2/20/2011
-Ready to be out of Hue, booked a bus to Hoi An, leaving at 1 AM
-slept in and at a delicious breakfast, a great Crepe near my hotel, then went to wait for the bus, wound up talking to the Vietnamese travel agent, who's now my friend on facebook, Vagabond Dragon, about his schooling, he went to tourist school, studying to be a tour guide of Hue.
-the bus to Hoi An was largely uneventful, lots of mega hotels in development along the beach between Danang and Hoi An, the Chinese are flooding the country with development money.
-Danang was a really weird town, there's a huge modern soccer stadium, that looks like a crashed flying saucer, and the only white people i saw were unattractive middle age men with vietnamese prostitutes.
-Hoi An however is beautiful, one of the only towns in Vietnam spared bombing in the war. so there are rows of old buildings lining the river.
-i got there at the end of a full moon festival, which meant two things, all the hotels were full up and expensive, took me forever walking around to find a place to stay, and the best price i found was $12. in what was very much a cell with a seenic window overlooking a brick wall...
-had a wonderful dinner of Hoi An's specialty wonton soup and stuffed octopus.
-went to bed early.
2/21/2011
-when i woke up, went to look into getting a custom made suit, one of Hoi An's specialties.
-the suit was too expensive and seemed impractical to carry around this early in the trip.
-wound up getting a custom shirt for $15 which turned out really nice.
-wandered around the old town for a while, saw all the sights, nothing that exciting, unfortunately didn't carry my camera, so no pictures, wandering down a back alley stumbled on an incredible buddhist ceremony with excellent music, but didn't feel comfortable recording, but respectfully watched for a while.
-had dinner on the river, and booked a bus back to Hue the next day to meet up with Arianna.
-woke up in the middle of the night covered in mosquito bites, immediately started taking my malaria pills.
2/22/2011
-long busride back to Hue, the bus dropped me in the middle of town so i had to trek with my bags to where i was supposed to meet arianna, luckly i already knew the layout of the town so i didn't get too lost. already stronger then i've ever been from schlepping 60 pounds of weight around.
-met Arianna at DMZ bar, dropped shit off in the hotel, went and had dinner and drinks with her, unremarkable dinner and cheap j.walker black.
2/23/2011
-Arianna was hell bent on renting motorcycles, and i reluctantly agreed, but the moment i got on, felt so unsafe i bailed out.
-wound up having a beer and taking a much needed nap while she rode around on the bike.
-she booked her plane ticket and i booked my bus to Savannakhet the next day.
-we had excellent japanese food for dinner, then early to bed, she wasn't feeling well and i had to catch the bus at 7:30.
battery is low, in Laos now, update soon.
Weekly Log of My trip through Asia.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Monday, February 21, 2011
12/18-
12/18/2011
-Hue is pretty busy, and full of backpackers, found a really nice room with a big bed and a balcony for only $8.
-Secured my stuff in the room, and wandered to the citadel, besieged with offers for rides, but chose to walk, spend hours wandering around the citadel, which was the seat of vietnamese imperial power pre-revolution. lots of incredible buildings crumbling or bombed to dust, some restored, but mostly either, nothing but foundations, falling down or in process of restoration.spent hours wandering through there, off the beaten track, found some beautiful gardens, and a pretty sad looking one tusked elephant.
-From the Citadel to the nearby market, bought a button up shirt, and a bike lock to lock up my cabniet and sate my paranoia. spent less then $10 for both.
-had an unremarkable dinner, and hung out at one of the backpacker bars, hoping to meet up with a group of Canadians i had met on the way from Cat Ba. didn't see them, but wound up talking to three spaniards, two guys from Barcelona, and a girl from Colombia, who i had shared the sleeper bus to Hue with. Got into a conversation about science fiction which somehow led to American politics with an interesting dude from Minnasota, who was at the bar drinking because his kids were sick.
12/19/2011
-woken up early by the motorcycle driver i had arranged the previous day to see the outlying sights in Hue, had breakfast and rode out to an american bunker nearby overlooking the river.
-From there we rode to see the emperor's tomb, another expansive area of crumbling remarkable buildings, just outside of Hue.
-From there to a pretty awesome Pagoda, lots of monks wandering around, most notably they had the original car that the self-immolating monk had ridden in before setting himself on fire.
-wandering to the back of the pagoda, through the perfectly placed pines, i discovered the hills behind the pagoda were covered with the largest graveyard i've seen yet, the countryside is dotted with small graveyards full of incredible tombs, but this was by far the most expansive.
-the whole motorcycle trip, i kept asking the driver "how much? how much?" he kept insisting, "you pay whatever you want when we're done" when he dropped me back at the hotel, i asked again how much and he demanded $25 dollars, way too much for a few hour tour, i tried to give him less, and he refused, not knowing what else to do i had him take me to the ATM so i could pay him. thats the last time i take a ride without having a set price first.
-angry at having been ripped off, i needed to decompress, so i spent some time in my really nice room, reading and listening to Cobham's Spectrum.
-that brought me back to a happy state of being, so i went out to find lunch, had the local specialty which is roll yr own spring rolls, which were pretty good.
-while i was eating i ran into the canadians, and we decided to meet at Bar Why Not for a drink.
-booked a bus to Hoi An the next day for $4
-met them at the bar later and they taught me to play 500, which is a great card game, played and talked shit til late in the night, had a great time.
-Hue is pretty busy, and full of backpackers, found a really nice room with a big bed and a balcony for only $8.
-Secured my stuff in the room, and wandered to the citadel, besieged with offers for rides, but chose to walk, spend hours wandering around the citadel, which was the seat of vietnamese imperial power pre-revolution. lots of incredible buildings crumbling or bombed to dust, some restored, but mostly either, nothing but foundations, falling down or in process of restoration.spent hours wandering through there, off the beaten track, found some beautiful gardens, and a pretty sad looking one tusked elephant.
-From the Citadel to the nearby market, bought a button up shirt, and a bike lock to lock up my cabniet and sate my paranoia. spent less then $10 for both.
-had an unremarkable dinner, and hung out at one of the backpacker bars, hoping to meet up with a group of Canadians i had met on the way from Cat Ba. didn't see them, but wound up talking to three spaniards, two guys from Barcelona, and a girl from Colombia, who i had shared the sleeper bus to Hue with. Got into a conversation about science fiction which somehow led to American politics with an interesting dude from Minnasota, who was at the bar drinking because his kids were sick.
12/19/2011
-woken up early by the motorcycle driver i had arranged the previous day to see the outlying sights in Hue, had breakfast and rode out to an american bunker nearby overlooking the river.
-From there to a pretty awesome Pagoda, lots of monks wandering around, most notably they had the original car that the self-immolating monk had ridden in before setting himself on fire.
-wandering to the back of the pagoda, through the perfectly placed pines, i discovered the hills behind the pagoda were covered with the largest graveyard i've seen yet, the countryside is dotted with small graveyards full of incredible tombs, but this was by far the most expansive.
-angry at having been ripped off, i needed to decompress, so i spent some time in my really nice room, reading and listening to Cobham's Spectrum.
-that brought me back to a happy state of being, so i went out to find lunch, had the local specialty which is roll yr own spring rolls, which were pretty good.
-while i was eating i ran into the canadians, and we decided to meet at Bar Why Not for a drink.
-booked a bus to Hoi An the next day for $4
-met them at the bar later and they taught me to play 500, which is a great card game, played and talked shit til late in the night, had a great time.
Friday, February 18, 2011
two pictures, Ning Binh and from the road to Hue
its rice planting season here, so everwhere you go there are people planting rice in the paddies, one at a time, crazy to see the amount of human labor that goes into vietnam being the biggest producer of rice in the world
dog in the market mmmm.
uncle ho will save you from AIDS!
Cat Ba and Hue
12/15/2011
-woke up at 6:15, had to catch a bus to Hai Phong at 7:20, took me a while to catch a cab, finally did and made the bus just in time, it was a reasonably nice bus, and I shared the bus with a cute fashion marketer from Berlin, made it to Hai Phong around 10:30. Nothing but factories between Hanoi and Hai Phong, went from concrete plants, to shoe factories, to a massive ford plant.
-Hai Phong functions mainly as a large shipping port, so huge stacks of shipping crates are everywhere and tons of huge trucks, sat at the bus station there for an hour waiting for the bus to the hydofoil which would take us to Cat Ba island.
-its a stretch by any definition to call the boat to Cat Ba a hydrofoil, basically just a large speedboat with bus style seating.
-Beautiful ride to Cat Ba though pictures from the boat:
-got to Cat Ba around noon, i was the only white person coming off that day that didn't have reservations, so instigated a bidding war that wound up getting me a room on the top floor of an otherwise empty hotel over looking the bay for only $5
-wandered around a bit, saw two dudes sitting outside a bar with a bottle of J-Walker black, working on polishing off the whole thing, joined them for some whiskey, cause there wasn't much else to do, too cold to go to the beach unless i wanted to rent a motorbike or bicycle, figured i'd save that for the next day. turns out the guys were both Swiss and had studied experimental physics, they were in hanoi hanging out with one of their sisters who is an expat there representing the Swiss gov't they had taken a three day tour of Halong bay by junk, and were only on Cat Ba for the day. had interesting conversation
-ran into the german girl while i was sitting with them, made plans to meet for drinks later.
-sat on my balcony and watched they bay and read Divine Invasion more PKD
-went to look for dinner, but right as i was doing so the power on the whole island went out, wound up eating a deliciously fresh steamed fish with ginger by generator light, then to the bar where i was supposed to meet the german girl.
-She never showed, but i wound up talking to an Italian winemaker with a dreadlock rat tail and an otherwise shaved head, he was great to talk to, Luca, didn't speak much english, but had travelled pretty extensively, was leaving to Lao as soon as possible, because he couldn't find any weed in Vietnam.
-after talking to him for a while these two great girls from Portland joined us, (i love Portland girls), one was an accupuncturist, Rachel, the other worked with Native American tribes on land preservation, Chris.
-Had great conversation, and made plans to rent/ride bicycles around with the girls the next day.
12/16/2011
-bored with Cat Ba so made arrangements with the guy at my hotel to leave for Hue the next day.
-met the girls at 10 ate "pancakes" for breakfast fried dough embedded with banana
-rented bikes from a very talkative vietnamese dude, Mr. Long or Mr. Wong, i was never sure.
-rode around the island for 50 Km not sure what that translates to in miles but it was a whole lot, up and down hills through remarkable landscapes.
-We ended our bike adventure by turning down an unmarked dirt road, wound up at a very strange private zoo with a vietnamese woman who was very happy to show us around, they had a herd of deer, a vietnamese black bear, the one with the white V on its chest, that they kept in a giant birdcage connected to a concrete cave, a whole shitload of crocodiles, and two monkeys chained to trees. very odd scene.
-we road back to town and checked out the two beaches, Cat Co 1 and Cat Co 2, which were remarkably beautiful but it was too cold to swim or anything.
-dropped off the bikes, went to what was supposedly the best restaurant in town with the girls, had wonderful soup, but really unremarkable duck entree.
-back to the Kiwi bar for drinks, cause there was nothing else to do. ran into Luca, and the four of us hung out again and played jenga and connect four at the bar.
2/17/2011
-caught the bus out of Cat Ba at 9 AM, back to Hai Phong, a bus from there to Ning Binh.
-rode with a German couple and three Canadians, had good conversation again, and we all decided to go to take the sleeper Hue together.
-when we got to Ning Binh, took a cab to the hotel that had/sold sleeper bus tickets, they had mine and the Germans, and the Canadians bought their tickets.
-wandered around Ninh Binh, had an excelent huge lunch as a group, I had delicious goat, and there were free roll your own spring rolls with pork. so good.
-walked around two markets, saw a stand with sliced up dog, bought some oranges, and ate some Palmello. pictures of the dog to come, it was a gutted headless chihuaha, and the heads were sitting right next to it.
-hung out at the hotel for a while waiting for the bus to pick us up.
-the bus that i thought i was going on, with everybody else wouldn't let me on. so i went inside and called the guy that had arranged my tickets in Cat Ba, and turned out i was on another bus that came like 15 minutes later, sleeper buses are never fun, but this one wasn't particularly bad, except for the speakers blasting vietnamese music until midnight right over my head, and the huge russian guy who kicked me out of my primo three seat bunk, so he could share with his wife.
2/18/2011
-woke up to vietnamese music over my head again at 7 had a reasonable sleep before then, we stopped in some tiny town for breakfast.
-then continued on to Hue.
-In hue now, with a really low battery, more to come.
-woke up at 6:15, had to catch a bus to Hai Phong at 7:20, took me a while to catch a cab, finally did and made the bus just in time, it was a reasonably nice bus, and I shared the bus with a cute fashion marketer from Berlin, made it to Hai Phong around 10:30. Nothing but factories between Hanoi and Hai Phong, went from concrete plants, to shoe factories, to a massive ford plant.
-Hai Phong functions mainly as a large shipping port, so huge stacks of shipping crates are everywhere and tons of huge trucks, sat at the bus station there for an hour waiting for the bus to the hydofoil which would take us to Cat Ba island.
-its a stretch by any definition to call the boat to Cat Ba a hydrofoil, basically just a large speedboat with bus style seating.
-Beautiful ride to Cat Ba though pictures from the boat:
-wandered around a bit, saw two dudes sitting outside a bar with a bottle of J-Walker black, working on polishing off the whole thing, joined them for some whiskey, cause there wasn't much else to do, too cold to go to the beach unless i wanted to rent a motorbike or bicycle, figured i'd save that for the next day. turns out the guys were both Swiss and had studied experimental physics, they were in hanoi hanging out with one of their sisters who is an expat there representing the Swiss gov't they had taken a three day tour of Halong bay by junk, and were only on Cat Ba for the day. had interesting conversation
-ran into the german girl while i was sitting with them, made plans to meet for drinks later.
-sat on my balcony and watched they bay and read Divine Invasion more PKD
-went to look for dinner, but right as i was doing so the power on the whole island went out, wound up eating a deliciously fresh steamed fish with ginger by generator light, then to the bar where i was supposed to meet the german girl.
-She never showed, but i wound up talking to an Italian winemaker with a dreadlock rat tail and an otherwise shaved head, he was great to talk to, Luca, didn't speak much english, but had travelled pretty extensively, was leaving to Lao as soon as possible, because he couldn't find any weed in Vietnam.
-after talking to him for a while these two great girls from Portland joined us, (i love Portland girls), one was an accupuncturist, Rachel, the other worked with Native American tribes on land preservation, Chris.
-Had great conversation, and made plans to rent/ride bicycles around with the girls the next day.
12/16/2011
-bored with Cat Ba so made arrangements with the guy at my hotel to leave for Hue the next day.
-met the girls at 10 ate "pancakes" for breakfast fried dough embedded with banana
-rented bikes from a very talkative vietnamese dude, Mr. Long or Mr. Wong, i was never sure.
-rode around the island for 50 Km not sure what that translates to in miles but it was a whole lot, up and down hills through remarkable landscapes.
-We ended our bike adventure by turning down an unmarked dirt road, wound up at a very strange private zoo with a vietnamese woman who was very happy to show us around, they had a herd of deer, a vietnamese black bear, the one with the white V on its chest, that they kept in a giant birdcage connected to a concrete cave, a whole shitload of crocodiles, and two monkeys chained to trees. very odd scene.
-we road back to town and checked out the two beaches, Cat Co 1 and Cat Co 2, which were remarkably beautiful but it was too cold to swim or anything.
-dropped off the bikes, went to what was supposedly the best restaurant in town with the girls, had wonderful soup, but really unremarkable duck entree.
-back to the Kiwi bar for drinks, cause there was nothing else to do. ran into Luca, and the four of us hung out again and played jenga and connect four at the bar.
2/17/2011
-caught the bus out of Cat Ba at 9 AM, back to Hai Phong, a bus from there to Ning Binh.
-rode with a German couple and three Canadians, had good conversation again, and we all decided to go to take the sleeper Hue together.
-when we got to Ning Binh, took a cab to the hotel that had/sold sleeper bus tickets, they had mine and the Germans, and the Canadians bought their tickets.
-wandered around Ninh Binh, had an excelent huge lunch as a group, I had delicious goat, and there were free roll your own spring rolls with pork. so good.
-walked around two markets, saw a stand with sliced up dog, bought some oranges, and ate some Palmello. pictures of the dog to come, it was a gutted headless chihuaha, and the heads were sitting right next to it.
-hung out at the hotel for a while waiting for the bus to pick us up.
-the bus that i thought i was going on, with everybody else wouldn't let me on. so i went inside and called the guy that had arranged my tickets in Cat Ba, and turned out i was on another bus that came like 15 minutes later, sleeper buses are never fun, but this one wasn't particularly bad, except for the speakers blasting vietnamese music until midnight right over my head, and the huge russian guy who kicked me out of my primo three seat bunk, so he could share with his wife.
2/18/2011
-woke up to vietnamese music over my head again at 7 had a reasonable sleep before then, we stopped in some tiny town for breakfast.
-then continued on to Hue.
-In hue now, with a really low battery, more to come.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Hanoi-> Cat Ba -> Hue
2/12/2011
-Had a crazy night bar hopping in Hanoi with Maxime (awesome french kid i met in the hostel in Hanoi) started at The Factory, tried to see some Vietnamese experimental music, they had a great set up, guitar with multiple distortion pedals, and a deconstructed piano with all sorts of lo-fi synth and laptop based equipment. The soundcheck sounded great, but unfortunately the band never played. Not a huge loss because the factory had the best art i've seen yet (see link) really great surreal dystopian shit, a blunt look at the police state that is Vietnam.
-We asked some expats where the party was, they sent us to a bar on the southside of town, it was pretty dead as well, but Maxime struck up a conversation with two beautiful vietnamese girls, they took us to an illegal bar overlooking the green river, blasting American rap over a pretty decent JBL stack. danced with the girls and Maxime wound up making out with both of them.
-Didn't get back to the hotel until like 2 AM i slept like a rock.
2/13/2011
-woke up with a brutal headache, couldn't hold down breakfast.
-went to the History museum in Hanoi with Maxime, incredible ancient pottery and woodcarvings, saw the opera house which is a sprawling french building, and a beautiful ancient catholic church.
-wandered around the old town for a while looking for a suitable lunch spot. wound up having fried Spring Rolls, Maxime had a steak.
-we went back to the hotel for a minute, Maxime wanted to rest, so i wandered around looking for a good leather jacket in the fashion district, full of chinese shit, mostly too weird and expensive for me, every store seemed to have the same stuff.
-went to a great restaurant for dinner, Highway 4 had one of the best meals i've had so far, ginger pork with fermented rice.
-watched some french tourists freak out about eating crickets.
-Maxime had to catch a bus to Sapa so we went back to the hotel after dinner, wound up talking politics and economics with my new Norwegian roommate, also talked to british nurse about her travels for the last six months, interesting stories, she'd been on a pretty epic and frenetic journey all over the world.
2/14/2011
-The next day i woke up, and went to the train station trying to arrange tickets to get to Hai Phong, from there to get a boat to Cat Ba Island. there are two train stations in Hannoi and depending on where you're going you need to buy tickets in different places. i was in the right station but they sent me to the other one, when i got back to the right one, they were on lunch.
-wound up booking a bus to Haiphong and a hydrofoil to Cat Ba from the hotel for only $7.
-bought a leather jacket for $30 bucks, its nice, but you get what you pay for, also found a really awesome shirt with a skull and crossbones of psylocibin mushrooms that i really wanted but was way too expensive, they wanted $25 for it.
-Ate a nice lunch with the Norwegian in an old Vietnamese house.
-had tea with him at an excellent and hard to find place overlooking the lake in the center of Hanoi.
-went out to look for a supposed reggae bar but never found it, ate a crappy dinner at a place that was far too western.
-on the walk back a vietnamese guy half kicked me in the street, my only negative experience with any of the Vietnamese, who can at times be terse, but are generally really nice and trustworthy.
-had my last hanoi drink at the factory, hoping to get a hookah, but they were sold out because it was valentines day, the city was crazy full of traffic for the same reason, went to bed early because i had to catch the bus in the morning.
I'm currently in Hue, Cat Ba stories and pictures to come.
-Had a crazy night bar hopping in Hanoi with Maxime (awesome french kid i met in the hostel in Hanoi) started at The Factory, tried to see some Vietnamese experimental music, they had a great set up, guitar with multiple distortion pedals, and a deconstructed piano with all sorts of lo-fi synth and laptop based equipment. The soundcheck sounded great, but unfortunately the band never played. Not a huge loss because the factory had the best art i've seen yet (see link) really great surreal dystopian shit, a blunt look at the police state that is Vietnam.
-We asked some expats where the party was, they sent us to a bar on the southside of town, it was pretty dead as well, but Maxime struck up a conversation with two beautiful vietnamese girls, they took us to an illegal bar overlooking the green river, blasting American rap over a pretty decent JBL stack. danced with the girls and Maxime wound up making out with both of them.
-Didn't get back to the hotel until like 2 AM i slept like a rock.
2/13/2011
-woke up with a brutal headache, couldn't hold down breakfast.
-went to the History museum in Hanoi with Maxime, incredible ancient pottery and woodcarvings, saw the opera house which is a sprawling french building, and a beautiful ancient catholic church.
-wandered around the old town for a while looking for a suitable lunch spot. wound up having fried Spring Rolls, Maxime had a steak.
-we went back to the hotel for a minute, Maxime wanted to rest, so i wandered around looking for a good leather jacket in the fashion district, full of chinese shit, mostly too weird and expensive for me, every store seemed to have the same stuff.
-went to a great restaurant for dinner, Highway 4 had one of the best meals i've had so far, ginger pork with fermented rice.
-watched some french tourists freak out about eating crickets.
-Maxime had to catch a bus to Sapa so we went back to the hotel after dinner, wound up talking politics and economics with my new Norwegian roommate, also talked to british nurse about her travels for the last six months, interesting stories, she'd been on a pretty epic and frenetic journey all over the world.
2/14/2011
-The next day i woke up, and went to the train station trying to arrange tickets to get to Hai Phong, from there to get a boat to Cat Ba Island. there are two train stations in Hannoi and depending on where you're going you need to buy tickets in different places. i was in the right station but they sent me to the other one, when i got back to the right one, they were on lunch.
-wound up booking a bus to Haiphong and a hydrofoil to Cat Ba from the hotel for only $7.
-bought a leather jacket for $30 bucks, its nice, but you get what you pay for, also found a really awesome shirt with a skull and crossbones of psylocibin mushrooms that i really wanted but was way too expensive, they wanted $25 for it.
-Ate a nice lunch with the Norwegian in an old Vietnamese house.
-had tea with him at an excellent and hard to find place overlooking the lake in the center of Hanoi.
-went out to look for a supposed reggae bar but never found it, ate a crappy dinner at a place that was far too western.
-on the walk back a vietnamese guy half kicked me in the street, my only negative experience with any of the Vietnamese, who can at times be terse, but are generally really nice and trustworthy.
-had my last hanoi drink at the factory, hoping to get a hookah, but they were sold out because it was valentines day, the city was crazy full of traffic for the same reason, went to bed early because i had to catch the bus in the morning.
I'm currently in Hue, Cat Ba stories and pictures to come.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
2/10/11-2/12/11
2/10/11-2/11/11
-Awoke in Dallas 7 am
-Said goodbye to the folks and the pups
-Bought carton of 555s in duty free
-Boarded flight to Tokyo
-Had a row to myself, some naps happened
-Read a book about Miles by his former Road manager, and Flow My Tears the Policeman Said By PKD
-Watched Red (not so good) and Waiting for Superman (really good)
-13 hours later, arrived in Tokyo
-3 hour layover in Tokyo, spent mostly in the smoking lounge, large dose of niccotine on entry, before i even lit a cig
-Finished Miles book
-6 hour flight to Hanoi, Started reading Divine Invasion, also PKD, too tired to focus, watched avatar.
-Arrived in Hanoi 10:40 pm local time, took over an hour to get visa and clear customs.
-Picked up by Hostel, didn't arrive til 12:20
-Found bed, Drank a beer, smoked a cig
-restless sleep
2/12/11
-awoke in hanoi
-3 bananas and black tea for breakfast
-wandered around gov't district with nice french kid bunked under me
-tried to see Ho Chi Min's body, saw the masoleum and square though
-wandered around the old city, taking care of practicalities, ATM, bought water, batteries, etc.
-Lunch: beef with noodle soup and fried squid
-showered
- wandered around some more
-going to see a show tonight two vietnamese dudes, one on electric guitar and one on laptop/keys should be good
nothing that exciting yet, but so psyched to be here, loving the energy.
maybe i'll try to keep the updates every saturday, we'll see.
-Awoke in Dallas 7 am
-Said goodbye to the folks and the pups
-Bought carton of 555s in duty free
-Boarded flight to Tokyo
-Had a row to myself, some naps happened
-Read a book about Miles by his former Road manager, and Flow My Tears the Policeman Said By PKD
-Watched Red (not so good) and Waiting for Superman (really good)
-13 hours later, arrived in Tokyo
-3 hour layover in Tokyo, spent mostly in the smoking lounge, large dose of niccotine on entry, before i even lit a cig
-Finished Miles book
-6 hour flight to Hanoi, Started reading Divine Invasion, also PKD, too tired to focus, watched avatar.
-Arrived in Hanoi 10:40 pm local time, took over an hour to get visa and clear customs.
-Picked up by Hostel, didn't arrive til 12:20
-Found bed, Drank a beer, smoked a cig
-restless sleep
2/12/11
-awoke in hanoi
-3 bananas and black tea for breakfast
-wandered around gov't district with nice french kid bunked under me
-tried to see Ho Chi Min's body, saw the masoleum and square though
-wandered around the old city, taking care of practicalities, ATM, bought water, batteries, etc.
-Lunch: beef with noodle soup and fried squid
-showered
- wandered around some more
-going to see a show tonight two vietnamese dudes, one on electric guitar and one on laptop/keys should be good
nothing that exciting yet, but so psyched to be here, loving the energy.
maybe i'll try to keep the updates every saturday, we'll see.
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