Hello Ha Noi

So, on the 7th of July 09, we flew into Hanoi. I didn't really know much about Hanoi, other than it being the country's capital. I chose to move here over Saigon based on advice from friends about the general difference in vibe between the 2 cities. For the sake of comparison, we can say that Saigon is like Sydney and Hanoi is more like Melbourne. One is a faster paced city and more image oriented and the other is a more laid back, cultural centre. It's hard for a new visitor to Hanoi to really see it as laid back, with 8.5 million people and around 4 million motorbikes, but it's there. We planned to spend about a week getting settled in before we started looking for work, but after meeting a whole bunch of awesome people, a week quickly turned into 3. Money started running low and we started looking at work that sounded dodgy, but promised to pay well. We spent a week trying to work out a deal to work with Mr Chung. A very confusing week, cause neither of us are still sure about what we were going to be doing for him. I think he wanted us to run his travel agency. Anyway, after much of talk of dollars, mercedes benz's and contracts, we decided to flee his presence and look for something a little more suitable. I eventually found some teaching work and Kenneth eventually found work at a new backpacker hostel called The Drift, as the chef. Kenny soon moved into the Drift and I moved out to my own apartment about 20 minutes away. Considering we'd been sharing a bed in a shitty one room serviced apartment for the previous few weeks, space was pretty sweet. The Drift quickly became our new home and Tif and Alicia, the australian owners, took us under their wings and taught us the ropes of life in the big city. The bar upstairs was a handy social lubricant and we quickly sorted through the backpackers to find a handful of people who were living in Hanoi or planning to live there. They turned out to be an alright bunch and are our housemates and burdens to this day. So, with homes, jobs and friends we considered ourselves to be settled and started getting to know the country.

In the 8 or so short months since, we've made a lot of friends and said goodbye to most of them. Being an expat can be bittersweet sometimes. We've traveled up and down and across the country, we've eaten strange things, some of them surprisingly tasty. We've learnt some of the language and learnt a lot about ourselves. Yes, we have gotten drunk but we've also been sober for roughly equal amounts of time. We've had so much fun and experienced so much that it would take me forever to write about it, so I'm not going to. That's why I'm doing this wrap up. Suck it if you were waiting for more. Anyway, now you're caught up.