The Joy of Hanoi (part 2)

There is no shortage of capitalism in communist Vietnam. From what we heard, there is little to no financial help from the government, even for the handicapped, poor, or elderly. Families are very important in this culture, and necessary just for survival. Property is so expensive that two or three generations of families all live in the same house. When a new room is needed the only way to expand is upward. The houses can be quite narrow and can get quite tall.

Family businesses are also the norm, and all generations can be seen working together. For restaurants, the kids wash and clean, the teens wait tables, the parents cook, and the grandparents cut and the prepare the food. One of our tour guides told us the reason for large families was due to "happy water"; his term for alcohol. He said "Man drink happy water, go home to wife, only one drink but make two happy." 

Everyone works, and when they don't have an actual store front to use, then they make their own "store" anywhere on any street or sidewalk.  Everyone seemed to have some kind of service they offered. People just pick a street corner, a tree, or an underpass and that becomes their 'office'. On one corner we saw a young man good at fixing scooters, which were everywhere. People just pulled up, he did his work, they paid and drove off. It was rather efficient and convenient, actually.

Walking down a crowded street, Bryan stopped for a moment and before he knew what was happening, a young man was kneeling in front of him adding a little glue to a small loose place on the edge of the sole of his shoe. He then indicated for Bryan to remove one of his shoes so he could "fix" it. We were mobbed with people on that street, so the initial response was to flee. But in this case Bryan had been having trouble with the sole coming loose on one sneaker. Bryan relented and in a few minutes his shoe was back to normal. The guy was very thorough and did a great job. Unfortunately financial negotiations did not take place BEFORE the work began. After the job was done, the young man asked for an exorbitant amount, and Bryan only had a very small amount of cash on him at the time. Bryan pulled out all his money (about a dollar and a quarter's worth) and offered it to the guy. He turned his pockets inside out to indicate that was all he had. At first the young man made a fuss, but then accepted. When we walked away I could see the young man smiling about the incident. 

Another day we were walking by an old Banyan tree with a trunk that was at least 18-20 feet in diameter. As we passed, a local man waved us over. He was a barber, and the tree was his office. He had a mirror precisely wedged within the gnarled roots. Other roots, which snaked up the trunk, acted like shelves where he kept his various equipment. I was in need of a hair cut anyway, so I agreed. The barber was learning English, and showed us his English grammar book and attempted to carry on a conversation with us. The barber appreciated the language practice, and Bryan and I got really great hair cuts for $3 each. 

 

But street corner services only represent a portion of the local businesses. It seems that there was some people with more means in the area as well. Every now and then we saw fancy hotels, fancy stores, and some rather expensive restaurants. And Vietnam is not lacking in modern convinces. Everyone has a cell phone and many have expensive iPhones and Android phones. A big seller was the new Samsung S7. It was the same one that has recently been under fire in the US for having a defective battery that can explode. Apparently Vietnam got a good deal on them because advertisements for them were everywhere.

Vietnam also has a good number of movie theaters. We decided to go and see the movie "Dr Strange", which was recently released in the United States. I was particularly excited about the show because I had been missing popcorn. Come to find out, they only offer carmel corn at the theater. Not my favorite, but we all got some anyhow. The prices for movies and popcorn in Vietnam are but a fraction of what they cost back home. The price of the movie, popcorn and drink were about $4. The same in the states would be about $20.

While the government mostly seems invisible among the public, we found out that they do make their mark. All Internet usage for hotels, restaurants and public Internet cafes are monitored. We were advised to be cautious with what we do online. During one of our tours, we passed a small poor looking town that had a large, beautiful and expensive looking gateway. The tour guide mentioned that the ten million dollar gate was funded by the government, although the people in the town still live in old run down buildings, don't have a lot of work or food and some can't afford basic necessities. Sounds familiar, we thought. In the states we can't afford healthcare and insurance, and have taxes on basic necessities like food, even with the extreme poor but somehow we can manage to find billions of dollars to fund stupid projects and to send overseas.

During our visit to Ha Long Bay, Mark started feeling a little woozy. The next day Mark was pretty much having a full blown cold. We cut our activities a little short to give him a chance to recuperate best he could. Being sick is never fun, but in a strange place full of strange things it makes it even worse. Drug stores were not readily available in Vietnam like we found in Malaysia. We were close to leaving, and he hung in there. When I was sick, I spent the day in the bathroom. Mark just needed to be in bed. We boarded the taxi for the airport the next morning, and soon found ourselves back in Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur.