I got back from Arizona last night after a nice relaxing holiday with the family.
My week in Arizona actually included some snow!!! Here's the proof:
Ok, we cheated by driving about 100 miles north of Phoenix to an old mining town called Jerome at an elevation of approx 6000 feet (population of 450) but it was snow in Arizona nonetheless.
Here's the view looking away from the mountain:
I'm off to the Hamptons tomorrow for NYE.
Everyone have a happy/healthy/fun/safe New Years!!!
I'm enjoying my last drink at JFK for 2011; and I'm totally okay with that. I'll figure out my mileage total for 2011 when I have a minute, but I know it's definitely more than my 119k in 2010.
I'm on my way out to Scottsdale to spend the holidays with the family following an absurd farewell weekend for Brennan. The last 4 days totally ran together but I'm pretty confident that the highlight was somewhere between 10:37pm Friday and 11:21pm Sunday...
Anywho, happy holidays to all! I'll be thinking of you when I'm enjoying the sunshine and boozing outside...
Our last stop on this amazing trip was Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. Although Hanoi lacks the relaxed and fun vibe of Saigon it's a much prettier city. There are dozens of lakes and small parks throughout, and this is where more of the historical buildings and sightseeing stops are located. Some of the buildings that are commonly visited include the famous Vietnam Opera House (they told me it was famous - I never heard of the freakin thing); the Presidential Palace; and the tomb of Ho Chi Minh:
The hotel we stayed at in Hanoi was really cool. It was built on a lake with bridges connecting 'pods' of rooms on man-made islands. The building with the red roof is an awesome bar!
Hanoi and it's surrounding areas is where I saw some of the weird/silly Asian shit that I had expected to encounter throughout this journey. A few examples:
(1) Vietnamese people LOVE Christmas. This probably doesn't seem odd, most people love Christmas. However, only about 8% of the population is Christian!85% are Buddhist! 'Let's go balls out for a holiday directly affiliated with a religion that we don't practice or believe in' - silly Asians. There was sooooooo much Christmas stuff all around Hanoi it was sickening (FYI I did not see one menorah), but the best example was this (look closely what the X-mas tree is made out of):
(2) The traffic in Hanoi was just as bad as it was in Saigon even though it's population is about 2 million people less. Besides driving, there were a number of things that you could do on the streets - it's hard to tell, but this is a really short clip of a guy getting his haircut on the sidewalk (he even fix murret)
(3) This was some freaky shit. We stopped at a large store about an hour outside of the city to grab some drinks and look at souvenirs. When I came across this on the shelf:
SNAKE WINE - Eeeeeeewwwww. It supposedly gets you pretty F'ed up however they don't drink it to get drunk; they believe it's a remedy for certain sicknesses or ailments.
From Hanoi we took a trip up to Ha Long Bay; this is one of the 'new 7 natural wonders of the world'. We spent one night on a luxury boat and had such an incredible time.
Ha Long Bay is a huge bay with almost 2,000 rocky outcrops or isles. If you're into Geology, Climate change, Erosion & Biodiversity you would find this place fascinating. I'm not into any of that stuff (I actually had to use a dictionary to write the last sentence) but it was still really cool.
We sailed around on our 17 bedroom boat checking out the different rock formations, and took a smaller boat over to some of the outcrops to explore massive caves within the structures. There were also beaches that we hung out on, kayaking, and peaks that you could climb for a better view.
Here's our boat:
This is one of the beaches - they had volleyball, soccer, kayaks, etc:
Here's one of the Floating Villages in Halong Bay. It was amazing! These are people's homes - they go to shore and buy goods, or go out fishing, or even grow food on the islands then 'sail' around to other homes/villages/boats and sell their goods! What an amazing way to live...
Finally, this is the view looking out over Halong Bay from one of the peaks that you can climb (450 steps!):
This capped an incredible trip. Vietnam is highly, highly recommended. I know I can't wait to go back.
And for any of you that read my post Waiting and Praying - I did get business class on the flight home from Hong Kong. Holla at ya boy!
One activity we did in Hoi An was take a Vietnamese cooking class. You know I'm modest and I don't like to brag, but I KILLED it.
Our cooking instructor walked us through the market (see previous post) and showed us all of the ingredients that we would be using to prepare our dishes. Here's me in the kitchen and my four course meal:
Following our visit to Saigon we flew to the central part of the country - this was the coolest area that we visited. Da Nang is a city located just south of the 17th Parallel (the line that divided communist North Vietnam from South Vietnam) and it's right on the beach. We stayed at an incredibly gorgeous resort right on China Beach, where most of the American troops made landfall and entered the country during the Vietnam War. Our resort boasted the largest spa in the country - yeah DK got a full body massage (I'll leave it at that). Here's a shot of the beach:
Definitely not what you picture when you think of Vietnam...
Due to our limited time, a jam packed itinerary, and rainy weather I didn't really have the opportunity to enjoy the beach as much as I would've liked to.
While in Da Nang you also visit Hoi An (about a 1/2 hour drive). Hoi An is a World Heritage Site, as the ancient city used to be the largest port in Southeast Asia and was the capital of the Cham Dynasty. Hoi An is THE SHIT. It's real old school - with awesome open air markets and they do not allow cars/vehicles in the downtown area. If you don't believe me just check this sign and the picture of the streets of Hoi An:
The markets were really cool to walk through - the colors and aromas were magnificent (pause). They had separate sections for everything: fruit, spices, herbs, fish & poultry.
