Monday, September 21

Slept through the night for once so got right up at 7:30 and headed out.

First I went to a house I’ve wanted to photograph. But, as is so often the case when I have something very specific I want to photograph, it’s never quite the same in reality as in my mind. I really struggle with taking pictures of things when there are people there. In front of the thing. And in Vietnam people are in front of all of the things! They’re sidewalk people. They eat and drink out on the sidewalk, they smoke on the sidewalk, they chat with neighbors on the sidewalk, sell their wares, and just sit and contemplate life.

So if you want to take a picture of a building, you just know there’s going to be a person/people in front.

And I feel weird taking pictures of strangers…are they going to think I’m taking a picture of them, specifically? Are they in the witness protection program and avoid being seen? Are they escaping an abusive relationship? Are they just trying to stay incognito?? These are all the things that cross my mind when my finger is itching to push the shutter button.

Certainly, these scenarios are probably less common here than they would be, say, in the US…but still.

And yet, if I tried to never get a person in a street shot, well…I’d never take a street shot!

So. It’s a challenge.

Anyway, took some quick shots of the house, not as many as I’d planned, but…whatever. I moved on. Walked to a lake that was less photogenic in person…as well as a pagoda that was the same.

Then headed to a cafe that looked really charming…but it turned out the bulk of the charm was on the third floor…and after all my walking…and already climbing to the second floor (on old steep, spiraling steps), sigh. I just plopped my butt at a table on the second floor.

Then was ordering. And it was…ordering at the counter off the menu mounted on the counter…to the person standing right behind the counter…waiting for your order. Which sounds pretty standard, I’m aware. But so I’m standing there, just pouring down sweat, fumbling through my bag for my glasses, trying to read the menu which is affixed at a terrible focal range for me…I can just barely read it even with the glasses…so I go by the pictures and get a lovely waffle with mango and coconut ice cream with a light almond syrup drizzled over all. Delightful.

I didn’t fare as well with the drink. All I knew was that it was an iced juice tea of some sort. A surprise beverage, if you will. It was certainly pretty when it arrived…all crimson red and icy with some mint leaves.

I took a sip. Stopped. And if I’d had to guess what it was…I’d guess SLIGHTLY FERMENTED SALTED BEET JUICE.

Shudder.

If you know me, you know I cannot abide a beet. In any form. And certainly not salted juice form.

From the menu on GoogleMaps on my phone I was able to see that it was actually a hibiscus tea. “Oh My! Tea.” Hibiscus, sour and salted fruits.

What?? WHY?? Sigh.

SIGH. Anyway. I managed to drink half but just couldn’t finish the glass. Thank goodness he kept coming and pouring me water. Lukewarm water.

It seems that warm/hot, not iced/cold water is preferred in the Asian countries I’ve been to. For one, according to traditional Chinese medicine, warm water is better for digestion. And also, since so much tap water is bad in many countries, they had to boil it before drinking to try and kill off any bad bacteria…and then they just drank it still hot.

Anyway, I survived. And walked home. Past a church and a park and several Grab motorbike drivers trying to give me a ride.

Got home, cold-showered, and collapsed.

Just stuff I see.

The yellow house with the pretty window. And the people sitting in front.

Little Bookworm Library

Red.

The balconies and French doors are So Good.

The Sound of Music.

A Very Important Church.

Ready for the holiday.

It’s amazing how many “old ways” you still see here.

 “7-11” across the way

Tuesday, September 21

I’m on my last few days here in Hanoi and I’m trying to do ALL THE THINGS. So I got up and out early to a breakfast spot I just saw mentioned on TikTok…then went down the street for a lovely foot soak and mani-pedi…then got a Grab for the coworking space, where I worked my butt off cuz I’ve missed a couple days, plus for some reason it was CRAZY hot in there today. Came home, cooled off a bit in the apartment, made a light early dinner of macaroni with butter and salt, and made it an early night in the ac.

Hey look, I coulda bullet-pointed that! You’ll understand when you read the next part.

Some of you that have been following for a long time may remember my obsession with Lizzie Hadfield at Shot From the Street. She’s a style blogger who I’ve been following for ohmygod well over ten years. Anyway, as happens, her style of blogging/vlogging has evolved over the years. She used to have a blog with text and photos. Then it went to just photos – and while I admire her photography, she has such a nice sense of simplicity and light, ONLY pictures was just not engaging me enough and I sort of fell off. I still followed her on IG and enjoy her stories and carousels there. At some point it seems even she lost interest (or oomph or whatever) for doing the blog and even the picture posts stopped.

