Autunm 2006 newsletter

Hey there!

Here I come with a little of news. I am currently writing from Grenoble, my native area. Surprising isn’t it?
In my last newsletter I was in Manchester in England where I was doing my thesis in a packaging factory. Living among the English is a really interesting experience, let’s say that Britain is definitely not a place where I would live (but I am sure that you all have read my entire blog and noticed that… just to remind you here is the address http://ptitevy.over-blog.com )

I finally managed to graduate with a specialisation in « tourism » :) Of course I was exploring Europe as much as I could: not later than 48h prior to my oral presentation I was on the Irish roads with my boyfriend (who was doing his thesis in Ireland).
Returning to France was great, I have to admit that after being 5 months far from my home country I started to be home sick… and the summer does exist in France in July! (32°C that is to say twice the temperature in England/Ireland) 

I didn’t stay that long in Grenoble as a Graduation trip with my university department was planned very soon thereafter. It was a great opportunity to party with my classmates in Tunisia! (and for free!..)
Tunisia, what can I say about this country? Going on an organised trip is probably not the best thing. You are hosted in a luxurious hotel with (of course) a swimming pool but also an access to the sea (~20m). Tap water is salted but you can buy bottled water for 1 euro a litter (about 10 times the price in a supermarket). People are not reliable, from the travel agency staff to the sellers in the market: they won’t hesitate to sell you anything 3 or 10 times its real value.
If many things sound so bad, I managed nevertheless to have a good time and see wonderful places: I got to the entrance of the desert, touched the finest sand I have ever seen, or saw the sun rising over the biggest salted lake in Tunisia, (El Chod Jerid). This lake goes totally dried in the summer and is covered by a thick layer of salt and the few puddles left are in fact water full of iron with a deep red color…

Back to Paris for couple days. Before leaving for Italy, for a week around Rome, Naples and Pompei, with Claire, my  globe trotter friend who recently returned home. Low cost holidays thanks to Low Cost Flight Companies and thanks to kind hosts from BEST.
Rome is like you imagine it, with wonderful architecture and the Roman monuments in the centre. Naples is like grassroots Italy with narrow streets which go up and down and also with the people in the street only after the hot times have passed. Pompeii is absolutely a place to visit, with the very well preserved buildings, paintings and even inhabitants from the Roman times.

August was quiet long. In France we are use to saying that the countrysid is dead, everything is close, and people are gone, usually to the seaside. Besides this, being a single child at my parents’ was kind of weird.

I am quite sure you are wondering why I didn’t start looking for a job… The reason is I had a last trip scheduled in mid September. But this special trip I have been waiting for the right opportunity for about 23 years: indeed I wanted to visit my parents’ native country Lao. My boyfriend also wanted to take part to this 3-week adventure. For those of you who are not good at geography, Lao is part of former French Indochina (together with Viet Nam and Cambodia) and also has a common border with China and Thailand. For the those who are puzzled about my origins, yes I speak Vietnamese but yes my parents’ native country is Lao as they were born there…

An 11 hour of flight and 10 000 km later, we arrived in Bangkok, capital city of Thailand. First impression, the air is hot (30° at 6am) and wet …
Arrival at the youth hostel… A girl told us about the “coup”, I mean the military take over of the government in order to get rid off of the (corrupted) Prime Minister…
Nothing really serious at the end, it was a coup without violence or fire and thus nobody was injured nor killed… As tourists, there was nothing to be afraid of (tourism in Thailand is big income for the country), we even saw many tourists taking pictures of the tanks with the soldiers!

After 3 days in Bangkok, my relatives came to pick us up not far from the Lao-Thai border. Vientiane (the capital city of Lao) is located at only 30 min from the boarder.
We had the feeling of changing for another worlds one more time. To give you an idea, Bangkok with 12 million inhabitants (2 times the Lao population) could be compared to Paris, with stressed people and awful traffic most of the day time whereas in Vientiane not all the roads are covered with macadamia…

I could spend hours and hours telling you about the country, the people, and their way of life…
In short, the Lao people have a simple life. Most of them earn their living by cooking one or 2 of their specialities (everybody eats all the time) or by selling something, like plants, banana leaves picked up in the jungle (used as wrapping material) or hacked movies…
Some people are really rich (big houses, big cars) and the others… are not so poor. I didn’t remember seeing anybody asking for money. They don’t need that much money to be happy. Owning a roof, some chickens in front of their house and a papaya tree is enough to make them happy!
For the rest Lao is still a wild country, even if some places are starting to be crowded with tourists. People however are still really warm and honest (prices in restaurants for tourists are not that high comparing to places I have been to with my family).

With a mind full of memories and a suitcase full of new clothes (2 to 5 times cheaper than in France), we have been back home now for about 10 days, more or less ready to a new everyday life.

My boyfriend has started his PhD in a laboratory in Grenoble and we have decided to live together in his flat.
What I can say is that these last 3 years were rich in travels all over Europe, and experiencing life among Hungarians, Finns or English was far different from just travelling! However I now need a rest that is why I am now officially jobhunting in the Grenoble area.

To conclude I hope you are doing fine wherever you are, whatever you are doing. Don’t forget to give me a call if you pass by. [to contact me]
In case you don’t pass by, drop me few lines to brighten my life!

Many kisses and take care,

Vy