Awesome Wedding Gift!

Thank you Hien, Linh and Leanne for a totally awesome wedding gift!

The other night, a packing tube was delivered to Huyen's office. Huyen wasn't at work and her coworkers opened the box* and ruined the surprise by telling Huyen there was a giant picture of her and me. Well, turns out the surprise wasn't ruined at all because when we opened it up there was a giant PAINTING of us. Check it out:


(PICTURE/PAINTING: This is a portrait of Huyen and me from our trip to Babe Lake.)

I can't wait to frame this back in America!

* Clearly opening others mail in Vietnam is not an offense.

Hello New Friends

If people are trying to make me feel loved right before my wedding, it is definitely working! Since last Wednesday, Ahoy Hanoi has been blowing up! I'm not sure if it was my 1,000th post or just a sudden interest in Vietnam, but people have been flocking to the blog.

Last Wednesday 551 people read the blog. Then on Thursday 836 people read the blog. On Friday, Ahoy Hanoi reached its all time daily high of 932 people! Then on the weekend -- generally a slower time for the blog -- 699 people read it on Saturday and 721 on Sunday.

In five days, people from 92 different countries read the blog (including all 50 US states and 2 US provinces). As much as I'd like to think that these people came to read what I was writing, my guess is that they stumbled on to my blog by typing some holiday season related words like snowman. So in hopes of catching more readers with holiday spirit, let me say five things:
1. There are Christmas Trees in Hanoi
2. I didn't see anyone celebrating Hanukkah
3. Santa Clause apparently stops in Vietnam
4. There probably won't be a white Christmas in Hanoi this year. That's just a guess.
5. I think I saw a snowman in the Old Quarter.

Welcome new readers! Ahoy Hanoi!

Code of Conduct?

The other day I got a text message from a number I didn't know: "please help me fill in the blank! 'Sum of money owed by customers for goods or servicer purchared on credit is...'"

I often get emails from people asking me for English help. However, I really didn't have an idea for this answer and wrote: "I'm not sure. It might be purchase order. Who is this?"

The person than wrote back: "thank you very much for your help. It's very kind of you. I am XXX - the second year student of (a major university). I am taking my test."

I just rolled my eyes at this. Some girl I didn't know was cheating on her university English test by texting me for answers. I mean, isn't there a code of conduct at universities? Later the person texted me again and said: "Money owed to shareholders is...Payable." Well, at least her cheating didn't get her the right answer!

Walking Bridges

Walking bridges are springing up all over Hanoi. Seemingly on every major street now are these silver bridges. In theory these are a great idea since there's nothing quite as dangerous as people crossing busy streets wherever the hell they want to. However, in reality, I've only seen a few people actually use the bridges. Here's a typical empty walking bridge:

1,000th BLOG!!!!

If you had told me on February 2, 2008 -- while I was typing my first blog at JFK airport, waiting to fly to Syndey -- that I would eventually type 999 more entries, there's no chance I would have believed you. No, I definitely wouldn't have believed that over the course of nearly three years I would write 1,000 blogs. I also wouldn't have believed a heck of a lot of other things that have happened to me over the last 1,043 days.

I surely wouldn't have believed that I'd be robbed by ninjas during my first week in Hanoi. It also would have seemed unbelievable that I'd get detained overnight with two friends for accidentally going into the "frontier zone" near Laos. I also wouldn't have believed that my friends and family would have donated enough money to Habitat for Humanity to build two families' houses. I might have believed that I'd make some good friends but I would have doubted that I'd make as many as I have in not only Vietnam, but also amazing friends in Japan. I surely wouldn't have believed that I'd open my own school which would seem just about as likely as being evicted from a house (both which happened). I also wouldn't have believed that through the blog I was typing I would meet so many people and keep such a detailed account of my adventures. I definitely would not have believed that my parents would come to visit me in Vietnam twice, especially considering my mother's aversion to flying. Also, there's no way I would have believed that I'd end up spending nearly triple the amount of time in Asia that I had originally planned. But clearly, the most unbelievable thing someone could have told me while waiting for my flight to Australia over thirty months ago, was that I was going to be marrying the love of my life in a small village in the Vietnamese countryside. Yeah, I definitely would not have seen that one coming.

I guess if there is a lesson to be learned through my first 1,000 blogs it's this: Always keep an open mind because everything is possible -- and that's a truly amazing thing.

1st is the worst, second is the best, third is the one with the hairy chest!

Remember that poem we used to say as children:

First is the worst,
Second is the best,
Third is the one with the hairy chest.

Well, apparently this coffee shop think it's true:


Every time I drive by this shop I find myself smiling. I'm assuming the address of the shop is #2 something (it's on the corner of two streets so I'm not sure what the actual address is). However, in Vietnam you never know. Perhaps the owner once heard this childhood poem and took it a little too seriously.

New Life Resolution: Eat Slower

(PICTURE: My new role model.)

I feel like I don't have too many vices. I don't smoke, do drugs, drink in excess (0-4 beers a week), or gamble (minus the occasional fantasy football league). However, one vice that I do have is that I eat really really fast. Yes, I admit it -- I'm a super fast eater.

My whole life I feel like people have been telling me to slow down when I eat. Whether it is my mother, grandmother or friends, I've been told to take my foot off the accelerator when I eat. I could blame my dad for this bad life habit (it's his only vice too) but I'm old enough now to shoulder the responsibility myself. Recently Huyen has been getting on my case a lot about slowing down when I eat (it's a wife's job to get on her husband's case about something, right? I mean, I should have seen this coming as soon as I proposed). Every time I have any sort of ailment, Huyen tells me it is because I eat too fast. Well, I'm sure my tennis elbow isn't from eating too fast but perhaps my lifelong history of a volatile stomach could be attributed to my speed eating.

So, as of today, I'm going to make a concerted effort to eat slower. I won't be turtle slow but I will be much much slower. I'm not sure I'll hit the 30 chews per bite level (which a woman at a restaurant suggested to us recently) but I will bite my food more.

For extra motivated I just googled "eat slowly" and the first entry listed five reasons to eat slower:
1. Lose weight (yeah, I could lose a few pounds).
2. Enjoy your food (I do enjoy my food but hopefully I could learn to enjoy it for a longer period of time).
3. Better digestion (This is the one I could really use the help with).
4. Less Stress (So chewing slower will help us get through immigration faster?).
5. Rebel against fast food and fast life (I don't like fast food so this isn't a problem...although I could go for a McFlurry every once in a while).

Eating slower for now on,

Ben