Best Head Ever

Do It Yourself Bloody Mary for Breakfast

Bee Hive Honey for Breakfast

Organic Garden for the Hotel

Hoi An's Answer to Grand Central Market

Egg Man

Classic Photo

Overlooking the River

River at Sunset

Hoi An at Night

After breakfast we went back for another 90 minute massage. For whatever reason the massage ended with what I would estimate 30 minutes just massaging my head. It was amazing. I never wanted it to end. Cathy and I left blissed out.

The hotel is self-sustaining with a huge organic garden. We walked through the garden looking at all of the vegetables and herbs. It is beautifully laid out, and planted so that fresh vegetables are always coming into season. We probably saw a dozen people working in the garden.

We then returned to the city of Hoi An and it was easy for us to navigate on our own. The central market was huge, with everything you would expect, meats, fish and vegetables. Our favorite was an area that was the Hoi An version of Grand Central Market in Los Angeles. There were all kinds of food stands.

We returned to the hotel for cocktails and dinner. Tomorrow we sadly leave and head to the Imperial City of Hue stopping on the way at some ancient My Son Champas ruins.

Getting Pampered

Biking through Hoi An

Our Beach

Chop Stick Selection at Dinner

Martini Time

Fried Rice with Egg Noodle and Shrimp

Suckling Pig with Crispy Skin

Creme Brule with Coconut Ice Cream

We hardly left the Nam Hai today. After breakfast we had 90 minute massages and facials. We could get used to this. We borrowed some bikes and went for a long ride. Thankfully Vietnam in this area is flat. Upon returning from biking we read by the pool. This is a very different and enjoyable experience for us. We are just hanging around getting pampered. The food here is delicious. Before dinner a server brings over a box offering you a selection of chopsticks. That was a choice I had never been offered before. Now that I think of it back at the Metropole Hotel, in Hanoi, just inside the dining room, there was a large display of chopsticks that were engraved with peoples name. Perhaps there is more to chopsticks in Vietnam that I need to research. I had a wonderful Suckling Pig for dinner, will have it again tomorrow night it was so good. We enjoyed talking to the waitstaff. We bring up Communism and living under it, but it is clear they don’t feel comfortable talking about it.

Tomorrow is another day just hanging out here, more massages, more bike rides more reading. We then will resume out tour. I am not sure I want to leave here it is so nice.

Hoi An

Woman in Hoi An

Rice Paddies

Spring Roll

Grilled Eggplant

My First Real Bahn Me

What must be the World's Smallest Apple Store

The Nam Hai our home for next 3 nights

Pools at Night

Vietnamese Style Lobster

We sadly left the Hotel Metropole. We will be returning to it after our visit to the Central Highlands of Vietnam. We are constantly amazed at the infrastructure in Vietnam. Before we left for Vietnam I was wondering if I would even have wifi available. The infrastructure here is far better than in India. The roads are all great, new airports everywhere we have been. Internet is ubiquitous. I had a completely wrong impression about Vietnam. One very happy misconception I had is there are have been no mosquitoes - meaning no fear of malaria.

The flight south from Hanoi to Danang took 1 hour. The topology changes to much more mountainous with warmer weather. Apparently we lucked out, it had been raining but now the rains are have ceased. We weren’t staying in Danang, just using its airport to then drive to the ancient city of Hoi An. The beaches between Danang and Hoi An are spectacular, white sand, coconut palm trees beautiful waves. If you remember Coppola’s movie Apocalypse now and the surfing scene, it looks like that.

Hoi An is an old trading town that is very small. It is situated on the river and is now a Unesco World Heritage Site. The old town, was settled by successive waves of Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, French and Vietnamese. The old houses are very dark, narrow and exit onto the river, so that the traders could get their merchandise from the boats plying the water. The streets are narrow with interesting architectural houses and old temples. Unfortunately this has become a tourist destination (we plead guilty) and there are a lot of tee-shirt shops and gimmicky stores. If you walk down the street and avoid the first floor schlock, the houses are beautiful.

