Construction in Hanoi

Recently, my quiet little house has been plagued by pulses of loud booming noises coming from the construction of a 7-storey high apartment behind my house. The construction started in June last year but underwent a period of "cease fire" for a couple of months. We were baffled but word has it that local authorities were looking into the building because the foundation was not laid properly. Thinking that this matter would take a long time to resolve, we continued to stay in our house which I have grown to like.

Sadly, construction work was revived in "full force" a month ago. Day and night, drilling and pounding noises haunt me from my backyard. Strangely, construction in Hanoi does not require a "stipulated" project time line nor working hours. When I asked my maid the expected duration of construction, she cheekily replied "1 to 3 years", before explaining that construction timeline is "unknown" in Hanoi because it depends on too many variables.

Grumpily, I told myself that I could accept an ambiguous timeline. After all, we are encouraged to work with ambiguity these days. But the irregular working hours were beyond me. The working hours seemed to depend on the mood of the workers! Construction could begin as early as 5.30am in the morning and continue overnight till the next day. While I am a self-professed "quick-sleep guru" sleeper, having cement-mixing noises invade my bedroom the whole night was beyond my level of sleep attainment. To make matters worse, there was absolutely no construction the whole of next day until right at night again. This is beyond my comprehension. Why did the workers choose to work in the night and not day? Of course, there is no way I can find out the answer to my question. Nobody knows.

Recently, the construction hours have been more regular (God bless!), beginning at 6.50am and ending at 6pm. The precision in construction time has resulted in my alarm clock being obselete, as I get "pounded" out of bed each day. Occasionally, I am treated to singing accompaniment from the workers and each time, my husband has to refrain me from throwing my pillow out of the window.

We are considering seriously moving these days, and have started on our new house-hunting. However, we are both half-hearted because we do like our house a lot (minus the endless drilling). I have been praying that perhaps after Tet (Chinese New Year), more humane working hours could be established e.g. 9am to 4pm. But this is a dream that will never come true.

Meanwhile, I can only console myself with the fact that like the "early bird which catches the worm", I do have more time now (to add to the already endless time) to read, surf internet, write my blog and watch TV. All these not by my choice. :(