Hanoi and Ha Long Bay

Wow have we been busy! And the next couple weeks are going to be even crazier. To kick off the madness we took a trip up north a week ago for work and a little bit of fun. The North is different in a lot of ways – a center for government and academia and generally thought to be more conservative – which was interesting to experience firsthand.

The highlight of our trip was a visit to Ha Long Bay – a world heritage site and one if the most beautiful places I have ever seen. We spent three days on a Chinese Style junk cruising amongst hundreds of limestone islands, alternating between kayaking, swimming, reading, and eating delicious multi-course meals on the top deck amidst stunning scenery. We actually visited a place adjacent to Ha Long bay proper, called Bai Tu Long, which is a little less crowded, so we had much of the pristine landscape to ourselves. We visited a remote fishing village 30 km from the nearest port where we chatted with the locals and checked out their small scale aquaculture facility. Women from the village took us around via rowboat to see the local lagoons and let us try our hand at rowing (Nikki was pretty good!).

On our second evening, after an incredible sunset and some swimming/jumping off the top of the boat, the crew ferried us over to an island where they had prepared a candlelit dinner in a cave. Aside from the great ambiance, food, and wine – and the fact that the chef carved several mini-sculptures out of various fruits/vegetables – my favorite part was that the crew sang several songs and then invited the guests to sing a song from our respective countries. There were four Americans present, and we started things with the quintessential "take me out to the ballgame."  The Auzzies (waltzing matilda), Brits (beatles song), Irish (fields of athenry), Germans and French (I don't remember, but the there was lots of waving of wine glasses in the French one) all followed suit.

After returning to port Saturday, Nikki and I settled in for the three hour trip back to Hanoi through rice paddies and tried to get a little rest before the Marine Corps Ball in Hanoi that evening. The ball is a black tie event celebrating the founding of the Corps and carried out each year wherever Marines are posted around the world (we had a dress and tux specially made for the occasion). A bunch of our friends from Ho Chi Minh City made the trip north for the party and we had a blast dancing all night and exploring the city together a bit the next day. Hanoi just celebrated its 1000 year birthday, and Nikki and I had fun poking around the old quarter where each tiny street is named after the merchandise that was originally sold there. We also checked out the Temple of Literature, where mandarins, doctors, and other members of the elite were trained. Of course, we had to also visit Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum, though the body of the revered leader was out for "maintenance."

After our brief tourist stint, we spent the next few days working from the capital city (staying at the actual Hilton in Hanoi). Nikki had the opportunity to meet her counterparts at the embassy and work on a couple of special projects, while I met with various members of the environmental community. For those of you interested, I've got a couple of irons in the fire these days – a mariculture planning project (http://www.icafis.org), my old work with MLPA (http://www.dfg.ca.gov/mlpa), and most recently helping with a NOAA-run capacity building workshop here next month. We of course made time for some great meals, including dining al fresco at a colonial-style French villa and a dinner at a place called KOTO that mentors/employs street children.

All in all it was a super fun AND productive trip and we'll have to go back to see everything we missed.

Birthday Weekend – Monkeys and Karaoke

Saturday was my birthday and we celebrated in style with a trip to monkey island and karaoke. During the day, Nikki and I went with the Post Language Program to Can Gio – which is a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve located at the delta of the Saigon River – a couple hours from downtown. The bus ride down was pretty cool in and of itself, as we got to see a bunch of shrimp farms, took a ferry ride, and stopped to sample water coconut fruit (big seed pods, not to be confused with coconut water).Upon arrival we got to see tons of monkeys (macaques) and "fish" for crocodiles – ie, pay $1 to dangle an eel on a long pole above their jaws… Afterwards, we hopped in a boat to speed through the mangroves at high velocity and check out an old Viet Cong base on stilts. We watched a video on the war, learned about life on the base, and met an old veteran who had fought at the base when he was 15 years old.

