A change of scene (warning: long and random rant follows).

Well, yesterday at the ungodly hour of 4.30am I raised myself from my bed (it doesn't rhyme with 'raised from the dead' for nothing!), staggered out to the alleyway outside my house just after 5am and was greeted by my xe om (motorbike taxi) guy (who I had communicated with the night before via a note written by my flatmate) and his wife who was keeping him company in her jimmy jams (this is the same woman who runs the drink stall outside our house and the same woman who tried to kill me the other morning when Mr Xe Om was late and she sat me down on her dinky plastic chairs which make you feel like Gulliver with your knees around your ears and gave me the strongest goddamn iced coffee in the world to drink before I could protest...until this point in my life I had drunk maybe half a cup of coffee in total - so I was a VERY energetic bunny at university that day!).

But I digress.

So, Mr Xe Om and I head across town to the airport in order to catch my 6.30am flight to Hanoi. I do not normally exist at 5am so it was a real eye-opener for me crossing town at this time of day. Saigon, which is normally a very pleasant shade of manic, was blissfully quiet and there were very few bikes on the roads. Now that's not to say that the Vietnamese - who are notoriously early risers - weren't up and about at that time of day, it's just that they weren't working yet. This is also a novelty for me - you hardly ever see a Vietnamese person who is not working in some way shape or form.

So what they were doing, in their masses, was exercising vigorously, often in pairs but also by themselves. Most of the ones I saw were walking purposefully in what seemed to be the standard Vietnamese exercise uniform - black for women and baggy white t-shirt or singlet and white shorts for guys...not sure if this is some sort of socialist throwback but it was remarkably consistent!

But again I digress.

So now I am in the capital - Ha Noi. I am always amazed at how quickly you click into the ex-pat circuit in Vietnam - when I arrived in Saigon I was on the town with flatmates within 4 hours of touching down - and it took less than a day here to be invited to a pool party (not really my style to be honest but hey what the hell) this Saturday. It also doesn't take long to realise just how small the ex-pat circuit is - you only need to go to a few events before you start bumping into the same people. I guess that's part of the problem with a small ex-pat population in a ridiculously hot and communist country - drinking and socialising in aircon comfort are the main entertainment options! I have also had the pleasure of catching up with a Vietnamese friend who has been taking me around and showing me the joys of Vietnamese street cuisine (it is nice not to be randomly pointing at Vietnamese words on a menu and hoping for the best!).

Yesterday was also the first time that I have gotten within spitting distance of an organisation that I have always aspired to work for/with/around - the UN system. I attended a UNDP meeting (some might say 'gatecrashed' but 'attended' sounds more legit ;-) I even have a now-empty bottle of UNDP-branded water as a souvenir!

It was an interesting experience to say the least. As boring as I expected in some places, pleasantly less so in others and my first encounter/minor run-in with career bureaucrats was a bit disconcerting even though it was not in the least surprising.

Went to another one today, sucker for punishment that I am which was also pretty cool but I am definitely leaning in the direction of working with/around rather than 'for' as a preferred option! Providing of course, that someone wants me to work for them one day!

And now, it is just gone midnight and I am using up the hotel's free internet connection like there's no tomorrow. It has also just occured to me that I don't think I have ever actually said why I am here in Vietnam (I guess I just assume that the only people who ever read this are immediate family and friends but the stat counter info suggests otherwise every now and then). I am here doing a project that is part of my Masters thesis - which focusses on online communication about sexual health with young Vietnamese). In response to the standard questions that follow, the answers are 'no, i don't speak Vietnamese but it is irrelevant in the context of this project', 'no there was no easily explainable reason why I chose Vietnam' and 'yes, I am ridiculously over-ambitious trying to pull this off in a communist country with spectacular censorship but I'm giving it a shot anyway'. More questions, comments and criticisms are always welcomed.

The working title of my thesis (minus the mindnumbingly boring bit that follows as all thesis titles must) is "Let's talk (discreetly) about sex".

Comments and hassling are warmly accepted.

So tomorrow, I get to go and talk to more people, while wearing business clothes in 38-odd degree heat and travelling on the back of a motorbike. Then on Saturday I am going to go and visit 'Uncle Ho' in his mausoleum where he has been 'sleeping' since 1968...and maybe go to a pool party...