Pittstop's suggested nibbles
* If you read this article would you want to go to Hanoi, if you'd never been before? Written for Ho Chi Minh City expats.

* Funny story here about an escaped prisoner, who found a pretty good, and fairly audacious, hiding place from the police, which should get the Professor Moriarty award for deviousness.

Bite size entry
Pittstop Works has had around 800 clicks in just under two months - which is roughly a hundred a week, and that's just under 15 clicks a day, (let's not count all the times I click on it to check up on how it looks), which is funny as I just read this cute quote from David Weinberger "an advocate of new-media journalism" who said, as a witty play on Andy Warhol’s maxim, re: the internet: “On the Web, everyone will be famous to fifteen people.”

Saw it in an article on The Newyorker which is well worth a read.

Many happy returns
(Retracing your steps along Cua Dai Beach)

As travellers we make a lot of promises wherever we go. We always say we’ll come back – and in an ideal world perhaps we would. But after seven years in Vietnam, it’s only Hoi An that I’ve been to several times a year, every year without fail.

In this chunk of time the changes to the old port town have been significant. What once seemed a sleepy old place is now alive with tourists all year round while an over abundance of tailors, restaurants and gift shops blurs the mind.

Now these changes are starting to stir up the coastline. On the way in to Cua Dai beach from the airport in the neighbouring city of Danang, the taxi driver tells me there’s big plans for what is called China beach, which runs south from the port city.

As we swerve around an old man with no arms who’s cycling a bike, he points from one place to the next telling me how a string of resorts are planned. He tells me this is good for everyone.

The road we’re driving on, which goes behind Marble Mountain, is a work in progress. Along the sides of the road half-houses are left standing, people’s front rooms have been cleared to make way for the construction. Regardless, life goes on. The front door is now where the living room used to stand. Chinese symbols that were once above family altars now front the house. Children play outside as labourers shovel cement and lay asphalt on the road to be.

On Cua Dai beach, where a number of high end resorts are happily fully occupied, everything seems as it always was.

I find my old friend Hon’s restaurant and settle into a seafood banquet of fried squid, boiled crab and a bowl of clams with Larue beer on ice. Hon tells me she’s moved which is why it took a while for me to find her. After three years when the lease is up the local government insists they move spot. I’d always wondered why they never bothered investing in the shack-like restaurants.

There are a dozen or so places like Hon’s in a row. The owners and helpers dressed in denim jackets, and wearing handkerchiefs for masks, coo the sunburnt backpackers shuffling down the beach, inviting them to sit in the deckchairs. Sitting is free if you buy a drink; so naturally a few thrifty travellers just buy a bottle of water and camp out for a few hours. Hon tells me every three years her lease is more expensive making it harder and harder to survive.

In the sea Vietnamese children swim in t-shirts. The younger ones carry broken bits of polystyrene as floats. They stop and stare as an old Dutch woman in a skimpy bikini goes out to test the waters.

The sea is deep blue and calm but suddenly a wave comes out of nowhere to the sound of a motor. Everyone looks up to see guests at the Palm Garden Resort on a jet ski buzzing past the moored fishing boats.

As you sit on the beach hawkers come past one by one. A geriatric lady selling cigarettes and tiger balm; a young girl with jewellery who looks for a promise ("maybe later you buy?"); a plumper manicuring-massaging lady; and an old disabled man who walks on his hands with a copy of yesterday’s Vietnam News.

Further down the beach, near the entrance more local Vietnamese customers can be found sitting on plastic chairs under the shade of thin trees drinking iced drinks for less than 25 cents.
In the late afternoon taxi drivers play dice while xe om drivers sit in a sliver of shade, all playing the waiting game; as the day progresses the beach will empty and tourists will head to town for a stroll along the river, or to hit the tailors before dinner and drinks. The shuttle bus from the Victoria Resort shoots past first. A few more young backpackers on rented motorbikes are next. Then come the brave ones who cycled out in the searing heat. Two remaining xe om drivers look edgy until a couple of sunkissed English girls hitch up their skirts and jump on the pillion. The drivers’ faces light up as the buxom girls squeeze closer. They’re too excited to even mention the price. Happy days indeed.

