Bia Hoi

Vietnam: the land of the liquid gold, topped off with a thick white foam layer and some ice cubes. Upon discovery it sent V into a frenzy. A calculating frenzy… Bia hoi, the national drink in Vietnam, freshly draught when ordered and sometimes chilled with some ice cubes, costs only 10 euro cent a glass. And those are decent glasses. For just one euro you could get pretty hammered. For 5 euros… well… you might not survive with all the poisonous stuff they probably use to produce it.

While glaring at the check we just received from the waitress after our first dinner in an actual restaurant that wouldn´t look bad in Amsterdam, I could see something brooding in V´s mind. I was sipping on my chilled glass of white wine, ferociously enjoying it,  when out came the now legendary words: “I could have 170 beers for this money.”

And there it was: the ‘Beer Index’ saw the light of the flickering lanterns outside for the first time. I could not escape it anymore. I almost even got the evil eye for ordering an can of soda or an ice coffee, which could easily have been 5 bia hois instead.

Now please just take your time, sit back and try to imagine the expression on V’s face when –while strolling through our hotels street in Hanoi- I discovered we had picked just that one street to sleep in where all the boutiques which sold the most sublime Chanel bag copies of all time where clustered together… They only cost the same as 3000 bia hois…

The scene of the crime. I'm still blissfully unaware of what is about to happen. 

The perpetrator and his poison...

Testing V's nerves.

This picture cost at least 10 beers.

Hanoi... The man who gave us the 'Beer Index' is of course also responsible for all these pictures. What would we do without him?

Hanoi (or is it Bia Hoi?) makes one act questionably.