We had lunch in the old part of Hoi An, and I had my first authentic, made in Vietnam Bahn Me Sandwich. The key to a Bahn Me sandwich is, of course, the quality of the baguette. This one was excellent. This brings me to the question of colonization. Without trying to be too cute about it the French did bring to Indo-China: Great bread and pastries, fabulous coffee, wine, French food and cute accents. By the way I never realized the obvious: the area of Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam was called Indo-China because these countries are between India and China. Thailand is also between the two-behemoth countries, but because it was more unified and had a wise King, he was able to play the British off against the French and visa-versa and the country never became anyone’s colony.

After visiting Hoi An, we drove to our home for the next 3 nights, the Nam Hai. This is a super beautiful resort. It set on the sea and is decorated perfectly. This is definitely one of those Architectural Digest sort of places. The lighting at night is spectacular, the pools are enormous, and the help only wants to please you. Our Villa sits directly on the beach.

I created a short video, of our Villa. You can watch it here: Villa.

We ate dinner outdoors underneath the stars, with the waves crashing at the shoreline. We could get used to this. We met the chef at a cocktail party before dinner and he said he would arrange some special events for us over the next few days. We hope he pulls through.

Ho Chi Minh in Hanoi

Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum 

Gates to the 1st University in Vietnam

Could we be related?

John McCain was shot down here

Walking in the Old Town

Street Food

Beer Can Offering at the Temple

Door Man at the Metropole (have you seen Grand Budapest Hotel?)

I awakened early and went to the park at 6am to watch the people exercise. It was a delight to see. Some people were playing badminton, others were doing T’ai Chi and to me the most special was seeing the hoards of people dancing to recorded music. Some were doing ball room dancing, others were dancing more like an exercise. I strung together a bunch of short movie clips I took and you can watch them here.

Dancing

We spent the day touring Hanoi. The day started with the obligatory trip to see Ho Chi Minh. I can report he is looking a little pale. We had never seen a mummified body under glass before. I think there are only 3. Lenin, Mao and Ho Chi Minh. The body lies in a giant mausoleum. Guards dressed in the finest whites surround the building. They are very serious. There is nothing in side the building except Ho Chi Minh. No inscriptions, no music, no artifacts. You aren’t allowed to talk or take pictures. You simply somberly file through.

In the park where the Mausoleum is located there are the two small houses he lived in. They are adjacent to an underground bunker they went into when the American bombs were being dropped on them.

Our excellent guide reminded us of Vietnamese history. There is much I had forgotten and many things I didn’t know at all. Ho Chi Minh lived outside of Vietnam for considerable periods of his life, Paris, China, Russia and of all places Boston, Massachusetts.

He never married. He wasn’t a warrior he was an intellectual and. According to our guide he never fired a shot. He was the leader.

The history of Vietnam is one of continual warfare both within the country and with its neighbors. During the World War 2, Japan invaded Vietnam. The French who in Europe were fighting the Nazi’s who were Japan’s allies. However in Vietnam the Vichy French Government and the Japanese jointly ruled the country. The Japanese eventually drove the French out. After the Japanese were defeated in 1945 the French returned to take over the country. When the Vietnamese under Ho Chi Minh were successful in driving the French out, at Geneva, the country was split in two. Ho Chi Minh then led the successful war of reunification, defeating the South Vietnamese and the Americans. He did not live to see the end of the war, but died of a heart attack before the war ended. He is revered here.

The Vietnamese have a very strained relationship with the Chinese. Remember Nixon’s trip to China opening up relations between the two countries? The Vietnamese see it in a totally different way. They believe that the Chinese gave Nixon the green light to carpet bomb Vietnam. They see it as a giant sellout of Vietnam by China. After defeating the South Vietnamese and the Americans Vietnam and China went to war. It ended after a month with both countries claiming victory. There are currently territorial disputes with China. In addition, China has deployed a giant oil rig in what the Vietnamese consider there territorial waters. Recently there have been riots in Vietnam against Chinese merchants. It is so bad that the Chinese government does not allow tourists to go from China to Vietnam. They only are getting tourists from Hong Kong and Taiwan.

