Visitors!

Bina and I have been having a great series of visitors! Some are overlapping and others are a couple days apart, but overall it’s been a non-stop, action-packed month. And we have more friends on the way! Bina has several new pictures on her photo link too.

V1
Eddie Sperry:

Eddie wants to meet a girl with a bicycle pierced to her face. His ideal woman is one who owns a book. Eddie has half a foot from a motorcycle accident and got increasingly angry at the shoeshine kids who wanted him to take off his boots. And when they tried to sell him sandals, they just didn’t understand why he wouldn’t buy any.

Eddie came to stay for a few days with us in Hanoi but then traveled by himself to the south. He had several adventures, great pictures, and funny stories when he returned. Eddie is one of the funniest people I know. I think he must be certifiably crazy only no one has certified him yet.

Eddie now lives in Thailand. He’s an old friend of mine from New York and an amazing musician / producer. I met Eddie back when I played bass for Mozart’s Grave and made a couple records with him.

Here’s a few pictures of Eddie.





V2
Julianne and Erica:

Julianne and Erica really opened our eyes to all that Hanoi has to offer. Funny, leave it to guests to expose you to things you’d overlooked the entire time you’ve live somewhere. They were eager to see and do as much as they could while they were in town so we did it all. We explored the fabric market, had clothes tailored, tried new restaurants, went to the circus, decorated for Christmas, and traveled south to Hue and Hoi An.




Julianne and Erica traveled to Sapa and Ha Long Bay by themselves and then Erica left before Julianne so she’s missing from a few of these photos, but check out all the great shots Julianne got:

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8CYtGjNu5at3C


In Hue, Bina, Julianne, and I found ourselves seeking shelter from the constant rain by ducking into one of the fanciest hotels in the whole town and getting pampered with foot massages. First we soaked in a Jacuzzi, then steamed ourselves in a sauna, then sat back and let the masseuses do their magic. It was all going so well until we started talking to them. Many creepy smiles later we were invited to eat noodles with them at 7:00am the next day. This plan was doomed from the start. We were all a bit dubious about our newfound friends and didn’t set the alarm. Lesson learned: When you’re being pampered, conversation is not relaxing.


V3
Aaron and Kate:

Aaron and Kate stayed with us for a few days while Julianne and Erica were with us and we had a packed house. It was cozy though, like a big slumber party. They had made several other plans to tour Vietnam and we were going to meet them again in the south but our paths didn’t cross again.

We did have a couple great meals though.

V4
Josh Shapiro:

Josh was all about the tailor. He came off the plane with a few issues of GQ tucked under his arm and an empty suitcase to take back all of his new clothes. He even left his old shoes behind after purchasing some new ones.

Josh only had a week so we did as much as possible. We even took a boat trip to Ha Long Bay for Christmas. Being the good Jewish boy that he is, he didn’t really care that it was Christmas, but that kind of made it all that much better. We didn’t really care that it was Christmas either! However I did exercise the spirit by sending out a few emails before we left.

The boat tour consisted of kayaking around Ha Long Bay, (Beautiful!!) swimming, eating tons of seafood, and ending up on Cat Ba Island. We ditched the rest of the tour and stayed on Cat Ba for the rest of the day, rented motorbikes and cruised around. We even witnessed an impromptu cockfight on the street.






The day before Josh left he and I went out for lunch. Bina had a work-related meeting and couldn’t join us, so we decided to do something that is traditionally a “mans” thing to do in Vietnam. (Although Bina is dying to go) We ate snake.

THE FOLLOWING ACCOUNT IS NOT FOR THE WEAK AT STOMACH. (Also, I’m sorry if anyone takes offense.)

Snake is eaten for virility mostly, but neither Josh nor I felt any more virile when we left. In fact we were so drunk off snake wine that we could hardly stay on the back of the Xe Oms. (Hired motorbike driver.)

First you pick your snake. This guy was a King Cobra.

Then they gut it, removing the heart while it’s still beating and the bile sack. The heart will beat for 15 minutes after it’s removed.

