HANOI, VIETNAM
Hello, hello, hello!
We have been in Hanoi for a little shy of a week, and truthfully, we were sad to leave Luang Prabang, Laos. Our house there was very comfortable and peaceful and we really enjoyed the surrounding area. It was a great spot to relax, cook and eat well, and make some progress on various projects (coffee was a little weak, but not critical). Already looking forward to returning sometime in the near future!! Our last week there we visited the Kuang Si Falls - which were a beautiful glacial blue in addition to being glacially cold - and attended a few Lao New Year events including the annual moving of the city's most sacred, centuries-old Buddha. Our favorite soup there ended up being a tapioca noodle soup (imagine a chewy, thick rice noodle) with pork and a poached egg. Laos is really into sticky rice and they do not waste one single grain - leftover sticky rice is molded into a flat circle, dried in the sun and cooked in oil/fat - the resulting rice cake is best crumbled into soup, like the one we loved. The pickled ginger that spot had available to add in was excellent. One of the best meals of our journey and I think a bowl was maybe a little over $1 USD?
That said, Hanoi is lovely. Certainly busier, but the area we are in is occupied predominantly by locals. The Ho Chi Minh Musem/mausoleum/complex/park is across the street from us, so you do see tourist groups entering. We are enjoying the neighborhood immensely - there is a nearby market and some great spots to eat only a short walk away. Eating a fair amount of pho, and tasty banh cuon nearby (rice paper dumpling things filled with minced pork and wood ear mushrooms - also served with a light omelet, lots of dipping sauce with cubed sausage). Today we had really good bun cha for lunch, and passed another bun cha spot that was packed (next on our list). Bun cha seems to be a lunch item and is typically sold out by the evening. The coffee spot right downstairs is delicious (iced coffee, condensed milk, served with a cup of tea) and I like the passionfruit juice there, too. Vietnamese food and coffee really do it for me. Oh, and pickled garlic. Pickled garlic (and maybe pickled red onion and pickled ginger) should be a household staple for everyone, forever, just my humble recommendation. Looking forward to exploring more this week and eating more food. Then, crazy enough our spring 2019 SEA tour comes to a close, and we are off to Greece. The island we are going to is small and allegedly peaceful with a total of ~150 residents and no cars; looking forward to that before our three months in Morocco. Also olive oil! And cheese! I will surely miss SEA food, but I think we are olive oil and cheese deficient. Truthfully, Ben would probably survive longer than me without the aforementioned ingredients, but I really fucking love cheese, I'm sorry.
Unsolicited bookclub comments: I finished reading two books recently which I liked - keeping with the personal narrative theme - My Promised Land (Israel, from formation to present day) and Homes (story of escaping from Iraq, to Syria, to Canada as told by a teenager immigrant). Homes was a very quick read and succinctly and powerfully describes the current experience of living with and escaping violence in the Middle East. My Promised Land was definitely lengthier but included a detailed account of Palestine/Israel pre-1935, which I found informative (thank you to Maya for the recommendation, and let me publically apologize, I am sorry I kidnapped the NYPL copy from you).
