Brother Brian in Hanoi

The night after Noelice left my brother, Brian, arrived from San Francisco to Hanoi. He was the last person I saw in the States before I left for Vietnam.

Unfortunately, on his first full day in Hanoi I was feeling a bit under the weather, so we didn't do as much touring as I would have liked. We had pho for breakfast at my favorite pho stall, walked around the Old Quarter and Hoan Kiem Lake for a bit, met Amalia for lunch, and ran a few errands.


I thought that Brian would have been too freaked out to ride on the back of my motorbike, and I think he was at first, but after about ten minutes he got the hang of it and really enjoyed himself. He loved to take video with his camera as we made our way through the traffic.


That evening I had my going away party at Hoa Vien Brauhaus, a Czech/Vietnamese beer hall of sorts. It was nice for my brother to meet a lot of the people I had been working with for the past couple of months. After meeting them he likened the expat life in Hanoi, or at least that of English teachers, to the TV series Lost - we all come from completely different places with different experiences and this one place kind of brought us all together...some leave, some never leave some leave and come back. I like that analogy.


It was really quite sad saying goodbye to people like Amalia who was the first teacher at Language Link to introduce herself and start talking to me when I was a lowly newbie, and it was also difficult to say goodbye to Huyen, Ben's girlfriend, who has been a good friend and amazingly helpful as both a translator and cultural guide. I will miss them both and everyone else dearly.

The next day I was feeling more up to speed, so Brian and I went to my friend Ha's family's O Mai shop to pick up some delicious treats! O mai includes a variety of dried fruits mixed with different spices.

In the afternoon we went to Hoa Lo prison (aka the Hanoi Hilton) - where John Mccain was held after he landed in Truc Bach Lake.

And later on we went to the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology.

The next morning we squeezed in a trip to Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum, the complex around where he lived, the Ho Chi Minh museum and the One Pillar Pagoda.

The stilt house where HCM lived


The One Pillar Pagoda

That afternoon I packed up the rest of my stuff, handed over my key to Mr. Dung, my landlord, and off we went towards Noi Bai airport for our flight to Nha Trang.


I intend on coming back to Hanoi...maybe for the 1000 year anniversary next year 10.10.2010, but I'm not really sure when.