There’s the New Hanoian website (http://newhanoian.xemzi.com/) that makes life fun in Hanoi.
And there’s Ngā, who made life so easy for me, cleaning the house till it gleams! To start with, we had only one word in common – OK – and I polished my dumb charades skills by acting out everything. Over time, she learnt some useful English to get by, and I picked up a smattering of Vietnamese, and we are able to have complex conversations, aided by online translators. I think we’ll both cry when I leave.