Buffalo Soldier...in the heart of Vietnam

Beautiful Beautiful Hanoi

Every single bit of training I have received before VSO flew me out here told me that my time in Vietnam would be a curve. Right now, they tell me, I am in the honeymoon period. There will come time when I hate Vietnam, so I'm told. There will, I am lead to believe, be days when I hate everything about this place. I will blame the country, or its people, for everything that goes wrong.

I am still waiting for this down turn. Right now, I can't see it on the horizon. However, they continue to tell me, it will come.

But, more and more I think I could never hate this place.

I'm just back in my Ngoc Ha neighbourhood at my friendly local internet joint. This afternoon I popped in to the KOTO restaurant to show it off to a couple of mates. The kids didn't disappoint - the food, the service, the smiles were there for all to see.

Then I nipped into the town and while hunting for a bank that took my cash card, I did a quick walk around the lake. People will tell you that Venice, Rome or Paris are the most romantic cities in the world. It's not true. Hanoi takes the title hands down. All around the lake are hugging couples staring out across the water.

This wave of romance hits you. It's the bizarre paradox of Hanoi that between the crowds, the scooters, the bleeping horns and the street vendors, this city is one of the most tranquil I have ever been to.

I always take a minute to sit and join the lake starers and soak up a little of the pagoda magic. And again I found myself wondering what I did so right to end up here. Just where did I pick up the kharma points that meant I made it to Hanoi?

Aged 31 I went travelling and discovered the world outside the UK. Two years later, with the wanderlust calling me again, I signed up to VSO. I now can't believe the life I live. Every dash across the city on the back of a bike, every time I dine cross legged on a local's floor, every squalid plastic stool bia hoi joint I visit - it all seems like such an adventure. I didn't think I was the type of person who had adventures.

I didn't think that I could ever do a job that would make such a difference to people's lives as I am doing now.

Right now, a down curve not withstanding, I love my life. I have never been happier and Hanoi and I are enjoying our honeymoon. I can't wait for friends to visit. I want to show them "My Hanoi", I want them to fall in love with it too.

But of course, the most important thing here is my work. This week we launched the great KOTO brick campaign.


Our celeb chef (centre), boss man Jimmy (front left) and the wonderful KOTO kids.

We hosted 40 people in the restaurant, we fed them beautiful finger food creations from our celebrity chef. We showed them DVDs, we talked to them. They responded.


Me in a bad shirt doing the fundraising thing.

We sold 18 bricks - with a handful of people wanting to pay more than the $50 we asked. All in all we raised over a $1000. A small step to the $80,000 we need but well worth our time. Many of our guests took away handfuls of forms to give to friends. Since then customers have also donated to the cause.

My boss goes on TV in Australia in a couple of days. He's going to plug the bricks too. The reason for my trip to the bank earlier today was to get some cash to buy bricks for the family back home. More info on the bricks here.


Visit KOTO, pay $50, write your name on a brick and in the new restaurant it'll be replaced with a permanent one.

If you want a brick or want to help then email me on ourmaninhanoi@blogspot.com.

By the way, the reason for the title of today's post is my nickname that seems to have caught on here. One of the kitchen staff started calling me Buffalo and it has stuck. Actually, and I don't admit to this around work, but I rather like it.

Apologies for the on-going lack of pics by the way (okay now remedied and pics added). I hope I can remedy this soon. I have pics of the launch events, the bricks, our celebrity chef with the kids etc etc (done it, done it, done it).

By the way, our celebrity chef didn't want to leave. And our kitchen staff were amongst the best he had ever worked with. In only three hours with the food guru they whipped up some lovely scran.

Later, the chef, myself and the other volunteers left KOTO and went for a well-earnt beer. We sat on the little plastic stools at the side of the road. Two minutes later a couple of KOTO graduates went by on motorbikes, saw our group and doubled back to join us. I told the chef what I have just told you, about my love of Hanoi. I told him about the kids at KOTO. I told him the story about the KOTO graduates who are set to marry - one used to sell postcards, one sold tea.

