Swimming in Hanoi

After a night of heavy rain, this was the scene outside my apartment building!



For some reason I thought I could still get to work, since it is only about 5 minutes away...

So I got in a taxi and off we went... Ooops, so many streets are flooded... We turned around

and tried a different route... Uh oh! The water was getting deeper and deeper... so deep that it

came right into the car!! The taxi driver tried to drive on the sidewalk but it was no use, the

car was flooded and we were stuck!!



After waiting for about 2 hours to be rescued, I gave up and walked back in water that was

up to my waist! Everyone was laughing and stopping to talk to me, I guess they don't see too

many foreigners walking through the water











The black car in this picture was abandoned... I hope it is water-proof!!











A nice picture that I call "Hanoi When It Rains"













The view of the street from the 12th floor. This street wasn't so bad, just up to your knees!











As the water level gets higher and higher, it starts to go up onto the sidewalk and into the

buildings















I guess the motorbike repair shop was happy! Plenty of customers today with motorbikes that

wouldn't start...



Still raining so hard now... where will all the water go??

Halloween

Happy Halloween!!

This is the card that my nephew Logan sent us from Canada :)











OMG!! A ghost came out on halloween??!!!











Ohhhh.... Just Thao with her "cure for the common cold".



These branches have a nice smell when boiled, and you have to stay under the blanket until

you can't take the heat anymore. I have been sick for the past week and it didn't seem to

get any better until I tried this!

My Baby Thao

Cưng ơi, em làm cho anh thật hạnh phúc. Em là tất cả đối với anh.

Anh sẽ yêu em mãi mãi.

Bellydance!

Thao and I went to see a bellydance competition, since Thuy Au who works with me at

Punch was performing. Thao likes belly dance very much. She has some friends from Turkey,

who gave her a bellydance teaching dvd. Sometimes she practices in front of the mirror and I

get a nice show ;))











After their hard work of dancing, some girls take a break and watch the show.

"Ohhhh I like her!" Thao says about the girl in yellow. "Her belly, exactly that is what you need

to bellydance! The other girls are too skinny"











Thao gets a little too close to the sexy girls!!

Actually she got the phone number of the girl in red...... But she talked to Thao that all of

the performers had the same bellydance teacher from Korea.

"Oh, why not from Turkey??" Thao said













The girls pose for pictures after the performances. Some great costumes!











And the winner is........ Thuy Au!!

Here is the video of the winning performance. Nice job Thuy!

The male bellydancer was very good, but a little strange for me to watch heheh

This was one of Thao's favorite performances, with live music.



Of course Thao was very interested in taking bellydance classes too!

"I can dance better than ANYONE here!" she says ;)) Next time she will be the winner

I also showed Thao my own version of bellydance , but sorry no video for you










And here are my real favorite belly dance from Turkey.


These are some of Thao's all-time favorite bellydance videos :)

She can paint the future!

Fishing Trip

On the weekend we took Nathan out for a fishing trip. It was just a bit cloudy, so not too hot.

As you can see, we had lots of snacks, but watch out for the ants!











Getting ready to start fishing! Thao spent most of the day "feeding the fish" but couldn't

seem to hook one. Those fish were smart! They also always went to eat her bait but just

ignored mine :(











As Nathan put it: "Gangsta with a capital G"











OMGGG we waited all day for such a small fish??











Looking great, as always :)

Maid in Hanoi

Another day, another funny Thao story! :)



Nathan from the Punch US office will be coming to Vietnam tomorrow and staying for

a few weeks with me... Today I was at the office waiting at the elevator and someone

(I won't mention who) started a conversation that went something like this:



Her: "Nathan will come tomorrow and stay with you?"

Kyle: "Yes, it's nice now that I have a maid to cook and clean for me every day..."

Her: "Oh... Thao??"

Kyle: "NOOO!! hehehehe a maid!!! "

Her: "Oh... I read your blog...."



Hehehe I didn't think anyone was interested in my little blog :P















"Dont you wish your gf was hot like me?"





Of course, I'm lucky enough that Thao does like to cook for me. She makes really good

meals like Pho, fried chicken, and beef. But when I told her that story today she

laughed and cried at the same time :P "She is đồ dở hơi" Thao said, but I didn't know

what it meant. :) But anyway I am learning more Vietnamese now! :))















Thao is sulking "You guys make fun of me, do not mention about my name anymore, else I'll kick your ass!"









Seriously though, Thao has a great job as the president of an international company

and the director of a Japanese language school. She recently bought a nice new

motorbike, yes she is richer than me! ;)



I know "I don't deserve her", but I'm just so happy every minute that I can spend with her!

Yummy

Thao is making me breakfast in the morning!













Wowow looks so good! I'm very lucky :)

She wants me to eat a lot to make me fat, since I'm so skinny...













Even though we have a maid, it's much better if we cook ourselves ;)

It's my turn today, so I'm frying some rabbit...



Ok, I can see what she was saying about me being too

thin... Please ignore my skinny little bird legs!













Serving dinner... Thao says I look handsome in this pic, but I don't know why heheh

She says with my new face and hair I look like Shayne Ward :)













For many days I was always complaining that my hair was too long... So Thao offered to

cut it for me. Ooops, too short!!



She did a good job, but I didn't know I had such a big bald spot without hair... I guess

too much stress at work!













Awwwww... I'm sure everyone is sick of the cute couple pictures by now, but we still love them!