Eye On Hanoi

Reflections on Life in Hanoi

 

winter is upon us

February 3, 2008


Being a man with somewhat of an interest in aviation and it's related sciences, when I first heard of our impending posting to Hanoi I was naturally curious to find out exactly where it was. And I mean exactly. Like anyone with a 'sensible' knowledge of world geography, I could tell you the approximate location of many, but by certainly no means all, of the world's countries and major cities. So I could have told you roughly where Vietnam was, but I would certainly not have been able to tell you where Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City lay within those confines. Given that I was to be moving there, I now wanted to know exactly where it was in relation to where I was living then - that is, Singapore.


So once I got off the phone with me lady, after she had told me the news, I jumped on to the Singapore Airlines web site to do some initial investigations. Three and a half hours was the stated flight time from Singapore to Hanoi. 'Some distance' I thought to myself. 'So how far is HCMC from Singapore?' I questioned further. Only 2 hours, I discovered! So that meant HCMC and Hanoi were not as close together as I had always presumed. 'Time for a map', I thought.


And there it was, all laid in front of me on the screen. Vietnam, a bit like New Zealand, is long and skinny. Very long and skinny. In fact, for fellow world-geography-interested-persons, the most southern point of Vietnam is at a latitude of close to 8.5° North while the northern most point is at a latitude of almost 23.5° North. That makes a north south distance of around 900 nautical miles or 1620 kilometers. By comparison, New Zealand is very close in length to Vietnam – 1600 kilometers being the commonly rounded figure that people quote.


Now before I bore the majority of you with too much geographical trivia, there was a 'deeper meaning' in this that interested me. You see, with a country this long and running pretty much north-south, it seemed to me that while one end of it might be in the tropical regions (which HCMC is), the other end of the country could almost be in a more temperate zone. It could even have seasons. With this revelation it dawned on me that, come our posting to Hanoi, I might get my first winter in over 8 years (not counting of course those visits to New Zealand during summer that have felt like winter J). I mean, it is at a similar latitude to Hong Kong, and that can get cold at times.


In fact, the northern tip of Vietnam is barely miles south of the Tropic of Cancer – the line that defines where the tropics end and the northern temperate latitudes begin. So, while not technically in a temperate zone, Hanoi is pretty close.


While for 8 years I enjoyed perpetual summer in the tropics of Singapore, there were times when it was a bit of a bore and I relished the thought of putting on a jersey, coat, and perhaps even a scarf and gloves. Aside from the refreshing feeling of a cold winters day, I always thought that people living in more temperate climates were allowed another level of sophistication in their clothing merely due to the fact that they could wear more without their clothes acting as a sponge soaking up their sweat. Sure, a nice summers dress can look extremely elegant for women (raises the question of what nice summer gear a man can wear - most of it seems pretty boring to me). But come winter, there are the joys of being able to change the wardrobe, throw on some trousers, a long coat, scarf, and gloves. Very cool. 'Something that I could look forward to in Hanoi?' I questioned.


Having been in Hanoi now for around 20 months, I am now in the middle of my second winter. And believe me, it gets cold here. No snow. Nothing quite like that. Though apparently the northern highlands get a dousing every now and then. But still cold. Early in the new year I went for a run at 6am, and boy, stepping outside was like walking into a wall
of ice - if I had known it was going to be that cold I would have stayed in my nice warm bed. But I ran into the icy morning telling myself it was good for me and was probably one of those character-building activities that they always told us to cherish at school. I do not know what the temperature was that morning but I would have guessed it as being around 10 degrees Celsius. Ok, not freezing, but close enough for me after 8 years in the tropics. So it gets cold here. From what I could find, the colder winter temperatures can drop to as low as 5 degrees Celsius. Two days ago it was 7 degrees C.


Since that cold morning run, the weather has been quite changeable, to say the least. In fact, 2 weeks after that icy morning, we were wearing shorts and t-shirts around town and had beads of sweat running off us during our tennis matches. Then 3 days later, we were back into jerseys and coats again. In fact, last week the word 'changeable' became the 'word of the day' for the English class I am volunteering for (well actually, we do more than one word a day, but you get my point). 'The weather in Hanoi is changeable', I said as I began the class, 'Who can tell me what changeable means?' You get the gist.


So, yes, Hanoi gets cold. Further north in the highlands it gets darn cold. Below zero. Friends say I'm a bit mad, but I am planning a winter climb of Mt. Fansipan up near Sapa - not a particularly difficult climb, but at just over 10,000 feet it's bound to test the winter woollies to the maximum. Any one keen to join in?


Many people find this time of year in Hanoi pretty hard going, weather wise, that is. Hanoi sits on the Red River in the Red River Delta. Not uncommon to this kind of geography is what's known as an inversion layer. No need to go into the meteorology of it, but one the results of such a phenomenon is fog. And we get a fair bit of it at this time of year in Hanoi (those who've lived in Christchurch will have experienced the same thing). The fog can last for days or even weeks at a time, and combined with the cold, it can leave you feeling a little drab. One really has to get out and keep active during this season in order to keep ones sanity. Actually, it's not that bad I reckon. Though, I've lived in Wellington for most of my life, so I guess I'm kind of used to drab weather - I actually enjoy it J


I'll talk about summer another day. For those after a quick idea on summer weather, you just need to know that it is hot. Very hot!


------


It's been sometime since my last blog. Life has been somewhat busy and distracted since June with the arrival of our wee girl into the world. People always talked about how busy one is when children come along, but I was kind of hoping to prove them wrong. Some parents have the ability to multi-task. I recall my mother sitting at the dining table studying for her Classics exams at university with all us kids running around. A skill I have yet to perfect. I've tried having the wee one in the office when I am working … it does not work! She's too curious. J


Recently though I finished up working full-time, so that should free up some more time for this blog.


More later …