Return of the pineapple

Tonight, as I do at the end of each working day, I hailed a taxi to take me home to An Phu. As I opened the taxi door I was greeted by a sweet, yet pungent, aroma. Ah....the return of the humble pineapple!

One of the first things I noticed when we moved to Hanoi was that many of the taxi drivers seemed to have a lone pineapple rolling around the rear shelf of the car.

Were all taxi drivers addicted to this sweet, delicious fruit? Was that part of the job selection criteria?

No, apparently many Vietnamese believe the smell of the pineapple reduces the effects of motion sickness.

Used to riding motorbikes, many locals feel sick when travelling by any other mode of transport (a tip for tourists...avoid the local overnight trains and buses at all costs!).

For us foreigners used to travelling in cars, the smell of the pineapple in such a confined space actually makes us feel ill - but if it reduces the amount of locals vommiting in the taxi before me then I'll cope!

It's good to see there are some consistent behaviours between north and south Vietnam.

On the topic of pineapples...here's a snapshot from our time in Hanoi. Being a lazy foreigner, I would buy my pineapples from a street vendor in nearby Tay Ho who would have the pineapples peeled, bagged and ready to go. Delicious!

The humble pineapple

Weather watch: on the day of posting we had a maximum temperature of 33 degrees and an average humidity of 84%. We had two major storms today. Unusual to get two in one day, but they were both absolute crackers. The first storm hit as I walked out of the office for my lunch break. Sods law! A tip for new players...carrying an umbrella will not protect you, your heels or your suit from the effects of the immediate overflow from the road gutters! Heavy rain for over an hour. Tonight the storm hit at 9pm. Huge cracks of thunder, which surprisingly did not wake the girls, and a blackout in my neighbourhood. Hmmmm, so much for the back up generator in my ridiculously expensive compound!