The bile and blood are mixed separately into rice wine and served. The heart is placed in the glass of the guest of honor, this case being Josh. (Lucky, right?)



After consuming both liquors, the snake is prepared in about 8 different dishes and served. We ate the meat, the skin, and just about everything else.

Throughout the meal we were given our choice of several other snake wines. In the end, we drank the Blood, Bile, Queen Copperhead, Poisonous Snake Heads, Snake Eggs, 9-Snake, and Snake Penis. (Yes, it’s true.)



This is by far the strangest meal I’ve ever had in my life. How did it taste? A lot better than it looked!

V4
Drew:

Drew is visiting right now and we’re getting ready to celebrate new Years Eve so you’ll here more about that later. We spent the better part of today hunting for Cuban Cohibas to smoke but ended up with a couple of cigarillos. We have a good lead on some real stogies for $5 a stick. That’s really expensive by Vietnamese standards, (not to mention Tijuana!), but that’s the low end of the going rate. They’re a luxury item anywhere. Happy New Year!

Thanksgiving and More

Whoa did I get busy. It seems that between a steady flow of visitors and two newly acquired jobs I haven’t had much time to update my blog. But so as to not get even further behind, and to not miss anything, let me re-cap!

Job #1. I’ve been hired by the proprietors of a local restaurant / bar called Sloppy Joe’s to be a manager. My principal duties include planning and hosting evens as well as marketing and promotion. Here’s a picture of me hard at work drinking a yard of ale during one of the regular’s Birthday party.


Since I’ve been working at Sloppy’s I’ve organized a weekly “Dinner and a Movie” night, an evening with a DJ, a couple of parties, and most recently an art exhibit of a local Vietnamese artist who I’ve been friends with since I moved here in August. His name is Do Tuan Anh and we’re having an opening for his artwork this Friday. (More on that later.) I’ve also worked hard at changing the decor of the place. I had painters change the color of a couple of mint green walls that I just couldn’t stand to look at anymore and I removed a few ugly “trophy cases” that were taking up too much wall space. Here’s a picture of the bar from the outside (pre-paintjob) but you get the idea.


I have several more ideas planned for the bar including live music, but for now I’m still trying to feel out the identity of the place. It verges on hipster art-house but still sits somewhere between ex-pat sports bar and Hanoi-chic.

Job #2. I’m working for a state-owned multi-media company as a creative consultant and graphic designer. This is an interesting job because they’re more interested in my ideas as a foreigner than anything else. They’re thinking long-term and how Vietnam will be positioned when entering the wider global market, so they want new ideas. I’ve been working on a logo and site design for a new website that will be out sometime in February. The people I work with are wonderful people and the pay is good. However, I’m not only working for “The Man”, but the “Vietnamese Man”! So I have to be a little careful with just how creative I get.

Thanksgiving was a blast! Bina and I made pies, mashed potatoes, and pasta salad for 20-some-odd people! We did it in collaboration with a few of our other friends and hosted it at their apartment because it was bigger than ours. Of course, all birds have been outlawed in Hanoi so there was no turkey to be found, but we had Sloppy Joe’s make up a few tins of pork chops and we all pigged out. (No pun intended)

We invited several of our friends and were able to share the Thanksgiving spirit with a few people who had never celebrated the holiday. There were Vietnamese, Americans, French, Canadians, Spanish, German, and even an Indian guy from Malaysia at the meal. It was a truly family-like, feel good dinner, complete with an eloquently theatrical rendition of the history of Thanksgiving narrated by Bina herself. I could tell she was recalling most of it from early Ohio elementary school versions she’d had ingrained in her head, but she changed a few things toward the end and had to mention the eventual genocide of the Native American people. But that didn’t discourage the Vietnamese guests too much. They’ve been through equally tough times with pilgrim-like colonialists. Of course at one point someone yelled, “You bombed my country!” just to be funny.





But the most exciting news is our new visitors! We have some great guests with us now and more coming. I’ll be posting that soon!