Yes, it’s the cliché of the travel writer to say you’ll always return, but as I leave in the twilight, Hon waves me off with a sincere, “see you later”. She knows I always come back. I bet I'm not the only one.

Above, a simple tale of compare and contrast...

... below, well, the pictures tell the story but we wrote another one anyway.

The dizzying heights, the terrifying lows

What goes up must come down. Teddy de Burca Jnr. gets a taste for a habit he can’t afford to keep – flying business class

If you were ever wondering what’s different between business class and economy class on internal flights in Vietnam, the answer is, perhaps obviously, food and space.

Due to incredibly bad organisation on my part, my intended flight to Danang was fully booked, but there was space in business class, said the cunning woman at my local Vietnam Airlines ticket outlet. I had a tight schedule and for another couple of hundred thousand Vietnam dong it didn’t seem totally outrageous.

Anyway I was also curious to fly down with the jet setters on business and return with my fellow hoi polloi in economy. And how pleased was I when I received an invitation to the business class lounge where I could no doubt practice rubbing shoulders with the other go-getters.

Besides being the only person in shorts and a garish orange t-shirt, I admit I felt a bit inadequate in the mobile phone department and a laptop and a suitcase might have helped me assimilate better than my rucksack and plastic bag containing my toiletries and sandals. Still I guess they just took me for a flash young traveller – the sort who might have made millions after inventing a clip on-speedometer for snowboards and is now seeing the world at his leisure.

Now for a 55 minute flight between Danang and Hanoi, you’d hardly be bothered by a bit of discomfort, but the first difference on the plane is not surprisingly space – where there are three chairs down the back, up front there are only two. This will reduce the chances of a) your neighbour nodding off on your shoulder and snoring in your ear b) your neighbour elbowing you in the head when he turns the pages of his newspaper or c) everyone standing up awkwardly when someone on the inside has to go the toilet.

Then there’s the freshly prepared face towels, not the thin wet paper ones in wee plastic bags. You’re also presented with a juice. There’s also the marked increase in cordiality: “Good morning, sir!” It's all very pleasant.

Next up is the meal – as opposed to a bread bun with some ham, a shred or two of lettuce and a splodge of mayonnaise and a shot of water to wash it down (described as an “indefinable sandwich and a beaker of water” by one disgruntled punter), you are offered a piece of salmon sashimi, fish mousse on bread and insalata caprese (yes, that’s mozzarella and tomato in English, but when in business class it’s hard not to assume a pompous air).

On the side there’s a cloth napkin, a glass of water and a cup for coffee or tea. Why it was like a party in Vienna after a night at the opera.

Of course, on the way back to Hanoi I was back to where I belong, elbows drawn like knives and scrunched up in the cheap seats.

For this lowly travel writer, it was a brief moment in the sun sitting in business class – I’ll have to wait till the next time I muck up my own schedule or have the pleasure of being bumped up (before every trip I pray for it). Every now and then I can afford to live it up but sadly flying business class would be like drinking champagne on a Sprite budget.

How to get to the Land of Nod

Restless and jealous, Yorkie Pittstop wonders what he’s missing out on when it comes to post-lunch napping

After lunch, particularly when it’s searing hot outside, I always admire my colleagues attitude: eat lunch in the office, leaving ample time for a wee siesta. It looks lovely. And how they manage to just curl up in a chair or recline between two chairs pulled together is admirable.

On a hot Hanoi afternoon you can often see xe om drivers stretched along their motorbikes, head on the handlebars or xich lo drivers slumped in their own chairs. Fruit vendors can be found nodding off in doorsteps, inside markets sellers sleep on piles of fabric while in shops assistants can be found passed out under the cash register.

