Last Gasp

Vietnam is a smoker’s heaven.

When I first got here I smoked Vinataba.  They’re roughly 25p a pack.

Two months later they were all I could taste from the moment I woke up.  I noticed too that my already non-pearly white teeth were further yellowing.  I switched to Marlboro.  A whopping 40p a pack.

Compare that to home when, last time I was there, they were £5.

So smoking in Vietnam is kind of a bargain.  It’s social too.  Smoking with the guys at work is what you do.  Guy things include bia hoi, smoking and coffee.  Girls eat fruit and drink tea.  I think it’s fair to say we have the best end of the deal.

And I have noticed just how many volunteers smoke.  I wonder if they rationalise it the same way I do.  The longer I do this, the longer I am not paying into my pension.  Simple…..instead I’ll invest in smoking, then I won’t need a pension.

Joking aside there is something in the smoker that lives for the day.  The habit maybe bad but the sentiment isn’t necessarily.

Smoking in Hanoi is easy.  While the west is slowly marginalising the smoker, in Hanoi you can light a cigarette in a restaurant and nobody complains.  I’ve smoked through meetings.  In trains you have the corridors and my morning xe om routine is buy egg butty, put it in xe om’s basket, put on sunglasses, switch on the music, light a cigarette and let’s go.

I’ll leave the dangers of smoking piece and the effect of tobacco on Vietnam to someone else.  It’s all valid but my heart isn’t in it.

Because, I’ve just smoked my last cigarette.

Okay so I’m partly writing this so that I’m shamed into keeping it up.

But after a long hot summer when it was too stifling to do anything but drink iced coffee and smoke, I feel lousy.  I’ve worked from my bed today as I’ve been hit by a second bug in a month.  I reckon my immune system must be at an all time low.  I feel crap.

So the cigarettes have got to go.  It’s a tough time to do it with the new restaurant and the bike ride not far away.  But these things can work in your favour.  Past attempts to quit have at least lasted a few months and in that time I have this incredible nervous energy.  No doubt it’s as irritating as hell to live with but handy for getting things done.

Sometimes I invent things to do simply because I can’t sit still.

So be warned.  I’m going to be a pain.  If you’re giving up then Vietnam turns from cigarette heaven to absolute hell.  There will be no hiding from the omnipresent Vinataba.

Shame.  I really fancy one right now too.