However, I just discovered she’s doing a daily diary of sorts on Substack, as “Buffy.” That’s the name of her book/reading club she started several years ago…named for, of course, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a longtime favorite of hers. So it’s definitely more reading- than style-centric, but I enjoy that as well.

And I just mention that here because I’m liking the formatting of it. It goes day-by-day, like mine does, a week at a time…but each day is bullet-pointed with her different activities and observations. I LIKE the bullet point concept (I love a good bullet point), but don’t know that it would work for me, because unlike Lizzie with her neatly condensed subjects, *I* am a big blabbermouth and have to share every thought feeling and opinion I have, in as long a form as possible, usually.

But what I also like about her format and that WOULD work for me (so I might steal borrow it) is how she talks about the day and THEN shares all the pictures together. So text then pictures, as opposed to me with text picture text picture, which is sometimes difficult with my blog’s newfound love of f*cking up my format; not to mention sometimes there’s just a stand-alone picture from the day that doesn’t necessarily have corresponding text to put it with and so sometimes I leave them out. Because I’m an anal Virgo.

So I think I’ll give that format a try…see how it goes…let me know what you guys think…if it makes it feel disjointed or if the flow is better…

PS – here’s the link to her new Buffy diary if you’re interested https://buffysbookclub.substack.com/p/weekly-diary-14th-september-21st – I think anyone can see it even if you’re not subscribed to her Substack.

At the cafe I was seated next to a little offering shrine

Had my first coconut coffee. The fancy Vietnames coffees are Next Level. I had egg coffee and loved it. I had salted coffee and loved it. Now I’ve had coconut coffee and loved it. Coconut coffee is basic Vietnamese coffee but with a healthy dollop of coconut cream on top, you know when you buy the cans of coconut to make pina coladas?? That – but somehow frozen/icy. And delicious. I couldn’t even finish it!

The food actually looked better than it tasted. None of the fruit was really ripe and sweet. I’ll say I feel like Vietnamese fruit is not as good as Thai fruit.

Again, an Instagrammable cafe, I just couldn’t sit in the pretty part cuz I was Just Too Hot.

Stopped for two litres of water at the little “7-11” across rhe way. .38 each.

Wednesday, September 23

I spent the morning continuing to follow-up with Seoul goshiwon hosts…I had 13 places on my list that would do,  and the hosts’ responses were quickly moving them all to the NO pile for reason or another – too expensive, one the 6th floor with no elevator, not available, etc. By late morning I’d narrowed it down to two very similar units, exactly the same price, both about the same distance from central Seoul and places I’d be likely to go to…but one had my heart a little more as it was in an area I know and like and am familiar with (quite close to where I lived while going to language school).

So I emailed both hosts once more asking final questions and if they would send me current pictures of the exact room I’d have from Oct-Jan. On the main sites they use the best room example. The one with the biggest window or view of trees or ideal room layout. I wanted to see the REAL room.

And actually the pictures/video didn’t even sway my decision – my mind was pretty much already made up…I just wanted to be sure of the room I was getting. And Seongsu room won 🙂 Woohoo.

It took the rest of the day into the evening going back and forth getting the contract and all the host’s banking info so I could transfer the deposit…but finally it was DONE. And I breathed a sigh of relief at finding a place I like in a location I like, in my price range. Didn’t think I’d get all three. Probably only drawback is it’s a 3rd floor walkup. No elevator. I’m just gonna have to suck it up. At least it’s a pretty newly remodeled building so the stairs should be wide and straight, not narrow and twisty like Japan and Vietnam.

Booking a goshiwon is a very different process than with hotel/airbnbs. For one thing, most goshiwon owners don’t accept credit card payments – only cash or bank transfer. Bank transfers are very common in Korea. It’s like their Venmo. “Oh, I’ll pay the dinner bill and then just transfer me your share…here’s my account number.” That would freak out most people in the US. We’re taught to NEVER share our bank account info with ANYONE. That was a tought hurdle to get over when I lived there.

Anyway…at some point in the day I snuck out to the cafe right across the alleyway. It was on-and-off rainy all day so that was perfect.

In the evening I wandered around some nearby alleyways for a sushi place I saw on Googlemaps. But never found it and just came home and ordered (not very good) Italian food.