I’ll admit that I’ve tried in my office but perhaps there’s more to a post-lunch nap then meets the eye. Inevitably I end up looking as if a train just rolled over my cheek and forehead, just like when I was a kid and nodded off at school and the teacher asked me if I’d been asleep. “Oh no,” I’d say, looking up with a thick red line across my face. “Not me.”

I also struggle waking up again. It takes a couple of coffees and several splashes of water on the face to get me going again. I wish I could siesta, but it seems I’m conditioned to see the day through from dawn to whenever I head for the hills.

Besides the “art” of having a siesta there’s also the culturally ingrained (western) tendency to see taking one as a sign of idleness (and therefore you must be unemployed, downright lazy or fond of puffing on exotic cheroots). To work too hard in the west is seen as commitment to your job. But the truth is a quick nap could help productivity in the afternoon.

NASA (and they have a lot of brainy people involved so they must be right) research discovered the effects a 40-minute snooze had on pilots and astronauts and found there was a 34 per cent improvement in performance and a 100 per cent improvement in alertness. British Airways used this evidence to sanction naps for pilots.

Most adults around the world get an average of 6.5 hours, below the generally recommended 8 hours. Studies show that blood pressure and arterial blood pressure dropped during a siesta. A quick post noon nap also promotes physical well-being, improves your mood and memory and revitalises you. How can doing so little do so much, you wonder.

Oddly enough in Spain where the siesta is seen (at least by outsiders) as a national tradition, sleeping after lunch is becoming less common. Now, as the country aligns itself with international working times, less than 25 per cent of Spaniards enjoy a bit of a shuteye after lunch.

There are however now modern means to meet modern ways – even new terminology: the metronap (check out www.metronaps.com) – with downtown corporate nap parlours appearing in European and American cities. So dog tired business people can recharge the batteries, for a price that is.

Meanwhile in the UK, perhaps, the mad dogs will be left to themselves in the midday sun as Englishmen may soon be heading indoors. Each year as summer temperatures seem to be on the rise health groups are encouraging siestas as a way to beat heat fatigue and heatstroke.

In Germany there are reports of companies offering employees an extra 20 minutes at lunchtime to catch some zzzs – and apparently employees have taken to it rather well.

And so the pendulum swings – back in the tropics, at least in Vietnam, attitudes may be shifting as young professionals feel they don’t have the time for a siesta anymore. While others might prefer to use this free time to meet with friends for coffee or even go shopping.

But when the temperature is well over 30 degrees and considering in Vietnam I have longer lunch hours than I ever had before, plus there’s only so much coffee you can drink, there’s plenty of time and plenty of reasons to have forty winks. I just need to get into the rhythm of it. Perhaps all I have to do is practice… work on my naptitude, if you will.

Finger licking good, but only for some

The New KFC has been a vaguely controversial topic in Hanoi since opening last month. Who after all came to Vietnam to eat Western style fastfood?

Regardless, a few western acquaintances of mine turned up at a bia hoi with large bags of the famous battered chicken. Colleagues came to work with chicken burgers and fries. To be fair most seemed pretty happy with what they got. Those who steadfastly refuse to entertain the thought of eating “western junk” prefer not to mention the subject. Old timers will mumble something about the heady days when expats tucked into greasy fried chicken on Tran Hung Dao. The begrudgers mention we haven’t seen the last of avian flu (the answer to which, by the way, for KFC in Ho Chi Minh City was to push the fish burger).

As many Hanoians know plenty of KFC restaurants already exist in Ho Chi Minh City (there’s 20 in southern Vietnam), so despite the rather ironic novelty of being gleeful for the official arrival of western junk food in the capital city perhaps there’s less stigma attached to the psychological blow or impact that a McDonald’s opening would have.

The hold that such institutions have on westerners is rather curious – people have told me that despite never having really eaten McDonald’s much before coming to Asia they still feel compelled to eat there when they see one, say in Bangkok or Singapore. There’s a magnetic appeal to those golden arches (or whatever your preferred poison, for me it used to be a Whopper). Afterwards people will even admit they feel awful, but like any binge substance they come back to it. Again and again.