After another boat and bus ride, we stopped for lunch at a beautiful beach side restaurant and continued our tour of this country's great food (I had cockles and Nikki had lots of veggies). We walked out to a little hotel on the water and I took a quick swim in the ocean before we headed to a seafood market. The market had maybe a hundred tubs of different kinds of live seafood – marine snails, conch, grouper, stonefish, clams, cockles, squid, octopi, and even a horseshoe crab. We poked around for a while and our teacher Co Chau bought me a great hat for my b-day, which I proceeded to wear all night. It started to rain on the way home and all the streets were totally flooded. Cars/motorbikes were stalling, homes/stores were barricaded with sandbags, bricks, and miscellaneous hardware, and children were swimming in the street – crazy. Our friends Andrew and Ed biked home through it – can't wait for our bikes arrive so I can join them next time!

Luckily, we were able to make it to the karaoke bar where I had reserved a big room for all of our friends. A few were waylaid by the rain (our poor friend David had his car totally swamped with water!), but maybe 25 people were able to make it. We made it only half an hour before the power went out due to the storm – ohh Vietnam – but luckily it was fixed in 45 min or so. Sufficiently electrified, we had a total blast singing classic songs in English and Vietnamese – Nikki and I even performed a couple duets, including GnR's Sweet Child o Mine (I'm sure some still have ringing ears). I was so happy that all of our friends were able to make it and I even got a cake (thanks Huong, David, and Anny!) and some new soccer gear (thanks Minh, Dat, and Thuy!). We sang until they kicked us out and went home very happy.

Today Nikki and I walked around town taking care of a few things before we go to Hanoi next week – I did a final fitting for the tux I had made and we looked for shoes and a handbag to match the beautiful dress Nikki had made. We spent the afternoon at the Caravelle Hotel, where we bought tickets to sit by their nice pool and relax, before heading home for leftover pizza, a movie, and birthday cake….

What a great weekend and thanks to all of our friends here and in the US for the birthday wishes!!

Halloween and Bien Hoa Sports Trip

Dressing up for Halloween is a pretty new idea here in Vietnam, but there are enough people doing it that I was able to find a costume store not too far away from our house. Given the recent Twilight fad, vampires seemed like a good idea, so I bought some capes, fake teeth, and a wig for Nikki. I also bought some sweet flashing skull sunglasses, but I'm pretty sure the Cullen family would not have approved. The consulate put on an event for the kids of both US and local employees, and we had great fun seeing all the cute costumes. A fairly elaborate (and frightening!) haunted house was constructed, much to the delight (and terror) of the kids.

Nikki was tired after a long week of work and spent Saturday getting a manicure, taking care of errands, and generally relaxing. Meanwhile, I headed northeast of town with the consulate tennis and soccer teams to play a couple of "friendship games" in the Bien Hoa province. There are some excellent tennis players at the consulate, and we spent the morning playing doubles while the weather constantly shifted from boiling hot to pouring rain. After a tasty lunch of snails, fish fritters, and noodle soup, we headed to the local soccer stadium for a pretty competitive match. Though we didn't win (ahem…we lost 1-4…), it was still fun and I had a good time hanging out with all my soccer/tennis buddies. We got to know the opposing team afterwards over drinks (Chivas shots – man they like the hard stuff here!) and hot pot (local fish called basa = catfish, in some kind of bean concoction).

Speaking of food, Nikki and I continue to find excellent restaurants here. On Friday we hit up "the elbow room," which had delicious California cuisine and live bluesy music. Saturday we tried out one of two Mexican joints in town – Mexico Lindo – and discovered decent margaritas and burritos (disclaimer - I am an extreme burrito snob). We continued the trend on Sunday, hitting up a dim sum place for lunch with a few of Nikki's work colleagues and friends. We are thinking a separate food blog may be in order… The rest of Sunday was occupied by taking care of a few things around town that we have been neglecting – buying a cabinet, picking up some picture frames, and miscellaneous shopping (my favorite!). One highlight was visiting "Metro," Vietnam's answer to Costco. It was remarkably similar to the US - except for the whole roasted pigs and waterfowl on display and a giant live/fresh fish section with crazy species I had never heard of.

On the work side – Nikki's job seems to be going well and sounds very interesting. She is getting to do quite a few side projects, including one that will take us to Hanoi next week. I'm keeping up with my MLPA Initiative stuff in California, just finished a project in the mid-Atlantic (http://marinemap.org/framework), and am just starting a new project regarding aquaculture planning here in Vietnam. We are also ramping up for some travel in the next couple months, with trips to Malaysia, Cambodia, and Indonesia in the hopper. Life is definitely full!