Post differential

We learned about an interesting statistic while attending the reception hosted by the U.S. Embassy here in Hanoi.

The U.S. State Department has a metric called the "post differential" which calculates the standard of living difference and the hardship State Department employees might face overseas when they are posted to a country.  The United States has a 0 differential, as does England and many Western European countries.  The differentials go up in 5% increments (% is used because that is the base pay percentage increase a diplomat gets in that country) such as 0%, 5%, 10%, 15%, all the way to Afghanistan and Iraq which have a 35% post differential.

According to the diplomats we spoke with last night (and confirmed by the web site), Vietnam has a post differential of 20%.  That means that the State Department feels that the lifestyle and hardship we face in Vietnam are closer to Baghdad than they are to Hiram.  On one level, it is pretty easy to dismiss that.  I feel like our lifestyle here is pretty good, and while there are some inconveniences we face, I don't feel like our lives are in danger simply by being in Hanoi.  But on the other hand, we've seen some pretty stark poverty, especially out of the city and out the window of our apartment.  So maybe the 20% post differential is about right.

Here are some post differentials of note:

England -- 0%
Belgium -- 0%
Korea -- 0%
Japan -- 0%
Romania -- 5%
Israel -- 10%
Argentina -- 10%
South Africa - -10%
Mexico -- 15%
Vietnam -- 20%
Russia -- 20%
Syria -- 20%
Laos -- 25%
Egypt -- 25%
Saudi Arabia -- 25%
Benin -- 30%
Burundi -- 35%
Libya -- 35%
Iraq -- 35%
Afghanistan -- 35%

You can see the entire list here, broken down by city:
https://aoprals.state.gov/Web920/hardship.asp

Shaking things up a little bit

"You know, there is more to Vietnamese food than phơ and fried rice." That was the advice of Mai, the high school student that was my translator at the college fair a few weeks ago, who met us for dinner at our favorite phơ place near our building.  Mai recommended a few restaurants close to us, and today Libby and I hiked out to one of them for lunch.  Mai recommended we try a dish called chả cá, which is a traditional grilled fish dish served with vegetables, shrimp paste, fish sauce, spring onions and greens/herbs, and noodles.

Mai could not remember the name of the restaurant that served this dish, but she gave us some general directions.  We hiked out and stumbled across this place.  The restaurant only has one dish -- we sat down and they immediately started serving us. But it was delicious -- very fresh, prepared right at the table.

Carter and friends

This is one of my favorite pictures in Hanoi so far.  Carter has befriended a group of boys at the park, where he has met them while doing his zip line acrobatics.  This picture was from last week.  Last night while Libby and I were at a reception sponsored by the U.S. Embassy, the boys remembered where Carter lived, purchased some hamburgers at Lotteria, and brought them up to our apartment on the 10th floor.  They hung out for 15 minutes or so, and pledged to get together again on Friday.  Pretty cool.

Vietnamese beer

I am accustomed to a wide selection of beers when I go to the grocery store in the United States.  Usually there are several different brands and varieties, even at small convenience stores.  And in Garrettsville there is a drive-thru and beverage store that both stock many of my favorites plus a hundred more.

But while Vietnam boasts of being one of the highest consumers of beer in the world, the selection is often limited in the supermarket.  There are three main producers of beer in the country: Hanoi Beer, Saigon Beer, and Huda Beer.  And only the top two are available where we live in Hanoi.  In fact, here is currently what is available in the supermarket downstairs (each of these cans costs 50 cents, and beer is usually sold individually, not in 6-packs):

This is a pretty typical selection in supermarkets.  Now, the Heineken surprises me, because it is consistently the one import you can find on grocery shelves and restaurant menus.  As Vietnam continues to enter the global economy, tariffs on foreign products like beer will have to go down or be eliminated entirely.  Currently the tariff on any imported beer is 47%, although the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal (TPP) will eliminate those tariffs in 10 years.  But right now they seem to be in full force, because finding an import brew is difficult.  The other three beers above are made in Vietnam.

There are a few other domestic brands in Vietnam, but not many.  Here is a collection of the top ten beers in Vietnam, according to City Pass:

They rated Bia Ha Noi as number #1, which is the beer I've been drinking since I got here.

Bai hoi restaurants are also very prevalent along almost every street corner.  Bai Hoi translates to "fresh beer", which means it could be a home brew, or it could be a draft beer, or it could just have been delivered to the establishment recently.  These restaurants are places to hang out, have a cold one, have some food, and relax with friends.  There is a hai boi restaurant right next to our building that opens at 7 am and closes after we're in bed.  Here it is at 3:30 this afternoon (the local taxi drivers like to hang out and play chess there):

There are also some microbreweries in Hanoi (including a couple near us) and I plan to check some of them out before we leave.  I've read that they are influenced by German and Czech beers.  The website beervn.com is a great resource for these microbreweries.  Sadly, no Bass Ale or Guinness that I've come across.  But they do have one import beer in Vietnam that appears to be quite exotic here:

Cowboy Jack's American Dining

When you live in a foreign country, you start to miss certain things about America.  And when you live in southeast Asia, you start to miss food.  Don't get me wrong -- Vietnamese food is wonderful and I love it.  But as I've said before, sometimes you just want a good cheeseburger.

With that said, we made the ten minute walk to Cowboy Jack's, which just re-opened after a renovation.  And while the food didn't completely taste like it might in America -- was that really pepperoni in the deep-dish pizza? -- it was close enough.  I imagine the Chinese might feel the same way if they ate General Tso's chicken.

Lunch

Libby and I like to go to a little street food place for lunch and order bún chả, a dish of grilled pork and noodles.  Sometimes it served in a soup all together, other times separate.  Each has their own name, but we don't know enough Vietnamese to figure out which is which.  So we just order bún chả and hope for the best.  Today Libby tried to draw what we wanted, but they misunderstood and just brought us one of each.

This feast cost us $1.75 total.

Full moon

While we didn't get a lunar eclipse like Northeast Ohio did, we were able to admire the full moon over Hanoi Sunday night:

Fall Ball game day

The boys and I jumped in a taxi and headed out to St. Paul to see some baseball this afternoon, as the Hanoi Capitals were playing the Korean International School team.  I was approached by two different coaches to see if Noah and Carter might want to play after watching them for a few minutes play catch and throw. So despite most of the players being in high school, Noah and Carter may play at some point down the road during our stay in Vietnam.  For now it was fun to sit (in the 100 degree heat) and watch a little baseball, Hanoi-style:

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival

Here's what showed up on my Facebook feed automatically this morning:

Mid-Autumn Festival, part II

Yesterday we were invited to the Mid-Autumn Festival party for the children of the faulty at Libby's school.  It was a great idea to bring the families of staff together, especially since it seems they do not have the ability to socialize since they work long hours (7 am - 6 pm most days, and then some work on the weekends too).

The evening started off with some basketball in the school courtyard (these courtyards are very common in the Hanoi schools I've seen) and some dinner for the families:

Libby speaks very highly of the staff at the school.  Here she is with the English language teacher (top left), one of the rt teachers (top right) and the principal (bottom):

After dinner, we had the talent part of the evening, including more fruit displays and a dragon dance.  But the highlight of the evening for us -- other than the bicycle-riding monkeys that fell down the stairs -- was Carter doing the worm across the stage (video at the end):