in the middle of the night by the frightening moan of a man singing Karaoke next door.
-You’ve gotten used to being awoken every morning, even on Sundays, to the bang bang of construction work next door.
-You’ve gotten used to having ill-mannered neighborhood children peeking in your windows and knocking on your doors, screaming “hello hello, chewing gum?” at all hours of the day.
-You know that a peaceful walk through the city, soaking up the culture and sights, is an impossibility with shoeshine boys and postcard sellers at your heels…even when you tell them in perfect Vietnamese that you are not a tourist and that you’ve lived in Hanoi for years.
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-You know that no matter how long you live in Hanoi, you will always be a foreigner, stared and pointed at with curiosity wherever you go.
–You know that the notion of “tact” varies from culture to culture, so you try not to get too offended when you’re told, yet again, how very fat you are.
–You laugh when people say that there isn’t a place on earth that hasn’t been invaded by McDonald’s.
–You have a maid…And her name’s probably Mai and she irons and folds your underwear.
–You are no longer surprised when you get charged double what Vietnamese are charged for everything.
–You’ve tried snake wine, dogmeat or bull’s penis at least once.
–Your power goes out for a couple hours a few times a month.
–You know that if you wait for the traffic to calm down before crossing the street you’ll never cross the street…the key is to just step out and let all the bikes and motorbikes swerve around you.
–You watched The Quiet American twice just to see the beautiful shots of Hanoi’s streets and architecture again.
–You chuckle when you tell people you live in Hanoi and they say, “it must be nice to live in the tropics where it’s always sunny and never gets cold.”
–You know that when a group of 7 year-olds surrounds you on the street screaming “fuck you,” they’re just practicing their English.
–If you live in a Vietnamese style house, you don’t need a gym membership because climbing 6 flights of stairs at a 60 degree angle everyday, just to get to your bedroom, is enough of a workout.
–You are a Karaoke expert.
–Apocalypse Now isn’t just a movie to you…it’s where you spend your weeknights, along with every other expat in Hanoi. (no longer true.)
(For old-timers who lived in Hanoi before 1993)
–You remember when the embargo was lifted and suddenly there was food!
–You remember when the only restaurant in town was “A Little Italian”
–You remember when the only hamburger you could find in town was at the Swedish Bar.
–Despite all this, you still love living in Hanoi!
I will add more as I think of them…and try to get other Hanoians to contribute
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Which of the four contemporary approaches to communication described in your textbook is probably used in the studies? The experiences of older People who live with a long-term condition” I have come to the conclusion that two of the four contemporary approaches to communication have been used. The social science approach is the first one I noticed was used right away. Since social science ...