The postcard kid once drank 14 cups of tea in a sitting just to lure the girl. In a little over a week his investment in the tea industry will pay off. They are to get married. I had the chef in tears. He had to take a moment to compose himself. Just as I take moment after moment to get myself together on a daily basis. Vietnam, Hanoi and KOTO - together they have the knack of pulling at my heart strings. Did I mention that I love this place?

Okay, no more schmaltz - it's time to get blokey. I'm off out. Tonight, after a lengthy argument between the local cable provider and Sky Sports, Premiership football is back. We're going to watch it in the pub.

You see - even on your honeymoon you should find time to slip away and watch the footie.


The Thay Pagoda on the Ba Vi KOTO Bike Ride Route. It's 70Ks -get $150 sponsorship and you're in. Email ourmaninhanoi@gmail.com for details.

Sweating Bricks

Okay - d-day minus one.

Tomorrow we offically launch the great brick appeal.

Today has been one of those days when I realise the culture difference between Vietnam and the UK.

Despite me talking about the brick appeal in meetings and despite the fact that there has been a 30ft representation of a "new home for KOTO" painted on the wall. Apparently the front of house staff knew nothing of the event.

To be fair, it's my fault. I hadn't briefed them. I had assumed someone else would do. I'm quickly learning "never assume".

So there was a bit of rushing around trying to explain the concept and what was needed tomorrow night. Then, when we got the menu from the evening's celebrity chef, we realised what we thought would be finger food was actually a full blown hot meal.

A bit of a reshuffle later and we've decided to turn it into a buffet. Basically we have enjoyed a last minute surge of numbers. What we conceived as a quiet little affair has taken off. We thought about 20 KOTO supporters - we've doubled that and it could yet be more.

Today we stuck our toe in the water during a presentation to a tour group. Would they go for the whole brick idea? Would they pay $50 to support KOTO and get their name on a brick in the new restaurant?

We shouldn't have worried. One lady promptly wrote out a cheque for $500 for a single brick. Gettin.

It also appears that the Australian Embassy has got a hold of the press release that we sent out, and has forwarded it to its entire database. The result - more people want to attend and more people want to buy bricks.

My family are buying, my friends are buying. You good people in blogland are buying and linking and things are taking off. There was a whisper of TV interest from a "major UK network" today.

All in all, before the offical launch we have sold around 40 bricks. Not bad going. We have to keep it up.

So despite my nerves things are looking good. My boss and the celebrity chef fly in tomorrow at 8am. I have the briefs written for their speeches ready.

I've borrowed a data projector to show a short film we have that'll have them weeping in the isles. The staff are now clued up.

As mentioned we also have this huge great picture of a new KOTO home that has been painted on our walls by a couple of local students. For every brick sold we will ask the purchaser to sign a brick. And hopefully, over the weeks, the bricks will fill up with names and messages of goodwill.

All in all it feels like it is growing in momentum. It feels good and I'm still nervous as well.

By the way, before I go into the plug and explanations I just wanted to explain the title. I was rushing around on the back of a bike, as ever, and it's warm today. Anyway I burst in on the restaurant in a hurry to check out the wall painting. One of the KOTO kids burst out laughing. "Meester Steeve," he said, pointing at my chest, "you are smiling."

I looked down to see a perfect smiley crescent of sweat on my t-shirt. Nice.

Okay the explanation. Hang on. Just remembered. We have press. You can read their version here - it'll save me keying it in again.

But if you want a brick then email me at ourmaninhanoi@gmail.com.

Those of you who already have, thank-you, thank-you, thank-you and I will have the forms with you to sign very soon.

And remember this is a hell of a cause.

There is some more press for you to read, here and here. It's old but it tells the story and can fill you in on a little of the KOTO history.

