Hanoi Ridazz

Many of you by now have heard of Critical Mass, those raucous bike rides all over the country where cyclists try to take back their urban streets. I don't need to mention that those streets were never really made for bicyclist in the first place. So, what ensued was years of ill-feelings between motorists and these seemingly anarchistic folks on human powered machines. In fact, this political battle is still being waged out in many cities, even the ones that are "bike friendly".

Anyway, Hanoi is not one of these "bike friendly" cities. Not even close. Actually in the pavement food chain, those on bicycles are like plankton-insignificant fodder. Motorbikes are on the next rung up, then taxis, private cars, buses and then construction vehicles. As you can see, the bigger your mode of transportation the less respect you have on those smaller.

So, it's best to watch out, be defensive and literally "roll with it". That's what the original pioneers of LA's Midnight Ridazz did when they began their first-Friday bike rides. They started way after rush hour when the streets have died down of traffic and rode around for fun. The stops were either food or alcohol related. What began as a small group of close-knit friends grew to monthly rides averaging 1,000 people!

This is one of many things that I miss about LA. And that is why I started Hanoi's own Midnight Ridazz calling it Hanoi Ridazz-to have a fun time with friends riding around on our bikes. Here is a map of our first ride on March 12th, 2010:

This was also info on one side of the spoke card and this below was the info on the opposite side:

As you can see from the map the ride took us thru some of the more scenic highlights of Hanoi. We began at the Opera House then rode by the Lenin Statue and Flag Tower, by the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, up to West Lake, next to the Citadel, thru the Old Quarter, around Hoan Kiem Lake twice and then down thru the center of town to Thien Quang Lake. 

We stopped for "refreshments" twice-once on Truc Bac Lake and then at Thien Quang Lake. Actually it was a BYOB affair all provided by Luke and Kristi. While Luke drove his Big Dummy Extracycle, Kristi sat on the back passing out beers to everyone riding along with us and to a few motorbikers.

The night was cool and humid, and as we pedaled thru the streets we were warmed by the slight effort and by each others company. Here are shots of our crew that night on the initial Hanoi Ridazz ride.

Meeting in front of the Hanoi Opera House. This is Luke and his Extracycle.

Hien came kitted up in his roadie outfit and his very new Cannondale road bike.

Riding thru the streets with Kristi passing out beers. If you knew of the lawlessness here in Hanoi, drinking a beer while riding a bicycle is very tamed by comparison.

And, how about this for a motlie crew?

That's Erin, Mandy, Me, Wolfram and Andreas. And this is the entire group.

We plan to do this every second Friday of the month, so join us if you can.

Tet-Year of the Tiger, part 2

The countryside however is teaming with motorbikes. Since public and private buses for the most part are on holiday too, it is much easier to take one’s motorbike home. Here is a little video I shot as my cousin and I were making our way to our hometown in the countryside west of Saigon. Notice the other newly urbanized Vietnamese also going back home loaded with gifts for their family.

Going Home from Linh Nguyen on Vimeo.

This video is of us going further into the canals of the delta to a relative’s orchard for Tet lunch. My Aunt and Uncle are here with their two daughters, my cousins, and son in laws as well as their grandson.  My Dad is here too.

Going to Tet Lunch from Linh Nguyen on Vimeo.


All in all it was a very fun experience eating and visiting with my family. The last time I was in Vietnam for Tet was 1975.....It's been a long journey home!

Saigon Tet from Linh Nguyen on Vimeo.

This last video is of festive Saigon on the second night of Tet-the Year of the Tiger.
However last year was for all of us, may the New Year bring us all a new prosperity and find us in good health.

Tet-Year of the Tiger, part 1

Tet is a very auspicious time for Vietnamese. This culture is steeped in superstition and reverence for the past, so a chance to do right and start anew is taken very seriously. 

In preparing for the New Year, flowers and good luck ornaments cover the entire country, from city to countryside. Yellow flowers of Hoa Mai, cherry blossoms and kumquat trees are for sale everywhere. It is not just tradition to go out and look at these temporary orchards, but it is also mandatory to purchase one for decorating your house in welcoming good fortune for the New Year.

These are photos of the flower market in Da Nang. (I stopped off here and Hoi An on my way south to wish my friends a Happy New Year.)

Here is picture of my buddy Frank, a fellow Hanoian on vacation in the south, at the New Year Flower Festival in downtown Saigon, being like other Vietnamese celebrating the Year of the Tiger.

Another tradition. and a recent tradition at that, is making ones way home for Tet. What I mean by a recent one is that urbanization is a relatively new phenomenon for Vietnam. When I first came back 13 years ago, the population was 70% rural. Now it’s more like 40-50% urban. Check out how empty the streets of Saigon and Hanoi are during the week of Tet.

I was thinking that Saigon was the most livable I had ever seen it-hardly any traffic, you could stroll on the sidewalks and there was a cool breeze at night. The temperature was only hot enough to make it two-showers per day as opposed to four-showers during the summer.

To be continued.....

