summer 2024 sucks for many reasons, but it gave birth to very important projects, as boredom is the mother of invention. the first one is my second guide to sài gòn. the second one is this trip.
this trip symbolizes so many things to me, and it's a continuation of many different themes in all the travel blogs I've written. it's the 10th travel blog, 3rd guide to different regions in vietnam (central, south 1, south 2, north, aka this), 2nd long trip with just friends and without any parental supervision at all, also the 2nd in the series of travelling with molly and one of her roommates ever since midwest journey, and it's also during this trip that I got to see someone that was a part of my central vietnam journey. yet, hà nội was also many of my first times. first time going to red light districts (we just walked there and did nothing) and first time going to bars. first time navigating a brand new city by myself.
it's a beautiful thing meeting new and old people, and exploring places that you've known well, but also lands that you all have never set foot to before.
the voyagers of the trip are me, molly, and saniya. it's the dynamics of the people that makes it interesting. I love the one local-two expats model. you help people see the deep pretext of your cities and countries, and they also offer their perspectives in many things that you all see. and it's also more affordable doing things together, too. while I'm a local myself, we're travelling to somewhere that all three of us have never been to before. it's especially ironic on my part, as I've respectively been to singapore's, malaysia's, thailand's, and the us's capitals, but I've never been to my country's capital before, until this trip.
I wanted to go to hà nội for many reasons, but the biggest reason remains to understand my country more fully. I read a lot about the vietnam war and the hồ chí minh trail in 2023 winter break. being born in the south, with both of my parents from the central region, the north has always been a mystery to me that I want to grasp. I've heard about it in poems and in culinary guides inside and outside literature classes (shout out to vũ bằng's thương nhớ mười hai, loving twelve, and thạch lam's nắng trong vườn, sunrays in the garden). I've seen it in trần anh hùng's the vertical ray of the sun, or à la verticale de l'été (2000) over the summer. nevertheless, hà nội remains an idea, not a taste, a feeling or a sensation that I'm yet to fully express in my own words. this is also a trip where I did most of the planning, with parts going well and parts going not so well, but eventually it builds my confidence at a planner, a traveler, and helps me understand what matters most after all.
despite bearing the name of hà nội, we actually also visited sài gòn and my grandparents' home in nearby provinces. I've also included a few locations that I promised to check out since the sài gòn blog.
so hop on, and let me show you hà nội, à la verticale de l'été.
day 0. prémices
(n,) beginnings, first signs, first fruits
technically this part not even the first fruits. first seeds, really.
this trip starts with a random text from me to molly. as my plans to go to hà nội over the summer was cancelled for very bullshit reasons, I wondered if we can go over winter break instead. I initially wanted to do this without my parents knowing. I planned to go back to vietnam over winter break, but just back to hà nội, then go back to the us without even going home. I was very determined to work in the dining hall 69 hours a week to save up enough for everything. I met saniya for dinner for the first time as the semester started and we already talked about winter break plans (we also just met each other today for the first time in the semester and we talked about spring break plans, stay tuned for what's coming). saniya was kinda in, but it was until mid-november that we finalized dates to buy tickets and plan everything. I also went through a few emotional crises in the fall semester, and I ended up telling my mom my intentions. she was unexpectedly cool about it. however, as the trip approaches, she also got panic attacks and got into fights with me. however, we did it! and I'm still alive to tell you the story.
 |
| 9 september 2024. first week back to classes, "what's your winter break plans?" |
 |
| 18 november 2024. saniya failed her internship and we finalized dates |
if this trip tell you something about me, that would be that I'm a go getter and I will keep doing things until I get what I want. my dad didn't let me go to hà nội from hồ chí minh city, even with a guardian, because it was too dangerous. so I literally flew back to the us to make the trip and also having my friends flying half the globe away. he kept sayign there would always be more time to travel in the future, but I know that it's not every day that you wake up in your 20s and have time with your friends to do dumb things like I can right now, and I'll make it happen when it's most likely to happen, I will not let the chance slip. I think he's given up since then.
I got really bored over summer break last year, so I had the majority of the trip planned in the summer. as the trip got closer, I just rearranged it to make more sense. here are the links to the planning tools if you need them.
hanoi summer plan
hanoi actual plan / the underlined sites were the sites that we skipped/missed. we ended up skipping a lot of museums.
hanoi budget / excluding flight tickets, hotels, and ha long bay transportation, there isn't a day where the three of us spend more than $60 individually, even when we're both going to a michelin star restaurant and hitting a bar right after. our record low day was the first day, where we only spent $8. hotel in hanoi was $30 per night per person, and hotel in hcmc was $17 per night per person. both the ha long bus and trip cost $50 per person, but it could've been even cheaper if I didn't get scammed booking the trip. while this may sound cheap to you, please remain mindful that this is still a lot of money in terms of vietnamese đồng </3
day 1. hà nội sightseeing
lowkey our most efficient day. saniya got here at 4am or 5am from kazakhstan after a long ass overlay in india. then I arrive from sài gòn, aka hồ chí minh city around 10am. this is my first time going to the airport by myself without my parents driving or picking me up. then molly arrive after overlaying in taiwan from illinois and making it through the ultra long customs line at around 12.30pm. we had a little reunion at the airport, then we went back to our hotel around 1pm just in time for checking in at 2pm. the airport is about an hour drive from the heart of hanoi, keep this in mind to see how we almost fucked up our fourth day. for transportation in hanoi, my dad advised me to use xanh sm and avoid all other ride apps like grab and be to avoid scams.
after checking in and wowing at the amazing view that we had in the hotel room, we went out to discover the city. we got dropped off at st. joseph's cathedral (also known as nhà thờ lớn hà nội, or the grand cathedral of hà nội), which is the first church to be built in vietnam by the colonial government of french indochina when it opened in december, 1886 and is the oldest church in hanoi. local delicacy of this area includes trà chanh, or lemon tea. it's usually referred to as trà chanh nhà thờ lớn hà nội, or lemon tea from the grand cathedral of hà nội. unfortunately I only remember that this exists on the second or third day of the trip, so we missed a chance to try it out.
 |
đức mẹ la vang, or virgin mary if she was vietnamese.
according to wikipedia, this is a marian apparition. she appeared in the la vang rainforest, quảng trị, the same province in central vietnam where my parents were from. during the nguyễn dynasty, for fear of catholicism spread, emperor cảnh thịnh passed an anti-catholic act followed by persecution. a lot of catholics went hiding in the rainforest of la vang and lots became ill. every night, they gathered at the foot of a tree to pray the rosary.
one night, in the branches of the tree a lady appeared, wearing the traditional vietnamese áo dài dress and holding a child in her arms, with two angels beside her. the people present interpreted the vision as the virgin mary and jesus. they said that our lady comforted them and told them to boil leaves from the trees for medicine to cure the illness.
la vang means crying/screaming out loud, but if you add tones, it can also mean lá vằng, Jasminum nervosum, or the name of the leaves that cured them off the ilness.
