Another Fine Way

Wow, what a year huh?

I’ve been in Hanoi for a while. A big part of the appeal was having an actual winter. It gets “cold” here- while daily highs can be up around 24C/75F some days it can be highs of 12C/55C other days. Which suits me just fine, I’d definitely missed experiencing weather other than crazy hot and humid every day.

I was reading my first Vietnam entry and it was funny to see how freaked out I was by the traffic, and how normal it seems now. First thing I did when I got to Hanoi - or anywhere else here now- is rent a motorbike, and the idea of not having one feels about as alien as not driving a car if I’m back in California.

Anyway, I dig Hanoi, you get some really different vibes in different area. The header image is from the “Old Quarter” which is pretty much the first place you’d want to go for sightseeing, and it’s where you see the kind of Hanoi you might expect in your mind’s eye.

Where I’ve been staying though is a neighborhood called “Westlake” or “Tay Ho”. It’s less congested, a bit quieter, and it’s where lots of foreigners like to live. I find the pace there pretty relaxed, it’s easy enough to hop on the bike for fifteen minutes to experience the bustling atmosphere of the Old Quarter if that’s what I want.

If you look at the map you can see that a lot of the Westlake district kind of extends “into” the lake which gives it this kind of remote and secluded vibe in a way which I dig, and the path is great for daily running.

Hello World- yeah, I’m still here. Realized I hadn’t made a post in quite a while. Since March, actually. Remember March 2020? Hard to believe that was less than a year ago, eh?

And also, it’s been a year since my first entry, which marked the beginning of this journey. My plan was to become a “digital nomad” but it turned out that I’ve mostly been a “digital stay-in-one-country-mad” instead. But, I can’t complain. Vietnam rocks, and thankfully we’ve pretty much kicked the virus quite a while ago, so life is pretty much back to normal here.

They’re not letting anyone into the country anytime soon, nor are the countries that would be next on my list planning to open up anytime soon either. So I’ll probably be here for several months to come.

Spent a few months in Da Nang. The place is great. You get the “big” city stuff and you get the beach, and you get easy day trips out into nature. It’s “1.1 million people” big instead of the “9 million people” big of Saigon which does make a world of difference.

Renting a motorbike has made all the difference. After taking courses and getting my license back in the States around New Years, I waited until moving to Da Nang to rent a bike because Saigon traffic scared the bejeezus out of me. But now, back in Saigon for a few weeks, got pretty used to traffic, and the city is just so much more enjoyable when you’re free to explore it in that way.

Next up: Hanoi. The climate looks execellent, similar to HK’s in the winter. Not sweating just from going outside sounds swell! And I’m curious how different it is from the other cities I’ve seen so far.

I’d been meaning to post a more general overview of impressions of Saigon, a place I’ve grown quite fond of. But for now, it seems appropriate share an update on where the current global crisis has found me for anyone out there who might be wondering.

A few days ago, the US State Department told Americans overseas to “arrange for immediate return to the United States, unless they are prepared to remain abroad for an indefinite period.”

I’ve decided to go with the latter option. I’m not thrilled about the idea of getting on a plane right now, and if I’m back in the States I’m either a significant risk vector for folks there, especially my parents- or else I don’t see them, which renders moot a lot of the reasons to go back. I also realized that getting even a barebones health insurance policy while I’m there would cost about two-thirds what I’m currently paying in rent (my current insurance covers me here, but only for a max of 15 consecutive days in the USA.)

Meanwhile, with only around 100 confirmed cases here in Vietnam so far, and life being- if not quite “normal,” certainly a lot closer to “normal” than it is most places- I’ve decided to stay where I am.

This is where I’m staying. It’s a nice cozy apartment, in District 1 but a bit away from the bustling backpacker street. Across the street from a park I can see from my balcony.

It’s got a desk that’s nice for working. I still need to get out and go to a coffee shop to work every now and then or I’ll go nuts. Coffee shops and stuff are often still open, though mostly they close around 6 PM or so.

Right now I face the same uncertainties as most people do, and those are compounded by being in a foreign land. But I’ve got enough resources to stay here for the foreseeable future, so I’m grateful to be in the position I’m in overall.

Hope you all are staying safe out there.

“And now for something completely different.” Saigon. Vietnam. It’s been a while since I’ve been in a country I’ve never been in before.

Recently I’d been watching a video of a lecture from a university course on “Personality” in which the lecturer talks about how we first see things as what they mean to us before we see them as objects. For example, we see “thing to eat” before we see “sandwich”, “monster” before “car that might hit us.” “thing to climb on” before ladder, and so forth.

Arriving here made that clearer than ever. I arrived, and I couldn’t see much. I could just see: chaos.

It seems an obligatory thing to do for a new arrival here to take a movie of some traffic because it’s just so crazy. The amount of honking you hear is so constant as to be comical.

I’ve been here about three days now. I have various accomplishments under my belt such as: feeling reasonably comfortable crossing the street. Know where to get food. Know how to walk around. That’s about where I set the bar for my first day and a half in a place that’s completely new.

Now, onto such things as, looking for a serviced apartment to stay for a couple months. And so it goes.

Also, the food here is great. And cheap.

I’ve arrived near the Tet holidays- Lunar New Year. It’s the year of the rat. I’ll see people on bikes carring myriads of flowers. Folks dressed up. gift baskets with snacks on sale. Hopefully it doesn’t make it too hard to look at serviced apartments. We’ll see.

Before this it was a nice ~3 week visit back home in the States. First time I’d been back in winter for quite some time.

Such a different experience than now. Hard to even know what to say about it.

Feels a bit like taking yourself apart and putting yourself back together again. It’s hard, but it’s hard in a way that I like.

Ah, Lanta. I’ll be living here for nearly two months. Among other things, this is where I start really working. Except this time, I’m working for myself, creating a business from scratch.

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