Today I welcome the rain. It is amazing the difference that it makes to Hanoi, much less people about and everyone who is out has a poncho on, even the people on the bikes, with the poncho thrown over the bike as well as themselves. Looks hilarious, but everyone is wearing them. You get a sense that everyone is feeling down, the normally upbeat atmosphere has been replaced by a much more serene and somewhat depressing undertone. There are still throngs of women walking the street trying to sell all manner of wears from their baskets. I don't know how they carry them around all day. Some women carry a stove, chairs and everything they need to serve up whatever it is that they are selling.
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Go out for coffee with Alex, in the rain and the usual shoe shine boys and lighter sellers have been replaced with people selling ponchos. I'm still not interested though. We head back to the place Alex had something to eat yesterday because now my stomach is up to the challenge. Delicious. Burger in a noodle soup. Can't beat it. My favourite meal since I have come to Vietnam. And I think the meal that has the most amount of meat. Normally the finding the meat is like a game of hide and seek, but there is plenty in this noodle soup.
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Today has further amplified the chilled out disposition of the Vietnamese. Everyday I see lots of people just sitting around. Not actually doing anything, just sitting there. Most people I talk to work 7 days a week, with few days off. If you take the girls who work in my hostel. Only 2 days off a month but when there are no new backpackers to check in, they are just sitting there. They don't read, play on their phone or surf the net. Just sit. I'm pretty sure that I could not do that, I would be so bored. Yet they always greet you with a smile when you enter and are very friendly, maybe they are so excited to talk to someone after god knows how many hours of solace.
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I head out for dinner with a local girl called Thuy and we get some noodles. She is so happy to speak English with me and her pronunciation is much better than some of the people that I have met. We get a coffee after and she tells me that she wants to travel. I think a lot of the younger people in Vietnam want to travel, I'm not sure that many of them will be able to. I'm told how I am so lucky, something that I hear a lot, and I'm starting to become more humble with it. After coffee I just head home, it has been raining all day, hopefully tomorrow will be better.