Kickin' it in the countryside

This weekend my good friend Lien invited a bunch of her highschool friends and myself to her house in the countryside. Although I knew I would be the only English speaker, I jumped on the opportunity (although this fact made understanding fireside stories virtually impossible). So we got on Ha Noi's only form of public transport, and headed to a bus depot station on the outskirts of the city. Even though there were 13 of us, we still managed to get off the bus at the wrong place, then had to hop back on another one. We finally got to the bus depot around 9:30 AM, and from there got into a little bus that would take us an additional hour into the countryside. This van stopped and picked up random Vietnamese people on the side of the street on numerous occasions, until we were beyond capacity. We were dropped off at a market where we picked up a whole bunch of cooking supplies (this was yet another market not accustomed to white people, and I got quite a few stares). From there we made our way down some dirt roads until we reached Lien's compound. The compound has two houses, two lakes, numerous gardens growing all sorts of vegetables, a sugarcane field, and various fruit trees. It was incredibly beautiful, and I could definitely understand why her parents come here every weekend to escape the bustle of Ha Noi. They had hand-pump wells to get water, and I was told that they are also used for showering.

It was really interesting to spend some time with a large group of Vietnamese people, and to see how Hanoian's my own age do the whole "bbq party" thing. Most of the day was the boys playing cards, and the girls preparing food or sleeping. I took the opportunity to leave the compound and walk down the street to snap a couple photos. I came across this one guy carrying a bunch of recently captured tiny birds in a cage. We followed him along, with my friend asking him what he intended to do with them. Either her Hanoian accent was too thick, or this guy just didn't feel like listening, because we never got an answer. My friend guessed

that they would be fried, and I agreed since I have seen whole fried swallows on numerous occasions.

Upon return, we ate a really small lunch of pate', bread, and salad, which left me thinking how hungry I was, until the real preparations began.

We all walked around the compound collecting vegetables, tea leaves, sugar cane, and fruit. Then, we set up some grills and everyone began to help (in the picture on the right, I am fanning some pork over the grill).

The cooking started around 5pm, and we started with grilled pork, grilled chicken, an incredibly spicy salad of sorts, and some cold bun noodles. Once the grilling was done, we spread all the meat over banana tree leaves and went to town. I was quite full by 6:30, and was a little confused, since a typical Vietnamese meal tends to cover all parts of the food pyramid. By the time we sat down in front of the fire, the second part of dinner appeared. Skewers of mushrooms and sweet potatoes were held over the fire (a nice break from your typical American hotdog or marshmallow) and sugar cane was placed in the embers to grill.

Everything was quite delicious, and I really liked how the whole evening was based around a long, drawn-out dinner. When I have get togethers with my friends, dinner usually begins and ends in an hour or two, and the rest of the night is spent lazing about, but we spent over 4 hours eating, which left me very satisfied and sleepy by the end of it. Once the food was all gone, a guitar came out and everyone joined in singing some traditional Vietnamese songs (with the exception of myself of course). Then, talk turned to high school memories, none of which I could understand, so I walked further into the compound to get a better view of the stars for a bit. As the night drew to a close, people drifted into the house, eventually with everyone squished together on mattresses on the floor. It was all quite cozy, but the lack of sufficient blankets left everyone feeling the oncoming winter chill.

The next morning brought a gorgeous day. We took this opportunity to collect some water lillies, so a couple of us took turns paddling out in a tiny, tiny boat and picking them out of the water... which is a lot easier than it sounds. Trying to yank these flowers out and not topple over the side was quite a challenge, and I retired after 2 flowers, fearing that I would get my only set of clothes soaked. Oh, and the "paddles" were just little boards of wood, which made steering a bit of an issue...

As the boys sat down to play cards, again, the girls got together to do a little karaoke. Keeping me in mind (which was very nice of them) we sang mostly English songs. It was pretty ridiculous, but enjoyable nonetheless. There was a lot of Spice Girls, Whitney Houston, and Backstreet Boys, but I made sure to get some Beatles on there as well. It left me questioning why Americans don't have mid-afternoon karaoke parties on a regular basis, because, really, it was a great way to kill some time. I think I will start this trend upon return...

The bus back towards Ha Noi had us packed like sardines. Naturally I was the only foreigner, and once again was gawked at, considering the fact that there wasn't much to look at since everyone was so squished together. When I finally got back to Ha Noi I was really excited to get into my big, oversized bed with a huge blanket. Despite the language barrier, it was an awesome experience and I hope to do something like it again before I leave.