Salted coffee and cinnamon croissant at May Kitchenware Cafe

The decor is interesting…

Minimal but also rustic…

Very “modern Asian”

Wandering the alleways

Thursday, September 24

Felt Very Tired all day today. Kept going back to sleep in the morning…and after hurting my back doing some work on the laptop in the afternoon, I lay down with an audio book and bam was out again. So I never left the building…and just sort of did some preliminary leaving preparations – gathering my things into collections, laundry, washing all the dishes.

I leave tomorrow night on a 9pm bus to Hanoi. It’s a 15-hour ride so I’ll get there around noon Saturday…and can’t check-in til 2pm, so will drag my luggage to wherever I can get it into and have a slow lunch until I can go to the hotel.

These extra two weeks went super fast, I can’t believe I’m moving again already. And Hoi An will only be 8 days…and Da Nang 9, so those are gonna go super fast.

Friday-Saturday, September 25-26

Today had a long To Do list, but one by one things got dropped off the list. I always THINK I’m going to do a bunch of last minute things on my last day but…yeah. THAT never happens. So most of the “fun, pretty” things got eliminated and I was just left with “sweep, pack, laundry, charge electronics, etc.” Which is fine. Doing those things at home helps my pre-travel anxiety.

I DID get myself and the laptop to a not-too-far-away cafe with decent table/chair for working…just so I wasn’t sitting in the room ALL day on my last day. I have the room booked through tomorrow so I don’t have to leave til 7:30 when I’ll head for the bus.

Like Korea, the cafes all have pastries and sweet treats that LOOK beautiful, but which often fall short on taste. Or at least on sugar. And they run dry. Places ALWAYS have croissants and I STRUGGLE to eat them. They’re served on a plate with knife and fork (whereas back home I feel like no one would look twice if you just picked it up in your hands and bit into it). And they’re so dry and flakey. Not buttery flakey. Messy flakey. Emphasis on messy. And I’m trying to scoop all these dry, tissue-thin flakey layers up with the fork and my trembly hands let me get to JUST ABOUT the chest region and then BAM. I’m wearing a forkful of dry flaky pastry layers.

Ditto for soup. Which is why I rarely eat soup or soup-adjacent foods when I’m out. I just end up wearing it.

Anyway, I got some work done then went to an ATM to get some cash…and after the transaction, it didn’t spit my card back out!!! And it’s just a stand-alone machine, not physically connected to a bank, so no person to see just feet (sorry, meters) away.

BRIEFEST moment of panic…and then I thought to do a second transaction, just did a balance inquiry…and at the end of that, it politely handed me back my debit card.

PHEW.

Into the market for some bus snacks, then home to pack, straighten up, shower, and relax before I need to leave for the bus.

I’d been told to be at the bus office at 8:30pm for the 9pm bus…so I get there at 7:45, ha ha. Honestly though, it’s Mid-Autumn Festival tonight and I thought there might have been a lot of traffic. And there was but I think it was regular Friday night traffic.

We got there. Ish. Neither the driver nor I saw the bus office (it’s not a bus station, it’s just a storefront on the street with the shops and restaurants, etc, so it’s not like we were looking for a big building with a bunch of busses in the parking lot). But he still did the HERE YOU GO, and I had to be like wait, where?? I was not going to try and lug my suitcases through the crowded sidewalks and streets (motorbikes take up most of the sidewalk space)…but he was already out and pulling my luggage out of the trunk…and finally I spotted it a couple stores down PHEW. How we both could have missed 300 people standing outside a store with suitcases, I don’t know, but.

So, yeah, the place was PACKED. Everyone was traveling! There were people and luggage inside, outside, all around the town. I went to the desk and showed her the email with my confirmation # and after doing some things, gave it back and motioned out there and said “sit and wait.” Okeydok.

There was nowhere to sit and I don’t usually ever do this, but I actually asked a couple people to scrunch over on a long bench so I could just squeeze in. Which they did, and I was grateful. I was watching people climb aboard vans with their luggage and was wondering how on earth a full size bus was even going to FIT on this street!

Finally The Guy called my name…and I realized the van people were getting into right outside was MINE. Huh??

I said “Hoi An? Sleeper bus??” and he said yes, this was just the transfer bus (like on the boat), and it would take us to the real bus. Okay. Phew?

We drove about 20 minutes then the van driver stopped, jumped out, and started pulling the luggage out of the back. People were taking their suitcases and walking off like they knew what they were doing (why does it seem like everyone else always seems to know what they’re doing except me??). I lugged my luggage up onto the sidewalk and then realized we were at another bus office…this one a little larger and less chaotic than the first, but still, without much direction given. “Sit and wait” I was told again by the girl at the desk. “The bus isn’t til 9.” Okay. I sit and wait. 9, 9:10, 9:15…I go back to the desk and ask again about the Hoi An bus…”yes, yes, it will be here. Go sit and wait.”

