One big impact of Vietnam being a very long and slim country, is that one doesn’t have to go very far to notice a distinct difference in language, culture and dress. When we were in Hoi An, Luke and I (along with a few from the course) participated in Vietnamese classes (which, I might add, is an incredibly hard, but fun, language!). This gave us a tiny bit of insight into regional linguistic differences. When we arrived in Hanoi, I of a sudden had an even harder time understanding what people were saying, other than the phrase “ối trời ơi”, which is the North Vietnamese way of saying “Oh my gosh!”. My dear neighbor, Minh, who I mentioned in the last blogpost, would utter the Central Vietnamese version “trời ơi!” in almost every single sentence (which is very common for a Vietnamese person) and would laugh whenever I would mimic it back.
The people here get up very early, as they do in the rest of the country, however there is at least one other massive difference between Hoi An and Ha Noi.
After coming in with the train from Sa Pa (at 4.30 am, which will be the focus of next week’s blog post), Luke and I were aimlessly wandering the streets of Hanoi, with a zombie-like look in our faces, made complete with our heavy back packs. We decided to walk around Hoàn Kiếm Lake, and after a while we started noticing how many people were out at this time and how fast they were moving. We then realized that they were out exercising! I don’t know about where you live, but there sure aren’t many people in Denmark who get up at 4 am to exercise! It was an awesome sight, with both young and (very) old out making the city unsafe with swinging arms and legs, accompanied by movements, stretching exercises and what I presume to be warming up of the ears and head by clapping and rubbing them vigorously.
We suddenly heard a very loud disco-beat coming from across the lake, and hurried over there. And yes, it was still only around 5am. It turned out to be a massive group of women of all ages, some standing in a big square and some, more shy I guess, standing at a distance (some were even copying the movements across the street!). A serious of very non-Asian sounding music blasted out of the loud speakers, and moves very similar to what would be busted out on a disco-dancefloor were performed together to a tee. It looked so fun that I actually threw my bags on the ground and joined in, definitely one of the best way to start your day!
I so wish more people back home would have awesome dance parties like that, together, in public, very early in the morning before the work day is started. I think that would make a world of a difference!
