Merry Christmas from Southeast Asia!

Greetings from Hanoi, Vietnam! My friend Erin and I arrived here this Christmas evening after a week of exploring and relaxing in Singapore. So far, I have nothing but rave reviews about Hanoi - our hotel is wonderful, helping us set up tours, getting us tickets to the main attractions, and giving us directions to all of the sights around town, including a delicious little restaurant called Little Hanoi, where we just had our Christmas dinner! It was certainly a different kind of Christmas dinner than I've ever had before, but damn, it was delicious! Fried catfish with dill and spices accompanied by pan-tossed green beans. Yum! I'm already excited about all of the amazing food we'll be trying on this trip!

Singapore turned out to be a delight in its own right, though decidedly in a different way than backpacking will. Everyone told me that after going to Singapore, Hong Kong would feel much more like a Chinese city - they were very, very correct. I couldn't really imagine that any place in Asia could be more Western than Hong Kong, but I was proved very wrong. Singapore felt like so many different US cities, much more so than it ever felt like Hong Kong. It reminded in some parts of Los Angeles, Boston, a touch of New Orleans here and there (but not nearly as cool) but the city it reminded me the most of was Miami. But instead of Cubans, you have Indians and Malays.

I will say, though, that the food was fabulous! My friend Su Ching, a native Singaporean, gave me a list of all of the local cuisine to try (roti prata, chicken rice, satay, Milo Dinosaur, etc.), all actually borrowed from other cuisines, but that's neither here nor there. My favorite meal was a trip to the Newton Hawker stalls, where we had sting ray, satay, vegetables in oyster sauce, fried rice, and this business called carrot cake, which is actually made from turnips and actually tastes somewhat sweet because of the sauce they use with it. It was divine. The food alone is worth a repeat trip to the city.

The Christmas decorations in Singapore, meanwhile, are on crack. Like actually. I have never seen such gaudy, over-the-top displays of blinking lights, live nativity scenes, and giant reindeer statues ever. And for those of you who know the Christmas decoration scene where I come from, that's saying something. It was ridiculous. Mom, you would have loved it.

That's all for now, I'm about to go plunk down for a good night's sleep before we get up early in the morning for a visit to Ho Chi Minh's body. I'll probably have lots to report from this trip, just judging from my first night here, so I'll try and give little snippets throughout the trip. Until then, have a merry Christmas!!