Walking through Hoi An was amazing - you really felt like you were back in the 1st Century; in a simpler time. Either that or you were just really stoned... like this chick:
I got home from Vietnam almost 65 hours ago, so naturally I'm back at the airport... I'm not even disappointed about that because NY is pretty freakin' cold (although I am missing Santacon, GRRRRR). I'm flying down to Marco Island, Florida for a few days to attend a conference. It's work but I usually manage to have fun at this conference so I look forward to the warm weather and cocktails that await me in the sunshine state.
As soon as I'm back I'll finish my Vietnam recap with another couple of posts, I've just been way to busy.
I think my highlight of the entire trip came when we visited the Mekong Delta - an area of the country with about 18 million people located 2 - 3 hours south of Saigon. This is the part of the country that you see in Vietnam War movies - lush green forests with rivers and huge rainfalls during rainy season. The farms that we drove past on the way to the delta were actually the battlegrounds during the 'American War'.
Once we got to the delta we boarded a gorgeous boat called the Cai Be Princess (Cai Be is the town we departed from) and cruised through the tributaries that make up the delta:
Throughout our trip through the delta and marshlands we made interesting stops, including a visit to a small village for lunch and a 'factory' on the banks of the river. One factory we visited collected harvested rice and turned it into popular Vietnamese products such as pop rice, rice cakes & rice paper (below):
I just returned from a week in Vietnam; this has immediately become one of my favorite places in the world. We started our journey in Saigon (officially named Ho Chi Minh City - renamed in honor of Mr. Minh after the North took control of the country in the late 70's). The traffic in this city of 9 million+ makes rush hour in New York look like open road in Nebraska. It's interesting because most of the vehicles on the road are motorbikes and bicycles although cars & trucks are becoming more popular.
Our introduction to the country came via a visit to the War Remnants Museum; it was a remembrance of the American War (as they refer to it in Vietnam). This was a depressing and eye opening experience; the information provided in the museum was most definitely dictated by the government and was quite slanted in North Vietnam's favor but some of the images and facts were indisputably disturbing.
In an attempt to lighten the mood our hosts arranged a cyclo ride through the city to lunch. Cyclo is the Vietnamese term for a rigshaw. It was lots of fun and an interesting way to see the city and traffic.
At our first lunch I grabbed one of the most widely distributed publications in Vietnam, a monthly magazine similar to Metro or AM New York in NY. Within it's pages I found this:
I know - WOW!
Throughout my recap of Vietnam you'll see photos of woman in the traditional, stereotypical dress doing the things Vietnamese women have been doing for years (not suckie suckie, love you long time you sick fucks; I mean working at the market and transporting things by pretty primitive means).
I tried to fit in:
The only time I really went out out was in Saigon. We went to a few different bars. The first one was a rooftop bar overlooking the city where drinks were about $10 each; it felt like New York only there were a lot more Asians. We ended the night at a popular bar called Apocalypse Now; where beers were $1.50. There was awesome 80's & 90's music playing throughout the night and a great mix of humanity - businessmen in suits, backpackers in flip flops & ripped shorts, Western girls, and plenty of 'working girls' that would love you long time... for a nominal fee
I'm on my way home - currently sitting in the lounge at Hong Kong International Airport - and have a little bit of time before my 15 hour flight back to NY. I'm currently holding a boarding pass for a coach seat but I'm on the priority upgrade list for business. It's difficult to describe the difference between a business class seat and a coach seat for a flight that takes more than half a day but I'm sure you can imagine that one is quite a bit more desirable than the other...
But I digress; Vietnam is absolutely AMAZING! I can't even begin to describe what an incredible place it is but I'll do my best in a few posts as soon as I get home. I strongly recommend a visit to Vietnam in the near future for anyone and everyone reading this blog.
Here are a few pictures from the past week (more to come in subsequent posts):
This is the view of Hong Kong from the highest peak on the island (yes, Hong Kong is an island):
This is me from a peak in Halong Bay - one of the 'new' 7 Natural Wonders of the World. It was a climb of 450 stairs to get to the top so you better appreciate this fuckin' picture:
Finally, here's a shot of me 'captaining' our boat in Halong Bay. Don't worry it was about 10am so I'd only had 3 drinks before driving the boat...
I have a few free minutes at the Da Nang airport waiting for my flight to Hanoi so I wanted to do a quick post. Vietnam is Fucking Awesome! A few quick things:
> North Vietnam/the Commies won the Vietnam War (definitely should've known that but I didn't)
> This country is so diverse and beautiful; the people are friendly; the food is really good
> My group is pretty cool; not the party animals that I'd prefer but we're having a blast
> It's cheap! The exchange rate is US$1 to 21,000 Vietnam Dong (yes the money here is called dong and don't worry we've made every stupid dong joke possible) - I'm a multi-millionaire here
> I found Charlie; he's actually not that bad of a guy...
I'm jumping on a plane now to the capital city (Hanoi) and have another 3 nights in Vietnam before starting my trek home. I'll try to post at least one more time with more details and/or stories if I can, and I definitely have some awesome pictures that I will get on the site ASAP.
