Category: Vietnam

I lost my camera somehow. As I left my hotel in Hoi An, I peeked into my carry-on bag to make sure I had my […] Read More

On my last full day in Hoi An, I went fishing on the river with Dao’s father. Dao was there with her sister and cousin, […] Read More

By sheer coincidence, I bumped into Anh last night. He’s the old man who drove me around Hoi An and the surrounding villages during my […] Read More

I woke up feeling pretty poorly today. I’m still shaking something off from last week, and mornings are the worst. Last night I had a […] Read More

On my way back from the beach on Muoi’s motorbike yesterday, she stopped about a kilometer from my hotel and asked, “you walk from here?” […] Read More

Yesterday, before I went to the beach – and after – I was somewhat apprehensive about spending four lazy days in Hoi An. My friend […] Read More

I spent most of yesterday at Cua Dai beach – reading, dozing, fending off vendors. The vendors have a captive audience at the beach, so […] Read More

I spent most of my one full day in Hanoi with Van. My original plan was to look at some paintings, with the hope of […] Read More

This morning my Malay friend Elena, whom I met in Hanoi, called me while I was waiting for my ramen to cool at the Lucky […] Read More

The Lucky Hotel in Hanoi sits on a quiet street a few hundred meters from Hoan Kiem Lake (the only lake in Hanoi that matters). […] Read More

I’ve been back in Singapore for a week now. Since I returned, I’ve worked five 16-hour days, and my culture shock has recovered enough to […] Read More

As I’ve travelled the Vietnam countryside, I’ve seen many many times the folkloric image of the bamboo-hat-adorned farmer stooping among the chartreuse blades of a […] Read More

I went for a massage yesterday, and at the end, my masseuse took the liberty of waxing my back hair. That may be too much […] Read More

The other day I met a couple of post-middle-aged social workers from California. The wife was half Vietnamese but looked somehow Peruvian. The husband was […] Read More

In Laos, the boys play a game that looks like a cross between footbag and volleyball. They kick a small wicker ball back and forth […] Read More

I’ve had a lot of delicious food on this trip, but one of the highlights has been a local Hanoi creation called cha ca, which […] Read More

a family of five a live pig three dead pigs two dead pigs and a passenger six computer monitors bags and bags and bags of […] Read More

A popular joke in Hanoi says that when you buy a car or motorbike, the first thing you check is the horn. After five days, […] Read More

I heard once that whatever you’re doing when the clock strikes midnight on new year’s eve will define what your coming year will be like. […] Read More

I met a Malaysian woman at breakfast this morning, and she and I will head north tomorrow to the mountain villages around Sapa. She’s in […] Read More