After visiting Ho Chi Minh, we visited several temples and walked around the old quarter.

Returning to our hotel, we packed our luggage in preparation for our departure tomorrow morning. We then had drinks, I had a massage and then we went to Dinner. We had a long discussion with our waiter about life in Vietnam. He was very nice and actually invited us to his house. We became Facebook friends. It will be interesting hearing from him.

Our guide said that most Vietnamese have Pho (the soup) only for breakfast. I wanted to have a Ban Mee (it spelled many different ways) sandwich. The guide said it is a sandwich for children, adults don’t eat them. Who knew?

A word about the Metropole Hotel. This is the finest hotel in Hanoi. It is the only hotel we have ever stayed in that approaches the lever of quality of the Taj in Mumbai (for our money the best hotel in the world). It is a special place. I am glad we will be returning here in a few days.

We have been totally charmed by Hanoi!

Tomorrow we fly to Da Nang and drive to Hoi An.

From Bangkok to Hanoi

It's Vietnamese New Years

Lake at Night

Communist Hammer and Sickle Flags

Playing Badminton on the Sidewalk

Hotel Pool at Night

Lobster Noodle Soup

Lobster and Pasta with Egg Noodles

Outdoor Dinning at the Metropole

I was excited about the prospect of flying the Air India 787 Dream Liner to Bangkok. We have never before flown on this new Boeing airplane. Once we checked in, Air India provided us with a host that escorted the two of us through all of the Passport Control and Security using expedited lanes. It was extremely efficient. The Dream Liner was a let down for me. I don’t know what I expected but it wasn’t that special. John Carpenter, who last reported in from Dallas on his way home from Mumbai, says there are different configurations of the plane. Air India, not surprisingly doesn’t have the deluxe version.

The Airport in Bangkok was jammed, swarming with passengers. The relatively new airport in Bangkok is a nightmare because the gates are in one long row. If you arrive at an end gate it is a major hike to pickup your luggage and navigate through customs. Unfortunately that is where our plane docked. We definitely got our exercise walking from the gate. Since we were staying overnight, we had to clear Thai Customs and Passport Control to exit. The lines were extremely long. Once again, we used the expedited fast track lanes and quickly exited the airport. I used to think the advantage of Business Class was lie-flat seats, but now I realize in addition to the better seats the expedited boarding and Passport Control lanes are a huge benefit in reducing stress.

The Airport Hotel was convenient for our needs. We had arranged a dinner at Nahm, a restaurant considered the #1 restaurant in Asia. After checking in we immediately grabbed a cab to travel to Central Bangkok to eat at Nahm.

The cab driver quickly convinced us to hire him for the return to the hotel after dinner. There is a freeway that goes almost all of the way from the airport to Central Bangkok. Luckily the freeway gods were with us and the trip was very fast.

I was surprised that when we exited the freeway and took to service streets, I recognized landmarks and where we were. After dinner when we arrived back at our hotel it was 11:30pm and I went for a late night massage at the Hotel Spa, Cathy went to bed.

In the morning, we checked out of the hotel then returned to the crowded airport. Thank god for Fast Track lanes. It has taken us 3 days to travel from Jaipur to Hanoi. Normally it should take 2 days, but Obama’s visit created real chaos. My head is swimming with my task of converting US Dollars to Vietnamese Dong.

It was hard enough with 32 Thai Baht’s to the dollar. In Vietnam they use Dong as there currency. At today’s conversion rate, 1 US Dollar is worth 21,322 Vietnamese Dongs. Good luck to make sure I don’t get screwed in transactions. Let’s see $ 100 US is equal to 2,132,200 Dongs. Wow I hope they have very large domination currency or I will need a wheel barrow of Dongs when we go shopping.

I was eligible for the draft during the Vietnamese War. I was lucky and was able to avoid the army service by staying in college. I well remember protesting against the war. I always considered Kissinger and Nixon war criminals for what they did. I still remember the fabled Domino principal: If Vietnam fell to the Communist all of Asia will would soon fall. We lost and Vietnam quickly went to war against China. So much for Communist solidarity. Vietnam then invaded Cambodia and defeated Pol Pot one of the worse dictators in History. Now your pajamas are probably made in Vietnam. I never, ever thought I would be visiting this country that so dominated my thoughts and action in my college years. Well here we are!