|
after that, we discover the lakes of hà nội. hà nội really lives up to its name, with hà meaning rivers, and nội meaning within, so the whole city means being within rivers. it is famous for its lakes, with the classics being hồ hoàn kiếm (return sword lake) / hồ gươm (sword lake), and hồ tây (west lake), that I've heard about countless of times in songs by hanoian artists. we discovered sword lake on the first day.
why the name return sword lake? you may ask. a long time ago, the ming dynasty invaded vietnam, and it really sucked. there were many uprisings organized by the lam sơn rebels, but they lost most of it in the early days because they didn't have enough people and weapons to start with. one day, a fisherman called lê thận went fishing, and 3 out of 3 times he tried to fish a weird sword blad kept getting stuck in his net. he got back to his home and left it there. not long after, he joined the lam sơn rebels. when lê lợi (the king of the lê dynasty) rested at his home one day, he saw this glowing sword blade in a corning of lê thận's home. everyone approached the glowing blade, and saw that inscribed on it was two words thuận thiên, or according to the sky (god) wishes.
one time when lê lợi was being chased by the invaders after losing to him, he ran into this deep forest and saw a glowing sword hilt on the top of a tree. he climbed up to get it, and brought it home with him. then, he went to lê thận's home for the second time, and they tried putting the blade and the hilt together, and it fits magically, with the blade getting even sharper and glowing even brighter. everyone kneeled down and suggested that the king uses this sword to lead the rebels. they did that and they won back the independence.
one day, when the was touring the lake, a turtle summoned by the dragon king pulled up near his boat and asked for the sword back: – your majesty, the dragon king once lent you the magic sword to fight the enemy. now that your great cause has been accomplished, please return the magic sword!
so he did, it grabbed the sword in its mouth, then dived down to the deep lake.
 |
it took me a stroll around this lake to understand wren evans' lyrics in gặp may (got lucky)
tao cần ôxy
cho tao đi hít thở một vòng hồ gươm
I need oxygen
let me take a breathing walk around the sword lake |
 |
| apparently, turtle tower (tháp rùa) was built in the 1880s during french rule by nguyễn hữu kim on a platform that used to be used by the king of the lê dynasty (lê thánh tông) as a fishing spot. the tower is a mix of gothic and traditional vietnamese architecture. during french rule, there used to be a statue of liberty on the top of the tower, which was demolished in 1950 as trần trọng kim, a vietnamese president drove off the french influence. people used to refer to this statue derogatorily as tượng đầm xoè, or the flared dress statue. |
around sword lake, you can check out hà nội mới (new hanoi) paperstand and enjoy tràng tiền ice cream. hà nội mới is a classic tourist attraction due to its iconic look. took us forever to get a photo here as people were taking photos for lunar new year, and they would occupy that for up to 10 minutes with crazy props and make up, and they rotate between their 3 friends so we only got the photos once we talked to them. for tràng tiền ice cream, we got the mung beans, green rice, and taro flavor. the shop's staff even approached us to ask if he could take promotional photos. then we checked out nearby temples, like lý thái tổ garden and ngọc sơn (jade mountain) temple. lý thái tổ was the first king of the lý dynasty, and he moved it back from hoa lư to thăng long (hà nội today). his statue has a pretty sick view of the sword lake.
sword lake is also infamous for its boi phốs and wheelies. you can watch this 1977 vlog video to see their take on this social phenomenon.
connecting the lake bank and ngọc sơn temple is thê húc bridge, the shit I've read about a thousand of times in first grade vietnamse textbook:
nhà tôi ở hà nội, cách hồ gươm không xa. từ trên cao nhìn xuống, mặt hồ như một chiếc gương bầu dục lớn, sáng long lanh. cầu thê húc màu son, cong cong như con tôm, dẫn vào đền ngọc sơn. mái đền lấp ló bên gốc đa già, rễ lá xum xuê. xa một chút là tháp rùa, tường rêu cổ kính. tháp xây trên gò đất giữa hồ, cỏ mọc xanh um.
my house is in hanoi, not far from hoan kiem lake. looking down from above, the lake surface is like a large, sparkling oval mirror. the vermilion the huc bridge, curved like a shrimp, leads to ngoc son temple. the temple roof is hidden behind an old banyan tree, with lush roots and leaves. a little further away is the turtle tower, with ancient mossy walls. the tower is built on a mound in the middle of the lake, with green grass growing.
rereading the text now, I realized that the writer must be very rich because real estate around this area is not cheap.
|
| finally got to wear this shirt where it's supposed to be worn. I also wore this when I went to see drew gilpin faust, the first female president of harvard, an alumni from bryn mawr, when she visited bmc last year. I read about bits of the legacy of the vietnam war in her book necessary troubles. |
 |
| view of the sword lake and the turtle tower from lý thái tổ's pov |
 |
| I happened to read about the twenty-eight mansions in ancient chinese astrology a few days before the trip. in this system, seven consecutive mansions make up a season. at the entrance of the temple, you can find the white tiger of the west (西方白虎 / xīfāngbáihǔ / tây phương bạch hổ), which symbolizes the fall and the azure dragon of the east (東方青龍 / dōngfāngqīnglóng / đông phương thanh long), which symbolizes the rite of spring. |
 |
| when you get to the other side of the temple, you'll see the other seasons. spring is symbolized by the black turtle of the north (北方玄武 / běifāngxuánwǔ / bắc phương huyền vũ) and summer is symbolized by the vermilion bird of the south (南方朱雀 / nánfāngzhūquè / nam phương chu tước). |
because we detoured for saniya to go shopping earlier, we got to bà kiệu temple after its opening time. we also planned to check out thăng long water puppet center, but the site was overcrowded with tourists and there weren't good seats left, so we skipped it.
then, we checked out the original egg coffee place (cà phê giảng). I have the impression that when foreigners and tourists visit hà nội and want to try egg coffee, they mostly go to the note coffee, which is more iconic, but not the original place. after that, went to a michelin recommended place for dinner, phở 10 lý quốc sư. the son of the place's owner is a famous youtuber and also went to rmit, a famous private australian university in vietnam. it's famous so there's a lot of fake places named after it, and the original place took forever to get in.
we checked out the old quarter, especially tạ hiện (also known as the international intersection). the old quarter in hà nội took walking to the next level of difficulty, and the whole thing felt pretty much like an expanded bến thành market to me. I really looked forward to tạ hiện as it was a red light district, and being able to go to a red light district by yourself and with friends is such an adult thing to do. we wanted to check out the train street but left as saniya was tired, and we wanted to do the train street together.
