St Paddy's Day Fun

Wednesday was St Patrick’s Day - and for some reason, I am more in touch with my Irish roots here in Ha Noi than I have ever been back in the Boston area. Go figure.

But as a member of the Gaelic Football team, I got a special invite to the St Paddy’s Day party put on by the Irish Embassy in Ha Noi. We were recognized in a separate ceremony before the party and met the Irish Ambassodor and the visiting Irish Minister for Science, Technology, Innovation and Natural Resources (now isn’t THAT a title). Then we moved into the main room for some Irish food, drink, song and dance. An elder Irish woman took me by the arm and started swinging me around and taught me to “three-step”. It was a ‘fecking grand time’.

The next day, not so much…

Gaelic Happenings

Saturday March 6th was another round of Asian Gaelic Football games. Our team, the Duracelts fought hard through torrential downpours and unnecessary heat. Yours truly was still recovering from a bout of flu and when not playing spent most of the time staring into space trying not to pass out.

For a brief write-up of the games and photos, check out the story on the Viet Celts blog

But the Gaelic fun wasn’t over yet. About a week later back in Ha Noi we hosted a fundraising Quiz night at the local American pub. It was a solid turnout and got us about 250USD, which is impressive considering a) it’s Viet Nam, and b) we organized the whole thing in 5 days.
I also got to try my hand at MCing for the night. Pretty fun, not gonna lie.

Here’s the piece I wrote for the blog (which I, in no way whatsoever, wrote during work time. Never….)

Epic Tet Getaway: The Malaysia Days

Sunset on Penang

After a two-day stint working at TRAFFIC’s regional office in Malaysia, just outside the capital of Kuala Lumpur, I left my business-class luxury at the Armada hotel and headed into the city to a cheap Chinatown hostel. I spent a few days wandering the city on my own and with a Canadian couple I met at the hostel. Kayla (a friend from home) arrived on Saturday night, groggy-headed but cheerful after her 27 hour flight from NY. The next morning we saw the Batu Caves, a Hindu temple built into natural limestone caves outside the city, then headed north to the island of Penang off the west coast of peninsular Malaysia.

Penang has beaches and the historic city of Georgetown. The night we arrived also happened to be the last night of the Chinese New Year, so there was a big parade at midnight and we shared some sago tea with the locals at the community temple.
A temple on Penang

After a few days of historic walks and beach sunsets, we headed back to the mainland for a trip into the Cameron Highlands, about 4 hours north of KL. The region is filled with rolling mountains, criss-crossed by tea and strawberry plantations and offered a much-appreciated respite from the heat of KL and Penang. Unfortunately, we didn’t see too much of the place because we spent the whole first day in bed with fever and aches.

At the Big Red Strawberry Farm in the Highlands

The next day, after a brief taxi ride up the highest mountain for breathtaking views, we hopped on a bus and headed back to KL where I met up with my Gaelic Football team for a tournament and Kayla prepared for the long trip back home.

In the Land of Tempeh

I have a new love. It’s moldy, and chewy, and oh so delicious.

One thing I learned on my trip, in addition to the fact that you can’t buy gum in Singapore unless it’s nicoret gum to stop smoking, is that tempeh originates in Indonesia.

I wrote the following haiku for tempeh

Tempeh: the other Tofu
Perplexing flavors
Fermented soybean patty
Protein of my dreams

Epic Indonesia Trip

Jonathan and I make good travelling buddies. We are both pretty easy going and willing to laugh at most situations. Unfortunately, we are not very good planners. The result? A non-stop rush to cross the island of Java in time to make our flight in Bali. During the rainy season.

I don’t regret one moment of the trip- it was amazing. But I think we’re both still recovering from the dizzying pace.

Here’s our itinerary:

Monday Feb 15 --> arrive from Singapore in Jakarta

Tues --> Train to Bandung and trip to see volcanic crater in the rain

Wed --> Bus to Pangandaran - a beach town on the southern coast.

