Hanoi
Why I love Hanoi
In no particular order and not comprehensive.
Why I love Hanoi #1: drunken conversations in Vietnamese with taxi drivers. They usually begin with being asked the question “Where are you from?” and end with me having divulged as much of my life story as my Vietnamese will allow. My favorite was from the other night:
Taxi driver: Where are you from?
Preya: em la nguoi My lai An Do (I am American mixed with Indian).
Taxi driver: Ah…you speak Vietnamese very well. Do you live here?
Preya: No, I used to live here, but now I live in America. [We pass my old house] I used to live at 61 Hang Than.
Taxi Driver: Really? I used to be a xich lo driver in front of 61 Hang Than. I used to go out to drink with one man named Dan.
Preya: That’s my brother!
[We spent the rest of the ride reminiscing about all the old haunts, like Roxy, that have since closed.]
Why I love Hanoi #2: tall British guys named Jonathon. And I’m not saying any more about that. Yes, I know, that’s not really something specific to Hanoi, but it’s me in Hanoi, so it counts.
Why I love Hanoi #3: Fruit, specifically qua na (annona squamosa–sugar apples), Thang Long (dragon fruit), and xoai xanh (green mangoes).
posing with the fruit
qua na
the remains
Why I love Hanoi #4: almost crashing my brother’s motorbike several times while practicing around Ciputra; but I made some progress.
What I don’t love about Hanoi: having my taxi get hit by a motorbike in the middle of rush hour traffic and having to get out, amidst a million staring eyes, to flag down another. But it was interesting. Oh, another thing I love: crazy translations. My Mom was having some documents translated and instead of “blood” sister, as in biological sister, they translated it as “bloody” sister. Hilarious.
Discussion
22 comments for “Why I love Hanoi”
Post a comment
Categories
you ate all that?? impressive!! healthy eating, apart for the ashtray with fag buds…..no worries as long as you QUIT :-)
I find your entire comment offensive. I don’t know you, and you don’t know me. Why would you think your opinion on my eating and smoking habits would interest me in the slightest? If you don’t like what’s on my blog there are about a million others to visit.
[...] on why she loves the Vietnamese capital city Hanoi. Share [...]
Thang Long - Dragon Fruit is probably the best fruit I have ever eaten! I ate tons of them in Phan Thiet, one place where they grow them. Amazing fruit is the one thing I always miss when I am not in the tropics.
Heather–I would love to see how they grow them! I also miss fruit when I’m away:(
OMG, the way they are grown is so strange! Imagine a concrete or wood post, like a fence post. Then imagine an aloe vera is sprouting out the top of the post. Eventually the aloe vera looking part grows enormous and you can barely see the post at all. At the end of the long “leaves” you will see bright pink fruit, sometimes wrapped up in newspaper. I saw fields full of this on the train outside of Phan Thiet, unfortunately, I did not take a picture.
Maybe this link will work:
http://www.pbase.com/mobby/image/45197153
Wow–that’s really cool! Thanks for the link:)
I really like your blog and love reading about VietNam. I would love to visit Ha Noi someday, maybe next time when I go back VietNam.
By the way, northern people call sour apple qua na, we, southern people call it mang cau dai.
Thanks for visiting my blog Tran! Hope you get to visit Ha Noi:)
Thang Long? Really? I usually call it “Thanh Long” - blue dragon :-)
Tuan–you’re right–it’s Thanh Long (my mistake) :)
I made mistake too. In Vietnamese, “thanh” means “xanh”, also we have “thanh thien” - “troi xanh” so I though it’s blue. But in this case, it’s green - green dragon :-)
Commenting on an old post, I know, but aren’t those things called custard apples? I just call them crocodile fruit, ’cause I make up things like that.
Hi D–custard apples usually refer to Annona reticulata, a related species; here’s the wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Custard-apple
I think that they’re similar enough that it doesn’t really matter what you call them! Yummy suffices for me.
I’m a Thanh Long fan too. But here in Montreal oriental markets they don’t look yummy enough :(
Thanh (my brother’s name!)–are they big or small? I’ve noticed that the bigger ones are not as sweet. Thanks for visiting my blog!
:) I love hanoi too ….
Just out of curiosity, how do you have such a emotional love with Hanoi ? How long have you lived in Hanoi :)
Lit–it’s all on my “about” page, but in short–I grew up in Hanoi. I first went there when I was 6, moved there when I was 9, and lived there until my high school graduation in 2000. It’s the only home I’ve ever had. Thanks for visiting my blog and for your comments!
chào preya
i came across profile on facebook, and started reading blog. it is very interesting, make me miss home more than ever. I lived with my grandma for most of childhood in the country side. it near Do Son, Hai phong. our house is fulled of fruits tree, especially ?i, táo, qu? na, ?u ??, d?a h?u too. they are wonderful, i would just pick the best one to eat and left nothing for my grandma to sell at the market. which is sad yet joyful when i think about it. im in canada now during my undergraduates study in mechanical. it been almost 9 years now, and i been home once that was 5 years ago. and my gosh. it simply the best moment of my life. i regret why i didn’t appreciate my childhood with my grandma, she is the world to me. i guess we don’t appreciated the joy until we experience the sorrow. im sorry for ranting on and on. but it makes me feel alots better. hope u will be back home soon because that is where ur heart belongs
xin t?m bi?t
Thanks Thuan!
Hi Preya
Wow you can write Vietnamese better then I can. I see you grew up in Vietnam no wonder. People must have been surprise each time you speak Vietnamese or are they used to it?