7 march 2025 update: on the way back, we even saw isaac (former member of 365 band) by chance as he was performing locally for some brand near hoàn kiếm lake (sword lake).
eventually, we left hanoi without seeing the train as the train hours are just hard to fit in our original itinerary.
 |
a huge thank you to madame tài nụ for showing me this place and many other eating places in hà nội.
this trip wouldn't have been possible without you! |
 |
| molly got herbal tea, I got hot egg coffee, and saniya got cold egg coffee. we all agreed that the hot egg coffee tasted the best. I'm a sucker for cà phê sữa đá (vietnamese coffee made with phin filter and condensed milk), but I would willingly cheat on that drink for egg coffee. I would sell my soul and body to drink this thing again for the first time. it tastes as if tiramisu was a drink and no, it doesn't have that awful egg smell, so rest reassured. as a chem major, I appreciate the hot water bath that keeps your coffee at the optimal temperature. |
 |
a lot of vietnamese coffee was born because we were broke and couldn't afford milk. egg coffee was the brainchild of the genius nguyễn văn giảng, who worked as a barista at the sofitel legend metropole hotel in hà nội. he was trying to figure out how to make café au lait (milk coffee) without the lait, or milk, and he used egg yolk, which gives it a creamy texture. after this drink became successful, he quit his job and opened his own shop, which is now run by his children.
sài gòn's cà phê sữa đá (café glacé) also has a similar backstory, where people used condensed milk instead of milk as the milk industry wasn't too developed, and condesned milk probably costed cheaper and didn't require refrigeration. |
 |
| certificate offered by the city’s people’s committee to the coffee shop owner (giảng’s kids), who served in the us - north korea summit in hà nội in 2019 |
 |
| 7 march 2025 update: I later realized that molly was a vegetarian since primary school. she did eat meat on our trip and I thought that was a one-off thing. she stopped being a vegetarian after our trip so I guess that's just how good our food is. |
 |
| when you like riding bikes in vietnam more than climbing the corporate ladder |
 |
| late night caviar toast. molly wasn't a big fan. |
day 2. hạ long bay
my obsession with this bay is a direct result of binge-watching trần anh hùng's movies in the summer, especially the vertical ray of the sun, his tribute to hà nội as a city. the movie tells the story of the three sisters sương, khanh, and liên in hà nội and their seemingly perfect relationships with their partners. an idea of this movie is surface tension and the duck syndrome, where things looks gentle on the surface but has problematic roots beneath it. it's also a story about the search for identity. hùng is vietnamese, but he moved to france at the age of 12 afer the fall of sài gòn in 1975. the character quốc, whose name literally means nation, is often seen dangling between two women, his wife and his mistress, and also staying afloat on the boat on the water surface. hùng describes this as his feeling about france and vietnam, about the difficulty in pick and choose a culture than one really belongs to, as his identity was now scattered and disseminated, which allows him to find himself in both. after his movie hit the market, tourism to this area skyrocketed.
watching the vietnam trilogy, I feel honored and thrilled to see my country in another lens. one that focuses on showing our natural beauty, than as a war-ridden and third-world country. while the vietnam war will remain one of the main narratives of vietnam, it is not the only story. travel helps you see that more clearly.
the most crazy travel stories happened on this day, and on the way back, I learned some truths that's even deeper than the bay itself. the bay is now my analogy for things I think I know but I actually don't know. a vietnamese sort of dunning-kruger effect, if you will.
we woke up in the morning at 6 and walk to the central circus, an inside joke among the vietnamese meme community. after a few hours car ride where my friends zonked the fuck out, we got to the drop off location. this is where all the drama begins. I received the boat location from the tour guide, opened google maps, and expected it to be a chill 15 minutes walk to the port. no it wasn't. you should never trust google maps in distant provinces. it led us to the residental area, we walked into someone's home, past their clothes, saw their kitchen and garden, and got chased off by their dog.
then as we were rerouting, the map led us to some roads that doesn't exist. I was standing at a cliff and saw that the road that continues was 10m down there. we eventually walked to some touristy areas hoping that it will be easier to use ride apps here. after trying for long, no one picks us up. I approached some drivers but they're all taken. I eventually found a driver on the app, and he also used google maps, so it led him to the exact cliff that we stood up at many times over. after asking locals, we were 20m away from our destination, where he stopped in front of an abandoned building as cars can't drive through them. he was really nice to wait for us in case things don't work out. we got there eventually, chilled, and recuperated playing wordle. molly is at level 10,000 something.
 |
| I can still hear the sounds from this photo |
 |
| the cliff that google maps led us to |
 |
| abandoned estate that cars can't go through |
then as the time approaches, our tour guide called us again, and it happened that we were in two different locations, despite the fact that I walked exactly where bro sent me. he didn't explain why, but we boarded a bus and got to his location, which was like an easy 5 minute walk from our drop off location. I was thoroughly annoyed by the lack of professionalism, last minute change, and how he kept addressing me as mr. although I've fixed him many times over. we eventually made it to the boat and got seated with a table full of korean people, who gatekept and ate the majority of the good that lunch (no hate on all koreans, just this specific group of uncles and aunties).
and this is where it gets very interesting. I know vietnamese and french. molly knows spanish and japanese. saniya knows russian, kazakh, spanish, and korean. all of us know english. it happened to us that they were shittalking us in korean. so saniya told that to molly in spanish, and I was clueless the whole time, until they all left and we spoke to each other in english. they thought we were 15 years old. as the trip ended, we talked to them for a bit, and they slowly realized that saniya's korean is actually solid. they started being very friendly and nice until the end of the trip.
the weather was very cloudy earlier that day, however, it cleared up as we started the trip, so we were able to have spectacular views. we visited hòn đỉnh hương (symbol on the 200,000 đồng banknote), hòn trống mái (rooster and hen islet), and thiên cung cave. the cave was amazing, we saw a lot of awesome stalactites (mineral formations dripping from the ceiling) and stalagmites (mineral formations growing from the ground). suddenly, I was very jealous of geology majors.
 |
| made it to the damn boat! |
 |
| hòn trống mái (rooster and hen islet), a symbol of hạ long bay. hạ means lying down, long means dragon. hạ long means where the dragon lays. the various islets in the bay resembles the shape of a dragon when it lays down in the water. |
 |
| hòn đỉnh hương on the 200,000 đồng banknote |
 |
| kudos to chú mạnh (the sailor) for taking this amazing photo |
 |
| apparently people used to live in one of the islets. there used to be a school, a hospital, and residental houses. however, they moved away from the islets roughly ten or twenty years ago. this is a shrine on one of the islets, which I find impressive to build. |
|
| our tour guide was very good at coming up with origin stories for these stalactites. this one looks like 3 witches, for example. he even found hồ chí minh, colonel sanders, the map of asia, etc. |
 |
| the beam of light formed by the cave is also known as the eye of heaven. the cave was discovered in the 1990s by local fishermen. |
 |
| I don't want to know what's down there, said molly. |
 |
| imagine being a cave so hot that even rocks get turned on |
 |
| these are baby stalactites btw |
we also planned to go to nê cocktail (76th best bar in asia) at night, but we were so tired after dinner so we just didn't go at all. the place recommended by my teacher with awesome crab hotpot (lẩu nguyệt) was packed as people were having year-end parties. I heard crazy lore being dropped at this place, with secretly rich people talking about estate and shit talking colleagues. pretty wild experience. at some point I wish I didn't know vietnamese.
