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The City in 26 Letters: M - Z
Category: General Published on Wednesday, 06 April 2011 14:05 Written by Photos by Aaron Joel Santos Hits: 493
M – MADE IN VIETNAM
Check the tag on the back of your shirt. If the brand is Abercrombie and Fitch, Banana Republic, Zara, The North Face or Mango, chances are it was made in this country — one of the world’s largest textile exporters. “Made in Vietnam” stores are stocked with factory extras and seconds. Sometimes the sizing is off or the pattern is a mistake, but if you dig around, you’re likely to find a new brand name piece at a fraction of its slated price. You may never want to buy a fully marked-up piece of clothing ever again.
N – NGUYEN
By some estimates, nearly 40 percent of the Vietnamese population has the surname Nguyen. Historically, if you were the descendent of a no-longer-in-power dynasty, it was possible to find yourself in a vulnerable position. So to avoid problems, many people would change their surnames. Like disappearing, only you’re still there. The Nguyen Dynasty was lucky enough to be the last dynasty, so their name stuck. When the Nguyens first came into power in 1802, many people changed their names to match the dynasty. There was more chance of being rewarded if you were named Nguyen.
O - OI GIOI OI!
What if one phrase could fit every situation? Impossible, you say. Enter “oi gioi oi”. Or, “oh my God”. 90 percent of the time, when the sacred words are spoken, everyone around will either nod in agreement, comment on the tay’s wonderful language skills, or repeat the phrase to their friend, who will repeat it to another friend to continue the domino effect until all voices raise up like some strange echo intoning “oi gioi oi”.
Traffic? Oi gioi oi. Leopard-print body stocking at the market on Sunday morning? Oi gioi oi. Street racer almost kills you going 200kph the wrong way down a one-way street? Oi gioi oi. Tet fireworks around Hoan Kiem Lake? Oi gioi oi. Cockroach in your pho? Oi gioi oi. Getting lucky at Solace? Oi gioi oi. Having problems at Solace? Oi gioi oi. Hundreds of lighters? Oi gioi oi.
P – PHO
The nation’s dish. And whether it’s 8am ga on Bat Dan or 2am bo with soft banh quay at the top of Tong Duy Tan, Hanoian pho is worthy of its place in the guidebooks and on the lips of tourists. Lightly fry it, deeply fry it, roll it around beef and fresh herbs on Truc Bach or even buy the iPho t-shirt. Pho is THAT big. The average street-side vendor gets through 20kg of pho per day. Let’s say there are 1,000 vendors in the city. That’s 22 tons of the good stuff — on the street alone, which definitely warrants a t-shirt. But something needs to be said for bun, mien and my, too. So if you know someone who is not convinced, tell them bun cha at 99 Hang Ga between 11am and 2pm, and mien ga xao on Luong Van Can after a night out. Can’t go wrong!
Q – QUA
Similar to our beloved “oi gioi oi” (See O), the word qua can also contain multitudes. Qua is multitudes. It’s a horn of plenty. It is plenty. A word that can be a simple statement or a statement of awe. It can mean, “poor me,” or, “holy crap that’s a lot of fruit”. It’s abundance and overabundance. I’m met quabecause I lam nhieu qua!
R – ROI
One of the most common Vietnamese phrases well worth learning — listen carefully and you’ll hear it a hundred times daily. Roi has a number of meanings, like ‘okay’, ‘understood’, ‘already’, ‘then’ and ‘well’. It’s versatile, just throw it at the end of your sentences to emphasise that you've done or understood something ‘already’.
Rồi is pronounced like the name Roy, but in Hanoi say “Zoi” and moan it, so you draw out the lower toned diacritic. Here are some common phrases that use rồi
Được rồi, được rồi (Alright, that’s enough) — Say this if your vendor's putting too much pate in your banh mi
Đợi lâu quá rồi! (I’ve been waiting a long time!) — Say this when someone shows up really late to an appointment
Rồi sao? (So what's next? or What happened next?) — Say this when someone’s telling a story and paused or when you’re figuring out what to do next
And of course, if you knew all of the above already, you would have said hiểu rồi a few minutes ago.
S - STREET SWEEPERS
This troupe, composed mostly of women, tromps around town in their green mesh uniforms with yellow reflective tape. They are dressed to stand out, but often go unnoticed, except when they come out in full force with their rolling waste bins and create even more traffic during evening rush hour. One 50-year-old male street cleaner says he’s been sweeping the streets for 31 years. His job is to rake up leaves and he works eight hours per day, or when the leaves are really out of control up to 12 hours in one shift. Without these guys, we’d all be swimming in leaves, chicken bones and paper tissue. Show them some love.
