Fly, Icarus, Fly (2024)

21/06/2023

Just this month, the Michelin Guide made its debut in Vietnam, naming 103 recommended restaurants and eateries in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

Today, I visited Xôi Bát, a small joint specializing in sticky rice with all sorts of toppings. The full topping with shredded chicken, charsiu pork, braised egg and more is just $3.

There’s been quite a bit of online controversy as to whether the Michelin Guide should include street food / budget options alongside fine dining establishments (only one Saigon restaurant was awarded a star).

What do you think? Does including humbler establishments cheapen the Michelin brand?

FWIW, I enjoyed this slightly elevated version of street food sticky rice. The eatery was clean and bright, service was quick and professional, and the rice bowl was tasty. Together with a coconut coffee from a nearby stand, it was a great meal for $4.

23/08/2021

Something that impressed me about India more than practically anywhere else I've been was the explosion of color.

Brightly patterned clothing, sumptuous textiles, bejeweled ladies... it was everywhere.

Spotted: Women working on textiles at a handicraft cooperative in Ranthambore, India.

19/08/2021

Agra, India is known for its superb stonework, both stone carving and stone inlay.

Fitting, considering Agra is home to the Taj Mahal which makes use of both skills.

We almost missed our train to Varanasi because we spent too much time at a stone workshop, watching the artisans inlaying tiny pieces of semi-precious stone into designs and oohing and aahing over intricate but very heavy stone pieces which we had no hope of carrying home. (The coasters were very pretty but at around USD 60, was still a bit rich for us paupers...)

18/08/2021

My daily routine starts out with a cup of coffee.

Sometimes it's brewed in a cappuccino maker but more often than not, it's a bag of 3-in-1 (ubiquitous in Vietnam - a sachet of coffee, sugar, and creamer) and two scoops of pure Vietnamese cocoa, a way I've used to wean myself off of sugar in my coffee.

What's your morning ritual?

Spotted: A cuppa at a trendy cafe in Jaipur.

13/08/2021

India has been known for its spices as early as 2,000 BCE, with black pepper, cinnamon, turmeric, and cardamom driving the spice trade near and far.

It is said that one sack of pepper (known as "black gold") was worth a man's life.

I found the spice level in India both a blessing and a curse. Saffron and cinnamon gave warm milk a lovely pop but we definitely weren't used to eating spicy curries and gravies for breakfast.

What's the spiciest cuisine you've ever eaten?

11/08/2021

Not knowing much about Indian food going in, I was really taken by all the different Indian flatbreads. Roti, chapati, naan, puri, paratha - all delicious, with so many variations like butter, garlic, and paneer.

I thought Vietnamese baguettes were good, but Indian breads have the definite edge in variety.

What's your all-time favorite bread?

04/08/2021

The one blip on our trip to India was Varanasi.

After hearing so many stories about one of the oldest cities in the world, I was curious to see what the spiritual hub of India would be like.

Going in, we knew it would involve an uncomfortable overnight train ride to get there, but it turned out to be more trouble than it was worth.

Traveling back to Delhi to catch the train, our guide timed the drive back too close. As we hit Delhi traffic, he started panicking. Instead of bringing all our luggage, he asked us to repack into a small bag as we'd have to run through the station to make the train. So here's six of us trying to repack big suitcases in the tiny confines of our minivan.

Once at the train station, we had to literally run from the parking lot into the terminal, including my 80-year-old mom.

Dripping with sweat, we managed to get on the train just minutes before it was to take off. However, turns out it was the wrong train. So as the right train is seconds away from leaving, we manage to climb into the last carriage, all crammed into someone else's cabin.

I was livid that my mom was put through that, considering the guide dilly-dallied earlier in the day.

Varanasi probably wouldn't have enthralled me in the best of situations but especially with how exhausted we were towards the end of the trip, stressed from the rush onto the train, and with an uneasy sleep (thankfully we upgraded our cabins), I could've left it off entirely.

Have you been to Varanasi? Does it deserve another visit?

03/08/2021

I absolute want to try any and all anywhere I travel.