on the way back to hạ long, we had a passenger that was a native from quảng nam, where the bay is. we talked and I learned that what I saw today was not the bay at all. I also realized I was lowkey scammed as it doesn't typically cost that much. she gave me advice for future visits: spend 3 days 3 nights to see the entire bay. go to hòn gai for good food, and bãi cháy for amazing sceneries. the one we went to, or port tuần châu, was not too developed. no wonder why it was lowkey mid.
day 3. more historical / unesco sites, michelin restaurant, and bar night
some sites in hà nội have ridiculous opening times. like phở bò lâm that opens at 5.30am and closes at 10am. for reference, dining halls in american college open at 10.30am on the weekend. or hồ chí minh's mausoleum, which opens from 7.30am to 10.30am (or until 11am on the weekend) on all days except for monday and tuesday (that's like 16 hours a week, my bro). we woke up later as we were still exhausted from the hạ long bay trip. we visited on a sunday after its opening time, and we leave hà nội monday afternoon, so I didn't get to see the mausoleum and sites inside like one pillar pagoda at all. we saw lenin park in passing, and also missed đồng xuân market as it was closing when we got dinner.
however, we got to see hoả lò prison, had lunch where obama had lunch with anthony bourdain when he visited vietnam in 2016, and visited two temples (trấn quốc pagoda and quán thánh temple) close to hồ tây (west lake). then, we visited two more unesco sites: temple of literature and thăng long citadel (also home to the hà nội flagpole). there was a billion people taking photos for lunar new year and they occupied every old door they saw. it was very problematic and ruined the unesco experience for me. I really hope they had laws on restricted/respectful photography.
 |
| not the prison, just a building opposite to the hotel we were staying at. you can see the iron cages called chuồng cọp, or tiger cages, where people extend their window with iron bars to get more space in their cramped apartments. this is pretty popular in vietnam and south east asian countries, even hong kong. |
 |
I'm a sucker for prisons. I love prisons. they always tell you something about the censored part of history and truth about human nature. and people are respectful and mindful in these spaces, unlike other sites I've been to so far, where people are very egocentric. sites like prisons and historic relics teach you to humble yourself.
this is technically the fourth prison that I've been to, and the second prison that I've been to with saniya after our eastern state penitentiary trip. read my guide to sài gòn for more lore on this. |
 |
| similar to the one in sài gòn, this one is also opposite to the people's court. |
 |
| what color is hà nội? yellow! all the french built buildings are yellow, and our ancient unesco sites, which you'll later see, are also yellow! this one gives me vibes of french high schools in my city. |
 |
| absolutely sick glowing absinthe tint |
 |
| tiles from marseille, the south of france. also where hồ chí minh was dropped off as he left vietnam when he left saigon port and worked as a kitchen boy on the amiral latouche tréville ship to france. he was 21. |
 |
| I'm sorry but these two statues give wyd? vibes |
 |
| the dungeon (ngục tối, cachot in french) is made to have liminal sunlight and with walls spread by tar. inmates are kept here for a few weeks before execution. they had to piss and shit at the same spot under very poor hygiene conditions. |
 |
| you're only getting this much light. erdman is similar in terms of the size and the concrete walls, but at least it has bigger windows. |
 |
| guess what these holes are for! they're for storing your excrements. |
 |
| famous people that stayed in the cachot: trường chinh (second general secretary of the communist party of vietnam, his name is now named after a road in hcmc that's infamous for crazy traffic jam during rush hours), nguyễn thị quang thái (this woman, wife of the renowned vietnamese general võ nguyên giáp). she's also the younger sister of nguyễn thị minh khai, who's lê hồng phong's wife (lê hồng phong is the second general secretary of indochina). |
 |
| death-sentence immates used to climb through these underground sewer to get out of the prisons. these were small, cramped, and filled with bugs, excrements, etc. 5 out of 16 of them succeeded and joined the political base. |
 |
| đồng song (n.) how ex-political-prisoner call his friends in prison, similar to đồng chí (comrade in english, literally means same will) |
 |
| the souvenir store slaps btw. very reasonably priced too. |
 |
the dragonflies from the craft village of thạch xá made from bamboo is a must-have souvenir! you can balance them on the tip of your finger by holding their mouth thanks to the magic of air flow and thermodynamics™
the yellow star balm is one of the sought after items for souvenirs for many tourists from (ex-)communist countries like russia and kazakhstan. like look at this ad, they're a sucker for this thing. you can get 3 to 5 of this for 1 dollar in vietnam. if you decide to get it online on amazon, it can cost up to 8 dollars for 3 of it in the us. saniya's mom really liked this but we didn't know she wanted that until the last few days of the whole trip. I love the nostalgia the advertisement evokes:
we all remember the pungent smell that emanated from the tin can. these memories take us back to our grandmother’s house, where whiskey was her cure-all: from headaches to runny noses to pneumonia.
|
 |
| looking at these photos, a thought occurred to me: there are things that these students shouldn't have to have known |
 |
| saniya told me her eyes welled up touring this site. she finds it unfair that we treated the american prisoners so well compared to how we were treated under french colonization. I couldn't find the video that was shown in the prison. however, we treated them so well, that's why they called themselves the prisoners in pyjamas and the prison itself hoả lò hilton. I love seeing footage of american pows being slowly vietnamized: wearing cone hats, doing chores, tending trees, raising chickens, etc. |
 |
| christmas photos at prisons always struck me. it brings out the human part of everyone, and it makes even the worst prisoners deserving of forgiveness. |
 |
| if this is not a resort, I don't know what it is. maybe hoả lò was the original scandinavian prison all along. |
 |
| another thing that also struck me was this american pilot learning french in prison. if this man was still alive I think duolingo would love him. whenever I want to give up on french I keep reminding myself of this guy. |
 |
| medals and certificates for revolutionists that was imprisoned in hoả lò |
 |
| their names were also carved onto these giant gold tablets. it seems like there were a lot of typos as I saw a lot of pieces of metals put on the tablets. |
 |
| kids taking a message from the bàng tree (banyan tree, tropical almond tree) |
 |
| mine was confidence |
 |
| both saniya and molly got resilience |
 |
| I got the same combo as obama, except for the beer |
 |
| the nem hải sản (sea food spring roll) fucking slaps! it also tastes amazing with the bún chả's broth. |
 |
| youtubers have warned me about how this place has become an obama shrine. it is, actually, they framed the table where obama and bourdain sat. if you look outside, you'll see tour buses lining after one another to bring all the tourists and foreigners (us included, lol) here for lunch. |
 |
| saniya's awesome nails and her kazakh chocolates that she gifted our driver |
 |
| we visited this place immediately after it opens from lunch break. the timing was perfect and brought out the best of it. I loved the funny karma posters but was not a huge fan of having to pay to pee. |
 |
| neatest photo I've ever taken. you can't tell me otherwise. |
 |
- what are the nets around the pomelos for?
