Date: Thu, 27 Jun 2002 13:24:57 -0700 (PDT) From: "Jeremy Henrickson" Subject: Fish Soup To: jeremyhenrickson@yahoogroups.com Hello from San Francisco! First: A special free pizza offer!* (See end of this message for details.) The final two weeks of my stay in southeast Asia were a great cap to the first part of my stay. This was due in part to the continued kindness of the people and beauty of the country. It was also due in part to the incessant government broadcast of World Cup action. Vietnam may not have a team playing, but one wouldn't know it by the intensity with which the game is followed and watched. It was immense fun to be the only American in houses and eateries crowded with people rooting for the opposing team. When I last wrote, I was on a quest for a Snickers bar in Hanoi. This I did not find. However, there was a brand new mall (first of its kind, I believe) that opened up just off the central lake. They had M&Ms. I can confirm that even in 95 degree heat, they in fact melt in your mouth, and not in your hand. I spent a couple of days in Hanoi before heading out toward the mountains. Traffic out of Hanoi was a bit scary, but there was enough of a system that I made it out unscathed. I spent a night at a hotel in the regional capital of Hoa Binh. While there, I met a regional, native Vietnamese marketing manager for a subsidiary of Procter and Gamble. To make a long story short, he invited me out to dinner with his team. "Fish soup sound good?," he asked. "Sure," I replied. Here's the recipe: Vietnamese Fish Soup 1. Add the following to a pot of boiling water: - Noodles - Fish - Spices - Assorted mystery vegetables. 2. When they are sufficiently cooked, eat some. Then add the following: - Potatos - More mystery vegetables - Other seafood (squid, mussles, etc.) 3. When these are cooked, eat some more. Then add the following: - Tripe - Pig stomach, and last, but not least - Pig brain 4. Don't let these cook very long, or the brain will become soggy. Consume quickly and without thinking. No one is allowed to call me a picky eater ever again. The following day's ride to Mai Chau was the most beautiful and challenging ride of my trip. Since I was biking through mountains, this should have been obvious to me beforehand. Thankfully, I was doing this ride at the end of the trip. I'll let the pictures that I'm posting of the ride speak for the beauty of the scenery (and the narrowness of the "highway"). Mai Chau was the single most relaxing, and possibly the most beautiful, stop on my trip. I stayed in the tiny rice farming village of Pom Coong, just outside of Mai Chau. The regular schedule in Mai Chau is something like the following: - wake up and eat - thrash the rice from the previous day - go out and work the fields for 8 hours - lay the thrashed rice out in the sun to dry - while the 4pm storm is approaching sweep the dried rice into bags - sit through a torrential downpour for 90 minutes - wait for the power to go out - cook dinner - eat - sleep - repeat Since there was no power, the family that I was staying with requested that I sing them songs by candlelight. So, after using my first-aid kit to mend some of their cuts and bruises, I spent my first evening trading songs with the family. The woman's youngest son was a highly energetic singer and taught me many of the traditional songs from the area. It was a memorable night. After bicycling back to Hanoi for a couple of days, I spent the rest of my time on a small group tour of Ha Long Bay. Again, this is best described by looking at pictures, but it was nice to get a sense of what it would be like to be James Bond. Oh, if you ever visit the area, be sure to go swimming out the middle of the bay at night. The water is phosphorescent. The western world begins immediately after one goes through passport control at the Hanoi airport. Tile floor everywhere, English spoken by nearly everyone, and Snickers bars are readily acquired. I spent a whirlwind few days in Singapore visiting friends of friends. As one might expect, it is a very orderly city (for instance, the lanes are often numbered, people actually wait for the walk sign to come on, and almost everybody drives the speed limit). But, if you know people, it can actually be a fun a relaxing town to spend time in (shopping). The Night Safari is a must see, seafood at Red House is required, the Takeshimia mall is the centerpiece of a city filled with them, Sentosa island is fun purely for entertainment value, and clubs close promptly at 3am after playing "Sweet Freedom." That wraps up my travels for now. I have decided to stay in the Bay Area for the forseeable future, so I'm looking forward to catching up with all of you that are here! I'll be sending out another note soon with links to pictures and an update about how I plan to spend the next year of my life. Until then though, I'm once again reachable at 650.996.1553. See you soon! -Jeremy * Free pizza with assistance moving into my new Portrero Hill apartment (or from my Redwood City U-haul storage facility) this Sunday! The plan is to pack everything into the U-haul around 3:00 and to arrive in the city around 5:30 to carry stuff into the apartment. If you would like to help out, please give me a ring at 650.996.1553. Thanks!