In a city full of Bangkok or Singapore’s culinary delights eating such junk food might seem like a heinous crime to many. So why do we do it?

Personally, I can blame the parents. As a child I was actually banned from eating McDonald’s by my mother. So, of course, when myself and my cousin (also banned from touching the stuff) came into money our first objective was a banquet at chez Ronald McDonald. In one sitting we would eat every kind of burger, knock back a couple of chocolate milkshakes, devour 20 chicken (I admit substance is debatable here) nuggets and a chocolate sundae.

So I know the guilty pleasure of a hamburger and fries but I’m also most definitely not alone in appreciating the obvious virtues of Vietnamese food. Streetside restaurants serving pho or bun dishes can be quickly prepared, making it for this humble columnist the ultimate fastfood (as in it comes fast but it’s healthy and you feel fine afterwards). A few travellers I’ve met told me they’d lost weight on trips to Vietnam despite eating like kings the whole time.

Would Vietnamese people eat in McDonald’s? A long time ago I would have said no, but as far as I know, thus far, there’s not a country in the world that has resisted Ronald McDonald’s formula (for obesity you might say), meanwhile KFC seems to be fairly upbeat on initial business (though it’s too early to judge). Although I can’t imagine any ba gia (old grannies) tucking into Big Mac meal, for young people it will probably prove popular enough.

Yes, it’s a sign of the times, it’s the way of the world, it’s what people want, but it’s also damn depressing, so depressing I think I’m going to go out and gorge myself on bun rieu, bun cha, pho ga, banh cuon, nem cuon, banh xeo, banh bao… after all we don’t need ‘finger lickin' good’ in Vietnam – we use chopsticks.

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Extra info from skimming through the internet...

What do Pamela Anderson, Martin Freeman of the Office, Sir Paul McCartney, Chrissie Hynde, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the Black Eyed Peas, The Darkness and Ravi Shankur (Yes! the Ravi Shankur!) all have in common? Well they believe there are lots of other reasons not to eat KFC - even in America! You can check out these sites they're involved with and make your own decision - UK based one or the US version – or even watch a very disturbing video here. (Done by PETA - People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals).

Here's an article about how PETA plan to sue KFC, from The NY Times from today, August 22, and a few bits and bobs in a sober analysis by the Guardian from late last year.

Urban myths that may or may not be true: when KFC first translated the advertising slogan Finger lickin' good into Chinese, it came out as "eat your fingers off", while one guy claimed in Quebec, where KFC is known as PFK (Poulet Frit Kentucky), he saw a sign that read Finger licking' bon.

So "Finger lickin' ngon"? Well, once again, this is a land of chopsticks. But there's a question I didn't think of - are chopsticks actually available in KFC?

For those of you who think the Brussel sprout is the national veg of choice in Belgium think again... introducing The witloof now blogging his guts out from the heart of the EU.

A rare treat indeed, in fact a first, fashionista Petra Patterson slips into the controversy surrounding the plastic shoes now hitting the Hanoi streets... Crocs. (Check out the very sincere testimonials page.)

Is this the new Dep (dzep)?













Over the last year the new foot craze around the world has been Crocs, a light sandal-shoe originally designed as a boating/outdoor shoe because of its slip-resistant, non-marking sole.

The company promises that you’ll “stand out, look good, stay comfortable” but despite the fact the shoe has been a massive hit in the US, and is now sweeping the rest of the world off it’s feet, people can only seem to agree that it’s comfortable.

As the expats and Hanoians return from summer holidays, the shoe is already ubiquitous in town, though not yet available in Vietnam. I couldn’t help but notice that at the last soiree I attended over half of the shoes (if not more) left by the door were Crocs.