- so that bugs can't eat them |
after that, we went to tầm vị, the cheapest one star michelin restaurant I could find in hà nội, also introduced to us by my english teacher, madame tài nụ. after dinner, saniya went shopping at rechic after her haul at chaufifth the other day, while me and molly went back to ba đình square in front of hồ chí minh's mausoleum for me to take some photos. there were a lot of guards in that area and they asked me uncomfortable questions. I experienced a ton of reverse culture shock. I didn't know this is how you were treated if you were a tourist. then, we went back to the hotel to chill a bit before hitting the bar.
this bar means a lot to me as it was ran by one of my favorite vietnamese indie artists, chủ tịch kim. it was situated in a very dark alley so that adds to the adrenaline rush. after getting the right address (which they didn't change on google maps or put on instagram bios, but in dms), we eventually got there. this was my first time going to a bar and our first time being able to drink legally ask drinking age in vietnam is 18. I did some search today and it looks like it was permanently closed. ouch </3
 |
I really, really like the ambiance of the restaurant. it has a very strong northern vietnamese vibe to it.
|
 |
| I forgot that the year of the snake was coming |
 |
| my other favorite thing about this restaurant is how it serves food that reminds me of home-cooked meals with people in your family. we ordered the trung bắc set, with food from the central (trung) and northern (bắc) region. we had fresh spring rolls, vietnamese cameralized pork and eggs (thịt kho tàu, highly recommend), crispy tofu, steamed vegetables, crab soup, salted roasted peanuts (which they also loved), pickles/salted egg plant (which none of us touched). |
 |
| you HAVE TO get their tào phớ (tofu dessert). it's the best I've had in a while. saniya and molly also loved their fried tofu that they had in the set dinner. |
 |
| opposite to hồ chí minh's mausoleum is the vietnam national assembly building, which has a very omnious appearance. the majority of roads in hà nội is very small, but the road between these two buildings is at least as big as a standard american road. I always feel weird when we walk or drive past this area. it feels somehow detached from the city. if you're visiting soon, get ready to see a lot of guards. in order to get into the mausoleum area, you have to clear security as you would in an airport. |
 |
| the road between hồ chí minh's mausoleum and the vietnam national assembly building is called độc lập road, or independence street. it looks abnormally big to be a vietnamese city road, let alone a road in hà nội. |
 |
| this place is SO LIMINAL. and I fucking love that. I don't love being watched, though. it feels very soviet and north korean in that aspect. the lamp posts remind me of paris and st petersburg for no reasons. |
 |
| there's also propaganda music playing, by the way |
 |
| the most unsettling part about this place for me is how hồ chí minh didn't want his corpse to be preserved. in his will in 1968, he wanted to be cremated with his ashes parted into 3 parts, one for the north, one for the center, and one for the south. he didn't wish to have a fancy tomb or anything, but just a simple house for visitors to visit and rest. this place is the complete opposite: long lines and a strange effort to foster this sense of exclusivity disturbs me. like anne frank, he wasn't buried the way he wanted to be. anne frank wanted to be cremated, but then she was buried. |
 |
| it all looks a bit serious and intimidating but if you zoom closer you'll see how the guards are goofing of with one another from time to time |
 |
| puting visiting hồ chí minh mausoluem back in november 2006. around this time, the apec (asia-pacific economic cooperation) summit was also being held in hà nội. his latest visit to the mausoleum was back in june 2024, 18 years after. |
 |
| I've always thought my drunk self would be more hype and shameless. while that's partly true, most of the time it got me even more self-conscious. this is great for writing, but I can get quite anti-social as I get drunk. I'd just sit and write and overthink everything. alcohol makes you more of yourself, and not necessarily turns you into another personna. |
 |
| "I see a part of myself, within you. the dreams, the omens. the union of body and soul. when I'm with you, we just look at each other. we are in harmony, we feel each other's hearts, it's so strange. god has given me-you, half of my soul. we have to part now, for we're too young." |
 |
| the drinks we ordered, from left to right. molly's kem tràng tiền (tràng tiền ice cream), sang's lụa (silk), saniya's dưa hấu (watermelon). molly liked mine so much she ordered a similar glass for the second one. |
 |
the drink I order, which is called lụa, or silk. you can get a gift home if you order this drink. according to the bar, lụa was their beginnings, like the first few drinks they have in the menu.
|
 |
the second drink I called was a white russian. it tastes like condensed milk ice coffee if it was alcoholic as it has vodka and kahlúa. surprisingly easy and tasty to drink. most of my favorite drinks are vodka-based.
I guess my hell dad was right: no matter what your fav drink is, after meeting me, it will be a white russian. |
 |
| drunk selfies with friends |
 |
| more drunk selfies, cause why not? |
 |
it's not every day that you get to meet your favorite musicians in real life but not on a stage setting.
I like this better, it feels more intimate and laid-back. I also got his signature. |
 |
the walk out to find our driver was as crazy as when we first got here.
but we made it back safely eventually. |
day 4. traditional craft villages and flight to hồ chí minh city
like the third day, we also skipped a bunch of sites as we were tired because of the alcohol and all the staying up late packing. we skipped both the ethnology and military history museums, as I forgot that they are all closed on monday. I saw vĩnh tuy bridge (wren evans have a song called cầu vĩnh tuy) on the way to bát tràng pottery village. we went to a định công silver village, but it wasn't open for tourism as bát tràng was, so we just ended up sitting in the village hall for a while then leave for vạn phúc silk village. and this is where things start going wrong.
 |
| cầu vĩnh tuy as in wren evans' song cầu vĩnh tuy (vĩnh tuy bridge) |
 |
| that vase's pattern looks like jupiter in space |
 |
| these dép lốp (literally means car tires sandals) are made from car tires. as tires can traverse any geography, these sandals are also known for their durability. you'll see a lot of them when you get to củ chi tunnels. we used to wear them to march back in the days. |
 |
| the flowers were made of broken pieces of ceramics. recycling broken pieces of ceramics is a practice known as green ceramics, which we had a chance to do at the end of our trip here. |
 |
I wish my grandparents a bowl of good desires,
I wish my aunts and uncles a bowl (chén is bowl but smaller) of health
I wish my brothers and sisters a dish of wealth (yes we broke college students need that) |
 |
| besides yellow, brown is also a very hanoian color. it reflects the depth of history seen in a lot of wooden houses and artifacts. |
 |
| temple of the ancestor of the goldsmith profession |
 |
| định công traditional craft village |
 |
| I enjoyed this site so much more simply because of the fact that there were less tourists and locals taking photos nearby as in the city |
 |
the areca palm tree is such a vietnamese tree. you can't convince me otherwise.
