My First Ten Days in Hanoi

So I've been here in Hanoi for 10 days, and besides having my shirt drenched in sweat after being outside for 15 minutes, Vietnam is quickly becoming one of my favorite countries.

So far, I’ve taken a tour outside of the city to Ninh Binh and have another trip planned to Ha Long Bay in a couple of weeks. In the city, I visited the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long—a UNESCO World Heritage site—and saw the temple on an island in the middle of Hoàn Kiếm Lake. I'm also trying to plan a trip to a nearby ancient village called Duong Lam, but this time without a tour group. There are still a ton of things left on my list, and most of them are pretty close to my apartment. Between exploring, remote work, and building this website, I think I'll be staying plenty busy these next couple of months.

Another project I’ve been working on—but have temporarily put on hold while building this site—is uploading some of the thousands of pictures I have to a stock photo website for a little beer money. The extra cash would be nice, but I also think it would just be cool to know my pictures are good enough for someone to actually pay money for. I actually sold my first one last week. Made $0.53! I only have a hundred or so on there right now, but I think once I get that number up to a thousand and keep adding a fresh batch after every stop, it might turn into a decent passive income stream. It is definitely labor-intensive at first, though. You have to load them all up, write a title, and come up with as many good keywords as you can for every single image.

Finally, let's talk about the food here. Although it would probably scare off a lot of picky eaters, I absolutely love it. And there are SO many choices; I haven't eaten at the same place twice. I'm also getting the hang of chopsticks much better than I thought I would. Still, my apologies to the fine Vietnamese folks, but a fork is simply the superior eating utensil. You guys should really embrace the new technologies.

Here is a little gallery of some of the dishes I have had so far:

Bánh Cuốn- It was chicken wrapped in thin rice sheets

Spring rolls with some sticky rice noodles and BOMB ASS dipping sauce. Also had some tra da, which is just iced green tea

Hột Vịt Lộn (Balut Soup) - It was fertilized duck eggs. Not much to look at but pretty good. It was like a boiled egg but a little more rubbery. It wasn't crunchy with bones or beaks at all.

Bún Chả Hanoi - Pork and rice dipping sauce. It was meh, but if you look close you will see a FORK, first place I have been to that had those!

Not sure what it is called but that dark brick was congealed blood curd. Scary name, but it tasted ok. I'd eat it again but not go out of my way to find it.

Egg Coffee. If you like egg nog you'll like this. Similar but different.

Xôi Xéo- Sticky rice, pork and topped with an egg. This was a good breakfast.

She is preparing me some durian. Before I got here I heard it smelled awful. Now it doesn't smell great but it isn't as overpowering as I heard it was. Smells literally like a foot. If you keep it in your fridge it you WILL smell it as soon as you open the door, I know from experience. But it is good, it is sweet, best way to describe it is like custard.