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!

Safe Travels, Ryan!

Nearly a year ago, on April 30th, Ryan left Hanoi to go teach in Ho Chi Minh City. I wrote this blog about it:

http://ahoyhanoi.blogspot.com/2008/04/love-aint-easy.html

In case you're too lazy to click on that link, I wrote: "...it's been a great month and a half hanging out with Ryan. The highest compliment I can bestow on a person is to say that, 'he's a good guy.' Well, Ryan is a really good guy."

A couple of days after Ryan flew to Ho Chi Minh City, he had a change of heart. He decided he'd rather spend his year in Hanoi and promptly flew back. I couldn't be happier that Ryan changed his mind. He's not only made a great roommate over the last 11 months, but he's been an amazing friend. Without a doubt, my time in Vietnam wouldn't have been nearly as great without Ryan. What I said last April rings truer today than ever before: Ryan is a really good guy.

Safe travels, Ryan. We're gonna miss you here.

SWAT TEAM

(PICTURE: CSCD Police. This picture is a rarity -- they never come out during the day.)

There's a strange occurrence that happens every night in Hanoi around 11PM. As the city begin to quiet, the storefronts close, and the night time garbage crews sweep the streets, a special branch of police start to appear in the shadows. Who they are, I'm not exactly sure. They have CSCD written on their uniforms. I don't know what that stands for so I've just started to call them the Vietnamese SWAT TEAM.

About nine months ago, while riding home late at night, I passed two motorbikes. On each motorbike were two guys wearing all black -- including I think bullet proof vests -- and holding machine guns. I'm no gun expert by any means but they sort of look like this:

This definitely isn't the exact gun but you get the point. There's dudes dressed in black carrying big guns in the shadows at night.

After that first time seeing the SWAT TEAM, it was a couple months before I saw them again. As Ryan can attest, I'm not exactly a frequent bar goer so I'm not on the streets that often late at night. However, from time to time I've seen these guys and my curiosity is always peaked.

About two weeks ago, during the day, I was riding my bike and saw an army truck drive buy with a dozen of these guys sitting in the back. I was shocked that these guys could actually come out in the daylight.

Last week I got an email from a "long time listener, first time caller" named Jacob Gold. Jacob told me he was once pulled over by these police at night. That's an experience I'm hoping I never have in Hanoi.

Mannequins

(PICTURE: A mannequin shop in Hanoi. Photo courtesy of Veronica.)

I had an interesting -- but definitely not unusual -- experience last month when I was on my bike trip. As Long, Nicky and I pulled into a small town in the middle of nowhere, I spotted a foreigner up ahead on the sidewalk. I thought to myself, "I can't believe there are other non Vietnamese people in this town." Well, there weren't. The foreigner up ahead was a mannequin.

One thing you will notice in Vietnam is that 99% of the mannequins are white people. The other 1% aren't Asian either, they're black. I've found this to be an odd phenomenon the whole time I've been in Vietnam. A girl friend of mine commented the other day that the strangest things about the mannequins is that Vietnamese people don't have the same shaped bodies. She said that if you look closely at the mannequins you'll notice that the pants are never buttoned or zipped. Apparently Asian hips, and the pants they try to squeeze on the mannequins, are a lot smaller.

While we were on the subject of mannequins someone else brought up a strange mannequin sighting that had just happened to them. They were driving their motorbike when in the corner of their eye they saw a naked torso driving next to them. They turned their head and saw some dude driving with the top half of a mannequin sitting in front of him on his motorbike. The legs were tied to the back.

Now back to my initial story. I personally think the strangest thing about the mannequins here is that they are often on the sidewalk. When you drive by, or even walk up to them, it makes them feel a lot more real when they are out and about in society and not just in storefront windows.

Mr. Rogers

(PICTURE: The neighborhood kids chalked my front steps.)

I've become Mr. Rogers. Last week I was walking home when I heard a little kid on my street yell out, "Hello!!!". I saw one of the neighbor kids and said hi back and waved. Just then I heard another "Hello!!!". I looked to my left and another kid was waving from their door front. Seconds later a "Hello!!!" came from up above. There was another little girl waving from a balcony at me. Then two more "Hellos!!!" came from my next door neighbor's house. The two cute little girls from that house came outside and slapped me five (I taught them that a couple of weeks ago).

All the kids, under 8, on my street now love to try and talk with me. I think when I first moved to my block they were a little scared of me but have now more than warmed up to me. In fact, the 7 year old across the street ran into my house the other day, grabbed my badminton racquets and dragged me outside to play with her.

And then there was the time I came home and my front walk was covered in graffiti. The kids next door had written my name a whole bunch of times. The ironic thing is that they also wrote Huyen's name...and spelled it wrong. I guess my English lessons are paying off for the kids of to 122.

The Boy Is Back In Town

I've got great news to report: Hayden is back to Hanoi!!!!


(PICTURE: Asia can't punch Hayden out!)

If you were late to the Ahoy Hanoi bandwagon, Hayden is my friend/colleague who was lost in the jungle of Laos for 11 days in August:

http://ahoyhanoi.blogspot.com/2008/08/hayden-update_26.html

Hayden told his story to us last night and it was terrifying to say the least. I'm not sure which part was more surreal, his being chased and eaten alive by hundreds of lizards or when he recalled asking his doctor in Bangkok if he was going to live. The doctor replied, "We don't think so but you should be able to hold on long enough to see your mother."

I said it before and I'll say it again, Hayden is one of the good guys I've met over the past year. Hayden has a smile and a good word for everyone he meets. Seeing him alive, healthy and smiling put me in great spirits.

Hollywood, if you haven't bought Hayden's story yet, you better get on it!

(PICTURE: Hayden, Nicky and I at Le Pub.)

Jack Fruit

(PICTURE: Jack Fruit in the foreground, Huyen and I buy pineapple in the background. Photo courtesy of Veronica.)

One of my favorite fruits in Vietnam is called Jack Fruit. Seemingly on every other corner in Hanoi is a vendor (or sometimes seven in a row) selling the flesh of this enormous fruit. 1 kilogram of Jack Fruit generally goes for between 40,000-50,000 Dong. That's just about $3.

According to Wikipedia, "Jack Fruit is the largest tree borne fruit in the world," and, "the fruits can reach 36 kg (80 lbs) in weight and up to 90 cm (36 in) long and 50 cm (20 in) in diameter."

If you do the math, a vendor could potentially sell all of the flesh of a Jack Fruit for nearly $100. How great of a job is that?! You can make a good living while enjoying delicious fruit.

One other thing, Jack Fruit is very high in fiber. Yeah, it makes you fart a lot. A mental note I should have given myself a long time ago: "Don't eat Jack Fruit before teaching."