The Cyclo Diaries
Posted: March 17, 2012 Filed under: koto, Movies, Reflections, Stories, transport, travel | Tags: cyclo, extreme charity, Hanoi, ho chi minh city 1 Comment »
Filmed in 2005, this has been a long time coming but it’s a great watch – at an hour in length it’s worth downloading in advance and sitting down in the evening with a glass of something to take it in.
In short it’s the tale of two Australian tour guides who decide to try and ride a cyclo from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City. The two guys in question are Adam and Marty, and they did the trip to raise money for KOTO, where I happened to be working at the time.
At the time the future of KOTO hung in the balance, we desperately needed new premises for the restaurant and there were quite a few times we didn’t think we’d make it. For the cyclo-ing and the financial assistance Adam and Marty were superheroes to the KOTO kids.
For my part I organised the send off. I also kept their trip blog updated from base camp. Then, when they were close to the end I caught up with them in Mui Ne, and dashed ahead of them to Ho Chi Minh City. A reception had been organised at a school and I turned up on their doorstep, with a banner I somehow had managed to get made locally, and we waited for the guys to show up.
A great day. Great film. Great guys. Lovely to finally see it.
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Do you still need colour when you’re whole? #danang
Posted: March 11, 2012 Filed under: danang, environment, Hanoi, Reflections, travel | Tags: danang, family, Hanoi 1 Comment »
It might seem odd but the only place I’ve ever imagined me living in Vietnam, other than Hanoi, is Danang.
Switching HN for HCMC would seem odd. Almost like changing an allegiance or admitting you were wrong.
Hoi An seems to be the expat favourite and yet what I like about it is just how perfect it is for a long weekend. Any longer and it’d all get a little too much tailoring, coffee, cake and you-buy-from-me.
But I wonder about Danang. Its reputation is as a bright, modern and forward thinking city. In my romantic vision of me there I am riding my motorbike, smiling in the sunshine, on one of those flat, wide, quiet roads.
But then I can’t imagine where I’d be going.
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about what makes some cities work for some and not for others. With its weather and sheer weight of population, Hanoi can be trying and yet there’s just something. Something that won’t let go of you. The colour between the grey.
I wonder if you could find that colour in Danang.
But I’ve a hunch too that colour is of most importance to single people. Less so for a couple and less so again for a family. Perhaps then you make your own colour. Perhaps you actually need to avoid colour. Perhaps colour and chaos are indivisible.
That in turn got me thinking about something a Vietnamese colleague said to me recently. I’m not sure whether it’s a much-used local saying but it sounds like one.
“You’re a third of a person when you’re single, half a person when you’re married and you’re whole when you’ve a family.”
So, do you still need colour when you’re whole?
*The above was inspired, by among other things, me returning from Danang this morning. Pics taken during the couple of days I was there.
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Lobsters, oysters and five star hotels
Posted: March 3, 2012 Filed under: expats, Food and drink, Hanoi, ho tay, nghi tam, tay ho, The Cart | Tags: food, Hanoi, hotels, lobsters, oysters, sheraton 2 Comments »
The pic is of the oysters at yesterday’s Lobster Buffet at the Sheraton Hotel.
Despite living literally in the shadows of the place we probably only actually visit it a couple of times a year – in particular for this buffet which is chronically expensive by local standards and internationally pretty cheap. Eat as much as you like lobster, oysters etc for $50 a head.
That’s thirty quid each. That’s not much more than a decent British pub lunch.
Eating there is odd, despite the incredible food, it has all the atmosphere of a work canteen. While eating I become very aware that for us, paying for our own food, we’re very keen to stomach our money’s worth of oysters. But for those passing through on business it’s all expenses. Watching them pick at the food, at that price, it seems an unforgivable waste.
I soon become a little embarrassed at the number of return trips to the buffet we make as compared to them.
Nearby, in the smoking section, there is always a table of loud whiskey-faced businessmen drinking copious amounts when it’s $5 for just a small glass of beer.
Despite the fact that our visits are rare these big five star hotels seems to be an unavoidable part of expat living. My home city in the UK has a Hilton but I’ve never been there and I don’t recall friends ever mentioning visits either.
But here if you work for an NGO or Embassy then these hotels are the go-to places for events. An NGO-working friend recently told me of his despair at his employer hosting an event in a five star hotel despite requests to cut costs. But that’s how it is.
Recently we received a catering order at The Cart for lunchtime sandwiches for an NGO. Reading from the bottom the email started with two colleagues musing – “We can’t just ask the Sofitel to provide lunch like we used to – it doesn’t look right any more – does anyone know somewhere that’s cheap?”
The expat community also includes those who manage and market the hotels. Sooner or later, whether you want to or not you’re liable to get on their email list.
Yesterday when we left the Sheraton, a loud, extravagant wedding was taking place. The Aston Martin pictured below was in the car park. You couldn’t help but think it wasn’t just a wedding car, it was a wedding present.
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Thoughts on Luang Prabang and “different” Hanoi
Posted: February 4, 2012 Filed under: Hanoi, Reflections, tet, travel | Tags: backpackers, Hanoi, laos, luang prabang 4 Comments »
As mentioned earlier, we spent Tet in Luang Prabang one of those places that I initially liked then struggled with the longer I was there.
We started the holiday with an ongoing joke that everything was “so much better than Hanoi” – the backpacker near cliche of comparing everything in Vietnam negatively to Laos. But as the holiday went on, one more than one occasion we sat and ate (with bitten tongues, which is tricky) while listening to someone holding forth on why Laos was so amazing and Vietnam (and usually Hanoi) was, at best, different.
On one occasion a person who hadn’t liked Vietnam went on to elaborate about how amazing Vang Vien had been. ”People were so drunk they were jumping in, forgetting they couldn’t swim,” they said gleefully.
Looking around the Orio smoothie stands and the Nutella Crepe ladies and the bucket bars, Luang Prabang is making those backpackers feel at home. Meanwhile I think Hanoi is falling off the backpacker map pretty quickly.
What Hanoi doesn’t do is exist solely for tourists. Yes it has many issues that desperately need sorting but it’s fairly unapologetic in how you find it. For some that is going to be wonderful, for others terrifying, for others it makes it not worth bothering with.
Even as a foreigner you can be invisible in Hanoi but not everyone wants to go unnoticed.
Luang Prabang was gorgeous, the surrounds perhaps the most beautiful views I’ve ever seen, but it’s worth noting that its most populated street had no river views – just eating, shopping and drinking. That was the draw.
There’s no point in comparing the places too closely because it’s hardly like for like. But I will say that a week in Luang Prabang was lovely but too long.
Meanwhile I’ve spent five years and counting in Hanoi and I’m just getting started.
* Rest of the pics are here.
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The perfect lunch
Posted: January 5, 2012 Filed under: Food and drink, football | Tags: food, football, Hanoi, newcastle united, the cart Leave a comment »
Football from here.
Food (mulligatawny soup and meat and potato pie) from The Cart (obviously).
