Hello Hanoi

Hi Everybody!

Consider me a changed person. Seriously!

Hanoi is beautiful and everyone should come and visit.

I started off in the Old Quarter by the lake with the trees and cafes. You could spend your days in Hanoi just going from cafe to cafe drinking super super super strong coffee, there's one about every 10feet.

My favorite cafe to date is this one called Kinh Do. It's super simple, kind of run down, supposedly where Catherine Deneuve went for her coffee every morning when she was filming in "Indochine" in Hanoi. You can get a great chocolate croissant and yoghurt with honey.

Everyday I walk to work past the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum. One day got whistled at by the army guy for trying to cross a closed barrier. Oops. After work beer seems to be the thing. Have a canopied spot by the soccer stadium where I stop with my new South African friend to share a "Bia Hanoi" and chat. Then we slowly walk back toward the lakes where we live. A few nights ago we got caught in a serious rain storm and the water came down and down as we sipped away. The taxi ride back was like going through a network of rivers.

I was expecting to find a lot of anti-America sentiment here. But there isn't any, probably because these guys up here in the North won the American War (what Americans call the Vietnam War). They feel proud and secure about their relationship to the west. Besides, Vietnam has been through a lot since then. It's incredible how this country has bounced back. They're really looking forward.

I guess there's more anti-Americanism in the South because the Southerners really supported the Americans and feel very very betrayed by the US pulling out. Many of the people who were US supporters in the south ended up being "re-educated" or killed so it's clear why the resentment would be there.

I'm so happy to be in Hanoi. I feel such a love for the trees and the lakes and the Vietnamese people. It's a super laid back place that I can really embrace. So different from Palembang. <>

Over and out,

Tuesday