We are staying in Hanoi at the Metropole. This is an old beautiful hotel. The service is on the par with the Taj. Hanoi (at least the part that we have seen) can only be described as extremely charming. The city is big, over 7 million people. The city is immaculate; there is no trash anywhere. The streets are all in beautiful shape. Everyone drives slowly, no honking, it is the opposite of India. During the war the US did not bomb Hanoi proper. They just bombed the bridges leading to it. The old French Colonial architecture is everywhere. The hotel staff although Vietnamese, greet everyone in French. There is lots of money in Hanoi. All the expensive brand names are here. We went for a walk around the neighborhood to one of the many lakes in Hanoi. When you come to a broad boulevard to cross, you simply step out into the traffic. You are totally safe, motorcycles and cars simply slowly drive around you or wait for you to cross.

If only the Vietnamese food we eat in Los Angeles was a good as it is here. Dinner was excellent and it only cost 5,560,000 Dongs. Tomorrow we have a city tour.

From Jaipur to Delhi

Mustard Fields

Not much to report. We left Jaipur and decided to drive to Delhi rather than fly. The drive took 4 hours. To go to the Jaipur Airport, go through security, check in, fly, land, taxi to gate, get our luggage would take longer than 4 hours. We are glad Vijay drove us. We are staying very close to the Delhi Airport. I don't sense any extra security, but the hotel scans your luggage and body pats you before allowing you in the door.

The drive through the Rajasthan desert is mostly on a divided highway, which goes through myriad villages and fields painted yellow with mustard. The mustard is used for mustard oil, which is a staple of Indian cooking. The roads are chocked full of trucks, the primary method of moving goods in India. There are no lane markings and everyone charges ahead blowing their horn. Somehow Indian drivers know how to drive in this chaos without having accidents. We saw many camel carts. It is amazing they are still used as transportation. The older men all wear turbans, the younger men don’t. My favorite was driving down the divided road and passing an elephant. It is hard to believe but they are still used as beast of burden. Click the link to see how close to him we drove. Elephant.

We arrived at our hotel, I had a massage Cathy had her hair done and then of all things we had a Japanese dinner in India. Tomorrow we fly to Bangkok.

Middle East is a Mess but Boy Can They Sing

Israel Palestinian Panel

Outdoor Qawwali Concert

In my entire life I have never heard a more erudite person than Sheldon Pollock. He teaches at Harvard and his specialty is South Asia. He is the head of the Murty Library research team. We listened to him in awe as he spoke of Indian Classical Literature. Both the depth and breath of his learning and scholarship is unbelievable. The discussion that Professor was leading in the first session of the day was entitled: “Why a Library of Indian Classical Literature”. It became a showcase of his erudition about Indian Literature, Languages, Culture, methodology of research, etc. We were blown away as he talked in English, Sanskrit, Hindi and Persian.  I youtubed his name and here is a link to a lecture by him. Enjoy and be in awe. Lecture.

The second session of the day was entitled: The Twilight Zone: Between Arabs and Israelis. The Panel was fabulous: the former Indian Ambassador to Israel, the Indian who served as President of the UN Security Council, a Palestinian doctor who is a poet and lives in Texas, Gideon Levy a former member of the Israeli Government who writes for the liberal newspaper Haaretz. Gideon dominated the discussion. He is passionate about the need to end the settlements. The entire panel was ultimately extremely pessimistic about any chance of peace. A one state solution is impossible because the Arabs would outnumber the Jews and vote the state of Israel out of existence. A two state solution is the only possible solution but no Israel government will give up the settlements to make it happen. It is a tragic problem with no end in sight. The panel was unanimous in that  only America can force Israel to make the concessions required, yet they doubt America ever will really lean on Israel. The Palestinians are victims of victims. However, if a Palestinian kills an Israeli he is no longer a victim, and the reverse is true, if an Israeli kills a Palestinian he is no longer a victim. It comes down to 2 peoples both who think god gave them the same land. The session was depressing, troubling and enlightening.

