Zoom zoom!

I had the best xe om driver last night! I'd gone out for food with some friends in the Old Quarter to a place called Highway 4. It's a bit of a chain in Hanoi that sell pricey but good Vietnamese food. We got a selection of dishes and shared between the 5 of us. There was tofu with spring onions/ chicken with cashew nuts/ beef in black bean sauce/ papaya, peanut, beansprout and rice noodle salad/ and catfish spring rolls. Healthy and very filling! We also had a selection of Son Tinh which is traditional Vietnamese rice wine. It comes in a selection of flavours (we had the fruit flavours) but basically tastes like petrol with a hint of a particular flavour. Bloody strong stuff!

The Vietnamese like to drink and it's certainly noticable. I'd heard about these things called buckets when I was in London and I ended up in a bar last week that specialized in them. Pretty much what it says on the tin...a bucket of booze with straws supplied. Some bars give you a free t-shirt if you drink the whole bucket. I'm not sure why there's such an obsession with t-shirts here but there you go! So needless to say I'm feeling pretty rough today but I've got to go across Hanoi later and sign my contract later so I can't stay in and hide under my blanket.
So yeah, back to my xe om driver. Myself and 2 friends had just finished up at a reggae bar called Roots and were walking round the Old Quarter. This came can whizzing round the corner on his bike and asked if I wanted a lift so I asked if he had a 2nd helmet, which he didn't. The Vietnamese are pretty laid back about seatbelts in cars (it's pretty rare to find a taxi with seatbelts that work!) but you can get fined on a bike if you don't have a helmet. You can get you way round the police with most things if you have the money, but I don't and I don't want to spend a chunk of cash on a police man! The xe om driver was really enthusiastic and said "Wait here! Wait here!" as he drove off round the corner. In the 2 minutes he was gone I was approached by 2 other xe om drivers and one of them had a 2nd helmet. I was just about to get on his bike when Mr Xe Om Driver Number 1 came hurling back round the corner, waving a 2nd helmet and grinning like a child. I had to get on his bike now! Bless him, he misunderstood my destination and took me to a completely different part of Hanoi. I'd asked him to take me to Thai Ha and he took me to Thai Ho, but the journey was great fun! The roads were pretty much empty as it was gone midnight and most places have a curfew of 12 (although most bars stay open for hours after, they're just very subtle about it) and during the ride home he pointed out some famous landmarks as we passed them. He showed me West Lake (which is right near where I'll be living). It's HUGE! We also went past Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, which is somewhere I also want to go. Although we passed them I didn't see much as it was so dark. I'll definitely be exploring them soon.

There some crazy noises coming from another room in the hotel and I don't really want to sit here and listen to them..! This will be continued later.

------------------------------------ SOME TIME LATER ---------------------------------------

I don't know what was going on in the next room but the noises this woman was making were going on for ages! She did not sound like she was having fun. She sounded more like she was giving birth! Hahahaha!

So I'll continue...my latest bit of news is that I have found a house to live in! I was really lucky. It took me just one day to get the room. I'm going to be living in a big 5 floor house with various male and female teachers dotted round Hanoi. I only met one of the girls (who is actually moving out 2 days after I move in) but she was very positive about me getting on with all the housemates. She said one of the girls is a wacky hippy and a yoga teacher! I can't even find a yoga mat in Hanoi so I've really hit the jackpot there.

Each house in Hanoi has a shrine, either to the ancestors of the house or to the land. This particular house has a shrine to the land, which is a beautiful pond with 2 big rocks in that are meant to bring good luck and in the pond are fish...and turtles! I've also been told that during summer most houses get regular visits from geckos. I'm excited! I love geckos! The house also has a roof terrace that looks over Hanoi and it is very close to West Lake so I can have a proper explore of the location when I move in on 4th. However, 2 friends of mine are moving in to a house tomorrow and they have a spare room, which they said I can occupy for free until I move in to my place. I won't have to stay in the hotel much longer! It will also save me a lot of money too.

As nice as the hotel is (it's not the most plush of places but the people are very nice to me here) I want to get settled in my own room now. Then I can get a bike and feel like I've really found my feet.