Halong Bay, Vietnam: A big FAT boat all to ourselves

January 1, 2011

My guess is that the most peaceful and outrageously beautiful time on our trip will be Halong Bay. Think ocean with jutting limestone outcroppings bursting out of the water, left and right, carving striking shapes into the sky. Just amazing.

At first, I was a bit disappointed that we didn’t do Halong Bay on New Year’s Eve because it would have been an incredible way to bring in the New Year. We arrived on New Year’s Day at noon, to a chaotic port scene, packed with tourists leaving their Halong Bay boats, the morning after New Year’s Eve. Let me tell you, these guys were HUNGOVER. You could even smell the alcohol wafting out of their pores. Whew! The previous night was written all over them. Most of the boats were completely packed, filled with 30 to 35 tourists on each.

Then, we stepped into our own boat, which had held 30 drunk tourists the previous night, and we had it ALL to ourselves. Yes, no one else was on board. Our travel agent asked and received a big, sweet boat for us, and the boat company must have already had the staff just sitting around, waiting for a job after us. We had at least 10 staff taking care of the 5 of us on our boat. Let’s just say we were well-served.

But, more importantly, you really need to imagine what it’s like being on a large boat without anyone else. The kids and we just felt nearly-completely unself-conscious. It was such a feeling of freedom, peace, and relaxation. We had an upper deck, dining area, and lower deck, along with lower rooms.

The kids took over a couple rooms, made a clubhouse with elaborate rules, passwords, money, and treasures, and they disappeared. We only let Boom disappear with them if he wore his lifevest at all times.

Another perk was that a large boat didn’t rock much, allowing Ken to be nausea-free on the trip. He’s developed a very sensitive, strongly boat and car sick reaction with age. He was dreading the overnite on the boat, but ended up loving it.

Each meal was filled with seafood, and enough food for the 30 people who should have been on board. We felt guilty at the end of each meal with how much we left over. Interestingly, the Vietnamese staff sat and watched us with our kids, and the guide told us that they noticed that American kids are given much more independence at the dinner table than Vietnamese kids. Our kids could say no to certain foods and seemed to have developed preferences. Vietnamese kids, even our kids’ age, are often fed by their parents, as in their parents put the fork filled with food into their kids’ mouths. Parents give their kids no choice in foods. And, they make their kids eat all their food. All of our guides took a stab at making our kids eat all their food.

Needless to say, we all slept well on the boat, rocking gently, but waking up early to sit on top of the deck, watching the rocky outcroppings pass by on our way to the caves.

Click here for a video of Boom describing his boat.

Hanoi, Vietnam: Turtle as Myth

The Famous Lake Turtle, as photographed by Alice.

Vietnamese men LOVE this game.

Calligraphy for tourists, just for a small fee.

Elderly woman praying to Buddha, outside of the temple where people pray to the general.
Not so many people praying to Buddha in Hanoi, as in more Central and Southern Vietnam.

December 31, 2010

At the center of Hanoi is Hoan Kiem Lake, just a couple blocks from our hotel. I’d jog there every morning in Hanoi. Our guide took us there to walk over the red bridge to an island with Ngoc Son Temple on it. Since it’s Hanoi, where they revere military leaders as much as Buddha, the temple was dedicated to worshipping a famous general, who saved Vietnam from the French, as it’s told. Many Vietnamese were praying to this general in the temple.

While the guide gave an unmemorable description of the general, he downright glowed when he passionately described the HUGE turtle said to live in the lake. Turtles are one of 5 sacred legendary animals in Vietnam including: Phoenix, Unicorn (Looks like a bird/lion/dragon mix without much of a horn), fish, dragon, and the turtle. Just because it’s sacred doesn’t mean they don’t heartlessly kill it live then eat it on the streets of Hanoi, though. But, it is said that there is a huge old turtle in the lake and he comes out rarely, but when he does he blesses everyone, bringing good luck. See the picture above of the legendary turtle in gold. At a recent celebration of the turtle next to the lake, the old turtle is said to have emerged from the lake, still putting a smile on the face of all in Hanoi.

