Au Co: More than just a street name

Au Co is a fascinating street, and I have the good fortune of walking on it every day. The food comes in all types – from the pho shops to the bakeries to the fancy Moroccan restaurant just up the road. And the wonders don’t stop at food. There’s a huge flower market within walking distance, a plethora of beautiful houses, and even a barbershop or two.

First off, my lane, Ngo 142 Au Co, has its own surprises. I’ve written about him before but my landlord is the coolest old guy ever. All I see him do is chill and make rice wine and play with his dog. And his grandkids are always around and shout “Hello!!” every time I walk by. I bet their family is shocked that my roommate and I are able to survive. Whenever we get food delivered (which is more often than I’d like to admit), they stare at us as if to say, “how are you guys not able to cook your own food?” And for a while I wasn’t putting my motorbike in our garage (which is playing with fire since it’s a piece of cake to steal a motorbike, roll it down the street, then get someone to make a key that turns it on). Eventually, the landlord’s wife came over and made enough hand motions that it became clear I needed to start locking it up. Their presence next door (and the police man who lives on the other side) make me feel incredibly safe here, and I’m learning more and more about them the better my Vietnamese becomes. Below are some pictures of the view from my house, Ngo 142, and my landlord's rice wine containers/his house/a random delicious meal my roommate and I had there today.  

This is my motorbike! 

That's how my landlord makes his ricewine! He makes so much that he tries to give me and my roommate bottles of it all the time.

Ngo 142

My landlord's friend along with some rice wine and the meal we had today!

My roommie is pretty easy to pick out. My landlord is the man smiling off to the right.

It's Tết Time!

The whole country is gearing up for the lunar New Year, which in Vietnam is called Tết. It’s been really exciting to watch! There are banners on every street that say “chúc mừng năm mới,” aka Happy New Year, and all of the stores on the streets are selling big gift baskets. And tons of drivers are riding around with massive quat and peach blossom trees on the backs of their motorbikes – according to some friends here, they are very traditional trees to have at your house during Tet. Here are some pics of cars/trucks with the trees on the back and other Tet preparations that I saw around Hanoi today:

Hanoi Happenings, Pt. 2

The wonders never cease here at 142 Au Co. I just drove home and found that all of the electrical wires on the lane that leads to my house are about 3 feet from the ground, so it took a lot of intricate driving on my motorbike (and help from a bunch of the kids on the street) to make it to my house. I also had my first experience driving a motorbike across a bridge here – I drove to and from “Long Bien” district, which is right next to Tay Ho, the district I live in. The bridge is HUGE and rather terrifying, partially because the barriers keeping you from falling into the water don’t look all that secure and also because many couples stop at various spots on the bridge to sit on their bikes and look out over the water together. The bridge and its view would be very romantic if the whole thing wasn’t so death-defying.