Happy New Year!

The Road, complete with stage, by Hoan Kiem Lake on New Year's Eve

Welcome to 2007. Communication is not great at the minute, the internet performance here has gone down the tubes in the last week. Our mutterings about the quality of service (a long term complaint) have been tempered a bit by the thought that the problem might be exacerbated by all the undersea cables damaged by the Taiwan earthquake last week. The news did say Asia had been particularly hit. Personally I’ve not been able to access my email since Wednesday and it’s possible to fall asleep waiting for a web page to load. Anyway enough of that, yesterday was New Year’s Eve and today is the first day of 2007. It’s the first time I’ve seen in the New Year outside the UK so I was keen to know what the Vietnamese do.

The Eve was a quiet day, even for a Sunday. I cycled to the bakery with noticeably less traffic than usual. Surprisingly, more shops than usual were closed including Western Canned Foods, but as most of their regular clientele are out of the country for two weeks it’s a good time to take a break. The day passed without event and come early evening I decided to walk up through town and see what was going on. I left just after 5.30 planning to meet the others for dinner at 7pm near the Cathedral.

Life seemed very normal walking across to the main one way system, people cooking their evening meal, the streetside barber’s busy as usual and with an audience for some reason I don’t understand. No shortage of motorbike taxis all trying to attract my custom. On the main road it seemed to me that there was less traffic than on Christmas Eve and that impression stayed with me for the rest of the evening.

Up at Hoan Kiem Lake two large stages had been set up. One near the lake pagoda where the road splits and an offshoot goes into the old quarter. The other was on the traffic island on lake view corner. Both were positioned so that the audience would have to stand in the road to get a clear view. As you might expect neither road was actually closed off. One stage was in late rehearsal, a heavy metal band were playing Auld Lang Syne whilst two screens showed dancers apparently dancing to some other music. A large crowd had gathered consisting of both pedestrians and motorcyclists who just stopped in the road to watch. The flow of traffic had slowed and buses and taxis were crawling through the audience with horns blaring.

I moved on round the lake to the second stage which was in darkness. People were already gathering on pavements and balconies of surrounding buildings in anticipation. All in all it was still a lot quieter than Christmas Eve. The ice cream vendors were doing a healthy trade and a strange smell was starting to permeate – burning charcoal and dead fish. Every few metres round the top of the lake vendors were setting up with baskets of dried squid. Behind them on the lake edge they had laid out bamboo mats or even rugs. Customers were sitting on the rugs and eating the dried fish which had been heated over a charcoal stove and was served with chilli sauce and sometimes beer. There were literally dozens of these squid vendors.

I headed for the restaurant where we were eating. Despite the occasion only one other table was taken when I arrived. The rest of the group arrived and we enjoyed a very nice meal, even if the recipes of various dishes seemed to have changed since last time we ate there. I still wonder how this place makes any money. Whilst we were there only three tables were occupied.

After the meal we walked back to the lake. The stage on the traffic island had now come to life with a series of acts from the local circus including trapeze and rollerblading on a tiny circular platform. By now the buses had stopped but the road was still open to traffic. Spectators completely filled the junction and cars and motorbikes honked and crawled through trying desperately to keep a channel open round each side of the stage. Not a policeman in sight.

The show finished abruptly, the lights went out and the audience quickly disappeared. It was not yet 10pm on New Year’s Eve and they were dismantling the stage! We followed the flow back round the lake towards the other stage where the sound of classical music could be heard. The smell of burning squid was becoming quite noxious now, the vendors were doing great business and several tried to attract us to sample their wares. Fortunately I was not in the least bit hungry. At the second stage a ballet was being performed to the Blue Danube and once again the road was blocked by the audience. Some kind of informal diversion was in place as there were very few motorbikes trying to get through, though we did nearly get run down a few times on the pavement by bikes taking an alternative route round the mob. Again squid was in evidence as were the balloon sellers, all desperate to make their fortune by overcharging a westerner.

We headed back into the old quarter and to a bar where we joined a few other colleagues for a few drinks as the clock moved on towards midnight. By majority decision we opted to go back to the lake for midnight so we passed by the first darkened and dismantled stage and back to the stage by the pagoda. The heavy metal band was now performing and the crowd filled the road and pavements, very little traffic was moving here now. Two guys came past carrying a motorbike over the low fences at the edge of the grass areas by the pagoda entrance. Tonight there was no sign of the attendant with the whistle who normally ensures the ‘keep off the grass’ signs are enforced. All the grass areas were taken over by squid vendors charging 10000dong to sit on their mats if you weren’t buying squid.

The music reached a crescendo and a loud cheer went up as the midnight hour was announced and the stage erupted in fireworks (I thought they were banned in Vietnam). The music continued until five past twelve, then there was a short announcement, the lights went out on the stage, silence fell and everyone went home. All of a sudden motorbikes appeared from nowhere driven across grass, pavements and through shrubberies and everyone was moving off.

My friends were heading back to another club, but I’d had enough and started my walk home. On the main streets traffic was still flowing busily and noisily but as I turned onto the side streets all was quiet and in darkness. A solitary rat eyed me up before deciding to sit under a car until I passed by. It was like any other evening here, a late night meal going on at the recycling centre at the top of the village with eight or nine people eating under a single lightbulb. A large family group in overcoats hunched round a small table in the middle of the pavement outside an ice cream parlour. They looked bizarre sitting on high bar stools shoulder to shoulder with their ice creams and nothing else around. The teenagers and 20 something’s were still playing computer games in the village internet café at quarter to one in the morning.

It felt a bit weird going to bed knowing my UK friends would not be starting their parties for another two or three hours, whilst ours was over and 2007 had arrived.