and the rain came tumbling down...

So today I met up with a friend for lunch at Koto. Koto is a not-for-profit restaurant and vocational training program for disadvantaged youth in Vietnam. It has recently opened its new and larger premises at 55 Văn Miếu opposite the Temple of Literature. The ground floor has a nice laid back café atmosphere, though we choose to dine in the comfortable lounge/bar area on the next floor up. I believe if you keep going up, then there is roof top seating with a good view over the Confucian Temple across the road. There is a good mixture of both Continental and Vietnamese fare available - all appealing in both flavour and presentation. Prices are reasonable for ex-pats (60,000 đ or $4 for a roast duck salad - always a favourite of mine), and the atmosphere is of quiet understated luxury. It also has wifi!

It was sprinkling as I left, and my friend was concerned about me walking away in the rain. 'Haha - this is nothing!' I was getting wetter from the sweat coming out than the rain coming in. I walked along Nguyễn Khuyến, then Hàng Bông back into the Old Quarter, and finally took a right down Hàng Trống towards Puku cafe. Puku is an excellent ex-pat hangout, especially if like me, your wireless at home is crap. A lot of my time here has been spent finding good wifi points outside of my house to continue my life of aimless surfing and procrastination. Puku was set up a number of years ago by a Kiwi (who is really lovely - but probably doesn't need my publicity). It has changed hands since, but not the menu. They do a largely western breakfast, lunch, dinner menu - and they do it well and at a reasonable price. But the reason to come here is it is comfortable, the upstairs floor is particularly open to the air, and they don't seem to mind how long you sit here on your computer sucking back Halida's and smoking. I looked up the weather forecast and it says scattered thunderstorms. Sure, whatever! Except - bang! - it began. Rain like the rain back in Sydney. Rain that makes the trip home on the back of a motorbike taxi look particularly suckful and uncomfortable. Rain that has just started leaking through the roof onto my laptop keyboard... This blog entry has been brought to you by the rain. I've got no where else to go now.

west lake haiku

above west lake sit
watch bats swoop towards their aim
tabula rasa

Geckos

Geckos live in my apartment. Small and pale, they cling and move on the ceiling and the walls with their splayed sucker like feet. They make a distinctive popping sound that helps mark the passing of my time. The other place I have seen geckos is in the bottom of large bottles of rice wine, thus making gecko wine. This wine supposedly has all kind of medicinal properties, though its primary effect seems to get people wildly drunk. Recently at bia hoi, amidst the endless rounds of cheap weak beer, many bottles of gecko wine were ordered. The wine was poured into small glasses, perhaps two thumbs widths high, and knocked back in one after some incomprehensible toast. Eight glasses violently clinked together in almost well-aimed synchronicity, sending a small fountain of wine into the air and down hands, wrists and forearms. Repeat. In the collective consciousness of Gekkonidae I think they know the fate that awaits a minority of their family. The sound they emit is exactly like the sound of brain cells imploding.

hanoi space

It is hard to conceive of the structure of Hanoi unless you have a Borges bent to your thinking. There are the big streets that the tourists trot down, weaving between the street cookers, bike repair men and motorbikes. The shops and houses appear to make a unbroken chaotic frontage extending as far as you stumble. But look closer and scooters dart from darkened spaces between shop fronts, people slide in and out of these unseen passage ways. Descend into these tight spaces and you find other alleys, passage ways, squeeze spaces. And from these diverge even more conduits of human traffic with walls that tower four stories above, and doors opening onto living cum workspaces that themselves are divided up into human sized pods where inevitably there is a mattress or straw mat for rest. Even then it continues subdividing so the cats have their spaces, and the rats theirs as well. Each square formed by the intersection of four roads is a termite nest of humanity and more - not even just in the floor plan - but stretching up into the sky. Steps, spiral staircases and ladders extending into the gloom of the air. A fractal space folding into and onto itself repeatedly and endlessly. Each block a cartographers nightmare, a madman's dream.

one day this war is going to end

All the planning was in getting here. Now I am here, what the hell am I supposed to do?

Hanoi has reverted to its perpetual mist to greet me. West lake lays like a sheet of gun metal out the window. I hear power tools, motorbikes and Led Zeppelin. OK, so I'm playing the music. Dazed and Confused has come on the random play list and it seems rather appropriate at this juncture. For the moment it is better not to plan. For the moment, it is better to walk out the door and get lost on the streets until clarity returns.

Thank you Sharon for getting me complete to the airport. Thank you Nick for getting me complete from the airport. Now I'm going to walk out the door and see the world. Seeing I still get lost in Newtown, I doubt that anyone will ever hear of me again...

walking in a suit

Special day today. A day swanning around the Web Directions South confernce currently running in Sydney. It is two days of having the perverse pleasure of wearing a suit. I don't wear suits as a rule unless its a job interview. Today I wore a Nerhu collared black number I had made in Vietnam. Poking out the bottom were the hand-made (again in Vietnam) zip up black leather boots. There are 600 web folk wandering around - all of them talented in something. Perhaps 40% of them are women. Nearly everyone is dressed down, because, you know, they are web people and they don't need to make an impression through how they look. They are smart, and if you are smart enough to engage with them, you will see through the mirage that is dressing for appearance only. Everyone dresses in the way that makes them feel comfortable. So I get to be the only guy looking sexy in a suit except the waiters and sponsors. Sweet! And you can tell I'm not a waiter because I'm wearing a People's Army of China cap (also made in Vietnam) and spend half my time outside smoking cigarettes and cursing the fact that at a Web confernce with free wireless I can't get a frigging connection so am cut off from the world. But don't believe the hype, I am enjoying myself.

ruby rails to india

Have spent a day listening and watching a man move too fast and speak too much. But as an introduction to Ruby on Rails it was good. I don't know what I've learnt, but I can feel the pressure in my skull from all that damn knowledge. I am going to go out, poke at some food in a thoughtful way and drink a shitload.

In a few hours Mic leaves on a plane to India with her boyfriend. Whilst I am still officially in denial and thus do not feel the consequences of this right now, part of me knows that something tomorrow morning will be broken. The inner circle can no longer function in balanced harmony. The machinary will start to go awry, spinning too fast and tipping from its safe axis. My world - by a simple absence - is going to start slipping from control. Sydney will become defunct.

Good morning Vietnam.