For the English readers

Thought I'd do a post in English for the sake of my non-Danish-reading friends around the world.
As you know from my e-mail I'll be going back to South East Asia for a 6 month internship at the Danish Embassy in Hanoi starting August 1st. I'll be working with the sector programmes; business and fisheries.
I'm pretty exited about going, but as my departure gets closer, I'm getting kinda nervous too. I've booked the tickets. I'm flying from Copenhagen to Bangkok the 21st of July, spending two days there then moving on to Singapore to do some sightseeing for a couple of days and from there to Hanoi. My plan for the days in Bankgok is shopping! And eating some nice curries...
Since I haven't been to Singapore before I'll prob do some touristy stuff like the Night Zoo and a tour around the habour. Kinda exited about flying into Changi airport as it's supposed to be one of the nicest and most high tech of the world.
As you might be able to figure out from the previous post I've downloaded Skype - please send me your Skype logon : ) I've even bought a cheap webcam so you'll be able to see me too - yipeee!

Since I accepted the internship in Hanoi I've spent quite some time surfing the SEA-blogspheare. I like the food blogs the best. Somehow food culture gives a pretty good impression of the everyday life - especially in SEA where eating out is more common than eating in. Can't wait to try some Vietnamese food. From what I can tell from the blogs, we def missed out on the real local food when we were there in 2003.

Come to think of it food is a pretty big part of the culture - if I ever do cook a traditional Danish meal I'll be sure to take pics and post on the blog.
Here's one of the things I like to "cook" the most - that's how multicultural I am!

From what I can tell from the blogs loads have happend in Vietnam during the last 3 years. The country is developing rapidly and I'm excited to see and be a part of this journey even though it's only for 6 months. A part of me is a bit ambivalent though. Being in Vietnam in 2003 really made me question whether the western impact on traditional Asian life was "good". Now I know the word good can be given any value according to ones own ideal, my point is merely that development has its price.

While trekking in the beautiful Sapa at the border of China I remember thinking how lucky I was being able to experience the primitive way of living - seeing how the minorities coped with everyday life, but that me being there would actually make it less likely for the next person to have the "authentic experience of rural life in Vietnam". I was helping destroying what I came to see by being there.

There are no McDonalds in Vietnam, but rumour is they'll open soon. They say that Vietnam is 10 years behind Thailand - where McD, KFC and 7/11 are everywhere and farangs (foreigners) in the streets blend into the pic. Bangkok is in many ways a modern city and offers all the commodities of Western life style.
Vietnam, however, is still not that developed. Tourists still get stared at and "bothered" by kids trying to sell postcards and moto drivers offering a ride. I'm sure this rather aggressive approach to foreigners will annoy me as it did when I was there in 2003, but I'll hopefully adjust. I have to.
I'm not going to get into a big discussion about development-theory, but don't you think it's strange that we travel thousands of miles to experience something different and exotic, but being there, pumping money into their economy slowly erases the difference between the western world and the rest?
This is def not to say that developing coutries shouldn't function a tourist destinations or that raising living standard by boosting their economy (among other things) through tourism isn't good - I'm not "con-make-poverty-history", I'm just trying to be aware of the impact western help and tourism has on a country like Vietnam....

Nevertheless I AM excited to be going and I do think I'll have an experience of a life time! It's not every day you're giving the oppertunity to pack your life and go live on the other side of the world.

All the blogs except one listed in the side bar are in English - you might find them amusing. I must recommend my good friend Laura's blog New Browne - I love reading about life with little Lukas (and Ronan I suppose... hehe ). Lukas is a cute little multicultural (and later bilingual) lad from Edinburgh.

The last thing I'm going to comment on in this post is blogging in general. I love that you can get a sneak peak of people's life through the blogs. I hope you'll be able to get an impression of mine through this one. I promise to blog in English frequently - if you promise to read (and leave comments)...

PS: "Mine billeder" means "My pics" - check them out : )