Hanoi, Vietnam

The trip from Marrakesh to Hanoi, was utterly exhausting! We took a bus to Casablanca, a plane to Dubai and then another to Hanoi. The good news is that the craziness of Marrakesh and the reckless crossing of roads with no rules, prepared us well for Hanoi. All we needed was a couple days of rest to bounce back.

Our apartments were totally renovated and perhaps the nicest yet—except for the 10 hrs of jack hammering from the construction sites on both sides of our narrow building. After a week of serious sleep deprivation—working till 2am then waking to the jack hammering of concrete at 6:30am—I was ready to claw people’s eyes out. Currently, I am in a different apt with a new room mate—Richard, an entrepreneur from Boston and my crypto currency buddy.

Walking down the alley to my apartment - which also houses a medical spa (.. for serious and expensive beauty treatments in this land of cheap beauty services) I get an up close and personal look at how the locals live. Think small spaces, concrete, no furniture except TV. I’ve seen people park their motorbikes in their living room (their only room) then lounge on them and watch the Voice (their doors are open so I look it). Mostly people live on the street in front of their house—they’re washing dishes, chopping and cooking food, just sitting,visiting and holding babies. The air moves more outside in the alley than in the back rooms. No one seems unhappy with their circumstances. It’s life in Vietnam.

My office tower is a 15 min walk away and I only have to take my life in my hands with one major road crossing. Typically I wait for the green crossing light but it is still a crap shoot every time as to whether I will get taken out by a scooter, car or bus disregarding the light. By the way, this is the norm,not the exception! When I get back to America, I will be an expert j-walker able to dart vehicles coming at me from all directions. Many times I just wait for a local and shadow them across - they are nonchalant and so at home with the chaos do not even notice me glued to their back. In this city more than the others, I am truly grateful that I plunked down the big bucks for travel insurance. Our work space is super nice- 7th floor along with some oil and cruise companies—with a little grocery, Japanese restaurant and coffee shop on the first floor. Life is good. Our ground team -Cam and Trang are lovely and very committed to ensuring we have the best experience ever.

So far, I’ve visited the Temple of Literature Museum—first Vietnamese university—so cool that back in the 1000s they put such a high value on education and I am happy to say that they still do. Even super poor families will find the money to send their kids to school even if they have to pay $200 per year —that is about 5 million dong…a lot when you earn only 2 million dong/mo. My apt mate Jake and I also visited the Ho Chi Minh monument and his home/office grounds. He actually seemed like a good man, quite humble—moved out of the palace to live with his workers on the estate —reminds of the me of Pope in this way.

My office tower was built on part of the Hoa Lo Prison Memorial (aka Hanoi Hilton) property. This war museum, right behind us,is where John McCain and other US airmen were held when they were shot down in the Vietnam war. The museum is pretty interesting—their information reminds visitors that they treated our airmen really well—let them raise chickens, workout, have religious ceremonies, gave them gifts etc. I understand the winners get to write history—and the information tends to be slanted to how honorable the Vietnamese were to the Americans. Locals still joke that it’s a good thing that McCain was shot down back then because the lake is so polluted now (has 3 eyed fish) the polluted waters would certainly kill him today. Apparently the locals swam out and helped him to shore as he had several broken bones and could not swim from the wreckage. One poster of an airman reuniting with his family after prison actually brought me to tears. No worries, a little retail therapy at the gift shop made me feel much better - they had lovely cards and paper products.

A group of us enjoyed Apron Up, a local cooking school. We began with an eye-opening tour of the wholesale market—think large building with tiny walkways through vast volumes of products - reminded me of what it might be like to walk through a hoarder’s home after a ship from China had unloaded. Socks, watches, cooking products, kids stuff - endless. We finished with shopping in the fruit, veggie and meat area which was along several narrow streets. I loved trying a wide variety of new fruits as we went, but I must confess that seeing and buying meat on the street - pretty much killed my appetite. We even saw live toads for sale—but no dog or rats! The cooking class was a blast and the Pho, Spring Rolls, Egg Coffee and Papaya Salad turned out great.

The highlight outing for me happened on Saturday. Twenty of us donned military helmets, sun glasses and our best smile to cover our trepidation at being out in the God awful traffic clinging to back small but mighty motorbikes. My driver was completely adorable so I clung to him, just sayin’. Our young driver/tour guides wearing army camouflage jackets were prepared to give us the ride of our lives! Over six hours we wove in and out of traffic, down tiny alleys and areas where the tourists dare not go. We stopped 5 times for food, drink and in one spot the group smoked something called strange tobacco. They finished the trip in la la land! I missed this experience because three of us asked if we could visit a local woman on her house boat on the Red River. Through our guide, we learned about her life farming,carving out an existence while caring for a disabled husband and son. At this point our own perspectives of our life’s changed forever!!I gave her 100,000 dong but wished i could give her 100,000 USD!!

My birthday was a blast this year. Very sweet. Apart from the sweet messages that I loved, people insisted on giving me sweets and I could not say “No,” right?My massage place gave me a small bag of cookies, the hotel delivered a lovely desert to my room, the dining room staff me a free desert…and best of all, our Vroom Vroom bike excursion ended with the most beautiful cake, a nice compliment to the egg coffees and spicy hot chocolates…and oh, I love surprises like this!!

This week I will visit a blind massage place and learn how more about this operation and maybe how to give a good massage myself. This weekend, many of us are looking forward to a side trip to Ha Long Bay which is supposed to be breathtaking> Postcard perfect, it’s in northeast Vietnam and is known for its emerald waters and thousands of towering limestone islands topped by rain forests. Junk boat tours and sea kayak expeditions take visitors past islands named for their shapes, including Stone Dog and Teapot islets. Some I’m thinking of a day side trip to see temples and rice paddies—or just get out of this city. The area is Ninh Binh. As always, when we come down the home stretch we try to squeeze as much in as possible..

Stay tuned ..more to come