Check out this article from Global Post by Matt Steinglass. Don't forget to watch the video as well!
It's about a retired landscape architect, Tran Thi Thanh Van, from Ha Noi who fought against the plans of the government and a big corporation to build a Novotel Hotel resort in the middle of Reunification Park (aka Lenin Park).
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Monday, April 20, 2009
Where's the green?
About a month ago the Prime Minister of Vietnam held a meeting with a group of experts and architects on the effective use of city’s parks and gardens. He stated that by 2020 he wanted 16 square meters of public green space per person. Currently, Ha Noi has.... 0.9 square meters per person and some districts within Ha Noi only have 0.05 square meters per person. It makes sense though because, despite a few pockets of the city with a couple of parks, Ha Noi is a concrete jungle. That's quite ridiculous considering that once you drive ten minutes out of the city the landscape is completely green and rural.*Note: I must give credit where credit is due. I was inspired to write this blog entry last week when my colleague, Donny, informed me of this story and the stats last week. Sorry Donny!
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Deer on a city corner
Ryan insisted that I blog about this.This was one of the pictures I had in my photo montage about two blogs ago. Earlier that day I passed these deer in front of the bia hoi around the corner from me and I had to do a double take. I've never seen a dead deer in Ha Noi, much less a live one. Then when I decided to take pictures of my walk later on I had to capture them.
Interestingly enough, about an hour after I took this photo I passed the corner again on my way to work only to find that one of the deer was up and walking around! It had blood on it's head as if it had been slightly cut. Again, I had to do a double take.
Ha Noi can be so weird sometimes!
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Congrats!
I just wanted to give a shout out and say congratulations to my brother Brian and his girlfriend Melissa on their engagement! I'm sure I'm not the only one saying this, but it's about time!
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Going for a walk...
At least 3 times a week I go for a walk around my neighborhood...past the botanical garden and through the Ho Chi Minh complex, around Ngoc Ha street and back to my alley. I am providing you with a video slide show of that walk. This is my first attempt at a video on my blog. The picture is a little grainy and I apologize for that.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Leaving on a jet plane
I purchased my ticket home! Miraculously, I found a flight from Bangkok to New York City at the end of June for $540 on Air China. I feel a little guilty about this, but I'm actually happy to be going home. I'm sure that it has a lot to do with the fact that almost all of my friends have left because before they started disappearing I could not even think about going home - I was having too much fun here!
I also have a lot of things to look forward to when I return: I can see my friends again in New Jersey, I'll be flying out to Colorado to spend a few weeks with Ryan in July, and then I will move to Brattleboro, Vermont at the end of August/beginning of September to begin graduate school at SIT.
I also have a lot of things to look forward to when I return: I can see my friends again in New Jersey, I'll be flying out to Colorado to spend a few weeks with Ryan in July, and then I will move to Brattleboro, Vermont at the end of August/beginning of September to begin graduate school at SIT.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
In and out in less than 24 hours.
You may be wondering what happened with the apartment that was I supposed to move into. It's a funny story really.
I started to move my things into the new place on a Thursday and officially moved in the following Sunday sometime in the early evening. I loaded all of my things into a taxi and headed over. The son of the landlord even drove me back to my old place to pick up my motorbike.
