Ha Noi Traffic

Imagine crossing roads like these.

Extreme Ironing

I love a private joke taken past too far and down the road to full out nutters. On that note, I welcome you to the world of Extreme Ironing. Enjoy.

Rocky Mountain Flatbread Company

Our new favourite restaurant - the Rocky Mountain Flatbread Company has amazing food and a great eco friendly attitude. But let's be real, it's the food that counts and it was fantastic.
Very reasonable prices - on First just west of Burrard.

A Question of Judgement

My grandfather described it as "homogenized weasel piss" and perhaps that's a tad harsh. I would, in an effort to be as fair as possible, say that it is the Baby Duck of beer, that it is a pre-made Shandy, that it is the worst beer with the best marketing. So when friends bring over a six pack of the silver bullet, I try to look the other way. I try to look past it, if you will, and see more as a friend than as a drinker of homogenized weasel piss.
The more "chick", the more glam and fabulous that friend is, the more apt I am to see past it. When Mich'Elvis' leaves her left over Coors Light in the fridge, it kind of makes sense. She probably didn't want a beer to begin with. She was probably looking for something a little more fabulous, a little more chic than beer and had simply left it too late. After all, there is very little that's chic about a Cold Beer and Wine off sales store in the back of a hotel, but sometimes that's all you got.
All of which does very little to explain away the behaviour of Dylan. He not only drinks Coors Light quite willingly (passing up on quality brews, I have seen him reach into a cooler full of tasty suds and come up with a smile and a silver bullet), but recently I think he has taken things a little too far.
Left over from watching Playoff Football (no less), sitting in the bottom of my fridge are two "near beers". What has the world come to? Will someone talk sense to this man?

More Photos

Second half of photos

First Batch of Photos from Vietnam

Saigon to Hoi An

Seperate Ways

Back in Hanoi, our band of six went in three seperate ways. Claudio Lopez and Samantha went south in search of sun and sand. Rob, unwilling to risk the smell of more train travel, held down the fort in Hanoi with Harumi, who's flight was soon to go anywhere else. And Donna and I went north into the hills of Vietnam.
We took an overnight train north northwest to the Chinese border of Lai Cau. From there we took a minibus south southwest into the mountains to the very small town of Sapa.
The French, reminded of the Alps, established this small town high on a slope overlooking a winding valley. When the clouds lift (which isn't often), the views are wonderful. While our hotel was higher than most, it didn't offer a great view. It was, however, wonderful.
We stayed at the Baguette & Chocolat. An old French building that has been converted into a bakery / restaurant / mini-hotel. They only have four rooms and each is giving a pastry name in lieu of a number. We stayed in the croissant room.
It was very cold in Sapa and our hotel offered no central heating. With big french doors opening on to a small balcony and large windows and high ceilings, our room was cold. In the corner they had a small electric heater which was better at lighting the room than heating it. Knowing that, the hotel drowned our bed in with two enourmous duvets - making it the coziest room we had in Vietnam.
In the morning, the smell of croissant and pain au chocolat would waft up the stairs and as we made our way downstairs for a continental breakfast by the fireplace the smell would overwhelm us.
What makes the hotel special is its purpose. It is a training facility for disadvantaged youth. They take in orphans and street kids and give them an education and teach them a skill.
Sapa itself doesn't offer much, but the trek's through the valley are interesting. The surrounding area isn't populated by Vietnamese, but rather by hill tribes of ethnic minorities. We hired a private guide for a day to show us a few villages. She was a local and had a very interesting perspective on the politics of her world. She was bright and clever and spoke English very well - which is amazing as she has only learned it from speaking to tourists.

Comical Hats

Not surprisingly, Donna and I couldn't find any Happy Birthday stuff in Hanoi before heading out to Ha Long Bay. We had meant to buy some before we left, but, well, things happen. And so we found ourselves searching for something festive that didn't say Happy New Year on it. We failed. The best we could do was steal some ribbon off of a Christmas display and loosely attach it to a conical hat. Sure it's a little plain looking, but they are everywhere (only the baseball style hat is more common in Vietnam) and they do kind of look like party hats - just a little oversized.
Besides we did look comical.