Shoes Off

Most Americans know this about Asian culture: you take your shoes off when you go in someone's house. I'm not 100% sure it applies to all of Asia but for the most part it applies in Vietnam (except at my house). One thing that I didn't know about the shoes-off culture is that there are "outdoor" and "indoor" shoes. I've been tutoring my neighbor for a few months and whenever I go over his house, I'm handed a pair of slippers to put on. The slippers are meant to be worn from the front door, up the stairs and then taken off before the boy's room. In the room I'm only supposed to wear my socks.

Well, Huyen's family has nearly the same policy. On the ground floor -- where the ceramic shop is -- you can wear your outside shoes. However, if you want to go up the stairs you've got to put on a pair of "upstairs slippers." Then if you want to use the bathroom you've got to take off those slippers and then put on another pair of slippers that are for the bathroom only. The one problem is that the bathroom is on the ground floor. If you can't wrap your mind around this process let me break it down for you:

STEP 1: I was reading a book upstairs and had the urge to tinkle. I got off the bed and put on the "upstairs slippers":
(PICTURE: Upstairs slippers.)

















STEP 2: I walked down the stairs and had to take off my "upstairs slippers" and put on my outdoor sandals:

(PICTURE: Outdoor shoes.)
















STEP 3: I walked three steps to the bathroom, took off my outdoor sandals and put on the bathroom slippers:
(PICTURE: Bathroom slippers.)

















It turns out that there is a reason for this madness. As I was about to leave Huyen's house to come back to Hanoi, Huyen asked if I wanted to use the bathroom. I had just tied my shoes and said, "I'll wait till I'm back in Hanoi. I just double knotted my shoes." The thought of having to change shoes was just too much for me. Huyen told me not to worry about it and to just go into the bathroom. Well, I went into the bathroom and after taking two steps in, I saw why you need special bathroom shoes: two huge mud footprints were where I had just stepped. That bathroom had never seen dirt in its life until Ben August came over.

A Ben in a china shop...

(PICTURE: Huyen's house)

Like many family homes in Vietnam, the first floor of Huyen's house is the family business. The Nguyen's sell ceramics. As a slightly clumsy person, walking around their house makes me a little bit nervous. I can't tell you how many times I've bumped into large ceramic pieces, gasped, and hoped that what I hit wasn't about to topple over and cause a domino effect throughout the whole house. The whole time I'm there I feel like a bull in china shop. It's hard to make a good impression on your girlfriend's parents if you destroy all their goods.

That said, in the two days that I stayed at Huyen's I broke ZERO things...and Huyen broke THREE!

Here's some pictures of their house:

One Year

365 days ago I flew out of JFK airport to Sydney, Australia. 365 days ago. It's the oldest cliche there is, but time flies. I can't possible begin to put into words what all of the memories have meant to me this past year. I've made so many new friends, seen so many new places, and experienced so many things I could only read or dream about back in America.

From thousands of miles away I've felt my parents love day in and day out. I've been homesick countless times and can imagine the moment when I'll hug my brother and sister-in-law and hold their baby for the first time. I've been lucky to have so many friends visit me, including my best friends: my parents and my sister. However, I've stayed strong this whole time in no small part due to the sweetest, happiest person I've ever met -- Huyen. Whenever anyone asks me about her I say the same thing, "Every time I see her I smile." It's a good feeling knowing that people love you all over the world. Not a day goes by that I don't realize how lucky I am.

I'd like to thank my loyal readers. As I often say, this blog was created so my mother wouldn't have to worry about me. However, I now have hundreds, if not thousands of people reading about my life on a daily basis. Over the past 365 days I've written 352 blog entries. My fingers are often tired but I push through so I don't have to get emailed by countless people: "Where was today's blog?"

Recently I found out what day I will be returning to the USA...0r actually Canada. On May 14th I need to land in Montreal, Canada to co-throw my best friend Brad's bachelor party. Having a departure date in my head really hits home on how much I love Vietnam. It's going to be very hard to leave here...but we'll save that blog for when I leave.

For now, lets focus on the present and the past. Here's some memories from the last 365 days:



Just a few ahoyhanoi stats for those statisticians out there. Since September 1, 2008:

- I've had over 3,000 absolute unique visitors to my blog. Out of those people 76% have returned to the site.

- I've had over 20,000 page hits

- The average person spends 2 minutes and 39 seconds on my blog

- I've had readers in 73 countries from every continent except Antartica

- I've had readers from 46 out of 50 US states. Screw you Montana, South Dakota, Mississippi and Arkansas

- When googling, people are putting in my site name to find ahoyhanoi. It's not until the 20th most popular google, "Hanoi Sex Massage" that something obviously ridiculous comes up. That's a big change from it being top five a few months ago.

FLASHBACK: Vientiane

(PICTURE: The most famous Wat in Laos. It's on the currency.)

Vientiane is the capital of Laos. I had heard some negative things about the city including that it was, "skippable" and to spend "no more than a day there." However, like the old saying goes, "Sometimes you need to see something for yourself." Is that how the old saying goes?