Oh I nearly forgot. I will probably have to make a short speech at the do tomorrow night. Not my favourite thing at all. By pure luck we actually had a course on public speaking this week.

At the end of the course we all have to do a little five minute presentation. It was hard enough for me to do but, as always, the Vietnamese had the harder task, making their presentations in English.

Finally upstepped my Vietnamese colleague. Everyone else had already spoken. His English is good, if not great. Anyway, he started to tell the tale of his old life on the streets before KOTO took him in, gave him training and found him a job. No cue cards. No planning. No audio visuals.

It was far and away the best and most moving speech of all.

The next chapter in his story? Well, in a couple of weeks he gets married to another KOTO graduate. She sold tea next to where he sold postcards.

Yet another success story. Yet another tale to melt your hearts. There are plenty more.

We got bricks

(If this is your first visit to the site and wonder what the hell I’m on about then scroll to the bottom of this post and I’ll try and explain the whole brick thing)

Oh yes – we have the bricks.

For a while back there I was worried. People are contacting me asking how to buy a brick. The “Build a New Home for KOTO” campaign officially kicks off next Thursday. The grand plan is in place…except we had no bricks.

In the end it was simple. Yes, there is no one here that makes personalised bricks. But what Hanoi does have is Tomb Stone Street. I’m not sure about the symbolism of all this but we do have some lovely marble bricks. Go on buy one.

Tomb Stone Street is located in Hanoi’s Old Quarter. Most streets have a theme – Hardware Street, Shoe Street, DIY Street. My personal favourite is Hat Stand and Plastic Flower Street. I guess neither commodities were lucrative enough to have a street of their own.

But like I said. We got bricks. It necessitated lots of flying round on the back of a scooter taxis but we found a strangely high-tech gravestone emporium. I expected him to chisel out the name on the bricks one by one – but he took us to his Mac, typed in our requested words and up they came on the screen.

From there apparently it’s all done by machine. The cost is good too – making sure that the money donated towards KOTO’s new home isn’t eaten up.

It’s been another good week actually. As ever process is slow but steady. We’re chasing numbers for the brick launch event. We’re chasing cyclists for the Ba Vi Charity ride. Strange but true – cycling 70ks is currently more popular then turning out to a charity appeal – despite the free food.

But if anyone is reading this, who is in Hanoi on November 11th and would like to come along to the KOTO restaurant at 61 Van Mieu for the launch, then drop me an email (ourmaninhanoi@gmail.com). The food will be catered for by a gentleman called Nhut Huyn from RQ’s restaurant in Sydney. No charge for his tasty creations but there will be a certain amount of pressure to buy a brick.

So anyway – it’s been a good week. What I am slowly realising is how everyone here seems to think so much of KOTO. Take for example, last Saturday. A pub in town held a Halloween night with all proceeds going to the KOTO winter appeal. It was packed. It turned into an absolute blinding night. My boss has told me at the last minute that I should make a speech. So I spent the entire evening trying to judge what the right level of beer was in order to get up and say my few words.

After sitting there all nervous, as the hours went by it dawned on me that the party had got busy and raucous enough for a speech to be as welcome as a cockroach inside your mozzie net. I had got away with it.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s a cracking pub, but people do want to support KOTO. They showed up and happily paid their 50,000 Dong.

Then last night two of us went round with posters for the upcoming Ba Vi Charity bike ride. Putting up posters is a tricky business. But most bars we ventured into broke into a smile when we said the magic words “KOTO”. “Ahhhh yes…KOTO – no problem”.

Best night of the week was Wednesday. Yet again I was floored by generosity. I was invited to the house of one of the KOTO kitchen staff – a former graduate of the KOTO training. I have to admit I didn’t know her name and probably hadn’t exchanged more than nods with her before that. But I was honoured to be invited alongside a few other members of staff.

