A morning in Hanoi - Thanksgiving 2025 trip

We just got back from a 10 day trip to Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. The last part of the trip was planned in January. We knew our friends son was getting married in Phuket and we were going. It was post thanksgiving week given the stars aligned for the kid and his bride to be a week after!

Having put in for the entire week after thanksgiving off, our planner in chief had plenty of time to decide what to do in the run up to the wedding in Phuket. She did change things a few times and came up with a Hanoi-> Angkor Wat -> Chiang Mai -> Phuket plan. 2 days to 2 1/2 days tops for each location. I was asked for a wish list of places to see and apparently my plan would need a month, not to mention underground caves needed permits that were not available. As usual, all I had to do was follow instructions!

One tip before going to anyplace these days. Do not bother looking at facebook feed. Had barely checked in and was waiting at gate when FB told me that Ho Chi Minh city was under water and what we need to do to prep for it. This was not a one off thing. Before we went to any place or as soon as we landed we got the worst negative fake news about each place be it floods, fires, wars, etc. Total BS! Facebook needs to do something about this nonsense soon. or folks should take them to task for this blatant misinformation. At this point these bastards maybe responsible for most wars around the world if they stream this type of fake news and create unnecessary panic. It was good I turned off my wifi and having no international data plan also helped. used the phone pretty much as a video camera for the trip.

There was no direct flight we could find. So we went SFO -> Seoul , Seoul-> Ho Chi Minh city with a very tight connection on Korean air (gladly we made it as did our luggage). We had a 6 hour wait in Ho Chi Minh city and took a taxi to a airport hotel (5 min ride from the airport). We took a shower, had some wagh bakri chai at 3AM local time and took a 45 min power nap, charged phones and were back in the airport to check in bags on a domestic flight in Vietjet to Hanoi.

Given our crazy plan, we had arranged a personal car/driver. The driver was supposed to speak English but he knew 4 words and used google translate. It was painful as he would drive and use his phone which made us really nervous throughout the trip. Our suitcases were in the back of the car and we went straight to sightseeing. The plan was to see the main places.

1. The lake area and the temple with turtles in the middle of the lake in the old quarter

2. Temple of literature built for Confusious

3. drive by Ho Chi Minh memorial

4. One pillar Pagoda

5. drive by the railroad street

The time budget for all this was 4 hours. This was to be followed by a max one hour lunch break and then we were to drive out of the city for 2 hours to HaLong bay in Vietnam traffic.

We actually did everything in spite of a 45 min waste to try and find the entrance to the one pillar pagoda. Our guide was told he cannot park near pagoda entrance. He had also said that given the security check and crowed we would only drive by the memorial. Turns out that the entrance to the pagoda is through the same complex and we had to go through the security check. We walked around all over the place and leaving voicenotes in English for the driver did not help. The cops on the roads had no idea either till we showed them the image of the pagoda. Finally a cop directed in sign language that we had to go through the check to see Pagoda! No English anywhere. These are the most interesting experiences in stretching our communication limits. The highlight of the morning was watching toddlers walk through the temple of literature as part of a school tour. They were sooo cute and adorable!

Here are two sets of pictures from the morning (haven’t edited them either). I am severely jet lagged and writing is post is keeping me awake. It is also refreshing my memory a bit. The heat and humidity, rickshaws, the lake, the agarbathies, the pagodas, the street vendors, the red sickle flags, kind of felt like a cross between Mumbai, Chennai and Cochin all at once.. Hanoi was very clean!!

First photo is an example of the bullshit fake posts that we saw at every location. Truth is dead!

Here is a video highlights reel of the morning..

Was still scared of getting allergies on day 1, so played it safe and ate pizza while san tasted local veggies cuisine. Then we were off to Halong bay!

Will write about that tomorrow..

Cognitive dissonance in a Chinese Hotel

Travel for the year is done. That was 13 trips to Asia in 2017. Of the 26 legs across the Pacific I managed to get upgraded to Polaris aka the "business economy" class 4 times exhausting most of my miles. On some back to back trips, my company got me biz tickets one way and that was another 3 legs.  The one thing I am am trying to do if this back breaking travel keeps continuing is to plan ahead and get more polaris tickets upfront. Travel is fine, but for this type of international travel, my body is having a tough time dealing with this. That is one main disadvantage of working for a startup I guess. We don't have the bargaining power or leverage with airline companies to get discounted bulk ticket prices like the big companies. One last wing view for 2017...

