(400) Days of Ahoy Hanoi

(PICTURE: Hanoi is celebrating Ahoy Hanoi's 400th entry! Ignore the wrong date on the bottom right of the picture.)

This is my 400th blog entry. Yes, 400th. I know, it's insane. The cool thing about hitting the 400 mark is that it allows me to post a lazy entry about my blog's data. Unfortunately I only signed
up to google analytics in September so these stats are for only for half the time the blog has existed. Yes, excuses excuses....

According to google analytics:

- Ahoy Hanoi has had 4,062 unique visitors.

- Ahoy Hanoi has had 27,675 page views.

- The average person spends 2 minutes and 55 seconds on the blog.

- Ahoy Hanoi is being read in 81 countries.

- In South America the blog has been read in Brazil, Venezuela, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina and Uraguay. Screw you Paraguay, Guyana (French Guyana too!) and Suriname.

- Ahoy Hanoi is being read in Iran but it is not being read in North Korea. Screw you Kim Jong-il.

- Ahoy Hanoi is being read in "48 States". However, Alalytics is also telling me that it has never been read in South Dakota, Delaware, Arkansas or Mississippi. It is including Washington D.C. and unknown IP addresses as states. I know in the past I didn't mention Delaware but come on, it's Delaware.

- Ahoy Hanoi has been read in 41 languages (I don't really know what that means but it's a figure on Analytics).

- 75.84% of readers are return visitors.

- The first inappropriate words googled to get to my blog are: "Hanoi Sex Massage." This is the 16th most common google to find my blog. I'm happy to report that out of the people who have found my blog this way, the average person has continued to read my page for 59 seconds. I guess they were literally able to wait a minute to have sex.

Thanks for everyone for continuing to read my blog!

Vietnamese Women Don't Drink

Huyen has told me a few times that Vietnamese women don't drink. Over the past year I have seen her sip alcohol about six times. Usually if she has half a beer she'll start to turn red and complain that her heart is beating fast. I usually have a good laugh at this especially when she starts to complain that the room is spinning. Man, talk about a light weight!

Well, maybe it's not so funny. Ryan -- safe and sound back home in Boulder -- just sent me the New York Times article below. I'm cutting Huyen off as of now!

Blushing Drinkers at Risk for Esophageal Cancer

By NICHOLAS BAKALAR

Published: March 20, 2009

People whose faces turn red when they drink alcohol may be facing more than embarrassment. The flushing may indicate an increased risk for a deadly throat cancer, researchers report.

The flushing response, which may be accompanied by nausea and a rapid heartbeat, is caused mainly by an inherited deficiency in an enzyme called ALDH2, a trait shared by more than a third of people of East Asian ancestry — Japanese, Chinese or Koreans. As little as half a bottle of beer can trigger the reaction.

The deficiency results in problems in metabolizing alcohol, leading to an accumulation in the body of a toxin called acetaldehyde. People with two copies of the gene responsible have such unpleasant reactions that they are unable to consume large amounts of alcohol. This aversion actually protects them against the increased risk for cancer.

But those with only one copy can develop a tolerance to acetaldehyde and become heavy drinkers.

“What we’re trying to do here is raise awareness of this risk factor among doctors and their ALDH2-deficient patients," said Dr. Philip J. Brooks, an investigator with the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, and an author of the report published on Thursday in the journal PLoS Medicine. “It’s a pretty serious risk."

The malignancy, called squamous cell esophageal cancer, is also caused by smoking and can be treated with surgery, but survival rates are very low. Even moderate drinking increases the risk, but it rises sharply with heavier consumption. An ALDH2-deficient person who has two beers a day has six to 10 times the risk of developing esophageal cancer as a person not deficient in the enzyme.

Reducing drinking can significantly reduce the incidence of this cancer among Asian adults. The researchers calculate that if moderate- or heavy-drinking ALDH2-deficient Japanese men reduced their consumption to under nine drinks a week, 53 percent of esophageal squamous cell cancers in that group could be prevented.

There is some anecdotal evidence that young people treat the flushing as a cosmetic response to be countered with antihistamines while continuing to drink. Ignoring the symptom and continuing to drink is likely to increase the incidence of esophageal cancer, researchers said.

To determine risk, doctors can ask their patients two simple questions. First, do you flush after drinking a glass of beer? Second, in the first one or two years after you began drinking, did you flush after having a beer?

The second question covers the possibility that a person has become tolerant to the effect.

Dr. Brooks said that the two questions give doctors an easy way to find out if the patient is ALDH2-deficient. There is also a patch test in which an ethanol-soaked pad is applied to the skin. If it causes reddening after 10 or 15 minutes, there is a high likelihood that the person is ALDH2-deficient.

Children Love Me Part III

(PICTURE: Vietnamese school children watching me climb an old Russian satellite truck.)

My friend Sebastian is visiting me at the moment which means I get to play tour guide for the 183rd time. I took Sebastian to the Air Force Museum the other day and we happened to run into a Vietnamese Elementary School trip. The kids were way more excited by us then the old war relics. After tentatively watching us from afar, the kids mustered the courage to approach us. Actually approach isn't the right word. The kids mobbed us. While tugging on our arms the children practiced their Chapter 1 English skills:

1. What is your name?

2. How old are you?

3. Where are you from?

4. Can you speak Vietnamese?
(PICTURE: Flashing "peace" signs...although here it means "victory.")

(PICTURE: Sebastian and I were more popular than Ho Chi Minh at the musuem.)