Unfortunately in India, we really did not get enough of it. Breakfasts were at the hotel, lunches mainly on the road, and sometimes we weren't in urban areas at dinnertime.

However, what little I sampled was yummy and packed with color. Didn't see as much meat-based dishes as in Vietnam, though, so I think Vietnam still tops my street food list for variety and price.

What's your favorite country for street food?

02/08/2021

In Hindi, "naughara" means "nine houses" and "gali" is alley.

On one of our last days in India, we hopped on rickshaws and navigated the narrow alleyways to Naughara Gali, known for nine colorful homes built in the 18th century.

The small lane includes a white marble Jain temple and a lovely silver shop, but what I loved the most were the unique doorways.

We took a lot of pics but this unposed one turned out to be my favorite. Funny how that goes...

30/07/2021

Animal sightings played a big part of our time in India, from cheeky monkeys to majestic elements.

We also saw pigs roaming about everywhere so were puzzled that we hardly ever saw pork on the menu.

"That's because the pigs eat [p**p]", explained our guide. Sigh. So close, yet so far...

29/07/2021

Built in 1570, Humayun's Tomb in Delhi was India's first garden-tomb.

Its unique Mughal architecture, including a pretty dome and flowing water throughout, inspired several major architectural innovations, including the awesome Taj Mahal.

Inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993, we found the stone lattice panels that flooded the interior with filtered light especially glorious.

28/07/2021

I love seeing at work.

We got a chance at the "Village Women Crafts" in , a social where women from the surrounding area can come and work on gorgeous including , , and even carpet . (I'm a big fan of collecting textiles, even if I don't know how I'll use them. Recently, I had some strips of sewn along the sides of my pants for an , look that cost less than $10.)

The colors and were simply out of this world and if I hadn't had two suitcases full of , I definitely would've gotten more than I did.

The atmosphere where all the women sat and worked was so jovial with lots of chitchatting and smiling going on.

Photography tip: Whenever I see someone sitting down (eating or working), I often go to the overhead shot of just holding the camera up as high as I can and straightening out the shot (helps if you have a flip screen) for a cool perspective.

28/07/2021

80% of India's roughly 1.3 billion people are while 14% are .

Hindus don’t eat because they consider the cow sacred while Muslims don't eat because it's prohibited in the Qur'an.

Put them together and what do you get?

The only country in the world where McDonald’s doesn’t serve any beef or pork in any form!

After nearly two weeks of mostly (which we found out was actually and not ) and a whole lot of options, we were thirsting for some beef. So when we drove past a McDonald's, our collectively ignorant group shouted out in beef-deprived joy...

Once inside, we were in for a rude awakening and instead, settled on some India-only iterations like the Chicken Maharaja Mac (meh), McAloo Tikki burger (mealy), McVeggie burger and McSpicy Paneer burger (name sounds way better than it tasted).

What international McDonald's variations have you come across?

27/07/2021

A symbol of bravery and valor, tigers play an important role in Indian culture and mythology.

So it was that on a very cool early morning, we roused ourselves and bundled up for a canter safari to find one of around 60 tigers roaming the 400 km sq Ranthambore National Park in the state of Rajasthan.

The tiger merchandise in the hotel gift shop - everything from t-shirts and caps to paintings and jewelry - suggested that we were in for a treat.

However, as the morning went from frigid to simply cold, the guide diligently looked for pug marks and listened for alarm calls from deer and monkeys, but unfortunately, no tigers.

Unless, of course, you count that one that some claimed to see with the help of high-powered binoculars, and even then was more of an tiny orange splotch camouflaged amongst the browns and oranges of the forest floor a good 400m away...

So instead of a majestic tiger photo, here's my selfie with some cool clouds. I suffer, you suffer...

27/07/2021

Six cities in 15 days involved lots of driving.

Thankfully, we were fully stocked with music, chips, and good friends.

We also passed tons of these bright yellow fields of mustard. Seeing that India's on pace to produce 10 million tons this year, there roads were often bordered by these massive fields of yellow and green.

One of our lunch spots was backed by one and we couldn't miss out on the chance to take some mustard selfies.

Who did it best?

20/07/2021

While not as much and herbs as I'm used to eating in Vietnam, almost every meal we had in India came with a side salad of cucumbers, onions, and these beautifully red , with just a squeeze of lime over top.

Much like the country itself, food was super with lots of , legumes, and .

What's your go-to Indian dish?

20/07/2021

It's said that India is the of the world's oldest sources of .

In the 17th century, poor workers in the port city of (on the shores of what is now Mumbai) donned thick, coarse, cotton fabric called "dungri" (hence the English "dungarees" or ).

When Europeans first saw cotton's softness, lightness, and durability, they couldn't decide whether it was animal or plant, and called it "vegetable lamb"!

I'm reading a fascinating book called "Unraveled: The Life and Death of a Garment", an information-dense but ultimately readable chronicling of the birth (and death) of a pair of jeans, crossing many thousands of miles and countless hands that picked, spun, wove, dyed, packaged, shipped, and sold them to get to the end consumer.

It's made me change the way I look at clothes, after reading stories from a cotton farm in Texas, a factory in China, sewing floors in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka crammed with women working for illegally low wages to produce garments as efficiently as machines, and Amazon fulfillment centers in the US.

Spotted: Picking out a length of hand-blocked cotton fabric in and wearing the finished shirt in .

19/07/2021

For more than 150 years, the town of in India’s desert has been the site of the , an annual ( , and ) drawing farmers and tradesmen from across the country.

To make the camels more attractive to buyers, they're decorated in over-the-top costumes.

Unfortunately, we weren't there during the festival (every November for 14 days), but saw the camels all gussied up as we took camel rides across the sands.

What's the strangest animal you've ever ridden?

17/07/2021

I absolutely LOVE photographing and .

Not sure if it stems from a sense of or just because of how beautiful they can be, but India offered an overwhelming number of options in the form of graceful , intricate and colorful mixes of materials.

16/07/2021

The ultimate in social distancing, the 953 windows covering the facade of the Palace of the Winds (constructed in 1799) allowed the ladies of the royal court to watch the drama of the streets unobserved behind ornate latticework.

The distinctive color is thanks to the natural sandstone used in its construction. We saw so many of the older buildings positively glow in the sunlight, giving Jaipur its nickname, “The Pink City.”

What's your favorite place to people-watch?

Mine is our covered rooftop terrace where I spend many an hour reading and playing with our dogs...

16/07/2021

My mom turned 80 a few weeks before we left for India but was still game to join a rowdy group of friends on the ultimate road trip (and fortuitously saving me a single supplement!)

When I asked her what she was most looking forward to on our 6-city tour, she said it was seeing the Taj Mahal.

Here's the pose she struck when we finally got there.

15/07/2021

I am a total sucker for anything ...

I just love the idea of someone pouring their time, energy, and talent into a product, and the slight imperfections that distinguish it from something a machine made.

So when we stopped at the inevitable rug store and saw how the were and how they changed color depending on your perspective, I was "hooked". (See what I did there?)

Turns out, hand-knotted rugs result in a distinctive pile direction, meaning fibers from one end absorb light (making the rug appear darker) or reflect it.

The shop we went to was a collective and I used my Vietnam-enhanced bargaining skills to pick out a carpet I fell in love with.

"The family who spent months weaving this will not make much money today," the seller said with a shake of his head.

So it was that I lugged this rug with me (and bought a separate suitcase for), across India.

But it's now in my office and I (and my dog) absolutely love it.

What's something you've bought on your travels that was completely impractical but you love it nonetheless?

15/07/2021

‘India is the one land that all men desire to see, and having seen once, by even a glimpse, would not give that glimpse for all the shows of all the rest of the globe combined.’ – Mark Twain

What impressed me most about India were her colors and patterns. It was a visual feast almost everywhere you looked, from the colorful saris to the cut outs in ancient stonework.

For photography, I think India is up there with so many interesting things to capture.