All that said, I did my best on those flights, took my food with me wherever possible and managed to minimize my travel related sick days to the lowest it has been in the last 4 years in 2017! I also think it correlates to the consistancy of doing Yoga at late hours or whenever possible and to waking up at 2 or 3AM and eating cookies or some carbs.

We use the term "biological clock". I think there are multiple clocks. One for sleep wake cycle, one for breakfast, lunch and dinner and another alarm clock that gets you up when you are a light sleeper. Not all these are synchronized when you don't see the sun for days or when you keep switching time zones. In 2017, my issue was not with sleep. I managed to overcome sleep related jet lag issues. It was the stomach related ones that got me a few times. 

My last trip was interesting. I am noticing that Chinese hotels are getting big on Christmas. Have not seen this in any of my previous trips. Sure that the POTUS is going to claim this as another one of his big "victories". Mega displays in hotel lobbies and my Chinese friends are surprised and going "we don't even do this for CHinese new Year. don't know what is up with these guys!"

These were really fancy.. with moving snow etc.. see the video!

I have also started watching infomercials in the local TV channels when in China. They definitely seem to have some creative products. Not sure if this is original or not but the format of the informercials follows the usual QVC types. 

 Then there are little things that I noticed in these hotels. The nice glasses with color only at the bottom..

Then there was an entire display of stuff on the coffee table, all available at a price. I am not used to this in previous hotels. The first thing that got my attention was the water bottle. It was almost 9 USD. Then after asking they gave me 4 free local brand water. Apparently this Evian water is much sought after by international tourists who are willing to pay the price!

Was also not used to seeing Durex on the table in any other hotel. It said "you will be charged if you open this packet" and it was one expensive Durex is what I thinking when my eyes were drawn to a big red box on the right. 

I had spent a good two hours in a cigarette smelling taxi from airport to hotel and was already tired. My brain was getting confused signals after reading the lettering on the box..

It clearly said Emergency Package but the lettering did not suggest something "bad" with the font or the colors. So my first thought was "what kind of emergency package comes packed like a goody bag filled with fancy tea bags?". Again this was one expensive package for whatever emergency it was. You opened it you "will be charged"

I have no idea what those items are in that box. After being married for almost 20 years and fathering two kids, still scratching my head on what those things in the pack were. Was tempted to pay the 20 bucks just to open it and end my curiousity and then decided against it. What is the internet for than to answer such questions?

So I guess this is all sex related. First you have a 10 Dollar problem. If you screwed that up, no pun intended, then you have a 20 dollar problem. If you screwed that up as well, then you have a 20 Million RMB problem in 20 years when you will have to buy your kid an apartment in Shanghai so he can get married. If they had done their marketing right, they should put some real estate fliers on the other end of the table.

Then there was the sunset. People keep telling you that China is polluted, especially in the big cities. Over the last few years I have seen some days where the Sun is not visible though the smog and days when there are blue skies and clouds. Well I guess a lot of it depends on where and when. While the news reports claimed that it was going to be bad air days, I found it to be pretty fresh. There was a beautiful sunset while being on the road for 2 hours towards the hotel. 

Watching the sun go down always resets any and all dissonances!

2017 was a tough but good year for work, home and yoga. It felt like two years but the good thing is it is coming to a close. Have to make the most out of the last few days over the holiday weekend to recharge!

Wishing you all a very merry Christmas and a wonderful new year! 

Sunsets..

Given a choice, I would go with my family to the coast and take sunset pictures. But recently that has not been possible with travel. There are amazing sunsets no matter where I am.. so here are some sunsets taken with the iPhone from car rides from airports to hotels, which invariably happen during sunsets!

These were all taken over last two months from moving vehicles.

There were also taken with the iPhone but didnt have to deal with movement..

Sometimes the best camera you have is the one in in your hand!