Jack fruit and Jackets!

We had to take an intermission from eating and walking since Oliver needed to stop by the local International clinic to get a recent ear infection looked at while I needed a nap and took a break from rush hour Hanoi motorbike traffic for a nice 2 hr afternoon nap. Oliver left as I fell asleep and came back a REM cycle later to wake me up with utter frustration at the amount of grid locked traffic he had just subjugated himself into walking through for an hour+ .



Let me interject with a common known fact: Oliver is German.


(We know he likes to mock me sometimes and pretend that he's Asian...





....but NO. He's German.)



He may not be the most highly organized German, but compared to me he is super perfectly on time and organized in every way. So take someone who comes from a country who is very good at efficiency and drop them anywhere in Asia, but ESPECIALLY in downtown Hanoi during 5 pm rush hour traffic and... well... you can imagine the shock he was having and the chuckles I was having even with the sudden awakening from my nap.

It's not that Olli couldn't handle it, but he found himself wish he could organize things in a different manner. Cars blocked motorbikes , motorbikes parked on streets, street vendors setting up shop on sidewalks, utterly no where to walk but in the street with the cars and traffic honking all around you. Basically if you just told people they couldn't drive in the city center except by bikes or on public transport (basically pull a London) things would be better...

....but then again who are we to tell a country what is better / more efficient for them when they are too busy having their own industrial revolution to waste time listening to us anyways? And thus... history is always doomed to repeat itself.



Moving on from my little rant to something more important: Jackets.

Whenever I find myself in Hanoi it always seems to be freezing cold (to the point where people are dying since there is no heating in Hanoi due to the fact that its usually tropical...ugh) So that is just what we did. We bought some nice, factory second NorthFace jackets. Hell, its gonna be cold in Germany, may as well get them and use them now!

After our jacket buying we then proceeding to partake in some jack fruit buying with a couple friends we had met earlier that night (pre-jacket buying). I guess Olli had never tried Jack fruit (this deliciously sweet cousin to the stinky, bulbously spiky Durian fruit) and proceeded to excitedly eat it while offering me some, and telling me that he hadn't tried any of this yet and why not!?

I politely accepted a small piece of jackfruit but told him no thanks to the rest since I was allergic to the stuff and some kind of resin in it made my mouth itch all over if I ate too much.

....5 Mins. & 3 pieces of jackfruit later Olivers mouth started to itch. Then it started to itch more, then the itch grew into his throat....

....and that's when Oliver decided that his new discovery in fruit he probably would never eat again... oh the Horror when this happnens!


Damn You Jackfruit! why must you be oh so tasty and annoying at the same time?




On an ending note: It you want to get your shoes shined in Hanoi. The moment they try and "re-sole" your shoes DONT"T let them do it! They will raise the price, or refuse to give you your shoes back. I may look cute and happy in this picture, but I sure wasnt' 5 mins later....