Cafe Cafe.... Olay Olay

On to the next one,
        As my dear friend Jay-Z once remarked. Week 2 here in Nam and after quite a few wrong turns, bad directions, and hour long detours I can honestly say to you my dear blog buddies that me and Mel are getting the lay of the land (and that's saying something). These mishaps have quite certainly aided in our staying so svelt. We almost always sweat out the entire 97% of our water supply by the end of them. We've managed to find a few cafes to inhabit over the next few weeks where we can blissfully indulge in a latte or a cappacino or an Americano or a.....im getting worked up. I apologize. But honestly, cafe finding is almost a passion of mine. I search my habitat for a chic cafe like a botanist searches the desert plains for a rare species of cacti (plural). I get so much joy from it, the discovery, and the subsequent enjoyment of a beverage (frio or caldo) and a solid chunk of book reading time, it's criminal. Here are some of the jems we quite enjoy: KOTO cafe by the Temple of Literature (finding that one was a realllll doozy), Papa Joe's cafe (on our sojurn to the West Lake), and last but certainly not least (its really our favorite) JOMA CAFE!!! There was one of these babies in Laos as well and our discovery of the one in Vietnam almost knocked our socks off. Happenstance, I swear. Its heaven. And.....just wait for it.....they serve Pumpkin Pie!!
    We just recently had our first weekend and used it to get acquainted with the different distiricts instead of going on a tour outside of the city. Sketched a psuedo-plan out for what we wanted to see. We were taken out to lunch Friday afternoon by our program leaders to a famous spot that serves up all sorts of Vietnamese traditional foods from the North South East and West. It was a glorious lunch, all kinds of delicious tastes and unexpected flavors. Personal favorite was the green mango and seafood salad....spicyyy. We ordered a traditional "soup desert"....ummmm yeahh..... im going to attempt to explain the ingredients, its a little rough. Rice Milk and cream, black jelly worm things, clear jelly worm things, this yellow corn mush, jellied green and red corn kernals, and ice? I uh dont know if I would recommend it but we had to.....When in Nam. The whole lunch for 11 people....mayybee 60 dollars (and we all had drinks) Its dirt cheap out here!
    Afterwards me and Mel searched for "The Four Seasons". Its kind of ugly out here....not much luxury and hey....couldn't we just sit in the lobby and soak in some morsels of richness for free? We thought so, but it turns out that its not really the "Four Seasons Hotel and Resort" It was a community pool. Wah Wah Wah. At least we rounded off the day at Illy cafe with a cappacino. Illy is my favorite (Italian) brand of coffee. I had it several times in Firenze and the cafe here is on the 5th story of a building overlooking Hoan Kiem Lake in the Old Quarter. I put on my ipod and looking out over the city finally felt my first moments of peacefulness. And folks, I think thats really what it takes for me to truly feel comfertable in a new place. Just a spoonful of tranquility makes the alien city go down. Click.
    Me and Mel have inacted an in room gym routine every night, just a set of legs arms and abs, no big, but I will divulge (for your entertainment, because I'm sure you'll laugh when you picture it in your thinker) that one set of "legs" the other night was a minute of jumping to Motley Crue's Kick Start My Heart. We know how to have fun.....
    Friday night we went out for the first time to Le Pub, our fellow Volunteer's favorite watering hole. I hope to try each Asian beer while out here....I've gotten 3 so far (La Rue, Halida, Hanoi). We taught our group how to play up chickens down chickens and the American tradition of "icing" a pal which was later put into action (they have to learn somehow right?). And I have to hand it to them.....we woke up this morning and opened the door only to find a little bottle of Smirnoff Ice sitting outside our door. Good Morning!  We met a large group of Aussies that night and joined forces. They're all here doing residency at a local hospital for 2 months. One of them looked like Pau Gasol's cousin and another a mix of Mark Zuckerberg and Matt Repacz.Very friendly bunch I'm sure we'll run into more than once while we're here. We all left Le Pub and went to the Funky Buddah. If you like nicotine....this is the place for you. Like an opium den....but with nicotine. More C10H14N2 than 02 in the place(my eyes they burnedddd and I walked out with a new fragrance: eau de tabacco)  It was a club of locals and a few froeigners....underground sort of, loud house music, and flashing laser lights. We didnt last long though and called it quits after an hour.
     Saturday we walked up to Hanoi's largest Lake, West Lake, got coffee, explored some of the nicer hotels in the area and took a toxic cab ride that left us both high from the fumes. The thing about it is....we've yet to have a smooth day out here. Sooner or later something distasteful presents itself to us whether it be a roasted dog, a man throwing up in front of us, toxic fumes in our cab, the plucking of a freshly killed chicken, you get it. We got a lovely manicure for 5 dollars down the street Sunday and saw a movie, M Night Shamlyan's Devil (one of those you know its going to happen but its just a matter of when scary films). And Monday.....we played hooky from volunteering. Woops.We booked a tour for Halong Bay this weekend.....You can't wait? The anticipation is tangible....

Love to my little nuggets,
King