639

January 9, 2009
Graffiti is not a big thing in Hanoi, yet. But everywhere in the city it seems all walls are suffering from a different kind of pollution. Nothing artistic there, it's advertisement in its rawest form: just a phone number. Call it and the person on the other end of the line will help you with your concrete problems, such as fabricating a wall or drilling a hole in your wall. I don't know if their services also include removing all this from your property.
I sometimes wonder what the point is. When there are dozens and dozens of phone numbers on a wall there is just a small chance to get lucky. I guess each phone number is painted at least 10,000 times, all over the city. Some sort of Concrete Pages, with a few million people living in that huge book.

I also wonder why it is only about concrete. Always KH Cat Be Tong, nothing else. There are millions of other professions and none of them is marked on a dilapidated wall somewhere in a dark alley.
639 days to go. Maybe I will find out before reaching zero.