The Vietnamese culture can amaze you every day. Once you think you know more or less all the tricks here, you realise that actually you do not know much about it. Those who have lived here for ages normally update you soon of the hot gossips. But nobody had remembered to tell us that “Nha nghi” means more or less a brothel before Sunday evening’s sudden guests. That´s what they told us that Nha nghi, translated to rest house, includes something else. Next day I counted and from home to work I picked 14 “rest houses” in 2 km and probably missed half of them as my driver Cuong drives so fast. This was bothering me so much that I had to check it from another expat and a Vietnamese friend. I found out that it is a mixture of all kinds of relations – a place where you can rent a room for couple of hours for external relationship, a place where you can bring a sex-worker (or sex-seller as they call them here) or a place for a premarital relationship.

 

I was wondering why I was so shocked when found out that these rest houses are all over. Not only because of feeling sad for prostitution where customers are mainly foreign men and victims local women, but also for the fact that youth has such a strict regulations that they need "rest houses". I know women who are nearly 30 years old, forced to live with their parents and have home coming time latest by 11 pm. They have no choice before getting married. But, something good – taking care of the parents is a responsibility for them what they would never ignore.

What else, I think that I sometimes have great ideas during the 15-20 minutes in the motorbike, behind driver, which is basically the only time of the day for dreaming. The other day I discovered that I should write a PhD on women´s participation in politics in Viet Nam. I decided that if that feeling will last over the night, I will contact my possible mentor in University of Helsinki. It nearly did last, but unfortunately the first meeting next morning was upsetting me a bit, and I decided to grave the newborn idea…Typical me, giving up…

Where is everybody, still on holiday? Not much news from Finland except that it is warm, finally. Here the weather is just great, I love it. I am a lucky girl, especially now when my husband is back and I do not need to be a single mother any more.

Lots of exciting things to wait during the autumn and not least a business trip to Sri Lanka.