The weather is strangely transitioning from winter to spring in Hanoi. This past weekend was delightfully warm and humid. As I walked down To Ngoc Van on Sunday afternoon the heat and humidity reminded me of one of my most unique and favorite Darwin memories.
This memory – that just captures the quirkiness of the Territory – took place about 3 years ago. It was the November build-up to the Darwin Wet Season. The days and nights were suffocatingly hot and humid.
A beloved friend of mine who has bravely battled with drug addiction for many years was serving time in the Darwin Correctional Centre, or the Darwin Lock-up, as locals call it. I was so excited to see him and to spend time sitting and talking with him at the concrete tables with the industrial fan whirring overhead.
Of course, one must go through security before we can access the visitor’s section of the prison. And this is where it is just so quintessentially Darwin.
I entered the small airconditioned demountable and placed all my belongings in a small metal locker. I then sat quietly and sympathetically smiled at the other visitors registered for this particular visiting time. A prison guard then called our group of visitors outside for the routine pat-down and the sniffer dog test.
On this particular day, it was extremely hot and humid, and to top it off, I’d signed up for the midday visitors hours. Oh boy. So we all stand in a straight line facing the prison guards and one of them walks the sniffer dog along. However, the heat had gotten to this big law enforcing German Shepherd and by the time he arrived at me (I was at the end of the line) he did his job of sniffing about and promptly slouched down on my feet, sighed, put his head on his paws, closed his eyes and went to sleep.
Pure Darwin.
Thoughts From Hanoi 
Heh. We are all that dog on those misty, muggy days. 🙂
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