And, people in Hanoi deserve to feel lucky, but it’s really through their grit, determination, efficiency, and incredible hard work that their town and country is just plain BOOMING!

You can see New Year’s Eve was the busiest day of our trip. We did EVERYTHING. Hence it wasn’t a disappointment to be blogging in my cozy Hanoi hotel room, with Ken and the kids asleep, when the clock turned midnite on New Year’s Eve. What a 2010 it’s been for us. We feel like the turtle’s given a special blessing on us this year. Happy New Year, everyone!

Hanoi, Vietnam: Upscale Hawker Food Dinner

December 31, 2010

We hit the local hawker stall courtyard, a phenomenon we’ve grown to love in Asia. A bunch of small restauranteurs set up a little stall or table, selling one or two key items, all in a square around a courtyard. You order at various stalls, then they bring you your food.

Our guides on this trip seem uncomfortable sending us to local food, or slummy hawker stalls for meals. They inevitably steer us towards the touristy, high-end but “local” food eateries, that always have pizza and spaghetti, just in case. But, this time we insisted, even had to insist a couple times, that our guide take us to a hawker stall, that seemed a guarantee of a local food experience.

The hawker stall he sent us to was named Quan An Ngon, and it was downright posh compared to the one we loved in Penang, Malaysia. A real waiter took your order from a menu that was offered with foods from all the stalls inside. But, taking a harder look at the stalls, I even doubted that these were real hawker stalls, with each stall representing a unique entrepreneur, usually a family with a child helping serve. Rather than having all the tables and chairs being miniature tables and chairs, as is loved in Hanoi as if all Hanoi-ans were midgets, they automatically seated the Western tourists at separate BIG tables and chairs, with locals happily squinched into their mini chairs. No, I think it was a high-scale restaurant masquerading as down-low hawker stalls, hoping to attract tourists looking for an “authentic dining experience,” like us.

Still, we happily ate our way through the ruse, smiling while eating rice pancakes wrapped up in shrimp, a huge pile of herbs, and pork. Click here for a video of the hawker stall.

Ken = Confucius

Hanoi, Vietnam: Lunch at Gold Medal-winning restaurant

December 31, 2010

Selling, the Vietnamese are always selling, aggressively. Just a day in Hanoi showed us why we lost the war here. Our guide aggressively sold us this lunch place, as gold medal-winning, with famous American and French chefs having visited. The guide (who is an excellent guide) sold us his guide services (even after we’d already bought them) by telling us all the famous people he’d toured and brought to this restaurant. And, he said this was NOT a restaurant but we were eating in this famous chef’s home.

Let’s be clear. This was a restaurant, no matter what our guide says. Maybe the chef or someone lived downstairs but it was a restaurant we dined in upstairs. Still, the food did deserve a medal. Even the kids loved pretty much everything served. Even ALICE! And, she’s the queen of picky.

There was a noodle soup with a rich broth to die for and fried spring rolls that melted in your mouth. Then, the piece de resistance, the dish she’s famous for, was the chicken. But, it was really the sauce that made it amazing – lemon, pepper, salt, red hot pepper, and lime leaves. Sounds simple but it was phenomenal. I have an automatic drool that kicks in just looking at the picture above of the sauce and chicken that made her famous.

At the end, they washed our hands in leaves and lemon water. They scrubbed each of our hands with the leaves, leaving our hands scented and us feeling pampered. The chef’s great grandfather used to have his hands scrubbed with leaves by a servant. Now, she just has her waiters wash tourists’ hands.

Crazy Hanoi Traffic

December 31, 2010

Hanoi drivers are famous for being fast, crazy drivers, especially the motorbikes. We even got a missive beforehand from our travel agent, describing how to cross the cross light-free Hanoi streets without getting killed.

