O Hai, Hanoi!

I arrived in Hanoi last Thursday, after a would-be grueling twenty-six hours in transit. Thankfully, due to the glorious hospitality of Singapore Airlines (my dream-significant other objectified, or corpafied, rather) and the shining entertainment transit mecca that is the Singapore airport, my trip was pleasant and thoroughly tolerable.


The rooftop sunflower terrace for your relaxation and enjoyment at the Singapore airport.

I’ve been wanting to visit Hanoi for a while, as I’ve only heard wonderful things about the city from everyone I know who has been there. It did not disappoint. To me it was part Palermo, Sicily with its bustling markets and Catholic cathedrals, part French Concession, Shanghai with its wide boulevards and colonial architecture, and wholly unique. It is a fast-paced, dizzying city that charmed me instantly.

One of my favorite aspects of Hanoi was the over-abundance of food everywhere. My first night there I was completely exhausted from my travels, but was nonetheless still able to stumble out of the romantic courtyard of my guest house (the lovely Hotel des Artistes, a part of the Hanoi Cinemathique), and onto the busy street of Hai Ba Trung. There I discovered no less than 4 stations of street food within a 5 foot radius. I squatted down on the closest plastic stool I could find and was immediately presented with a steaming bowl of beef pho for my pre-bedtime snack. I think it cost around 25 cents, which is enough to buy maybe some air back home.

The famous Vietnamese sandwich- bahn mi.

Hanoi is also one of the only places that I have visited where I have felt almost paralyzingly disjointed. I owe it in most part to the language barrier, for none that I knew, nor my pathetic attempts at Vietnamese, got me anywhere near as far as my big dumb grin and a spectacle of charades-like hand motions.

Apparently my out-of-placeness was quite obvious. Even my friend Jake, who is tall, blonde, and basically looks like a Viking, noticed the frequency of staring contest challenges directed towards me. My hopes to blend in soon faded, and the realization quickly sunk in that I will always, for whatever reason, be a walking freakshow in Asia.


Hoan Kiem Lake at dusk is sheer perfection.


Hanoi: a study in historisis. Every street specializes in selling or doing something specific, like the stuffed animal street where I found this cuddly store.


The paper district in the Old Quarter.


Just taking a stroll through the Temple of Literature, the most luxuriously fitting place to read a book. Ever.

To be fair...

I suppose the title of this blog is not wholly accurate for this is, somewhat reluctantly, a travel blog(ue). The reluctance was heightened by a comment from a certain blonde Rusophile friend of mine made right before I left-- "Just don't, you know, write one of those blogs," complete with eye-rolling sound effects that could be heard over the cellular phone. Point taken, and I think we all know what she means. However the fact remains that I will be living and working in a foreign land for the next four months, and this blog will be an outlet for my thoughts--not my thoughts representing Kiva, and not my (bountiful) thoughts on food. Just my thoughts, period. Provided freely and without having to clog anyone’s inbox (though I might still do that).

So why am I way over yonder in Cambodia, you ask? After seven long years, I decided it was time to take a break from New York and see some other cities while I am still young. We’ve been through a hell of a lot, but sometimes a relationship can get stagnant, and each year begins to bleed indistinguishably into the last or the next. I’m fairly certain that I will always go back to New York. After all, it is the only place that I’ve ever felt truly at home. But for now, I will be spending my time working in and preparing for a field that I am tremendously passionate and excited about: social entrepreneurship.

In Cambodia, I will be a Kiva fellow working with the Cambodian microfinance institution CREDIT. I only started on Thursday, but already I know I am truly lucky to get to work with some really wonderful, fun, talented, and dedicated people. I also learned that CREDIT is a Christian organization, which would explain why at 4:30 p.m. each Friday all the staff gathers in the lobby for “devotion.” I’m doubly lucky that they let a pagan like me work there.

After my time at CREDIT, I will do some traveling in the region before meeting the rest of the Pei clan in Taipei to surprise grandmamma Pei for her big 9-0 (shhh!!). Then I will make my merry way back to the States for biznass skewel.

So there you have it, the raison d’etre, kind of, of this non-travelblogue blog. Please enjoy very much and thank you.