It’s been a good couple of weeks since my last missive. In that time I’ve had fun, met some cool people, been to some great clubs and done a lot of personal reflection.

Why am I here (geographically and metaphorically)? What am I doing with my life? What will become of me? Where do I go next? Am I insane? Am I stupid? Does it really matter?

Whilst not much closer to a useful answer to any of those questions, I am processing through the tangled mangroves in the swamp of my mind. Four weeks into a ten week venture, there’s still time.

A lot of worry, and a lot of fear, in short. Punctuated with plenty of joy and some humour. I didn’t expect easy answers and I’m not disappointed.

I found a cool little venue, Hanoi Social Club, which has a weekly night called ‘Tiny Music Club’. I went twice in three weeks and had a great time. An intimate space, with a trust box of beers and some very cool people, mainly tourists and expats, despite the varied acts that play there.

The night is run by Ayush, a charming Nepalese singer songwriter who I spoke to on both occasions. He plays a gentle and fun range of his own material, a jazzy, reggae tinged vibe, not my usual preference but he plays guitar very well and his charisma won me over.

Pink Frog (pictured) is a Vietnamese singer songwriter and his set was good. Lots of sad songs, well played and well sung. Hats off Mr Frog.

Two weeks later, I saw Yordan Kostov, with a touring band with which he plays called Don’t Cry Judy, for some reason. Who upset Judy? We’ll never know. I hope she’s alright now though.

Yordan and his assembled troupe were amazing. Yordan hails from Macedonia, and the chaotic, experimental Macedonian folk inspired set that they performed blew me away. Genuinely brilliant stuff, reminiscent of the Constellation band Black Ox Orkestar, which no one had heard of. I sat and chatted with them for a couple of hours afterwards, meeting some other interesting musicians and creatives in the process. A very cool group that knew each other well, they went to Manuel’s house to jam and drink until the early hours. I failed to get an invite, despite my best efforts, which made me sad. Still, I don’t blame them for not being in the business of inviting random Englishmen to their homes, we do have a reputation after all.

I visited Hoa Lo Prison Relic (aka Maison Centrale, aka Hanoi Hilton), where the French colonists incarcerated Vietnamese political prisoners, regardless of guilt or innocence, in the time of the occupation in horrific conditions. The prison was then repurposed to host American prisoners of war, this time in significantly improved, almost jovial conditions. According to the museum displays, anyway. Former Senator John McCain was a former resident of the prison, so you could ask him, however he passed away in 2018, so, I don’t know, buy his autobiography or something, I can’t do everything for you.

I met a cat named Kila who was rather cruelly taunting a mouse at the café around the corner from my Tay Ho digs. It was a one-sided affair, luck not befalling the mouse who was making a valiant effort to escape. I left before the match had ended. Perhaps the mouse finally gave in, although Kila’s intention was clearly not to kill the poor thing. Perhaps the mouse escaped, although even if it had, I’d wager the physical and mental scars would have caused it irreparable damage and impacted its prospects for the rest of its life.

Tay Ho, north Hanoi, is still under construction, much like this post, and various traps have been set to ensure the unobservant are taught a valuable, and potentially life-changing, lesson in hazard awareness.

I’m a busy man and I can’t sit around all day serving up hot hilarity, so I’m off. Stay tuned for more unnecessarily wordy tedium in the not too distant.

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