thefuckoffkid

These are various shots from around Hanoi, including some from the Temple of Literature.







In this last one I am lying with a very ill belly in a clinic about to receive two hours worth of a saline drip into the catheter you can see inserted in my arm. (And a shot of antibiotics.)

These are various shots from around Ha Long Bay, north of Hanoi. Spectacular, even with hazy cloudy weather.

She has spent the past week in Hanoi with me. She loves Asia, having been a Japan-o-phile for more than a few years but this is her first time in Vietnam. She's already learned more about Hanoi in a week than I have on several trips, and is quickly picking up bits of the language.

We also had a trip to Ha Long Bay, the beautiful (and very well known) area a little to the north. The car journey along the highways is a little bit hairy, because drivers here don't think anything of moving out across the centre line into oncoming traffic to overtake something they deem to be moving too slowly in front of them.

We had a bag of sweet stuff to nibble, grabbed from a bakery, in a bag in the car we were being driven to Ha Long Bay in. TFOG was snacking away happily on the journey there and apropos nothing, made the following observation. (Keep in mind that the observation was not spoken in order to generate a conversation. She says these things in a way that makes them sound completely self-contained. The follow-up questions I ask in such situations feel almost intrusive.)

TFOG: "It's good to be an adult."
TFOK: "Why?"
TFOG: "Because when you go into a bakery like the one we got this stuff from, there's nobody to tell you that you can't have whatever you want."
TFOK: "Indeed."

Soon afterwards, our driver did a rather heart-stopping maneuver, overtaking a van while just barely avoiding an oncoming car. As we watched this unfolding from the backseat I clutched TFOG's hand and she clutched back. She kept on eating the snacks, though. Once our car was driving safely again, I looked over at her.

TFOG: "It's good to have two hands."

Indeed.