{"id":30772,"date":"2016-09-02T08:00:26","date_gmt":"2016-09-02T15:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/?p=30772"},"modified":"2016-09-02T04:33:36","modified_gmt":"2016-09-02T11:33:36","slug":"hanoi-diary-2-daily-life-coffee-wifi-and-my-personal-goals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2016\/09\/02\/hanoi-diary-2-daily-life-coffee-wifi-and-my-personal-goals\/","title":{"rendered":"Hanoi Diary #2: Daily Life, Coffee, Wifi, and My Personal Goals"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"20160902_121719\"
Tools of Hanoi: Ricoh GR II, GoPro Hero 3, and (lots of) coffee<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Dear friends,<\/p>\n

Currently at \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Coffee House<\/a>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in Hanoi, and really caffeinated (just had a double-shot of espresso, and some of Cindy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s iced coffee).<\/p>\n

Being here in Hanoi is absolutely wonderful. We are currently staying at the Hanoi Palace City Hotel<\/a> (which we thought was a 4-star, but more like a 2-star), but still the place is clean, has great service, and in a great location.<\/p>\n

I just want to use this diary to share some of my first impressions of Hanoi, and how daily life is here:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Hotel living<\/h2>\n
\"Hanoi
Hanoi Palace Hotel Lobby (a little less glitzy in real life)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We are currently living in a hotel, and man \u00e2\u20ac\u201d living in a hotel is lovely. We are paying around $15 a night, and have the convenience of being in a great location in Hanoi, getting free breakfast (table service), and our room and sheets cleaned every day.<\/p>\n

Which made me realize\u00e2\u20ac\u201d how much of our daily lives are spent buying groceries, cleaning up, cooking, and cleaning up? One of the benefits of living in a hotel is that I have more mental energy saved (not cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping) in order to focus on creative work.<\/p>\n

Of course not everyone has this luxury. But one of the benefits of being in Vietnam is that as a foreigner, I am blessed enough to be able to afford this type of lifestyle.<\/p>\n

Cindy and I are currently looking for serviced apartments in Hanoi, and unfortunately we won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get free breakfast anymore (one of the best perks of living in a hotel). However, we expect the benefit of living in a serviced apartment (meaning it gets cleaned for us) is that we will have a little more room, stability, and can guarantee that we will stay in the same place for a long time.<\/p>\n

I also figure that because meals here are so cheap ($2 on average for lunch), we can eat all of our meals outside. Which means we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need to spend time grocery shopping and cooking. While I do love to cook when we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re back in America, I will enjoy my time here in Vietnam to experience more local restaurants, flavors, foods, and experiences.<\/p>\n

Goals while living in Vietnam<\/h2>\n
\"Hanoi,
Hanoi, 2016 #cindyproject<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When my friends asked me, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153What do you plan on doing in Vietnam?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t quite sure. I knew that I wanted to do some blogging, video making, reading, meditating, and having new experiences.<\/p>\n

However I think at the end of my trip, one of my biggest goals is to improve my Vietnamese. And I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m glad to say, it has been off to a solid start.<\/p>\n

2 years ago when we spent the summer in Saigon, I took Vietnamese classes (4 hours intensive 1:1). This helped me learn the fundamentals (basic verbs, conjunctions, and nouns). And with this basic toolkit, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been able to have basic conversations with locals here, and also the ability to ask them to help me when I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand. And of course, the best benefit is having Cindy (she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s completely fluent in Vietnamese) \u00e2\u20ac\u201d so she has been teaching me a lot of words along the way.<\/p>\n

One of the reasons I realized I love about learning local languages is that it helps me connect deeper on an emotional and spiritual level with people. Being an extrovert, a sociologist, and a teacher\u00e2\u20ac\u201d I value social interaction above most things. And if I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t speak the local language, my limit to connect with people is extremely limited.<\/p>\n

Which makes me realize\u00e2\u20ac\u201d my interest in connecting with people, being social, and communicating is even stronger than my desire to photograph. If anything, photography is a tool that that helps me connect with people (this is why I like to ask for permission for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153street portraits\u00e2\u20ac\u009d).<\/p>\n