Maratet

Right before Tet, the Lunar New Year, a couple good friends organized an all day scavenger hunt, to get us all into the spirit of Tet. It was to be teams of two going around the city collecting pictures from a list that would prove difficult, to say the least. Only one team out of 40 completed the task with some shenangans.

We were to take a picture of a live tiger, to commemorate the Year of the Tiger. Since the event took place on the day when the Kitchen Gods give heaven reports of how good each and everyone of us were that past year, we had to document this as well. This came to form thru the burning of effigy or of the releasing of gold fish into a body of water. Also, we had to get a picture of Ong Do, a calligrapher, who this time of year is found all over the city painting black ink onto red canvases words of wisdom for the New Year. There was even a picture that we needed to take with a long haired Vietnamese man, a tourist, a shoe shine boy AND a girl on her Vespa. This was the hardest! But a few teams did manage, one by chance and one by pure group organizational skills. We had to translate a Vietnamese poem about the New Year and record a New Year story told by a native Hanoian. Here are couple of those pictures from our team, which was a threesome, made up of Kim-on the right, for the morning shift and Mandy for the afternoon trip. We decided to ride bikes the entire day.

This took us all over the city. Kim and I rode north over the Long Bien Bridge to look for a picture of Uncle Ho then we went west to the zoo to look for the tiger. But neither trips were successful so we had lunch with Daria, who was leaving for Switzerland-her home, for vacation. Next we rode over to the Temple of Literature for pictures of the Calligraphers. For the spirit of the Kitchen Gods we went back east to Hoan Kiem Lake. Then Kim had to head off for a work party and Mandy rode over to take her place. With Mandy, I rode all over the backpacking section of the Old Quarter looking for room 23, with no avail. Lastly, we heard that somewhere up north there is a place where lovers paint love notes to each other on a long stretch of wall overlooking West Lake. So, we circumnavigate the lake on our bikes in search of the most illusive point of interest on the list-an I love U stencil.  But this too deemed too difficult. 20+ kilometers later we found ourselves at the closing party for this Maratet-marathon Tet, event.

Maratet from Linh Nguyen on Vimeo.

In the end we had eight of the 11 tasks completed, rode 45 kilometers, drank about 4 cups of coffee at various places in the city, saw the zoo for the first time, rode over Long Bien Bridge for the first time and rode around West Lake for the first time....And yes! By the end I was looking forward to Tet-Vietnam's biggest holiday.

Tam Dao

Shortly after the New Year begun I got a chance to go up the mountains just north of the city. A good friend of mine designed and built a beautiful house set into the hillside of this Hanoian mountain retreat and a few of us motorbiked up to get some mountain air, to start the New Year off on a good note.

Leading this small pack is Duc-bar owner, artist, art patron, journalist and business consultant. Born in South Vietnam, he spent his formative years in Danang and Hue, eventually immigrating to the US. After 16 years there and 16 years traveling the world as a reporter he finally made it back to Vietnam three years ago. This time for good. I'm riding tandem with him and it is to his house that we are visiting.

The other friend riding along side is Frank-Asian bureau chief of AFP, currently visiting from Tokyo where he and his Vietnamese wife and son reside after having have lived here for three years. And because he's lived here in the north, like many of us,  he loves to tour the countryside on motorbikes. His choice is a Bellarussian stalwart Minsk.

Duc on the other hand has a beast of a Russian bike made by a company called Ural. Here they are. Don't they look like a couple of Hell's Angels? LA Rubbies, rich-urban-bikers, wished they looked this cool!

Tam Dao is about 90 kilometers north of Hanoi and it sits almost at 3,000 feet. In the summer it offers quite a respite from the heat in the valley and Duc chose this location for exactly that reason. A couple years ago he bought a piece of land and built a great place where he can come to rest and be inspired. Let's just say he did a really good job. Frank and I were truly inspired.

The property looks down a valley towards the south. Since it's currently winter the hillsides were intermittently shrouded in clouds and blustered by a cool wind. Inside, the house is spaciously designed like a New York loft, but just beyond the floor to ceiling wall of glass you step into a pool with an infinite edge. I'm sure it's great during the hot summer days but I was really glad that inside the big room he had a fireplace. Here we sat getting warm, getting used to the silence and getting Hanoi out of our minds.

Behind the main room is a subterranean courtyard, complete with a koi pond and fire pit. While we waited for another friend, Duc ordered a chicken and we did what men do best. We roasted the chicken in the fire pit, having it as a late lunch/early dinner.

A couple of phone calls and a couple of hours later Dutch arrived on his bike after having ridden 11 hours. Dutch, as David is known, has spent many a days traveling up down the roads of northern Vietnam. A constant traveler, he only works enough so that he can travel. And being based out of Bangkok as an information system consultant, he comes to Vietnam regularly. I was amazed about how much he new of this country and got some great tips on where else I can go to explore.

So the rest of the night and the next day we spent talking about trips taken and places still to visit. Duc expressed that he's finally found a place to call home for a while. Frank is trying to make his way back, saying he is working way too hard and missing Vietnam tremendously. Dutch said all he has to do is check his email when he's back in Hanoi to know if he can stay "in country" a while longer. As for me, if my first days are spent with great friends in a great place like this getting all kinds of special inspirations, I know it's going to be a great year.