This is my favorite picture from the day. I know it is shocking since you can't see me but what you can see is the kid apparently waving a gun on the right side. I'm curious if he stole it from the museum since guns are illegal in Vietnam.

Waxman = No Help

(PICTURE: Huyen's rejection letter.)

Last week I talked with a staffer at Congressman Waxman's office regarding Huyen's visa. The staffer sent me a form to fill out and told me to email him Huyen's documents. He also told me to call or email if I had any questions. I immediately emailed him a question and he didn't write back. I then filled out all the information and sent him the forms/documents...and he didn't write back. I then called the office and left a message. That was two days ago. No word back. So much for my congressman helping me out.

My anger has subsided a little over the last week but to be honest, I'm still pissed. It seems that nearly every day someone asks me about Huyen's visa and then tells me their own frustrating visa story. On my desk is Huyen's rejection letter which is a reminder of how impersonal the application process is. Having been brushed aside by my congressman after emailing me a standard form to fill out, I now feel like I've been given my own rejection letter. The government seems pretty good at saying, "Hey, we listened to you for a second and gave you a piece of paper. What more do you want?"

Fruit

(PICTURE: One of my local fruit vendors. Picture courtesy of Veronica.)

How many of these fruits can you name?

In Vietnam you have a few options when it comes to buying fruits and vegetables.

OPTION 1: The first option is to buy your produce at the supermarket. This is a good option if you don't mind paying twice the price for fruit that never seems totally fresh.

OPTION 2: The second option is to buy your fruit from a fruit stand. The stands always have a wide variety of fruits but the price is a tad higher than option 3.

OPTION 3: Option three is to buy fruit from the ladies (or occasional guy) who sells fruit from the baskets on the back of their bikes. The fruit here is always fresh and cheap. However, you have to deal with ladies who are often as sour as the grapefruits they're selling. There are plenty of nice fruit vendors but on occasion you get one who tries to rip you off. There's this one lady around the corner who always tries to give me more pineapple than I want so she can charge me more. The other day I told her I wanted 15,000 worth of pineapple. She agreed and then threw another pineapple into the bag and told me to give her 20,000. I said no. She said yes. I said no. She said yes. I said no and then walked away and got on my motorbike. She chased after me and grabbed me and then re-agreed to our original price. I then handed her a 20,000 bill because I didn't have change. She then tried to give me just 2,000 change. I said no and grabbed back my 20,000 bill. After proceeding to play tug-o-war for fifteen seconds she finally lamented. To me, it's not the 5,000 dong but the principal that is annoying. I always willingly let the vendors rip me off a little but when they try to take advantage of me (and laugh to their neighboring friends that they are charging me more) I get ticked. I'm now buying pineapple from the lady across the street from my old pineapple lady...she at least says she's charging me 20,000 dong from the start.

Superman

(PICTURE: Viet Hoang with Superman)

Last week was Huyen's nephew's birthday. Huyen had to work so I drove out to her sister's house by myself. I asked Huyen what gift to get and she told me that her nephew, "likes Superman."

In Hanoi there is a street which just sells toys. I went to the street and started scouting out Superman dolls. All the toys were clear knock-offs from China. After going to four stores I found a giant Superman figure that came with a light saber. Why a light saber? I don't know.

Upon arriving at Huyen's sister's house I gave her nephew his present. He looked at the Superman figure as if he had never seen Superman in his life. I said to her sister that, "Huyen told me Viet Hoang like Superman." Huyen's sister said, "Yes he loves Superman." She then pointed at a bunch of figures on a desk. Not one of the figures was Superman. They were all robots or other action figures. Apparently this was a lost in translation moment. Viet Hoang doesn't like Superman. He likes super men.
(PICTURE: Viet Hoang with a real life Super Man, Huyen's dad.)

Viet Hoang left Superman in the box for a couple of hours and proceeded to only play with the light saber...which turned out to be the most annoying present ever. It made this really loud noise when you hit the trigger. Viet Hoan spent the next three hours hitting people with the light saber while simultaneously giving us all a headache with the annoying noise.

Happy 90th Birthday, Nanny!!!

First let me tell you that on my grandma's birthday I called her two times. I'm only telling you that to take away from the clearly terrible grandson I am for not blogging about her birthday...15 days ago!

If you met my grandmother you would never know she just turned 90 years old. When I showed Huyen pictures of my grandma she said, "No! She's not 90!"

Besides the fact that my grandma has tons of energy, she is frankly the coolest grandma I know. My grandma is hip. She always knows the latest fashions and trends. My grandma is also fun. She's got a 1,001 great stories and is always a pleasure to spend time with.

Although she misses me, she has completely encouraged what I've been doing the last year. I love my grandma and wish I could have helped celebrate her birthday.

I'll give you belated birthday hugs in a couple months, Nanny! Love you!