I brought everything into my new room and began to put my stuff away when I started to notice a few things. The floors were absolutely filthy, my small window faced the wall of the building next door, so no light was going to make it to my room, the fan was so old and the switch would only work on the first setting...which was the highest, the air conditioning unit blew out dirty air and had no controller, and the building was off a very busy street with no parks or lakes nearby to walk to. I sat on the bed only to realize it was just a foam mattress. No, I did not try out of the bed before I decided on this place. When I asked for a mop to clean the floor the family had no idea what to give me. They handed me a vacuum cleaner instead, but I told them that's not what I wanted. I found an old broom on one of the landings and tried to clean the floor of my room with that. After I finished sweeping I looked around and thought, "What did I do?" What did I do? When I had made the immediate decision to move into this place I was still angry at the cleaning ladies for eating my food. Granted, it was the last straw because there were other annoyances, but I realized that this place would bring it's own set of annoyances. The funny thing also is that after I had decided to move I told my original landlords and the reason why and two days later they brought back the cleaning ladies that I liked and got rid of the one who ate my food! I was so fixated on getting out of my old place that I did not think or even care where I was moving to. Even though I would only stay in the new place for two months, and it was much cheaper than the original place I was willing to pay more just not to be miserable. I became so upset with myself over my quick decision because I normally think things through a bit more first. I felt regretful. I went to bed early that night.
When I woke up the next morning I realized that I could no longer stay there. I spoke to my new landlords who were confused, but understanding. The woman of the home asked me to stay another night and that maybe it would get better for me, but I just couldn't. She asked me to pay only for the $40 fee Vietnamese families have to pay the police in order to have a foreigner stay with them. I packed a few things up and brought the bags with me to IIE. When I arrived at IIE that morning I called Huyen, Ben's girlfriend, and asked her if she could call my old landlords and ask them if it would be OK if I moved back to my room. She called me back to let me know that my room is still available and that I would be welcome back. Phew! Resolved!
After IIE I went back to my old apartment, sheepishly said hello to my landlord, dropped off the few things I had brought with me that morning, returned to the new place via xe om, packed everything up and got another taxi back to my old home....where I will remain until I am ready to leave Ha Noi.
I started to move my things into the new place on a Thursday and officially moved in the following Sunday sometime in the early evening. I loaded all of my things into a taxi and headed over. The son of the landlord even drove me back to my old place to pick up my motorbike.
I brought everything into my new room and began to put my stuff away when I started to notice a few things. The floors were absolutely filthy, my small window faced the wall of the building next door, so no light was going to make it to my room, the fan was so old and the switch would only work on the first setting...which was the highest, the air conditioning unit blew out dirty air and had no controller, and the building was off a very busy street with no parks or lakes nearby to walk to. I sat on the bed only to realize it was just a foam mattress. No, I did not try out of the bed before I decided on this place. When I asked for a mop to clean the floor the family had no idea what to give me. They handed me a vacuum cleaner instead, but I told them that's not what I wanted. I found an old broom on one of the landings and tried to clean the floor of my room with that. After I finished sweeping I looked around and thought, "What did I do?" What did I do? When I had made the immediate decision to move into this place I was still angry at the cleaning ladies for eating my food. Granted, it was the last straw because there were other annoyances, but I realized that this place would bring it's own set of annoyances. The funny thing also is that after I had decided to move I told my original landlords and the reason why and two days later they brought back the cleaning ladies that I liked and got rid of the one who ate my food! I was so fixated on getting out of my old place that I did not think or even care where I was moving to. Even though I would only stay in the new place for two months, and it was much cheaper than the original place I was willing to pay more just not to be miserable. I became so upset with myself over my quick decision because I normally think things through a bit more first. I felt regretful. I went to bed early that night.
When I woke up the next morning I realized that I could no longer stay there. I spoke to my new landlords who were confused, but understanding. The woman of the home asked me to stay another night and that maybe it would get better for me, but I just couldn't. She asked me to pay only for the $40 fee Vietnamese families have to pay the police in order to have a foreigner stay with them. I packed a few things up and brought the bags with me to IIE. When I arrived at IIE that morning I called Huyen, Ben's girlfriend, and asked her if she could call my old landlords and ask them if it would be OK if I moved back to my room. She called me back to let me know that my room is still available and that I would be welcome back. Phew! Resolved!
After IIE I went back to my old apartment, sheepishly said hello to my landlord, dropped off the few things I had brought with me that morning, returned to the new place via xe om, packed everything up and got another taxi back to my old home....where I will remain until I am ready to leave Ha Noi.
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