What city have you found most visually impressive?

14/07/2021

India has a whopping 38 cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites, including Delhi's Red Fort.

Built as the palace fort for the new capital of the fifth Mughal Emperor of India in 1546, the complex has massive red sandstone walls surrounding palaces and entertainment halls, projecting balconies, baths and indoor canals, geoometrical gardens, as well as an ornate mosque.

Its 75-feet high walls have been repelling invaders for centuries, but this new 21st century invader might be its greatest threat yet...

14/07/2021

The last international trip I took before the world went mad was India last February.

I've always had an ambivalent relationship with India. There were so many people who said that a trip there was "life changing". On the other hand, I live in a country that's hot, poor, and oftentimes unhygienic. Would I really want to holiday somewhere that was even MORE hot, poor, and unhygienic?

But when I saw a promotion for a 15-day trip to India for just over USD 800 including private van, guide, driver, accommodations and some meals, I called up a group of friends and we went. And had a blast.

Is there a destination that you feel you "should" go to but don't really want to go?

Travel tip: Sign up for a newsletter at . It's kind of like a groupon for travel. Over the years, I've gotten so many good deals there, including a last-minute 13-day cruise for like $500. You never know when there'll be a deal you can use. I currently have dirt-cheap holidays booked to the Maldives and to Angkor Wat, just waiting for travel to re-open.

13/07/2021

I haven't really posted on here for over a year.

First it was because it felt wrong to post travel photos from around Vietnam when most of the world was battling with COVID.

Most agree that Vietnam used appropriate measures early against the coronavirus, completely sealing borders in late March 2020, performing fast contact tracing, and keeping people well-informed (going so far as listing dates and places where an infected person had been).

For months at a time, Vietnam boasted zero community transmissions (most new cases were from the few foreign experts, technicians, and repatriated Vietnamese allowed to enter the country) and life was pretty much normal, other than wearing face masks (which many people had already been doing, especially while driving).

Amid this sense of security, I did some travel within Vietnam last year and this, some for work and some for pleasure. Other than posting fleeting stories, I didn't share many photos because doing so felt tinged with schadenfreude.

Now that Vietnam is battling its fourth (and most serious) wave, the country is where America and Europe were last year - with strict lockdowns, some panic buying, and still very few vaccinated.

Even though I love being at home and have kept relatively busy - picking up the piano again, updating a guide book, and doing some volunteer work - there's a sameness to each day that's hard to shake.

In my case, the creative outlets of photography and writing have been silenced for the most part. Instead of creating, I've simply been consuming.

So I hope that posting again will be one small step towards wresting back a bit of control and serve as a small outlet for storytelling.

Tell me "your" pandemic stories. Has there been a silver lining for you?

26/05/2021

So... I kind of co-wrote a book, you guys...⠀
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I actually finished it just before the world went mad in early 2020. Printing got put off, but it's now available through on Amazon, called "Eat Vietnam".⠀
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Vietnamese food is literally the only thing I'm probably qualified to write a book about, simply because I'm nosy and like to eat. I love knowing where my food comes from, how it's made, and the story behind it. ⠀
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Researching this book, I discovered so much behind the influences of Vietnamese food. ⠀
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I'm in the middle of another project atm, but hope to share some of my favorite parts of the book here. ⠀
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While Vietnam has been pretty good about controlling the pandemic (although we're experiencing a fourth wave right now), I just lost motivation to post travel pics while much of the world was in lockdown. It just didn't seem like the right time.⠀
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Hopefully, sharing snippets from this book will provide me the motivation to start posting again.⠀
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Have you started up any projects with the forced free time we've all had?⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Fly, Icarus, Fly

21/06/2023

23/08/2021

19/08/2021

18/08/2021

13/08/2021

11/08/2021

04/08/2021

03/08/2021

02/08/2021

30/07/2021

29/07/2021

28/07/2021

28/07/2021

27/07/2021

27/07/2021

20/07/2021

20/07/2021

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17/07/2021

16/07/2021

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15/07/2021

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14/07/2021

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26/05/2021

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