Random Kids In Huyen's Village

Whenever I go to Huyen's childhood home, I inevitably bump into a few very confused children. The kids all look at me like I just beamed down from some far away planet. This past weekend, while Huyen was picking fruit from a tree (see yesterday's video), I noticed a whole bunch of eyes peering through holes in the gate of Huyen's house; a group of children had gathered and were staring at me like a specimen under a microscope. I quickly walked towards the children to say hi, but they scattered down different corridors and alleys before I could get to them. I can only imagine that they thought I was planning on snatching them up and putting them on my spaceship which they must have thought was hidden in a rice field.

There were a couple of kids left in the alley along with some adults so I decided to shoot a tiny bit of video. In this video you can see Huyen's old neighborhood as well as some cute little kids:

My Tree Climber

(PICTURE: Can you find Huyen in the tree?)

This past weekend Huyen and I went back to her village to see her parents. Going to Ha Nam these days means one thing -- free fruit! Huyen and I went back to her old house to pick more Hong Xiem...or I should say, Huyen picked Hong Xiem. Honestly, I never thought I would date a girl who is a better climber than me but....:



As I said on the video, I think it is a fair statement to say that none of my friends' girlfriends/wives back in the states could/would do that!

Can I Take Your Bike For A Spin?

(PICTURE: Yes, my bike helmet is on this guy's head...backwards.)

Every now and then I stop in at this pho shop near my gym. The food there isn't particularly good but the service is excellent. By "service" I mean the waiters/cook/every-hand-on-deck basically runs outside shouting, "Hey! Hey! Hey! Hello! Hello! How are you! Hey! Hey!" every time I pull my bicycle up to the shop.

The last time I went, everyone started to laugh about how tall my bicycle is. One of the waiters asked if he could take it for a spin and I gave him the thumb's up. He quickly put on my helmet in what could only be attempt to mock me. However, he put it on backwards which now allows me to mock him. Ha! You put my helmet on backwards!

Before I knew it, all of the waiters were taking my bike out for a ride around the block. Perhaps coincidentally my bike chain broke within a day or so of these guys joy riding on my sweet ride.

Google Analytics

It's been awhile since I've had an entry with viewer statistics. So...

- Ahoy Hanoi has had 93,586 page views.
- Nearly 14,000 different people have spent time on Ahoy Hanoi.
- My blog has been read in 122 different countries.
- Every nation in Asia has read Ahoy Hanoi except North Korea (Do they have the internet there?), Kyrgzystan (apparently they've got more important things to do recently), Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Georgia. I know what you're thinking and no, I have no idea why the Stan-nations hate Vietnam so much. And as far as Georgia goes, next time they battle with Russia lets just say I might not pull for the underdog.
- Every nation in Europe has read Ahoy Hanoi except Belarus, Iceland and Svalbard and Jan Mayen (I believe these last two are territories and not countries but they're still showing up as no shows on my google analytics world map). I'm personally offended by Belarus because for some unknown reason Belarus was my #2 nation that I rooted for during the Winter Olympics. Unless someone there starts logging in pronto they're gonna lose my support in 2014.
- After being the last state to read Ahoy Hanoi, South Dakota has now sky-rocketed in its readership. A whopping TWO people have now been to my blog from South Dakota. This ties them with one other state. Can you guess which one?.....
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The answer is North Dakota.
- New York is still Ahoy Hanoi's greatest fan. However, California is just 550 visits behind.
- Shockingly, Livingston, New Jersey has only logged into my blog 1.388 times. I've had over 700 blogs which means my mom is reading each entry less than two times. Seriously, Mom, what's up with that?!!!!
- Finally -- and I always love ending with this -- people have found my blog using 1,878 different word combinations in google. The last google entry to find my blog was "where can find sex massage in hanoi". Yup, that's for real.

Thanks for all the support from around the world!

Tight Quarters

Before I joined my gym, I read a review that said something like, "Nice place but small locker room." Well, the review wasn't kidding because the locker room is unbelievably small. I've got about an inch between my head and the ceiling. In fact, there is a smoke alarm in the locker room that I've hit my head on a few times.

A small locker room can be a problem for a few reasons. Firstly, I hit my knuckles on the ceiling about once a week whenever I take off my shirt. Secondly, when there are two people in the locker room there is no room to maneuver. I've had a couple of butts way too close to my face.

Wash Me

People are the same everywhere. All the time I see dirty car windows on which someone has written something with their finger that I'm assuming must mean "Wash Me." Well, this dirty car stopped in front of me the other day and I definitely recognized one four letter word written on the window. Can any Vietnamese readers tell me what the other words mean?

Dog On A Ledge

Being a dog in Vietnam can definitely be stressful. However, I think this dog was just enjoying the view and not thinking of jumping: