vietamins - a photoblog of viet's worldly adventures

Will Be Missing You Russia

Viet — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 17:54:19 +0000

It’s been fun. Definitely will have to make a return trip to Russia some day. For now I’ll let the photos I’ve uploaded over at Flickr do the talking.

My new ride

Viet — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 13:16:45 +0000

… 2010 VW GTI 2door with DSG in Carbon Grey First brand new car purchase!

Stranded in Houston….

Viet — Sat, 15 May 2010 18:50:27 +0000

… at least for a couple more hours. The flight from Denver to Houston arrived about 1.5 hours late, so I missed the direct connection to Moscow. After six hours of phone calling and running back and forth between Terminals A & D (@IAH), we were able to get myself on a flight to Moscow, albeit not a direct flight. I will have to make a transfer in Amsterdam.

For the time being, I get to hang out in the KLM Business Lounge and drink their “free” booze.

New “Home”

Viet — Sun, 02 May 2010 02:20:59 +0000

I consider Seattle to be my home. In terms of amount of years lived, Olympia should be called home, but the city has changed so much during the five years I was away for college (and the fact my parents sold the house I spent the first 18 years of my life in) that I can no longer relate to it.

What you are seeing is the living room and myself, a ninja shot taken by a nice individual. This new home is a two bedroom, one bathroom house with basement. The best thing about my new place is the LAUNDRY ROOM and DECENT SIZED KITCHEN. Now I don’t have to deal with the shared laundry unit crap like I did in college and I can cook a meal without stressing over for counter top space. Another plus is the entire house lights up really well with natural lighting.

More pictures of the house can be found on Flickr.

War Elephant

Viet — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 05:07:05 +0000

Look Ma, I’m one of those War Elephant units in AoE. Sorry, having flashbacks of AoE gaming sessions with friends back in college.

Out in Da Lat, we took a boat ride to a secluded island that specializes in food and relaxation. On the menu? Forest critters.

I love food, so I believe in trying everything at least once. Let’s just say on that day I’ve eaten things whose names I don’t want to mention here. Anthony Bourdain shares a similar experience (start at the four minute mark).

Junk Boat Meet

Viet — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 03:50:45 +0000

A fairly common shot if you have seen pictures of Ha Long Bay. Our cruise on a Ha Long Bay junk ship led us to a small cove, where a popular cave is situated. Hiking up to the cave revealed the shot shown.

Ha Long means descending dragon. The bay consists of around two-thousand islands of various sizes. Folklore states that the gods sent dragons to assist the Vietnamese against the invading Chinese. These dragons would spit out jade and create a barrier. The jade would eventually become the little islands that now dot Ha Long Bay. The dragons liked earth so much, they decided to make it their home. Ha Long gets its name from when the mother dragon descended into the bay and making it her home.

A little trivia bit is that Hanoi went by many names in the past, one of which is Thang Long. Thang Long translated in English is ascending dragon.

Where are the men?

Viet — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 02:23:58 +0000

One thing stood out during my three day stay in Sapa: where are the Hmong men? The women, it seems, are doing the vending and hard labor, but none of the men were in sight. Well… I did see two Hmong boys having a cold Tiger, but they don’t count.

Please, you buy from me?

Viet — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 19:46:25 +0000

During our twelve mile hike through Sapa, we passed through the village of Cat Cat. Situated in Sapa, this is where some of the Hmong reside. The Hmong are an Asian ethnic group that reside in the mountain regions of Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, and Burma. You may have also seen them in Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino.

Upon arrival, we were greeted by little girls who were trying to sell off their “handmade” trinkets. Handmade is in quotes because now-a-days these things are machine produced. I tell you, these little kids were the cutest kids ever. I’m sure if given the chance they would take over the world by their cuteness. Heck, they can speak a lot of languages: Vietnamese, Hmong, English, French, Russian, Czech, Portuguese, just to name a few. It is what they learn for their trade as vendors that caters to tourists. You have to be careful though. If you buy something from one of them, ten more will appear to try to pawn their wares. My dad said when he visited back in the 90s, all this vendor-tourist activities didn’t exist.

Which makes you think that as a tourist, by visiting are you giving a helping hand in destroying their culture?

Want a ride?

Viet — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 19:07:51 +0000

A little groggy, we got off the run-down government train (we paid for the high-end Golden train, but was dealt with our first and only scam of the trip) and was met with this. Lo Cai men on motor bikes assertively offering their taxi services, specifically targeting foreigners, Viet Kieus, basically anyone that looked wealthy. This is a common sight throughout Vietnam.

Fighting through the crowd and turning down offers, we manage to find our reserved taxi van, which bore a Mercedes logo. Luggage in the trunk, we started our 25 mile/1 hour ride to Sapa.

Ho Chi Minh

Viet — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 18:04:10 +0000

Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum. Poor guy had the same fate as Lenin. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to visit Uncle Ho. He didn’t want to be disturbed while taking his chemical bath.