hanoi

hanoi has been a long time coming. i kept trying to make it to hanoi for 2 years...and finally the perfect storm arose. david was around. we had three birthdays....so hanoi/halong bay here we come!!!

i went with concerns about vietnam, as my previous few trips to Saigon weren't enjoyable. a developing nation i had no social ties to and everything tasted like fish sauce. an emerging market i couldn't tap my way into. but that was 7 years ago. this time around, even with a slight hangover from the night before, with david leading the charge, who's lived in hanoi for 10 years and the mother of his twins is vietnamese, i felt at ease.

hanoi is the capital of a communist nation. but modern day communism is capitalistic. and as china boomed...vietnam boomed. and as the commodity boom hit, so did vietnam. i brought summer clothes, but the north is a much cooler climate than the south...and it was definitely not beach weather. it was hazy all throughout. a coal conference was going on and the koreans were flooding into my hotel. i even had an old colleague message me on instagram oddly enough. but the days of trading are long over. and i had other things on my mind for my thirty fifth birthday...so we headed to birthday french cuisine lunch. it was good but i'd rather have vietnamese food....when the others arrived, we went to see the the twins....had a huge dinner (it seemed huge but viet cuisine is filled with vegetables) and then hit the club. and the snowball started rolling from there...

the twins...

this spread was at a local franchise in a mall....it was exactly what i wanted....lots of everything.

and then there was the club...which shall not be posted.

and then the street food....and another club...which i just chugged a bottle of wine myself. and left after 15 minutes...hahaha...

4 hour drive to halong bay for this....

reminds me of jeitta grotto

kissing cocks

some touristy kayaking...

this msg salt lime pepper chili combo....is to die for. now used for hot pot....

foot massages....

and more karaoke...

david and i woke up crazy early to visit the jetty site. by the time we came back people were still sleeping. but as a consolation...i got to eat banh cuon!!! my favorite!

banh mi is just a greasy meat egg sandwich. i prefer the modernized hybrids in the states where the meats are grilled and the pickled vegetables are fresh.