The next session was on the new Prime Minister of India Modi. The essence of the panel was that the jury is still out on Modi. He has only been PM for 6 months. He hasn’t proposed a new budget yet (he will in late February). To free India’s potential he must repeal the crippling laws that are so burdensome and so arbitrary that it makes almost all businessmen criminals, as they need to bribe their way through the maze. Modi is an excellent communicator who has captivated the country (and the world), but now he is to use his political capital to make the major changes the country needs.

We then attended a panel called Meltdown in the Middle East. The experts agree the region is undergoing a major transformation. There was a lot of blame directed toward the US, England, France and Israel for meddling in the Middle East. Some felt the problems started in the 1800’s, it isn’t a recent phenomena. The Middle East problems in general seem as intractable as the Israeli problems in particular. It is strange how a panel like this can be so depressing yet so enjoyable to attend as you listen to views and opinions that you don't usually hear in America. What a mess the world is.

We attended one last panel on Cities and their Shadows, 4 authors who have written books about various cities. We found the panel tedious and left early. The day was a good day although the panels on the Middle East and Israel were both profoundly depressing.

The day ended however on a triumphant note. We went to an outdoor concert to hear a Sufi Qawwali concert featuring the group: Rizwan Muazzam Qawals from Pakistan. We have always loved Qawwali groups singing their praises of Allah. Here in India, which is at a virtual state of war with Pakistan we sat with thousands in the cold and listened in rapture to this fabulous Pakistani Qawalli group. They were fantastic. The audience, swayed, sang, clapped and danced to this religious music. I captured some of the concert with my iPhone and you watch a short clip here: Qawwali.

Tomorrow we check out of our Palace in Jaipur and drive to Delhi hoping to avoid major delays due to security for President Obama’s arrival and Indian Republic Day.

Day 3 at the Jaipur Literary Festival

The Crowds of People

Shashi Tharoor (on the left)

Tandoori Chicken, Jera Rice, Manchurian Cauliflower

John is doing much better. He will leave Mumbai on Monday for SF. If you want to send an email to John, his email is: johnNsf@gmail.com. John, who is ever so frugal, could be discharged from the hospital today. However, it is a private hospital and they are charging him 10,000 rupees per day,about $160.00. He has a private room, all meals included, a great view of the ocean, free wifi, and room services. He can’t get a hotel room for anywhere near that price, so he has elected to stay in the hospital and use it as a hotel.

There have been many different interruptions to our travel plans that we have experienced over the years. We are now experiencing a new one. We are scheduled to fly to Delhi on the 26^th and transfer to a flight to Bangkok. That has changed; President Obama is flying into Delhi to join Prime Minister Modi in talks. In addition, it is a major National Holiday: Republic Day. There are huge parades. There is a threat of terrorism. The security has been ratcheted up to the highest levels. We have been in advised to come to Delhi a day early and stay near the airiport, so we can be assured of making our flight to Bangkok. Rather than fly in we elected to drive to Delhi, it is only a 4-hour drive. On the 27^th Obama is going to see the Taj Mahal. They are closing the Taj Mahal for his visit. All Cell towers in Agra, the town where the Taj Mahal is located are being turned off for fear of a remote control bomb.

The first hour choices of panels at the Jaipur Literary Festival didn’t interest us. We decided to time arrival to attend the 2^nd hour presentation on Travel Writing. We arrived earlier than expected and a session on the Mahabharata, the founding fable of Gods and Wars that all Indians know. It is immense and complicated. Many moral lessons are drawn from it.  Subject to much interpretation, it is far more than just a book, but its stories are constantly referred to Indian life and art. Two scholars were discussing the relevancy of its stories to family life. We greatly enjoyed the portion we heard.

The next session was on travelling writing. There was a panel of 7 travel writers each of whom read a portion from their book. Their styles and voices were different. To us, and I think the audience, the best was a woman travel writer named Brigid Keenan. She is married to a diplomat, and traveled with him all over the globe. She writes extremely humorously. She read from her book: Diplomatic Baggage. If the entire book is as good as the section she read, it must be a delight to read.

