Goodbye, Hanoi

November 21, 2013November 26, 2013 / Lori McLeese / 3 Comments

What a week it’s been. Amazing delicious food. Great company. Beautiful sights. A Great Leader’s mausoleum. Did I mention delicious food?

lanterns at the pagoda

shrine at the Temple of Literature

incense

policeman, resting

smiling masks

fish in a clay pot

rickshaw

Wires everywhere!

Bun chao gio – my first and last meals in Hanoi

little ones at the Temple of Literature

praying at the pagoda

a very little man at the pagoda

fresh fruit

Visiting Ho Chi Minh

mochi, mochi, mochi

unknown beautiful red fruit

Halong Bay

November 20, 2013November 26, 2013 / Lori McLeese / 1 Comment

I first heard of Halong Bay when working for Room to Read. We had moved into a new office, and had a contest to name all the new conference rooms. Someone suggested naming the conference rooms after famous places in the countries where we had program operations. Mount Everest, Kruger, Luang Prabang, Halong Bay…

I hadn’t heard of Halong Bay before then, but the pictures looked magical.

Fast forward five years. I’m working for another company, and we’re having a team meeting in Vietnam. In Hanoi, in the north. And one of our outings is to Halong Bay. On a boat, overnight. I was ecstatic. I was finally going to visit the magical Halong Bay.

And it was. Magical. Even in the harbor, surround by other boats (which brandished “SAFETY FIRST” in big letters on the steam pipes) it was magical. We leaned on the railings and looked out at the karsts in the overcast day. As we began to sail, our host explained that legend had it that the Vietnamese were fighting against invaders from the north. The Jade Emperor sent a dragon to help, incinerating the enemy with fire and emeralds. The emeralds scattered on the battlefield, forming a defensive wall against the enemy (the emeralds eventually turned into the karsts that can still be seen today).

We sailed through the rock formations, each more magical than the last. We paddled in kayaks among the karsts. We swam in the warm waters of the bay. Calm descended. We were quiet as the sun set, enjoying the magic of the dragon’s remains.

Jumping is Universal

November 19, 2013November 26, 2013 / Lori McLeese / Leave a comment

We saw a group of Vietnamese teenagers jumping for joy (graduation picture, perhaps?)

and decided to take one ourselves:

Rose and Lori at the Temple of Literature

Un “Pho” gettable

November 18, 2013November 26, 2013 / Lori McLeese / 3 Comments

We had it every day for breakfast, and many days for lunch or dinner. Pho ga was my go to for the week.

Street Food Tour of Hanoi

November 17, 2013 / Lori McLeese / 9 Comments

In which we ate many delicious things and walked about the city for almost four hours…

Garlic and Onions

Cut of beef, anyone?

So Many Fruits

Mother and daughter making rice pancakes

The finished product – sausage, rice pancakes stuffed with beef and mushrooms, and sauce

Walking along the train tracks

Durian is hard work

Grilled meats – duck hearts, suckling pig, and garlic shoots wrapped with beef

Hanoi at night

The Universal Language of Chicken (the dance, that is)

November 17, 2013November 17, 2013 / Lori McLeese / Leave a comment

We headed to the lake after a breakfast of fruit and pho. As we began to stroll around the lake, if I looked to the right, my eyes were met with a calm, peaceful lake lined with trees, rumor of a magic turtle residing there. If I looked to my left, motorbikes and cars whizzed by, honking loudly. We walked leisurely, occasionally stopping to take pictures, thrilled by the fact that we were in Hanoi. Hanoi! We came upon what appeared to be a dance class of elderly Vietnamese ladies. Morning exercises, perhaps? We stood and watched as they gracefully performed somewhat synchronous moves, shuffling feet and waving arms in their mismatched velour leisure suits and baseball caps.

The music stopped, someone shouted, and they quickly formed a circle. We watched in utter surprise as the chicken dance blared from their makeshift boombox. And that meant one thing. When the chicken dance starts playing, how can you not join? We started dancing from our watching place, and once the ladies saw us, they pulled us into the circle with them. We laughed hysterically as we performed the quacking moves, then swung each other around. At the end of the dance, they motioned for us to stay. And the familiar tune repeated! From the top, ladies!