T – TAILORING
By all means, if the shoe fits, wear it. But the chances are it won’t. And neither will the shirt, pants, dress or coat. For some in search of sartorial solutions, this is reason enough to fly to Bangkok or scour Made in Vietnam shops (see M), but for others the easiest answer is to visit a tailor.
Hoi An might be Vietnam’s most famous tailoring city, but tailors abound in Hanoi. “There are so many tailors,” says Thuy from Village Silk (40 Hang Gai), who says, like others, she can make clothes in 12 hours with the help of her factory 5km outside the city. Cao Minh on Hang Bong can take a little longer, but that’s because the 62-year-old tailor uses hands as well as machines when crafting top quality fabrics from Italy, England and Vietnam.
U – UNIFORMS
Whether you’re a backpacker wearing fisherman’s pants and a Vang Vieng vest, a young Vietnamese girl in a shoulder-padded shirt, a construction worker in olive green fatigues, or a foreign resident wearing the clothes fashionable when you lived in your native country, Hanoi is a town filled with uniforms. If you lack a uniform or would like to adopt one of the many styles, drive down Le Duan near the train station and stop by any of the many open-air shops that sell tracksuits worn by students and uniforms worn by the guys who watch motorbikes. You can even pick up a baton used by traffic officials. There’s also a steady collection of several different types of military jackets that cost around VND200,000 to VND300,000 each. Making great gifts, these items of clothing can also serve as strident, stylish windbreakers.
V – VACATIONS
Take one. You deserve it. If you have just one weekend, rent a driver or take a motorbike to Ba Vi, home to fresh milk and lush countryside or further afield to Mai Chau, famous for its traditional stilt houses and top-grade mountain-biking. Consider heading out along the Muong Khu trekking route towards Ninh Binh, or better still a trip to Ha Giang (see next month’s cover story!).
“Yes, of course foreigners go on more vacations here than they would in their home country,” says Graham Read, Product and Marketing Manager for Buffalo Tours. “It’s natural for people to want to explore places they’ve never been before.” And with a quickly expanding domestic tourism sector, it’s no longer just foreigners who are traveling en masse.
W – WEDDINGS
While Khuong Thi Huong and her daughter Ha Nguy Smith observed all the traditional ceremonies that come with Vietnamese weddings, Ha and her generation are embracing newer, nascent traditions too. The differences? Her mother says she wore an ao dai, while Ha chose to wear a western-style white gown. Huong remembers only a few pictures being taken at the actual ceremony. Ha, like many young couples, hired a team of photographers to take classy shots of her and husband. Also, because her husband was English, they observed a few western traditions, too, including engagement parties and receptions.
X - XE OM
Look past the “woooo hoooo” every morning and actually, it turns out xe om drivers can be more than just a way to get from A to B. As well as a good laugh, they are up for getting busy with odd jobs at almost any time and anywhere. Like doubling up as human GPS systems who will guide you to your destination — they really know the city (most of the time). They may also be a God’s send when you’ve broken down: xe om drivers have the art of pushing a bike in front of them with one foot down to perfection. These guys can even be hired on a monthly rate to take you to and from work every day. There’s not much they can’t do. Sometimes you just want to wrap your arms around them and give them the big old hug they’re named after (ommeans hug in Vietnamese). But beware the ruou breath. And the “woo hoo”.
Y – YELLING
Noise is simply heard/seen differently here. This includes yelling. Everything is treated as background noise, as an inevitable aspect of life. But maybe the more that background noise builds, the louder people have to speak over it. And this sounds like yelling to sensitive western ears. That’s just a hypothesis, but it makes enough sense, right?
Z - ZZZzzzZZZ...
Any time, anywhere, but especially in your office chair post an trua. Take a nap and rightly so — you just know that the city’s street sleepers (not to be confused with S: Street Sweepers) have been up and at it since the early hours, maybe at Long Bien market, or buying flowers up on Nghi Tam. Probably in the rain. A bit of shuteye is deserved and enjoyed every day around Hanoi. Stood up, sat down. Fruit out ready for the taking. Which is another thing about this city; no one seems to thieve. They probably do, but even still, there’s no way you could fall asleep on your one-man market in London without waking up one business lighter.