Happy New Year! Chuc Mung Nam Moi! I guess this should be a blog post that reflects on the last year and makes resolutions for the new year. Well, not to sound full of it or anything but I'm pretty happy with my past and where things are going...don't really need to change much. Of course, there is always room for improvement so I guess my resolution that I am willing to make public will be this...
"No Regrets!"
Anyway, on to the long picture post which I do a lot of because according to feedback from my few devoted blog fans (hi mom and Camille) that seems to be what you like to see.
So with the new year comes lots of marriages because it brings good luck. This is a pretty couple on the Hoan Kiem bridge.
After living in Hanoi TWICE now, I have finally visited the turtle statue in Hoan Kiem lake. Cool.
Sister and I with an awesome lady who has won many awards for her delicious pig ear rice paper rolls. Yes, we ate some and they were good. :D
OOOOOH, it's my first train ride EVER! A sleeper trip at that...my sister and I on our way to glorious Sapa! On the way there we took the regular soft-sleeper Vietnam carriage and opted to splurge for a more touristy carriage on the way home. It actually wasn't that different except the pillow and blanket you get for the extra $7 is way more cozy.
Sapa and Northern Vietnam are pretty cold right now as you can tell by my winter accessories.
AHAHAHAHAHA! So I was waiting to meet up with people for dinner when I noticed a mouse running around a bakery display. Kind of gross right? Well, when I showed the guys this picture they were suuuuper gagging like because as fate would have it, they had eaten at that bakery a few hours ago! Oh well, all the pastries are wrapped in plastic for a reason I guess. :P
Nothing like fancy hot pot on a chilly day. Funny enough was the UK couple we had met earlier that day ended up eating at the same restaurant at the table right next to us!!! Better yet, it was their first time eating hot pot and I always love introducing new yummy foods to people.
Sapa...this is a view during it's ugly season. Man, I need to make a trip there in the spring then!
A performance in a Hmong village...it was a very touristy village.
So while Christmas is small beans in Vietnam, new years is definitely not. You will find celebrations everywhere!!! One of the busiest streets in Hanoi was shut down for over a week to set up for the New Year's flower festival. It reminded of the Rose Parade except there were no floats, just displays made up of plants/flowers.
It's supposed to be the Vietnamese ladies that sell fruit/food on the street!
So this is awesome C who spent a lot of her Vietnam trip planning charity events. This one took place at the National Pediatric Hospital I did research in two years ago so I volunteered part of my day off to help out. It was a bit selfish on my part as I was just a bit nostalgic for the hospital and staff but I'm really glad I went. We gave out items and money to patients in need and although this didn't solve all their problems or fix the status of poor health care...well, it's comforting to know that people care and try to make some effort to make some kind of a difference.
I like cats...and I really like these cat and mouse coconut cakes!!!!
On New Year's Eve's Eve, one of my local friends took my sister and I to this awesome salsa studio. It was a completely local scene and it was so cool to see locals (and not just drunk expats) shake it. Especially nice was watching the studio's amazing salsa students compete.
So NYE was pretty f-ing spectacular. There were concert areas set up around the touristy areas of Hanoi and for 2 straight days there was non-stop dancing, singing, taiko, etc. performances to celebrate the new year. Above is the featured "Heineken Party" which was a 5 story tower of lights with DJs on top blasting hip-hop music in front of the Hanoi Opera House. The street was complete madness. I actually missed watching the countdown here because I jumped to a house party instead.
This is us now enjoying a tour to Perfume Pagoda on New Year's Day. Decided to do the trek and do a little prayer to start off the year. On the side, you can see lots of preparations of people building stalls for Tet which is when most people make their pilgrimage to this temple.
On the way to the pagoda we saw a really sad pet monkey. :(
So we walked up the 40 minute stair climb to the temple but decided to take the cable car down...
Another sad animal sighting. You can buy these Vietnam squirrels so you can set them free near the temple. The noses are bright red with BLOOD because they are scared and rubbing their faces against the cages. :(
The only way to get to the bottom of the perfume pagoda mountain is to take a boat down the river...
HA! So we were drinking some coffee when my friend E realized we were drinking the coveted "Cafe Chon." What does that mean you ask? Well have you ever heard of the coffee made from beans from cat poop? WELL YEAH! WE DRANK IT! Look at the logo above closely and you might just giggle. I always thought this kind of coffee came from regular cats but apparently it is from the Vietnamese Civet Cat which is part of the weasel family. Ok, and people are right, the coffee is really good.
My sister's last night in Hanoi...we organized a dinner at Namaste which she read was one of the best Indian restaurants here. I hope she had a good trip and thanks for the bird decoration!