Sigh. Some people may think I’m too nervous and should just relax and go with the flow…but…I can see So Easily the bus coming and going, and with no direction or guidance, I would not know which bus was mine, and I would miss it. It’s not like in the US (or even Korea) where the bus has a sign up front with the name of the destination, and you walk past the row of busses and pick the one you’re going to.

Anyway. Eventually my bus was here, luggage loaded, was given a plastic bag to put my nasty outdoor shoes in so as to not dirty the bus floor, then climbed into my berth.

Someone had told me the bottom berths are like seat height, so it’s really just like sitting and pivoting your legs in. Nope. It’s on the floor. It’s floor height. You’re climbing into a little pod on the floor. And forget about getting back out! I kept imagining my niece saying NO FLOOR BEDS!!!

And here I was on a moving floor bed.

Was it comfortable? It was not. Was 15 hours on a sleeper bus better than 15 hours on an airplane? Absolutely. Because you had privacy and could LIE DOWN (my favorite thing in the world) and change position as often as you wanted and eat all your snacks without the imagined judgment of your row-mates.

The night passed…I think I slept about a total of 5 hours (broken), which is still better than I sleep on a plane. We had one rest stop around 8am Saturday morning, and it was…interesting.

We got into Hoi An around 12:30pm Saturday…and boy was I happy to get off that bus! I got a taxi very quickly to bring me to my hotel…and when I got here the host couldn’t have been more welcoming and hospitable. After taking a picture of my passport, she had someone take my bags upstairs (I was over an hour early for 2pm check-in and my room wasn’t quite ready yet…but she said “give us 20 minutes…and let me bring you a cold drink!” So I did and she did and very quickly my room was ready. And it’s lovely.

I was going to go out around sunset to walk to the river to see the lantern boats, but…I lay down “for just a minute” and woke up hours later in the dark. So I very appreciatively watched two episodes of my current Japanese drama ON A TELEVISION…FROM BED, which was delightful. It’s been AGES since I’ve been able to do that.

Last walks in Hanoi

Another Hanoi cafe

Flower deal going down on the corner

Okay.

Kitt. Ten.

Need a ceramic duck? I gotchoo.

I am a cat.

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival

Every morning, fresh lillies in the airbnb lobby.

Bus snacks.

Luggage waiting for the bus to Hoi An.

All aboard the disco bus.

From my little pod.

The rest stop.

Beautiful flowers outside the rest stop.

Sleeper bus upper and lower berths.

I made it to Hoi An!

My room. Sorry, I’ll get a better picture for next time.

Sunday, September 27

I had the most beautiful night’s sleep, even after my accidental nap. I walked around the corner in the morning for breakfast at a hotel. It was nice but so hot. The tables were outside…as much of Hoi An seems to be. And while eating outside is usually one of my very favorite things to do…it’s not fun when I’m just dripping down sweat. Fortunately the maitre’d guy noticed me mopping my face repeatedly with my bandana and moved a large stand fan over to blow on me. Thank heavens. 

I’d planned to go straight to the tailor shop on my first day here, but I realized at breakfast that I was nowhere near prepared…so after breakfast I went back to the hotel and spent three hours figuring out design details on two shirts and one pair of pants, along with finding picture examples of them. There’s no such thing as “just a blue shirt.” There are DOZENS of design details to decide upon. And “deciding” is not my strong suit!

Anyway, I think I’m prepared now to go first thing tomorrow. Which should be fine, they have a really fast turnaround time here.

It’s the same with prescription eyeglasses. Why does it take so long in the US, when they can do these things so quickly here in Vietnam, and re the glasses, also Korea??

Around 5pm, in spite of the weather forecast and darkening skies, I headed out to a cafe next to a rice field that’s supposed to be a great sunset spot. Instead of sunset we got rain, but the food was still very good.

And now it’s nighttime and I’m safely back in my hotel room – despite the Grab driver’s concern about me finding a ride back from the out-of-the-way rice field cafe after dark. Made me a little nervous all through dinner, but it worked out just fine.

And tomorrow is the start of a new week – and I think it’s going to be a good one!

See ya later luv ya bye.

First breakfast in Hoi An.

Dinner at the rice field. Before the rain came.

Lanterns.

Mo’ lanterns.

Roving Chill House Cafe.

 

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