Summer in the city

I checked the weather in Hanoi for the week ... by Friday it is supposed to be 40 degrees. I hope it's an Addis Abeba-like 40 (dry) rather than Ottawa-like (humid). I had expected weather like this in Addis until I found out it's on a 2,800 metre hill. As I mentioned many times in that BLOG, the weather in Ethiopia is ideal for my Sweet Thing.

I am so looking forward to scoring some more steady work in Ottawa. I want to sleep in my own bed with my ST, and do the things I like to do around town. I want to be a "normal" person for a while, even though the jaunting around the globe I have been doing lately may be the envy of friends and family.

It takes over 19,000 Vietnamese dong to make up the almighty US dollar. At that rate, using North American prices, my Hyundai would have cost close to 250 million dong. Imagine a 133,000 dong fancy lahté at Starbucks or a 500,000 dong souvenir t-shirt at Vietnam Apparel.

I haven't quite figured out how this sun thing is going to work on my flight. I leave Toronto at 10AM for a 15-hour flight to Hong Kong. The clock goes ahead 12 hours during the flight, so I imagine it will get dark by half way through the flight? I picked up my basic need-to-know Vietnamese already ...

thank-you is 'cam on' (the "on" is very abrupt and the "o" more like "un" in "un-popular")

yes is 'yaa' (with a very short and abrupt "d" in the front)

no is 'khong' (and the "o" seems close to a short "u" sound)

hello is 'chiow' (the "i" behaving like the consonant "y")

how are you is 'yaa kwea khong' (funny that seems to contain the word for "no" :))