Hanoi

Hanoi was a stepping stone to adventure 🏔🏍, relaxation🛳🏞 and catching up with an old friend🤝, although we weren't here long, it felt like lots was accomplished.

Hanoi was busy, crazy and hot, yet felt a nicer place to be in than Ho Chi Minh, I can't put my finger quite on why, but something made me feel more comfortable here.

A good friend, colleague and neighbour of mine from the days of Thailand, had moved here a few years back to teach English in Hanoi. I knew we must meet, and looked forward to our reunion. His name was Tigger, after Tigger from Winnie the Pooh for his 'bouncy' personality and spirit. We taught in the same school and lived next door to each other in our repective wooden huts in the middle a coconut plantation in Suratthani, Thailand.

We met in a small bar off walking street for a drink before going to a local favourite of his called Spy Bar, nothing special but an expat hangout. We shared our stories of Suratthani helping Angela to imagine what our life was like, lots of time gently rocking in our hammocks, philosophical debates, beer, food and adventure! Oh, and some teaching too somewhere in the middle.

The bar was nothing special, it had a TV on the wall with a film on in Vietnamese, a Jukebox (computer linked to youtube) and plenty to drink, we soon acquainted ourselves to the final two unitil about 3am and somehow made our way back to our hotel (more about that later 😬), having stopped off at one of surprisingly many food stalls open on the way. We (regretfully) chose deep fried fish balls and strange sausage., which in the morning looked, smelled and also tasted revolting 🤮

An alarm was ringing, 'Brunch with Tigger', we must've made plans during the night before, and a quick look through messages indeed confirmed this, we both postponed to more of a lunch than brunch, washed down with a beer or 3 to keep the hangover at bay, and spoke much more of our pasts, presents and futures.

We had a day to spare before heading off on our upcoming cruise. Being the 2nd largest producer of coffee in the world meant much opportunity to try coffee and make coffee. I signed up for a class and made various concoctions of Vietnamese coffee, including egg coffee, where egg yolks are whisked to substitute the milk, very nice! ☕️Read more