We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re in Hanoi for 9 months, then Saigon for 6 months\u00e2\u20ac\u201d then around 6-9 months in France (split between Marseille and Paris). I also hope to learn French while I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m there.<\/p>\n

Street photography in Hanoi<\/h2>\n
\"Hanoi,
Hanoi, 2016<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I first visited Hanoi 2 years ago when we spent the summer in Saigon. And I have to say \u00e2\u20ac\u201d I really love the city and the people.<\/p>\n

However for the most part (at least for the last 2 days), I haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t had a super-strong urge to photograph. I always have my camera on me, and ready to take photos, but I still find myself shooting more photos of Cindy (as part of the #cindyproject). I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m almost treating Hanoi like I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m in the suburbs\u00e2\u20ac\u201d focusing on photographing Cindy (and not the local people).<\/p>\n

I feel one of the difficult things about shooting street photography in Hanoi (as well as Vietnam and any place in Southeast asia) is that we are tempted (as Westerners) to photograph the cliches\u00e2\u20ac\u201d the street hawkers, the rice patty hats, and the motorbikes. I want to make more \u00e2\u20ac\u0153unique\u00e2\u20ac\u009d images while I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m here\u00e2\u20ac\u201d to try to photograph like a local (instead of a foreigner).<\/p>\n

I really haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t made any photos of locals that I am proud of (yet)\u00e2\u20ac\u201d but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not too worried. I feel that I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to rush or force the process.<\/p>\n

I also have been experimenting shooting color and black and white\u00e2\u20ac\u201d and I will probably stick to monochrome (as I ended up converting all my color photos from Saigon 2 years ago into black and white).<\/p>\n

\"Hanoi,
Hanoi, 2016 #cindyproject<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While I love color\u00e2\u20ac\u201d I feel that black and white better suits the gritty feel of Vietnam for me. I feel that the black and white helps bring harmony to the chaos in the streets, and to also bring a sense of nostalgia, energy, and vigor.<\/p>\n

My camera is the Ricoh GRII, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m shooting high-contrast B\/W JPEG + RAW. Some of the jpegs look pretty solid, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m currently converting most of my RAW images in Lightroom with my free tri-x 1600 preset simulations. And they look pretty solid so far.<\/p>\n

Also perhaps one of my goals is that by the end of my trip in Hanoi (or Vietnam), I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll make a small little magazine or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153zine\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of my work. Truthfully, I haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t printed as much of my work as I would like to \u00e2\u20ac\u201d but it is certainly a direction I want to head.<\/p>\n

Without printing, I feel that projects don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have a sense of closure. And I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want creative constipation to get me blocked up. I want to print, produce, and share with the world.<\/p>\n

Coffee and wifi<\/h2>\n
\"Hanoi,
Hanoi, 2016<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For you coffee freaks out there \u00e2\u20ac\u201d I have to say, the coffee here is amazing. Not only can you get great Vietnamese coffee (very strong, thick, and you can also get it with condensed milk) \u00e2\u20ac\u201d but there is also great espresso here. The French certainly brought a strong coffee culture to the Vietnamese, and the wifi here doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t disappoint either.<\/p>\n

At most coffee shops, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d say the wifi speeds are probably 10x faster than the Starbucks in America. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been able to upload 700mb videos to YouTube in about 5 minutes in some coffee shops. And not only that, but there are so many different coffee shops, with good vibes, good music, good service, and ambiance (I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m currently writing this at the third story of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Coffee House\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, with nice natural light coming in, and looking out to the streets).<\/p>\n

\"Cindy
Cindy recording me on the GoPro, while pouring sweetener in her iced coffee<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I hate doing creative work at home, or at a hotel, inside an office, or inside a room. I always do my best work at coffee shops\u00e2\u20ac\u201d perhaps it is because of the ambiance, the ambient noise, the coffee, or something else. Or perhaps because I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m an extrovert.<\/p>\n

The biggest issue I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve had about working in coffee shops (even in America) is the wifi sucks. But the wifi rocks here. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m loving this city already \u00e2\u20ac\u201d prepare a lot of creative publishing from me while I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m here.<\/p>\n

Video production<\/h2>\n