Hanoi, Vietnam

Good Morning Vietnam!
My flight got in late Thursday night, so I woke up early and headed to the lake to go for a run. Vietnam wakes up at the crack of dawn in Hanoi and whole city is exercising between 6-7am around Hoan Kiem lake. The streets around the perimeter are transformed into badmitton courts, the plaza has over 100 people worshiping Jane Fonda aerobicizing, one area is lined with muscle heads who brought their own weights and benches, old people moving in slow motion in their tai chi stances, soccer in any turn large enough to kick a ball, and hoards of people shuffling their feet in the Asian-style run counter clockwise around the lake. I, of course, am running against the grain. Music is pumped into the city through loud speakers, but some people are practicing their karaoke in the park.

The architecture is very French and I am speaking more French than English this weekend. The cathedral looks like Notre Dame, stripped of all of its décor and French cafes line the major streets. Each street is focused on selling a different item. All shoes are on one street, silks on another, hardware, bicycle parts, furniture, art, and of course streets of food and ladies carrying baskets balanced across their shoulders. I had to buy a bottle of snake wine, which, in fact, has a full cobra preserved inside of the bottle.


Ha Long Bay
3 hours outside of Hanoi is a beautiful World Heritage Site featuring thousands of limestone karsts, or islands. ‘Junk’ boats troll tourists through the cliff hanging islands, some containing enormous grottos lit by discotheque lighting. A sound system would make this cave a great place for a rave.




I am hanging with 2 French girls, a couple from Wales, an Aussie and a Thia-French family on a boat for the weekend. The crew makes amazing food, the views are spectacular, and the weather superb. We embarked on a sunset Kayaking trip into floating villages where believe it or not, they had cable TV run by generators and a floating bank with an ATM! No monks at this one though.


When the sun went down, we opened a bottle of Bordeaux on the roof of the junker and watched the stars emerge through the sky. I was the only one to spend the night up there under the stars and in the middle of the night, I awoke to the moon lighting up the islands around me and I was covered in dew.

Back in Singapore, the Genentech brigade is invading the island. For 6 months I was the only FTE from SSF. 5 expats arrived in January, and now over 50 temporary employees will migrate from SSF to the Genentech dorm at Orchard Scotts, my serviced apartment. Makes it a little odd to hang at the pool in my bikini.

You also probably never thought I would return to India so soon, but this week a colleague and I were invited to present in Mumbai at the International BioProcess Conference in October.