A silly love song

You’d think that people would have had enought of silly love songs.
But I look around me and I see it isnt so.
Some people wanna fill the world with silly love songs.
And whats wrong with that?
I’d like to know, cause here I go again

When I resurrected this blog I aired my concern that I didn’t really know what I’d fill it with.

Specifically I didn’t want all that wow, look at the traffic and I just saw five people on a scooter guff.

But I also reasoned the I Love Vietnam stuff, that poured out of me the first time around, was such an extreme emotion that it seemed unlikely to be repeated and besides could I really blog it all again?

The truth is, it turns out, very simple. Wow and wow, and ****ing wow (apologies but swearing really needed for emphasis) I (really do) LOVE VIETNAM.

The feeling is absolutely overwhelming and I *am* going to blog that – for now at least.

It’s all there still in me. And in Vietnam. It wells up threatening to overflow. It’s bizarrely emotional. I can’t decide between sharing it with the world and keeping it secret so Hanoi’s essence isn’t diluted with more visitors.

And I still can’t believe that me, ME!, could get to live anywhere just so absolutely incredible. How come  I deserve this? What did I do? Why doesn’t everyone want to live here? Or to put it another way – why wouldn’t everyone want to live here?

Prior to my arrival I’d heard Hanoi wasn’t the Hanoi of old. It was gentrified. The traffic was worse.

I am glad they told me.

Glad just so I can say now – I think it’s better than ever. Gentrified? People appear to be a little richer and the place is cleaner. Higher prices aside, how can that be a bad thing? The traffic? Can’t say I noticed it. In fact if I hadn’t been told otherwise I think I might have perceived a slight drop off.

But it seems entirely more beautiful than ever. For every KFC that appears by the lake (okay not A Good Thing but it’s bizarrely the most tasteful KFC I’ve ever seen) there are newly rennovated gardens and lakes for public enjoyment.

If arriving was a comparatively low key, never-been-away-thing, the return of full on Hanoi-love came yesterday evening. I’d done my first full work stint and was motoring around the old quarter in search of a take home Vietnamese butty. It hit me.

The whooooosh was incredible.

My life may be more low key than my KOTO days and I am still very short on mates though that will come. But, in other ways, this seems even more exciting than my last spell. That was a posting. This can be for life if I want it to be. Last time I was brought here by VSO – this time I did this. I got me here. I made it happen.

Along with that thought, I seem to have a more all-embracing attitude in me – the people, the food and the language.  I know I will never be seen as a local but, at the same time, I’ve never felt more so. I want to give more of myself to this place and to stop drawing lines.

I hope that makes sense.

In more mundane news – I’ve found a place to live that I like. I’m about to invest in a scooter and work seems to be just fine.

There’s more money going out right now than I’d care to think about but once this initial phase of big purchases and desposits are over I feel like I can live comfortably on my projected wage.

And so life, my friends, is very good. Incredibly good. Hanoi good.

…here I go again.

My emotions are absolutely and completely bubbling over.