Tripping Out Alone

The evening with Lilli could not have been finer, she is an excellent cook, serves a beautiful meal with delicious wine and is a great host..she inspired me, as did her home and her kitchen implements! The next morning I was off at six am through the already bustling streets in a taxi to the airport. Check in was fine, plane arrived on time, sat next to a lovely man, a teacher from Belgium, who made me focus less on the stress of the connecting flight..which despite the luggage taking ages and getting into a bit of panic I made in plenty of time. Bella exhausted and happy was there too and we boarded our flight, as planned all along, to return to Bali after our individual adventures. We were headed straight for the taxi booth when the open arms of Stuart embraced us both and before we knew what was happening we were being chaperoned out of the chaos of the airport, into his car and off to dinner at Kaizan! A fine welcome home indeed, only to be almost matched by the sheer excitement of

Last evening in Hanoi, or so I thought.. I happily took off for my last evening in this beautiful city, taking in the lake at sunset, St Joseph's Cathedral, a great revolutionary poster shop and figured to drop in La Place which has a great write up in the LP..but no atmosphere, not great service but fantastic floors! This is a long story and I'll try to make it short. I ordered a snack and a drink and shortly a man sat nearby, an Australian, who wanted to know too much about the beer he was ordering, so we struck up a conversation. I thought he was weird, and also he complained a lot, and then he launched into a talk about hookers, pedophiles and all the sleazy aspects of life..he was actually a lawyer. I decided not to entertain him for long and quickly finished up and left. Thinking to myself about how people create their own experiences, and considering the lady at breakfast who when arriving to find no breakfast berated the hotel, where when I arrived, I apologized for bei

But hardly manic, with a beautiful day planned of leafy streets and breezes off the lake and a final good bye to Hanoi. I went out for breakfast at Restaurant Five, highly recommended in everything, and rightly so, I watched the world go by and bathed in sensation of having completion..tripping out alone is very pleasant..you miss a few things, like going into bars and having midnight adventures, but you also gain things, like a sense of complete freedom and ability to follow random or instinctual whims. My waitress at Five was lovely, and when she gave me the bill it had, as you often see, the name of the waitress noted on it, the dear girl was called Miss Bich,what a great name! And I like the street names, Hang Be, Hang Bac, Hang Boum, I could get used to them. Hang Be is a great street with good cafes and a leafy aspect yet so many streets in the Old Quarter are like this, evocative, full of a grimy charm and gritty reality with a whole swathe of romance in the air.. Street life on

After dripping through the markets and little lanes ways of Sunday Old Quarter in the heat and narrowly missing walking into the most giant Rolls Royce coming down Hang Boum Street I found myself laden with 'stuff' and feeling hungry. I checked the parcels back into the Hotel and wandered to Hang Be to find the Green Tangerine again. I passed the headstones shop..not not a shop for heads or stoners but a real head stone for dead people shop, and was a little alarmed to see a head stone with a picture of Britney Spears in its centre..a little premature one hopes. Despite her troubles she seems not yet worthy of a head stone plaque. I entered The Green Tangerine and was immediately soothed, it was two and I had been up and about in the heat of the day with only one break getting the Christmas shopping done..so to sit in the pale greenery of the dining room and just feel like time could dissolve was wonderful.. This day I chose a duck confit and salad with grapefruit and a ra

Just another manic Sunday wow ah wow... ( Should be Monday ) Where the streets have no name... ( not ones I can pronounce anyway) Everyday is like Sunday..(but none of it is silent or grey) Bras Attacks..

I have two more days in this wonderful country before heading back to Bali via a night in KL and meeting Kepsibel..It is going to be a little sad to leave this traveling cocoon I have created for myself. Self directed, self disciplined, self-regulated, self-raising and self absorbed! Despite my trepidation at traveling alone, I find I have really enjoyed it, thoroughly enjoyed it and amused myself by being by myself..and observing how annoyed I get with myself at times too, and with no one else to be annoyed with I just annoy myself.. Why can I NEVER find anything in my bag? Why I give myself such a hard time about things that really don't matter? Why do I pack clothes to wear and then decide I don't like them? Why even though I check before leaving do I think I have left something in the cab? but on the other hand.. I get to be nocturnal when I want , an early riser when I want, eat when I want, never stop walking: Photograph anything I chose: Take pleasure in the unusual for

I went to meet Lilli at the Vin Com Towers and had a bit of a check around to start with, Vin Com is Hanoi's newest shopping plaza, and people do love it, it has the Megaplex, great cinemas and a bunch of name brand shops, but no real 'core'. Lilli met me at Highland Coffee but we didn't stay there, instead we chose more genteel surroundings for our afternoon tea..the gorgeous Metropole Hotel, the most beautiful hotel building in Hanoi, with a glass conservatory that is the setting for afternoon serving. They have a chocolate buffet, if you wish , all you can eat chocolate served in exquisite morsels..but we declined and instead opted to share an afternoon tea of petite sandwiches, fruits and teeny weeny delicious cakes, and because it must be a Sofitel, their famous macaroons in miniature..Lilli made a real iced coffee and I had Darjeeling and we spent over an hour having, what I consider , perfect afternoon tea conversation..that is discussing destinations, Lilli rece