Thurs --> realize over a beer we need to leave that night to fit everything in before our flight on Bali- take uncomfortable overnight train to Yogyakarta

Fri --> arrive early morning in Yogya, see Borobudur temple and other sites around town

Sat --> leave early morning for Bromo, an active volcano in Eastern Java

Sun --> hike up Bromo to watch the sunrise among the sulphuric clouds. Arrive in Bali that night with enough time to dip my feet in the water before bed

Mon --> early morning flight back to Singapore

Tues --> Jonathan heads back to Ha Noi while I hop on bus to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for a short work stint in our regional office there before continuing epic Tet Extravaganza Part II

Highlights of the trip: floating down the “Green” Canyon; watching the sunrise from smoldering Bromo volcano

Lowlights: VERY uncomfortable 4 hours spent on the “overnight” train that were hard metal seats with a desk fan bolted to the ceiling with a serious sunburn followed by an hour of sleep on a wooden bench when the hotel owners couldn’t be woken up to give us a room

Singapore Sling

Jonathan (friend from Ha Noi) and I left on our epic Tet getaway the night of Feb 11th. First stop was Singapore for a few days. After being in Ha Noi for 6 months, it was a pleasant shock to the system. It was the first time I’d seen a Starbucks in a looong time. Weird, right? Singapore is a cool place- a clean, sunny city with efficient public transport and permeable parking spaces. We ended up staying with Jonathan’s friend, which was a really fun way to see the city- and cost effective. Apparently with modernity comes expense, I’d forgotten.

Eating durian and corn flavored icecream wrapped in funfetti wonderbread

Singapore is interesting because it is the confluence of many different Asian cultures, in one small but well-manicured city. There are many Indians, Chinese, Muslims, Malaysians and others. We spent our few days there eating our way around the city and various hawker centers (Singapore’s solution to street food- centers with lots of vendors selling nasi lemak, nasi campur and other tasty dishes). We were also there for the Chinese New Year and decided to spend it on the streets of Chinatown watching the hoards of people…and then joining them for some New Year’s fun.

As nice as it was, after a few days I was tired of the constant onslaught of shopping and consumerism and was ready to move on to Indonesia.

Playing dress up at the Museum of Asian Civilizations

Pre-Tet Crazies

It’s now been about two months since my last post. Partly neglect, but also partly because I’ve been travelling for the past 3+ weeks. I’ll do my best to catch up on life, and central to that is the strange phenomenon known as Tet.

Tet is the Lunar New Year, (also known as Chinese New Year in other parts of the world). This year it fell on February 14th, a particularly auspicious date for all you romantics out there. It’s probably the biggest holiday of the year and a time of family, shopping, and strange happenings. In the madness leading up to Tet, prices inexplicably rise, flashing lights and bejewelled signs deck the city spreading good fortune and “Chuc mung nam moi” (Happy New Year). Traffic reaches an extreme, and the usual daily adventures of getting around the city are confounded by large mandarin and cherry blossom trees strapped to the backs of motorbikes so that the roads begin to feel like a living forest, winding and twisting through narrow alleys to the incessant sounds of honking. Crisp 1,000 to 50,000 dong notes become suddenly hot items to get stuffed in red envelopes and given away as ‘lucky money’ to children and friends.

Any sort of strange occurrence can be explained by the overwhelming force that is Tet. Robberies and thefts are said to increase leading up to and during Tet (a few of my friends can attest to that). Furthermore, the words “auspicious” and “inauspicious” begin to dictate your life. For example, a female friend tried to stop and get air in her bicycle tires on the way to work one morning. She was refused by the shopkeeper. Apparently it is inauspicious to have a female customer as the first of the day in the weeks before Tet. Interesting.

The whole nation shuts down during Tet holiday to go be with family in the countryside, eat dinners of epic proportions, and wail to the inspiring tunes of Vietnamese Karaoke. For most expats living in Ha Noi, it’s a time to escape. They say if you do plan to stay in the city, stock up on food, water and money. And for those who have remained…. on the actual day of Tet, the streets are eerily deserted. Left to the rats and the few foreigners wandering the streets - the city is the most peaceful it will ever be.

I decided to take advantage of 5 consecutive days of public holiday and headed to Indonesia with a friend.