con mèo mà trèo cây cau
hỏi thăm chú chuột đi đâu vắng nhà
chú chuột đi chợ đằng xa
mua mắm, mua muối giỗ cha con mèo
the cat climbs the areca palm tree
asking the rat where he's gone, why isn't he at home
the rat goes to the market far away
buying sauce and salt to commemorate the cat's father's death
I don't know why this is for kids by the way. it's pretty dark if you think about it.
the meaning of the nursery rhyme is the farmers (the rats) mocking the richer people (the cats) and their manipulations beneath their friendly façade (addressing the rat as chú, or uncle or a close friend). |
 |
| the 12,8k dollars pond upgrade project of the village back in 2009 to prepare for 2010, a thousand years of thăng long - hà nội (thăng long was the capital of vietnam starting 1010). 2,423 families participated, contributing on average $20 to $40 dollars. largest amount I've seen on here is $400. |
we decided to get lunch before visiting vạn phúc silk village. the road opposite to this village has crazy traffic volume and no crossroads, so we walked through the gap where cars go to make turns to go in the other direction. we were lucky when we go to the lunch place, but we weren't when we tried to go back. the lunch place was the most god awful place I had in hà nội. I didn't plan to have it, but we I chose it just because it was near. the waitress's nails were dirty, which really put off my friends' appetite. when we tried to get back, it was so crowded I couldn't even cross the streets. locals stared as us for a good 10 minutes before I had to book a taxi so that we can get to the village to the opposite of the road. it was a long one-way street, so it took us a long detour from there to eventually get to the village.
it's also in this craft village that molly and saniya got the notorious asian squat toilet experience. bad signages mean that I have to ask a bunch of locals for where to pee, and they told me there was a very big sign out there (sign was not big as they said). similar to the one temple in hà nội, we also needed to pay to pee (but I didn't realize you didn't really have to as locals just didn't). it had no soap and no water spray whatsoever. this is the most misleading village as it had the most awesome photos thanks to all the colorful umbrellas, but also the worst travel experiences by far.
after this, we even planned to go to the cốm (green rice) vòng village. here I got into a fight with molly as I really wanted to go but if we did we wouldn't have enough time to catch our flight that was moved 30 minutes earlier. thank god I listened to her eventually and got back to the hotel because we almost missed our flight due to hà nội's crazy traffic even though we didn't go there.
|
| I used these locals hunting for photos to my advantage. I framed the photo in such a way that they appeared naturally in my photos. this is how you take photos with people without the need of models. just watch the moment and take it as it happens. |
 |
croissang in her natural habitat: resting bitch face and camera in hands.
antisocial and misanthropic mood? always.
kudos to molly for capturing this. |
 |
I have so much respect for these mdfs for wearing áo dài and standing hours to take a photograph.
I can never do that in the billion degrees hà nội sun. |
 |
| on 6th january 1937, at vạn phúc pagoda, hundreds of craftsmen from the vạn phúc village and nearly 600 craftsmen from the south of hoài đức village fought to improve the lives of the laborers, denouncing the war crimes of the french colonialists. this is the first public uprising of the people of the vạn phúc village during the heights of the democratic revolution from 1936 to 1939. |
 |
I don't like how small hà nội's roads are, but I really like their names. in the south, we refer to roads as đường, not phố (can mean town), and alleys as hẻm (sounds very gangster), not ngõ (alleyway, sounds lowkey cute)
in hồ chí minh city, you would get number district combo (district 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12) and the lame letter district combo (like come on what does tân phú mean?). in hà nội, the names are much more poetic: youth (thanh xuân), paper bridge (cầu giấy), sword return (hoàn kiếm), apricot (hoàng mai), west lake (tây hồ) |
 |
| nhật tân bridge connecting the airport and hà nội. traffic here during peak hours can be so crazy: it took us more than 1 hour to move only 8km away from our hotel as saniya forgot her laptop at the hotel. |
 |
| but as soon as you make it to here you'll be fine |
 |
au revoir hà nội!
I guess my friends will say adieux instead. they've had enough lol. |
 |
| besides experiencing the asian squat toilet for the first time that day, one thing that they also experienced for the first time was the airport shuttle bus from the plane's stairwell to the airport, instead of walking through the jet bridge. |
 |
exhausted af but we finally made it to sài gòn
the most infurating part about the hà nội flight is how it was moved 30 minutes earlier a day before our flight, then when we made it through security at the airport it was moved 30 minutes later.
like what the actual fuck? |
day 5. sài gòn sightseeing
I've already written about sài gòn a ton in my previous blogs so I won't mention any more of them here. I'll mainly be talking about the leftovers that I promised to cover in my previous blog. before this trip, I couldn't go to the phường cà phê in d1, so I went to the one in phú nhuận district instead. this is where I met my english teacher madam tài nụ, who gave me a bunch of recommendations of places to go to in hà nội. I went to hồ thị kỷ flower market on this day, and mandarin oriental, cà phê hẻm trịnh (trịnh alley coffee), and tomb of lê văn duyệt (also known as lăng ông) on the 7th day.
we also skipped a bunch of sites: cửu long quán in chinatown, sài gòn prison (now the city’s general sciences library), city hall, city post office, turtle lake (saw in passing), tân định church, history museum, the zoo, and the lunch lady (visited by anthony bourdain, but I heard it’s a scam these days). I have not been to the last two ones. for the zoo, last time I've gone there is probably in my kindergarten or primary school days.
we woke up, had breakfast, met our driver, then started our day. breakfast at the hotel fucking slaps.
I took my friends to tuệ thành assembly hall (chùa bà), nghĩa an assembly hall (chùa ông), or the two most iconic chinese temples that I love in my city. they're both located in d5, aka hồ chí minh city's chinatown. then, we went to hồ thị kỷ flower market, then thích quảng đức's monument, a monk that burned himself to denounce the vietnam war. his heart didn't burn, and from them came xá lợi (śarīra).
 |
if you struggle with smoking, maybe try replacing it with burning incense instead.
it has the same alluring smoky atmosphere and ambience. |
 |
| some parts of the temple was repainted and had more vibrant colors since I last visited over the summer |
 |
| we got into a pharmacy near the flower market to buy mosquito spray for our củ chi trip the next day and for saniya to buy some pills as she was feeling sick lately |
after that, we visited the dragon wharf, where hcm left to backpack in france as a kitchen boy, which has a sick view of the cityscape. nearby was the hồ chí minh museum, but we came 10 minutes before it closed so we couldn't see it. we kept mising hồ chí minh stuff in hà nội and hcmc. we went to bến thành market then phở hoà pasteur for lunch, which is also another michelin recommended place (I didn't know this, I just came here because it's locally famous). it's lowkey like the sài gòn's equivalent of phở 10 lý quốc sư in hà nội, where we ate dinner on the first day. at this point, saniya was very bored of phở as we had a lot of it in hà nội and in the airport. funnily, her famous phở place was none of the michelin sites, but in the hà nội airport near our flight gate. she loved the beef brisket phở, but she loved bánh mì more.
