Saturday, October 30, 2010

Just Another Walk In The Park

I took another walk around the lake this morning. Sun cutting low through the trees, not a cloud in the sky. Another wonderful walk through some great light. Sunday appears to be no different than Saturday when it comes to getting out early and making the most of the day. I have to say, getting up early is no problem here. I am sitting in the very small hotel lobby having an iced Vietnamese coffee and listening to a table of people speaking French. I like it here!

Last night brought an amazing adventure of riding through Hanoi on the back of Zoom's motorbike. Traffic is crazy here anyway, but on a Saturday night, well... That's an E ticket ride, better than any trip down Fifth Ave. in a cab! On the flight here, I was reading Anthony Bourdain's Medium Raw and there is a section where he talks about riding around Hanoi and that he just became comfortable not holding onto the driver or sissy bar. That was all I could think about. The ride to dinner was nerve racking but on the ride to the expat party, across town, I was beginning to feel like an expert, taking video along the way. Jim Clemenson, if you are reading this post, I was thinking of you. FYI... Posting video is ways more involved than photos. Good luck to me.

Dinner was at a local fresh beer hall with Zoom, Dave and a couple other of their friends. A big container of beer sat on the table and kept six us in beer for over an hour for $5 US. I just can't get over the cost of everything here. Dave's girlfriend Quin, ordered for the table. We had sauteed pumpkin leaves (my favorite for the night), another green leave something sauteed, some grilled ribs, sweet and sour soup and ham. All was okay but certainly not my favorite meal of the trip. The whole bill... 64,000 VND per person, or less than $3.20. Sorry to dwell on the price of everything but I just can't get over it.

Then on to an expat halloween party at a bar over near West Lake. Great motorbike ride through the main streets of Hanoi. The whole month of October is a celebration of Hanoi's 1000 year anniversary, so there are spectacular lights everywhere. The expat party turned out to be in a very smoky basement with loud music and a whole lot of Americans, Aussies and Europeans so I bailed and headed back to catch up on email and crash.

Gotta run, shower, meet Zoom and then off to get some snails for breakfast...

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