Hannah and I had a really good time in Vientiane. We rented bicycles and drove all around the city. Some of the highlights included the Laos version of the Arc de Triomphe. The best part about the Laos arc is the sign on the base that basically tells visitors that the arc is a hideous monstrosity. Here's the sign:

In case you can't read it, it says: "At the northeastern end of LaneXang Ave. arises a huge structure resembling the Arc de Triomphe. It is the Patuxay or Victory Gate of Vientane. Built in 1962 (B.E. 2505), but never complete due to the country's turbulent history. From a closer distance, it appears even less impressive, like a monster of concrete. Nowadays this place is uded as a leisure ground for the people of Vientiane and the seventh floor on top of the building serves as excellent view point over the city."

Vientiane, like much of Laos, was filled with Wats. Wats can start to blend together after a while unless they do something to make themselves stand out. For example, Hannah and I rode our bikes a few kilometers to a Wat that is famous for massages. That's right, massages. I would actually argue that my best massage in all of southeast Asia was at this particular Wat. It would have been a great story if the massages were actually given by monks BUT in fact they were given by laypeople who live on the property. Even better than the massage though was the traditional steam room. Basically a bunch of people sit in a little room with a fire burning below them. The room was filled with smoke and you could barely see your hand if you placed it in front of your face. It was the hottest room I've ever been in but felt really really good.

A small funny anecdote happened at this massage place. Hannah was in the process of getting her massage and I was next in line. The place was really busy and all six massueses were giving massages. While I waited, I noticed this European girl sitting near me. The girl was covered in tatatoos and ear pierces and just observing the scene. The woman who ran the massage center came over to me and said, "You can have your massage in a few minutes." The European girl then said, "Do you need more people to give massages? I'll massage him if you want. I'm certified to give massages." The woman who ran the place turned to me and said, "Do you want a massage from her?" I wanted to say, "Who the hell are you?" but instead I just said, "I appreciate the offer but I want to go with the traditional Laos massage today." It's like this girl ran out of money and was waiting to give someone a massage to earn a couple of bucks. Weird.

At night Hannah and I did what all people supposedly do in Vientiane -- we went bowling. The cool thing about the bowling alley was that it was literally transported from the USA. Everything was from some bowling alley in America. Even the shoes were American sizes. It felt like a little slice of New Jersey.

FLASHBACK: Vang Vieng to Vientiane

As always, Hannah and I had two options to reach our next city.

Option #1: Take a bus from Vang Vieng to Vientiane.

Option #2: Kayak from Vang Vieng to Vientiane...with a tuk-tuk driving us the last two hours.

Hannah and I went with the kayak.

For the most part, because it was the dry season, the rapids were tiny. However, there was one stretch where the rapids were pretty substantial. Our guide told us that 75% of kayaks capsize during this one stretch of rapids. In our group there were four kayaks. The first two capsized. The third, the one our guide was in, made it through without a problem. I'm no math expert but that seemed to guarantee that Hannah and I would be going for a swim. And well, we did. I think we made it about 60% of the way through the rapids when Hannah and I both started to go, "Whoah! Whoah! Whoah!!!." The next thing I knew we were floating downstream.

We ended up stopping for lunch right by the rapids and I thought to myself, "I'll get someone else flipping over so people can see how hard it was for Hannah and I." Well, I videotaped the next kayak to go down the rapids...and they made it without a problem. Okay I thought, statistically the next kayak will surely flip over. Well, I recorded the next group...and they made it too. And so did the next group. Apparently Hannah and I are just really bad kayakers.

Here's some footage of what we went through:

Flashback: Vang Vieng

(PICTURE: The river, mountains and hammocks of Vang Vieng.)

Vang Vieng is a major backpacker stopping point in Laos. It's famous for two traditional forms of Laos culture:

1. Tubing down the river while stopping at bars and drinking (tune in tomorrow for this).

2. Cafes and restaurants that show the television show "FRIENDS" non stop.



The city itself is located in a beautiful area between mountains and alongside a river Hannah and I spent quite a bit of time reading books in hammocks while taking in the scenery.

Overall, Hannah and I didn't love the food in Laos. However, we did go to this one gem of a restaurant (one of Lonely Planets few good suggestions...although they had the name of the restaurant wrong.) that we ate five straight meals at. It was called the Organic Farm Cafe.

FLASHBACK: Tubing In Vang Vien

(PICTURE: Hannah and I on the river.)

As I mentioned yesterday, one of the reasons backpackers go to Vang Vieng is to tube down the river. This activity is one of those things you encounter while traveling that you realize could never ever happen in a 1st world litigious nation. Frankly, this is one of the most dangerous things I've ever seen. It's not that the tubing is dangerous (although it was not the rainy season which meant low water and hence plenty of rocks nailing our butts), it's the things around the tubing that are dangerous.

The river is lined with makeshift bars. As you floast down the river employees from the bars try and rope you in. AKA: Throw bottles at you which are attached to strings. So you get pulled into a bar and proceed to have a drink. That's problem #1: Drinking and Tubing/Swimming.

Problem #2 is that at each bar has some kind of risky thrill seeking apparatus. i.e. A very high rope swing, a zip line, or an extremely fast slide that dumps you out on the river (and hopefully not on to passing tubers).

That said, Hannah and I were game for the danger. You're welcome for not telling you until after, Mom.