Always. Trying. To. Get. Caught. Up.

Hence two posts this week.

Was a fairly quiet week…coworking, walking around, sweating, eating, almost killing my new laptop by spilling an iced latte all over the keyboard and then spending my Friday night racing out to the seller’s apartment an hour away for him to spend two hours taking the entire thing apart and cleaning each key individually but in the end…IT’S ALIVE…and preparing to move onto my next airbnb here in Hanoi, cuz, while I’m staying in this area, I couldn’t extend my stay in this room cuz it was already booked (#sadface) so tomorrow starts a whole new adventure of figuring things out.

WOW THAT WAS A LONG SENTENCE.

New place means new:

  • How do I get in?
  • How do I turn the hot water on?
  • How do I get food delivery? Can they come to the door or do I have to walk down an alley to the main street?
  • How do I get groceries?
  • What address do I use for taxi pickups and where do I stand?
  • What will my new “work at the cafe” place be?

Sigh.

But that’s for next week (aka tomorrow).

For now…pictures.

Riding in a Grab…took me awhile to realize I was sitting next to Kit Kat. Kit Kat very popular in Asia!

Are you really supposed to put your phone in that wallet thingie?? Seems like 100% a “left my phone in the taxi” moment about to happen.

Back to the coworking space. I like the space but it is HOT.

Already feeling sad about leaving my room. It just Feels Me, you know??

It’s so charming the way they’ve decorated. Langmandi is a chain I guess, and they’re all decorated in a similar cottage/Paris apartment style. However, they usually seem to be on upper floors in buildings with no elevators, so mostly I pass.

This style of tile is all over Vietnam as well.

No love lost between me and this bathroom – with the on again off again hot water, the “don’t put toilet paper in the toilet” decree, and the floor that is Always Wet. Not just damp, but PUDDLED.

I always wonder if they clean or sanitize the shower slippers in between guests. I always mean to get my own but…

I love a good pendant lamp. Except when there’s no obvious way to turn them on.

Ahh, I love my big window…I could lay in the bed and watch the leaves flutter on that tree, see the rain fall, hear the sounds of the street. The drapes were light enough that light came through (which I like) and they ruffled in the breeze of the fan. Ditto. HOWEVER, these wooden chairs? Hideous. The chair to table height ratio? Diabolical. I couldn’t sit more than a few minutes at the computer without pain.

Two flights of stairs to my second floor room…with an encouraging message from Marilyn when you were halfway. That room is the kitchen to the cafe on the first floor. I felt so bad for those young people who had to run up and down these stairs dozens of times every day…AND part of the cafe was on a second floor loft at the front of the building, so they had to do those stairs, too. And it seemed like the same staff was there every day, seven days a week from 6:30am to 10:30pm. I thanked them profusely on my last day for all their hard work and left a big tip. I was there at some point almost every day for the month. I’ll miss that. It’s just not the same as walking down the blook or getting a Grab to go to a cafe. It felt like HOME, you know?? Remember the coffee shop in the alley behind my goshiwon in Seoul, that I always wanted to become a “regular” at…and then it closed before I ever got there?? This is what I’d wanted there 🙂 Oh, and PS – that’s a filtered water fountain, which was VERY nice to have on site so I wasn’t running out of water all the time!

Temple of Literature. Vietnam’s first national university built before the dawn of time…or like 1070 or something. OLD.

The temple was dedicated to Confucious.

In 1803, the academy was moved to Hue, about 700km/435 miles away.

It’s a popular tourist site…I got there when it first opened, so I had about an hour before tours started coming through.

The design of walking through one section after another is a physical manifestation of a scholar’s sequential journey toward spiritual and academic enlightenment (wikipedia said that, not me).

This walled pond is the Well of Heavenly Clarity

In addition to deflecting wind and dispersing rainwater (hey, that’s me), the upturned design of Vietnamese rooflines symbolize hope, spiritual growth, and the harmonious connection between heaven and earth.

I like these square paper lantern lights with dingle balls hanging off them.

I don’t know if this tree is technically considered a bonsai…but it was in a walled courtyard with several large potted bonsais.

The potted bonsais all had little vignettes around their bases of ceramic figures.

Pagoda Turtle

I wonder how old this is?

Offerings. And more turtles.

A quiet little spot.

I sat on a bench for awhile.

A classroom.

I always wanted someone to follow almog behind me holding a fringed umbrella over my head. My Time Has Come.

Roots.

Mercifully, right across from the Temple was a little coffee shop with the MOST magnificent air conditoning and a delicious iced honey ginger tea. I had two while I read my book and cooled off.

Temple Day wore me plumb out.

I loved turning these balcony lights on at dusk. They look pretty and they cast such a warm light into my room.

One morning I walked out of the cafe downstairs very early to get to coworking…and this beautiful bouquet was sitting right outside the door!

And then in the Grab on the way, we passed this motorbike with a giant basket bouquet!

I walked down camera street one day looking for a camera strap for my new camera…no luck…but I did run into Lobster Queen and had a delicious lunch. Then got caught in a torrential downpour on my way home.

It’s so interesting how you can be watching the motorbikes zipping by one minute, in regular street clothes…and the next minute it’s pouring and all the drivers have rain gear on! How do they do it so fast??

Early morning on my street.

The night of the spilled latte on my computer, then spending 4 hours getting to and from “my” technician’s apartment for him to clean it out…I sat downstairs and waited for food delivery and had a golden lotus oolong tea…which, unbeknownst to me, had salted peanuts in it. I had something similar in Taiwan, but was not expecting it here. I didn’t hate it. I didn’t love it. I drank it and went on my way.

Walking around the hood. I do love an alleyway.

They use Every Inch of space.

Fruit Lady.

In the hood.

Vietnam.

That wraps up my final week in that apartment in the Old Quarter. I really loved my time here. Leaving here feels like leaving my goshiwon in Seoul or my beautiful floor-through brownstone apartment in Brooklyn in the early 2010s. In my life and in my travels I’ve stayed/lived in a LOT of different places, but really only a few grab my heart. This apartment and street definitely did.

See y’all next week from the new place.

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