The next panel was entitled: Indian Shastra. It was about contemporary Indian problems and solutions. It featured two writers who have just published books about the challenges Prime Minister Modi is facing. Shashi Tharoor has it all. He is good looking, he is an intellectual and he is a member of parliament. He is a magnificent speaker. His politics are great and the solutions he proposes to India’s myriad problems seem appropriate. He also probably murdered his wife last year, or maybe he didn’t. According to the police, Shashi had a huge argument with his wife on a flight to Delhi about Shashi’s relationship with a Pakistani woman reporter. That next day his wife was found dead, in their luxury hotel room. The police are still investigating looking for the culprit. In spite of this unfortunate death, Shashi was reelected to Parliament. Everyone loves a good mystery - we will see how this turns one turns out.

Shashi is a member of the Congress Party that held power for most of India’s independence. In a huge landslide more people voted for Modi, who is from the BJP party, then anyone, anywhere has ever received. He has huge political capital. Shashi and his co-panelist, the reporter and author Mihir Sharma were in agreement about Modi: he is all talk and hasn’t taken decisive actions to free the Indian economy. In addition, the BJP is very Hindu centric and India has a large non-Hindu Muslim population that is feeling marginalized. We wish the panel was more balanced with a pro-Modi speaker. Their criticism of Modi was unrelenting. He has only been in power 6 months.

Strangely it made us appreciate Obama more. When he was first elected with a mandate he did get Health Care through. He is opening up to Cuba and getting us out of the mess of the Middle East. He was supportive of gay rights and appointed two good women on the Supreme Court. There is much he has accomplished in spite of the Republican opposition.

The next panel was featured Rohan Murty is a rich smart kid. He is 28 and a Fellow at Harvard. He has a PHD in Computer Science, but his passion is ancient Indian texts, hence through his foundation he is sponsoring a 100-year effort by Harvard to translate and publish Indian texts in English: The Murty Library. This is the largest effort ever by the Harvard University Press. Seven panelists, each bilingual, recited translated texts in English and their native tongue. The poems were great and listening to the various languages was like a symphony. The oldest known poem by a woman was 150 BC in Pali. The most beautiful to our ears was the reading of a poem in Persian. The funniest to listen to was old Tamil, which is the fastest spoken language I have ever heard.

This whole effort to preserve and publish these ancient texts is highly esoteric and scholarly, however they hope some of these books will be adopted by Indian Schools and replace the Western Canon of literature or at least augment it with Indian Classical writings.

The final panel of the day was about writing about sex. Had to be a good panel. India is a fairly conservative country about sex (at least in portraying it on screen or in books). With a population of 1.2 billion people they obviously are doing it, just not writing about it. I have read several of Nicholas Baker’s books. He was on the panel with a lesbian author from England: Sarah Waters and Hanif Kureishi the gay writer of My Beautiful Launderette. Best is having sex, next best is reading about it or watching it, least is talking about how to writing about it. The panel was funny and political. Hanif Kureishi lashed out repeatedly against puritanical Islam. I liked Sarah Waters comment that when someone writes a murder mystery no one considers the author a murderer, yet one some one writes a sex scene people think that this is how the author has sex.

The last panel was on the tragedy of Bhopal. 30 years ago the Union Carbide chemical plant in Bhopal experienced an accident releasing toxic gases that killed thousands of people and injured 10's of thousands. The prevailing winds carried the gasses towards the homes of the poorest of the poor. No one has been held responsible, no one has ever apologized, and no one cares. The tragedy continues, the site has never been cleaned up and citizens who survived continue to have health problems. The cause for the disaster has basically been swept under the rug. Javier Moro has written a book: Five Minutes Past Midnight about the tragedy that will hopefully stimulate some appropriate action.

After the depressing but enlightening tale of Bhopal we returned to our hotel and actually had dinner under the stars (and a heater). Drinks in the cozy bar and then to bed.