One week later

So, I've been back a week now. It feels... peculiar, despite the familiarity. I left Vietnam when I had become well adjusted to life there, and well adjusted to the climate! So much so that when my mother offered me a cup of tea after lunch, I shook my head and did that rocking of the hand gesture that one is forced to employ to deter street sellers, taken to mean "don't bother, I actually live here and have everything that you could possibly have to offer, I'm not a tourist."
My poor mother, I quickly realised what I'd just done and apologised, but it did give me the realisation of just how normal and automatic Vietnamese life had become. Or rather, the life of a travelling Englishman in Vietnam :)
To reacquaint myself with the home life I wandered around Bath for a bit, I sat myself infront of Jeeves and Wooster and set to consuming cottage pies, toads in holes, etc etc. I did weigh myself upon returning home to find myself the lightest I've been since I was 16 - a mere 13st 6lb! But this will barely last if I carry on as I do, gorging upon carby, fatty foods. Which reminds me, I'm yet to tuck into some Sainsbury's caramel slices! I'll find an excuse to drive down that part of town later on :)
Two things really shocked me as I re-entered life here. First was petrol prices - sorry, but what on earth happened that brought them up by 10 pence per litre?? Secondly, we're apparently having some sort of election? That's what I've been told, anyway..
Having been dropped in it, I've no idea who to vote for, who I actually support or anything. Driving up North Road, I see a mass of blues and oranges (no red, labour has never been popular in Bath since they allowed lots of development in the 70s.) all the way up. Lib Dems, Conservatives, they're everywhere!! And my house is sandwiched in it all without a sign outside it. Well, I'm tempted to get a white diamond-shaped placard in my window and write in big, bold letters - "APATHY" and see what the neighbours say :) One of them can't get too angry, he's basically placed his tory sign right infront of our place instead of his! It's like he's embarrassed to be conservative.. Which is understandable, of course - Oooooooooooooooooh, controversial!!

How do I feel about Vietnam now, then? Vietnam is still a stunningly beautiful country, with incredible food and some amazing experiences to be had. It has, however, changed on an extraordinary scale, as can be expected for a developing country. And what I disliked was how the people now perceive Westerners. Four years ago I felt welcomed by almost every single person I met, they were so happy to have us there and treated us splendidly. Now, however, people were trying to swindle me at every single given opportunity. There's a very corrupt side to the culture now, which I was not expecting to see after my last visit. It is, however, a notorious difference between people in the North and people in the South. People in the North have, for millenia, been constantly invaded by the Chinese, and more recently the French, the Japanese, the French again and the Americans. This has turned them into a much more introverted people, and maybe that crosses into an inherent...... well, distrust is maybe a little strong, but they look after their own and everyone else is an outsider - and don't they know it. I really don't think it has been helped by tourism though, it's rather what I've come to call the Top Gear Effect, as I think I described several posts ago.
Look, I still had a phenomenal time though. It was extraordinary, I am thrilled that I spent the time there that I did, but I warn people reading this that it will not stay that way for much longer. For heaven's sake, go to Vietnam before it's turned into a gold course!!



So what next? Well, May 22nd sees me fly out to Hamburg to begin my travels around Europe. I must make a spot of money, I must get my Russian visa, I must make an insurance claim, I must make my student finance application, however I have already made my halls application, I have emailled a scan of my music certificates to Soton so my offer is now officially unconditional, I have done all sorts! But I must carry on with the same momentum I began with. I have to get so much done, AND I have to get this Bach committed to memory and sounding decent for my scholarship audition on the 14th.
But I must must must make some money!! But how? How do I make lots of money with very little effort?? Suggestions on the back of a postcard, sent to...........


oh, and this blog will continue when I start travelling around Europe :) Until then, have a lovely month of May!