Here's a video I shot of our experience.

Tam Dao from Linh Nguyen on Vimeo.
 

For more about Duc's place, check out this New York Times article.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/28/greathomesanddestinations/28iht-vietnam.html

Happy New Year

Shortly before the New Year I found this 1966 Vespa and couldn't pass it up. It is a little bit of a cliche for an expat to be driving these, given that nostalgia and all that is what brought us back. But, if you know me, vintage Italian or vintage whatever has always been akin to my heart. And, I've been following my heart quite a bit lately. In doing so, I experienced extreme highs and the lowest of lows this past year.

Finally realizing my dream of moving back here was one of those extreme highs. Selling off most of my belongs and moving out of my apartment was really sad but then attending all of those going away parties with all of my friends more than made up for it. I was even lucky enough to spend time with my nieces in Tuoloumne Meadows-one of our favorite places in our little world, before moving over.

On the day that I flew out though, I heard about the passing of my good friend John Bachar. John was a mentor who fully supported this transition and one that I very much looked forward to sharing this new experience with. Luckily my last conversation with him was one of those highs. He was overflowing with compliments and well wishes as we said our goodbyes, knowing that it would be a while before we saw each other but not knowing that we never would again. I've been missing him tremendously the last half of 2009.

Which brings us back to this blog, or whatever you want to call it. This is what I've been doing the last six months-running around the north of Vietnam with all my friends, new and old alike. Living the dream as my good buddy Brad always says. I've been on three motorbike tours, four Ha Long Bay climbing trips, three Hoi An visits and one Ninh Binh recon mission. All along the way there was great food. I've gotten to know Hanoi really well and have made some new really good friends. This was all expected and welcomed.

What I also knew would happen but was not looking forward to was the passing of my Mom, making it my lowest moment of the year. (see the posting....Tin Buon.)

As for the New Year, I've got great adventures planned again. I promise to write more about my life in Hanoi to give you a more detailed, insider's view of the place. I promise to introduce you to all my friends here too. I have to start working again this year so I'll let you know how that goes. Oh yeah! I'll let you know about Tet in Vietnam, which will take me back to my home town in the South. A place I haven't been to yet since coming back to Vietnam. And Tet is the Vietnamese New Year. Luckily for me, if I cannot make a good go of it in the Gregorian New Year, I have a chance to start up again in the Lunar New Year.

One thing for sure, I will accept the ups and the downs as gracefully as I did in 2009.

Hue and Hai Van Pass

These are two places that I haven't visited in quite a while-something like 3 or 4 years. And, Hue was where the overnight train led us.

Hue is one of Vietnam's ancient capitals serving as its imperial seat since the early 1800's. Here a citadel was built containing the Purple City-Vietnam's version of the Forbidden City. Also, the countryside surrounding the town is speckled with temples and mausoleums. The later of which either pays tribute to one of the emperors or serves as another's resting place. These, and taking a boat tour of the Perfume River, are the tourist attractions. When I was last here I signed up for the King's Mausoleum tour and found it rather enjoyable.

But this time I figured it would be more fun to get a map, rent motorbikes and tour these sites ourselves, with the opportunity to get lost and engage with the locals being the added bonus. Here is a little of that scenery. The highlight of which was one of the river crossings where the local ferry/boat, transported the lot of us and our motorbikes across the Perfume River. (The music is by Charlie Yoon.)


Hue 12/09 from Linh Nguyen on Vimeo.

The weather was perfect-nice and moderate during the day and warm at night. We spent most of our time off the motorbikes walking around the city down near the parks that line the riverbanks.  As Joel and Jorge were fond of saying, "this place is so romantic!"

Equally romantic was Hai Van Pass, down above the city of Danang.  A place that I've often referred to as the Big Sur of Vietnam. The Pass is, to quote Jeremy Clarkson of Top Gear, "a ribbon of perfection" winding its way above the hills overlooking the South China Sea.

At one time this was the only way to travel to the north from the south and vice versa, over the Truong Son Mountains, as I found on my first trip back in 1996.  It was a treacherous journey for all tourist buses and semi-trucks alike because Vietnamese drivers are not known for their patience of standing in line, any line. Now they've built a 3 kilometer tunnel  thru the mountain leaving the Hai Van Pass road nearly deserted but for a few tour buses, locals and adventure seekers like us. Check it out.


Hai Van Pass from Linh Nguyen on Vimeo.

We left Hoi An around 10:30 am after a night of drinking where Joel and Ric preceded to take over the bar of a local restaurant making drinks for everyone, including the other guests. 10:30 was a little late by my estimates but we braved on making it back to the outskirts of Hoi An as darkness fell.

This map shows our route thru Danang, a critical navigational tool if you were make the trip yourselves. We kind of weaved and bop our way thru the up-and-coming metropolis on the way out and found the much easier path on the return.

If you're traveling thru Vietnam and do make it down to the Central region, do visit Hue's monuments and do opt for a drive over Hai Van Pass, whether it be on a tour bus or rented motorbike.