 |
| he's looking at another flagpole (cột cờ thủ ngữ) |
 |
| bến thành market = giant overpriced souvenir shop, with shop owners acting super rude if you asks something's price and doesn't buy it. keychains from here cost 10 times more expensive than those I can get on shopee. please be sober, travel with a local if you can, and don't fall into these tourist traps. |
 |
more cao sao vàng (yellow star balm)! probably overpriced, lol.
another unique souvenir from vietnam are zippos. they were popular personal items during war time. |
 |
| my friends trying out the magic of chè ba màu (three color chè) and nước mía (sugar cane drink) |
 |
| expats hanging out in bến thành market |
 |
| another fucking michelin place, must be our fourth michelin place of the trip already |
 |
| phở bò gân (beef tendon phở) for the adventurous and unconventional traveler (me, I've had enough phở chín and phở tái in my life) |
 |
I present you tiến, my distant cousin (bro is among the normal, functional, and healthy ones, thank god), the gamechanger of our trip in sài gòn. he was our driver until the trip ends. he's full of good vibes and made travelling so much easier for each of us! we didn't need to book taxis every time we move from one place to another, and I didn't have to answer annoying questions about my male voice or where I and people I'm travelling with are from. kudos to bro tiến!
one fun fact about bro is his wife is the same age as molly. so yes, one year older than me. his name means forward, which molly said that lowkey fits him as a driver. |
after lunch, we went to the independence palace and the war remnants museum. thanks to tiến having friends that work among the independence palace guards, we could go in for free without buying tickets. the lunar new year taking photos race here is almost as bad as in hà nội. upon visiting the war remnants museum, saniya also teared up once again. that's the fun part about traveling, it reveals truth about yourself and your friends. she remarked that our museums about war is more interesting than art museums and other museums she's been to in the us. after visiting 7 sites in one day, we lowkey crashed as we got back and doordashed bánh mì to our hotel. I enjoyed having a night in instead of always having to roam the streets.
 |
| the architect that built this palace has the same last name as me, ngô, as in ngô viết thụ. its architecture is largely french with the interior being of eastern influence, but ngô viết thụ is a vietnamese himself. the shape of the building mimics many chinese characters that mean prosperity. |
 |
the view from tứ phương vô sự lầu (salon of the four cardinal directions). it's designed to be chill so that the leader of the country can make important political decisions here. however, the president turned it into a disco floor instead. 11.30am on the fall of sài gòn, the flag of the vietnam republic (yellow with 3 red stripes, also known as the 3 stripes flag) was replaced by the half red, half blue flag with a star on it. the red represents the already liberated north, while the blue represents the struggling south.
the country was a migration mess after this event, with people fleeing to the us and so on. even trần anh hùng's family left đà nẵng for france. |
 |
| man saniya really loves these war sites |
 |
| these anti-war student organizations melt my heart. it also forces me to think about the current political events that are going on and how I should approach them. there would be no việtnam of today without people like these overseas. a lot of countries right now are vietnam back in the day, and I think about them. |
 |
between 1965 and 1975, the us and its allies dropped more than 7.5 million tons of bombs on indochina, double the amount dropped on europe and asia during both world wars. to this date, we still have a bunch of unexploded ordnance (UXO) in our backyard. laos remains the most bombed place on earth till this date. yet they still lost lmao.
the most infuriating part of this is the narrative that it's taught in us history. molly told me that they never admitted that they lost, but it was rephrased as how they withdrew from the war for the sake of peace. |
|
 |
| agent orange is home to the most amazing people I know: people that would not let fate win. people that have wood shops despite not having arms, or masterclass pianists with no eyes. |
 |
| can you believe that this bed headboard was made by a disabled person with no arms? he did everything by feet and he's the boss of the craft company that's also helping people he know get jobs. |
 |
| real hunan fetuses mutated by agent orange in a preserved jar in the museum |
 |
| I wrote an essay in french class about war photography last semester in college. robert capa's photos were one of my favorites. lots of war photographers die as they were doing this job. I had no idea robert capa also passed away in the same manner, when he stepped on a landmine in thái bình, việt nam. the ironic thing about this is the province's name where he passed away. thái bình means peace. |
 |
| the last photo taken by robert capa |
 |
| us marine after a mission (1965) by larry burrows. the marine collapsed and cried after the mission due to the absurdity of the war. |
 |
| a vietnamese mother and her children wade across a river to escape bombs from a us air strike. quy nhơn, 1965. kyoichi sawada. the photo won the pulitzer award in 1966 |
|
|
 |
| this camera was pierced through by a bullet, it saved the japanese journalist taizo ichinose’s life. this camera is a symbol of the sacrifice and selflessness of war photographers in capturing the truth at the cost of their own lives. |
 |
| those that are yet to see life |
 |
| and those that have already seen enough |
 |
| his name is cam, the same as agent orange in vietnamese |
day 6. củ chi tunnels + dinner on a boat + red light district
like hạ long bay, our second day in a major city is pretty simple after all the crazy sightseeing in the first day. we spent most of the day in củ chi, then had dinner and discovered a bit of the red light district close to our hotel (shout out to bùi viện!) I personally like bùi viện more than tạ hiện. after that, saniya went swimming, molly joined, but I was too lazy to leave my comfy bed and just delete photos on my phone and my camera.
initially saniya and molly opted out of doing the tunnels after trying the first few ones. however, they did all of them anyways.
 |
| breakfast slaps as always |
 |
| nevermind I also zonked out pretty hard on the way back |
 |
| us with a backdrop of the ba son bridge, a new bridge that’s also a symbol and an engineering pride of the ctiy |
 |
| a view of the bitexco financial tower (this used to be the tallest building in vietnam after landmark 81 took its spot) and majestic hotel saigon in the backdrop |
 |
| hà nội beer will haunt you, even though you're in fucking sài gòn |
day 7. grandparents' home (aka vietnamese countryside) + beach
we actually spent some part of the morning in sài gòn before heading off to my grandparents' home for me to cover my leftover places: mandarin oriental, cà phê hẻm trịnh, and tomb of lê văn duyệt. by trịnh alley coffee, I mean more precisely trịnh công sơn's home. he's a famous musician that wrote a ton of love and anti-war songs. his love letters thư tình gửi một người (love letters to one person) are really sweet.
after that, we drove to my grandparents' home a few provinces away and visited the beach. anh tiến's home is also near there. saniya was sick on this day so she stayed in the hotel and recuperated. molly got to see all my dumbest childhood photos, read love letters from my grandpa to my grandma, letters that my mom wrote home as college student, and discovered a bunch of fruit trees at my grandparents' home.