But inside the house the shoe-cum-sandal seemed to be splitting the critics.
“They’re just so comfy,” gushed Simone from New Zealand.
“But why would you pay $30 for dep,” moaned Paul from England, seeing no difference between the classic Vietnamese shower dep and Crocs. “It’s just a plastic shoe.”
“I strongly recommend them for Hanoi,” said Huong from Vung Tau, who claimed the shoe is even durable enough to tackle a Minsk motorbike.
“They make me feel comfortable, clean and light,” said Tuan Anh, who picked up a pair in Bangkok. “But other Vietnamese guys think they’re very xau (ugly).”

Outside of Vietnam it appears Crocs are also “you either love ‘em or you don’t”.

Shoe Blogger Sam Lyster claims “any shoe that can survive a session in a dishwasher should be avoided at all costs,” describing them as “plastic clogs” that come in various “unappealing colours”; a US teen on another blog complained that “everyone in school wears them”, while others, well, judging by the astronomical sales, they’re clearly voting with their feet (second quarter revenues tripled to $85.6 million over $25.8 million last year).

But if you don’t stand out, and they’re not pleasing to your eye, why bother? Simone challenged me as we left the party, “go on, just try them on”, she said slipping me her shoe, and I must admit, they certainly were light on the feet, but you could make the same argument about dep, couldn’t you?


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If you’re curious to find out more, you can hear two extreme sides of the argument at www.crocfans.com and www.ihatecrocs.com respectively

Safe as houses, as long as you lock the door

A few years back I woke up on a bright Monday morning to a nice breeze coming through my room, which was most pleasant but rather unexpected. I sat up to realise the balcony doors were wide open. I scratched my head wondering had I foolishly left the doors like that all night. Possible as from time to time, my housemate and I would stand outside there in the evening, drink a beer or smoke a cigarette, while complaining about our other housemate, of course.

But I disremembered doing that the night before, in fact, I recalled, burnt out from the weekend’s indulgences, I went straight to bed and straight to sleep. So I climbed out of bed and ventured out to the balcony to investigate, perhaps, instinctively knowing what had happened but not wanting to even contemplate it.

Sure enough, outside there was a large empty envelope on the ground. It was an envelope I recognised. An envelope that hitherto I had known as “the big, fat envelope”, christened so, as it contained a month and a half’s salary, a lump sum I planned on spending on little old me on a Thai beach when school was out for the summer.

The cash was obviously gone; a veritable jackpot for whoever swiped it, and unlike jewellery or a CD player, completely untraceable. Shocked rather than upset, later on I told my neighbours, a couple of foreigners, as much to warn them to be careful (as in, don’t be naive like me and make sure you lock up at night, even hard-to-get-to-balcony doors).
“Oh yeah, we’ve been robbed lots of times,” said one, admitting that presuming the other to still be out they kept going to bed leaving their front door closed but unlocked.

On the last occasion one of them woke up as a shadowy hand hovered over the bedside table searching for a mobile phone or a wallet. He jumped up and chased him out of the house but the intruder was like a cat – up and over the gate and gone.
“I couldn’t chase him any further as I didn’t have any clothes on,” admitted the victim.

Of course, most urban Vietnamese houses have high gates, padlocks, and even barred windows. It’s pretty hard to get in, so those who try are probably well-practiced. At first I kept thinking about how amazing it was that the one time I hadn’t locked the balcony door I’d been burgled, until someone pointed put it mightn’t have been the first time they tried to get in.

Plus, even with locked doors, leaving windows open can be dangerous. Another friend told me how once he woke up to a spooky image – levitating trousers. He rubbed his eyes and looked again and watched as the trousers floated across the room. It took him a second to realise there was a man standing on his balcony with a large stick with which he’d plucked the trousers, through the bars, off my friend’s floor. My friend pounced towards the window and snatched the trousers back inside but the thief had already slipped out the wallet and – once again – instantly vanished into the night.

Of course, some of us are clearly more careless than others. Once, I ran out of the house late for a date and when I returned six hours later I discovered my keys dangling invitingly from the padlock. I might as well have put out a welcome mat and left drinks on the coffee table, says you.