Captain Karioke

Hey Folks,
Last weekend I ticked off my quarter-century and celebrated my 25th Birthday in Hanoi. If this city does one thing well, it's Birthdays. It all kicked off on thursday when I invited the great and good of my expat chums to an Indian restaurant on the shores of Truch Bach lake. I felt very lucky to have such a great and varied bunch of people to celebrate with; out of 12 attending, I was the only English teacher, and one of only two Brits. We polished off some really cracking Indian dishes and then headed to nearby Sofitel Hotel for posh beverages. The hotel bar is on the top floor, and the nightime cityscape of Hanoi was truly amazing. With all my Hanoi pals around, looking out at the amazing view, I couldnt help but marvel again at how lucky I am to be here in this incredible city.
Saturday came around, and I spent the day lazily (as one should on ones birthday), stuffing my face at Jomas and then walking along to Ailu Cat Cafe to hang out with Hanoi's fabbest felines. There cant be many better ways to while away the afternoon than with a book and a coffee and a cat in your lap...
There really is only one way to truly celebrate a birthday in Vietnam, and thats at the Karioke bar. So come saturday evening I headed off to the X-Men club in Dong Da for the most amazing karioke party ever! With 99% Vietnamese attendance, it was sure to be authentic and fun and genuine in only the best Hanoian way. I was truly overwhelmed to see how many friends I have here, and so happy that they all turned out to celebrate with me. After being crowned 'Captain Karioke' and presented with an X-Men sailor cap, I belted out the long-standing favourites of Hanoi karioke 'Let it Be', 'Stand By Me' and 'What is Love', as well as the one and only Vietnamese song I can remember all the way through!

The evening melted into a bur of mingling, singing, dancing, eating cake and taking photographs. The sore throat this week is TOTALLY worth it. It was honestly one of the best nights of my life. I was so happy that I thought I might explode if it got any better! I had a constant feeling of wanting to laugh, smile, sing, dance and cry all at the same time.
One Truly Amazing Night.

SarahHeadsEast xx

PS - I'm so lucky to have Vietnamese friends with such wicked creative talent. Check out this fab photo and video montage of the night from Enjoy