Getting Around and Living in Quy Nhon – 15 May 2008

The view from the front porch of my new flat

My bedroom


The kitchen

The lounge - I have tried to rearrange the furniture to make it a bit less like a waiting room

The back yard - it would make a good squash court

Getting Around and Living in Quy Nhon – 15 May 2008

I have gained a lot of confidence in finding my way around my local streets over the last three weeks – I am positively zipping around (well – maybe tootling) on my torture machine which is cleverly disguised as a bike. I so hope that my one arrives soon. Mostly I manage to be on the correct side of the road and I don’t confuse as many people as I make my way haphazardly through the intersections now. The biggest hazard for the people on the road is that some of them are so busy turning back to stare at me as they go past that they nearly run into someone else.

Gradually I am getting used to being the subject of continuous stares and comments as I make my way around town. Generally people are not being rude (I think) –it seems that they are just fascinated by the sight of a huge white woman doing ordinary things like shopping, biking and walking. First time in my life that I have been fascinating!!!!!

Quite often people say hello and occasionally we are able to have a slightly longer conversation. Most of the time I quite like the feeling of being on the outside, watching the world go on around me but every now and then it can suddenly feel difficult and isolating. I am really really lucky to be doing my VSA in a place where there are others from ’home’ who I can catch up with regularly.

It has been raining heavily during the last few days – quite unseasonable apparently. Now most of you will be well aware that I am not known for my fashionability to say the least but I think that I have exceeded even my previous lows. Picture me, trousers rolled up to my knees and wearing a bike helmet that is bright pink with orange flowers combined with a green poncho that looks like an oversized condom made of plastic like a dry cleaning bag. Within one ride I managed to shred the poncho so I traded up to a bright yellow nylon one. Wow! The only good thing about it is that I didn’t buy one that has a clear plastic window so you can drape it over the headlight on a motorbike too. If I was wearing one of those I would look just like a telly tubby but with the screen set at crotch height – maybe next time.

Well equipped I ride through puddles that are really more like small lakes – confident that no one could ever say they didn’t see me if they ran me over. Riding in this sort of rain is an adventure in itself. Mudguards would be good. Maybe a wetsuit and flippers would be useful.

I am really very lucky to have moved into a flat on my own. The people in the other house were really kind to me but I much prefer to live in my own space rather than a flatting situation so when the chance arose I jumped at it. I have a downstairs flat with two bedrooms, a kitchen and a bathroom. It is lovely and airy with lots of windows most of which are permanently open. It feels a bit like living in a bach. The outside area is mostly concrete and the neighbors are very close but there are a couple of nice sitting places and lots of big pot plants.

On the first day I moved in I put away all of the decorative items left by past residents that I did not want to live with. I felt a bit naughty, as though I was dishonoring their past owners, but I decided that I would rather live in a place that is quite bare than one decorated with things that other people had not loved enough to take home with them. I will undoubtedly replace it with my own tacky stuff as time passes.

Eating continues to be an adventure. The housekeeper for this house is an excellent cook so most week days I have wonderful lunches. I am still struggling with my own cooking and have produced some meals that I would be flattering if I called them “ordinary”. With my lack of knowledge of the language and of protocols buying dinner at the local stalls is a pretty hit and miss process. Sometimes great, sometimes okay and sometimes horrible. Last night I got home from work late. It was dark and I had nothing much in the house so I wandered down the road to see what I could find. I am not yet very familiar with my new area. Following Nicky’s advice to chose somewhere with lots of rubbish on the floor (a sign of its popularity) I stopped at a place selling rice with a variety of dishes to go with it. I hung around at the front for a while intending to point at some pork and vegetables that looked quite nice but when no one served me I decided that perhaps I should sit down until they came and asked. Without consulting me I was delivered a plate piled up with rice, orange colored hardboiled eggs, shrimps, tofu and little squids accompanied by a sparse cabbage soup. It was “interesting” but it filled the gap and was cheap 10,000 VND – about .80cents.

It is a shame that I do not really like many types of seafood because there is an absolute abundance here. At lunch time a group of us were taken to a restaurant overlooking and estuary. The sign indicated that it was called something to do with sea horses – for good reason. They had tanks filled with seahorses, crabs and sea snails. Now – I like sea horses a lot but I do not want to eat one. Fortunately an alternative was chosen for us – great big sea snails. I can do this I told myself as they were taken from the tank, cooked for us and I prised one from its shell. They were a relatively expensive luxury – we were being given a treat and I did not want to be rude but I was like a loser on Fear Factor. The combination of its appearance (thick yellow and brown) with my perception of them as filters of pollution was too much. The gag reflex unattractively took over as I tried to put it in my mouth. I just could not do it so was the subject of quite a bit of ribbing from the other braver souls. I did manage to enjoy some parts of a crab (avoiding the ooky brown green stuff in the middle – what is that?) and loved the jackfruit that we finished with.

It might not sound like it from the descriptions in my blog but I am really enjoying trying lots of new foods and I do enjoy many of them, but in answer to your question Jenny – no steak and chips would not be on the menu for Michael.