I'll sum it up as this: Close your eyes, walk very slowly, and let the motorbikers whiz by you at incredible speeds, without making eye contact with you, and just plain trust that they won't kill you as you walk like a turtle, imagining yourself splattered like a turtle at any moment.

You can see I was completely freaked taking my kids across these roads. But, once we did the slow turtle walk, facing 100 speeding oncoming motorbikers, I did, I trusted them not to splay my kids. Somehow, there seem to be no accidents.

We rode in a rickshaw, see photos in next post, and crossed roads that were a melee of cars, people, and mostly crazy motorbikes, all trying to cross without a cross light. You may ask why Hanoi doesn't have cross lights. Well, it's not what you might guess -- it's not because they don't have enough money to put in a cross light. The government actually tried cross lights before. They failed.

Hanoi-ers are just plain too impatient to wait for a light to turn green. The motorbikers just didn't wait for the light to turn green, they blew right through the light. The government gave up and removed most of the lights. For such a tightly controlling government, this was a shocker. The will of the people beat the will of one strong armed government, through their sheer force of entrepreneural impatience.

To see the crazy merging of traffic while my rickshaw is also trying to cross the street, click here.

Abraham: The New Dalai Lama

Korean in Kuala Lumpur

??? in Kuala Lumpur

Muslim Malaysians in Cameron Highlands, Malaysia

Cambodian

Vietnamese in Hanoi, Vietnam

Vietnamese high school graduates celebrating in Hanoi

Pinching Boom's cheeks. Now, Boom pinches my cheeks.

Boom makes a break for it

December 31, 2010

Abraham is the next Dalai Lama. Or, so Ken has said ever since we arrived in Asia.

Asians LOVE cute. And, Boom fits the bill. Curly dirty blond hair. Big, soft cheeks. Short in stature. Cheeky smile. Big blue eyes with lashes that make women swoon.

They ALL want Boom's picture. But, not just a photo of him. They want to be in the picture with him. And, most don't seem to care if they take a picture with their camera. They're happy with just having us take a picture with our camera.

At first, we were puzzled by this. Boom was shy about it. After a few pictures, he started hamming it up, showing his most winning smile. Posing.

But, now we've hit Vietnam. And, let me tell you, the Vietnamese are aggressive about getting a pinch of those cute fat cheeks. They talk to him in Vietnamese, try to hold him, try to take pictures of their kids with him.

The truth is, the Vietnamese are soft and passive about it compared to the Koreans. Korean tourists are stalkers of the Boom. And, even of Alice. On our way hiking down a mountain, we were followed by a crowd of Korean girls yelling "Alixa! Alixa!" to Alice whose brother passive aggressively revealed her name to them. The entire way down the mountain, they followed her, she hid behind me, refusing to take a picture with them. Boom coached her along the way, how to refuse, ignore, and dodge the papparazzi. Then, the Koreans started talking to me: "She BEAUtiful! BEAUtiful!" touching her hair, all wanting a brush with gold.

In the end, we didn't discover this phenomenon. It was recently written in the New York Times, coining their baby "Rock Star Baby" and feeling able to relinquish their baby to a restaurant of families who passed their baby from one family to the next, allowing the parents to relax for their dinner (click here).

The climax of our Rock Star Boom experience was reached when we hit the Temple of Literature, where large crowds of High School and College graduates go for end-of-year pictures. First, a few graduate girls petted and held Boom, asking for a picture, then more and more of their graduate friends joined in the picture, until all the graduates piled into the picture.

Ken, who's recently offered to write a book titled "Dollar Parenting," offered to pay Boom Vietnamese dong if he'd take the picture with them. Boom refused unless Alice joined in the photo, intimidated by the huge crowds that were gathering for a picture with him. See video here.

In the end, the first three girl graduates, held on tight to Boom's cheeks, not wanting to let go. Wanting another lucky, intimate moment with him, giggling with joy as Boom pulled away.