 |
| this hotel has the best cà phê sữa đá known to man. they made it exactly how I've always wanted it. |
 |
| mandarin oriental used to be cà phê givral back in the day. it is a famous café where scholars and journalists like phạm xuân ẩn would hang out. think about this as the saigon version of the parisian les deux magots and café de flores in beauvoir's and sartre's days. |
 |
| bush and putin at the apec summit in 2006 in hà nội. this was supposed to be taken in hà nội, but I don't think I'm authorized to go into the site where it was held (national conference center), so I just took it in a water fountain in hcmc instead. |
 |
| the people's committee of hcmc |
 |
| sài gòn metro has been open for a few weeks now, but I didn't get a chance to try it before going back to the us |
 |
trịnh alley, where his house once were
people told me that the coffee here is kinda mid so maybe don't waste time trying them |
 |
lê văn duyệt was a vietnamese general who helped nguyễn ánh (the future emperor gia long) put down the tây sơn wars, unify Vietnam and establish the nguyễn dynasty.
after the nguyễn came to power in 1802, duyệt became a high-ranking mandarin, serving under the first two nguyễn emperors gia long and minh mạng. |
 |
| this is how I remember the tomb's location. I didn't know what it was, I just know it was some sorts of temple close to chợ bà chiểu. it was the jade temple that I sometimes saw on my 2 hour commute from school to home on the bus. this temple got me interested in chinese temples altogether and I tried really hard finding it, which led me to other chinese sites. I'm happy to have found it eventually. |
molly zonked out for the most part of the trip. tiến and I catched up on many many things in life (we haven't seen each other since 2023 summer since the central vietnam trip with my family!) we talked about pretty random shit, like how I adapted to american dining hall food, tiến's kid, tiến's encounters with ghosts when he slept in cheap hotels in his driver's career, etc. I love road trips, where you do nothing except for driving, and talk about a lot of things that you wouldn't have time and chance to do otherwise. I also lost some photos while I was taking photos at the water fountain. I printed it somewhere in the countryside and was overcharged. sadly, racism and discrimination is everywhere. it even happens to locals and vietnamese among ourselves.
 |
| l'odeur de la papaye verte (1993) |
 |
| tiến chilling out on the hammock in the garden after a long car ride |
 |
| sometimes, you gotta reject modernity and embrace tradition. if this is not luxury, I don't know what is. I find it sad that people have to leave what is healthy for them to find jobs in precarious cities that aren't the most healthy to begin with. |
 |
| papaya tree |
 |
| jade pothos and aloe vera |
 |
| wishbone flowers |
 |
| butterfly pea flower |
 |
| bay laurel tree |
 |
areca palm tree, short variation.
so short that you can get its fruits by extending your hands.
no climbing needed! |
 |
the scent of the green papaya (1993) by trần anh hùng
the first, and to this date, still the only vietnamese movie to be nominated an oscar
it's a shame that only people of older generations like my mom and my grandparents know of this movie, younger generations are less aware of it |
 |
| I can take so many good naps with the breezes that this window offers |
 |
| the greatest international lie. no this is not an actual danisa cookies box, it's a sewing box. |
a thing that grows with you as you grow up is the ability to say goodbye and the ability to realize that every moment is unique.
to say goodbye to my grandpa, who's passed away in 2022, 2 days before my 17th birthday.
to say goodbye to my uncle, who was my cousin's dad, that passed away when she was only in 10th grade, she's 26 now.
to say goodbye to my cousins, who now study abroad.
I can't remember when was the last lunar new year when everyone was still together. I don't know if it will come again. but damn it, I miss 2014 summer when we would just play hide and seek in the backyard together and listen to world cup music, one of them sitting on the pipe, broke it, and got scolded. anything, but not the awkward silence we're having now.
but family comes back to you, one way or another. I was lucky to celebrate thanksgvings with my grandpa's sibling's family abroad. when we were sitting at thanksgiving last year, I remember almost crying when having lunch. for long, I was able to feel again something that was long lost to the past in the race with time and memory.
 |
| she has so much rizz I'm dying |
 |
| you can kind of know it when a tomb is not tended to. tombs like this mean that the family probably moved somewhere else or doesn't come to visit the deceased as often. |
after saying goodbye to my counsin, aunt, and grandma, we headed to my grandpa's resting place to pay a brief visit, then vũng tàu to explore the beach passes (đèo nước ngọt, freshwater pass), had dinner in a fishing village (làng chài phước hải, phước hải fishing village), and walked down a pier (cầu ngắm biển hồ tràm, hồ tràm pier) at night. we initially planned to go back to hcmc at night but just ended up sleeping here overnight. the receptionist probably thought we were a lesbian couple so she gave us this free room upgrade to both of our and tiến's rooms, which was interesting.
freshwater pass was where I saw the most mindblowing sunsets in my life.
whenever I see the sea, this song keeps playing in my head. it's the soundtrack of a very good thai drama called waves of life, the one that I binge watched 30 hours worth of 15 episodes in finals week last semester. I did that in 2x speed and did a lot of skipping.
 |
| I love how liminal and the great gatsby coded this pier is at night. so scary, so mysterious, yet so peaceful. |
day 8. more vũng tàu things and wrapping up at sài gòn
on our last day, we went to a couple more sites in vũng tàu, like drinking coffee on top of some high buildings, visiting the lighthouse, had some eggs and yogurt there, visited an electricity plant, song vĩnh church (built from 2011 to 2022), and a pagoda that tiến used to be in in his middle school years, then headed back to sài gòn in crazy traffic. we had lunch at bánh canh long hương cổng chào bà rịa, then picked up saniya from the hotel, and she joined us for doing some last minute souvenir shopping before visiting my home and heading off to the dinner place.
there were a lot of people at dinner and many of my relatives didn't know english or didn't like using english. it was really awkward for my fwends even though I put the cringest vietnamese songs I knew peppa pig parody on the background. the climax happened when some cockroaches spawned and we were all terrified (except for my cousins, but they also didn't do shit). the waiter didn't bat an eye and went on making our hot pot.
I parted ways with molly, and I joined saniya at the airport the next day to fly back to the us together with my family.
|
| bougainvillea, hoa giấy, or paper flower, in vietnamese. their color changes based on the acidity of the soil. my favorite is hot pink, as in this photo. |
 |
tiến cracking open a bàng tree (banyan tree, tropical almond) seed.
back in the days, such seeds used to be our snacks as students. my parents probably did the same thing or sucked sweet nectar from flower pistil. |
 |
people like vandalizing public places with the power of their love.
every time I see these, I wonder if they're still together. |
 |
| it was too sunny out so he went to sleep in the shade |
 |
| boiled egg and sữa chua cô tiên (fairy yogurt) |
 |
| they carved this chicken onto a part of the tree that was dead. that's how it retained its shape. |
 |
| these penguin trashcans are also another inside joke in the vietnamese meme community. originally, it says please give me trash, but upon letter and tone removal, it can say different things like please let me out, or, in this case, please cough the bowl out. |
 |
| the classic "please let me out" ones |
day 9. the last of the vietnam trilogy + airport photos
I know this ending scene in cyclo (1995) doesn't take place in the airport but I don't care enough anymore. as long as it's on vietnamese soil.
we finally made it back to the us safely. most of the trip was just me and saniya roaming japanese duty free stores.
that was it! thank you for making it this far. you've read at least 12k words.
Comments
Post a Comment