I was told it was a short scooter ride outside town. The young KOTO staff climbed on their scooters and I hailed a moto and set off in pursuit. For 45 minutes we weaved in and out of traffic with my driver doing his best to keep up with the KOTO kitchen boy racers. The journey seemed to go on and on and get more and more perilous. Soon we were leaving Hanoi behind and were on the motorway.

The area we ended up in, if it was in Britain, would be called a greenfield development site. Tucked away between the rubble of building works was my host’s modest home.

It was in a little run of one-room homes in a little garden area. Eight of us crammed in – sitting on the floor eating hot pot. That’s not hot pot of your Lanchashire variety. This is a steaming bowl of stock where you slowly add food and pick it out, piece by piece like fondue. It goes from the sublime to the ridiculous. From fresh, still wriggling prawns to pig hearts. Prawns - great, hog heart – not so much.

But all around the walls of this room are pictures of KOTO. Pictures of KOTO trips, pictures of KOTO events, pictures of her colleagues, pictures she has drawn herself of the restaurant. Her pride at being a KOTO graduate was there for all to see. So was her happiness.

She was the perfect host. Even so far as being understanding when after two hours of sitting I had to get up to give my backside a break and stretch my aching legs. She eventually got me a little plastic stool and I sat there towering over these beautiful, happy, smiling kids.

It will sound ridiculous and cheesy to say that KOTO kids have this glow. But they do. They always tell you how lucky they are. I guess they mean the luck of finding and being accepted by KOTO. But look at me. Look at all the luck I have had. The luck of just being born in the West. The luck of being healthy. The luck of growing up with both parents and a close family. The luck of free education and health care.

The list goes on. Yet these kids who only had one slice of luck in their lives – when KOTO gave them a chance – appreciate their little bit of luck far more than most westerners appreciate the truckloads we’re born with.

So, meal finished. We thanked our host and headed back off into town. I wasn’t about to risk another scary moto so I rang a taxi. As is the way it took forever to turn up. I didn’t care. I waited in the glorious autumn Hanoi weather on the side of the motorway just grinning like an idiot – as I do here a lot.

Then when our car finally came – the rest of the kids shouted their goodbyes and sped off on their bikes. Not so different from young people back home – except that a couple of years ago, at this time of night, they would still be pestering tourists to buy postcards or offering shoe shines. Then they would be sleeping on the streets or squalid hostels.

I think it’s time to do the plug again.

Okay, here’s the deal.

I am here as a volunteer fundraising through VSO (link on the right)

KOTO is an organisation in Hanoi, Vietnam that takes in street kids, gives them a home, clothes, a wage, medical care, vaccinations etc etc.

Most importantly it gives them training. It gives them the skills to work in the hospitality industry. Either front-of-house or in the kitchens. During the 18 months they are here they also learn about sexual health, team work, pride, hygiene etc etc. Trust me the difference between the kids coming in and the kids graduating is amazing.

Most of the kids go on to work in the Sheraton, Hilton etc etc. Already, former graduates have gone onto manage nightclubs and be amongst the top chefs in the city.

Now this is the tough part. KOTO runs its own restaurant. The kids work in the restaurant. It is where they get practical experience. It raises money to help pay for the training. But early next year our lease runs out.

Basically we need $80k to fund a new restaurant. We have a site chosen – it is perfect. It will help make KOTO sustainable so that it can continue to save and train these fantastic kids.

Anyway, in order to finance this we hit upon an idea. Buy a brick in KOTO. So we have bricks up for sale. Pay $50 and we will put your name on a brick. If you’re an ex-pat then it will something nice to leave behind in Hanoi. If you have never been to Vietnam then buy a brick and resolve to visit it. Buy a brick for a Christening present for a child “born lucky” in the west – to help kids in the less prosperous east. Buy a brick for Christmas.

You’re interested? Good.

So email me at ourmaninhanoi@gmail.com and I will add you to my brick list and will forward you details of how to pay after the launch event next Thursday.

And if you’re already in Hanoi or nearby then why not come to the event and buy a brick in person and meet some of the KOTO staff for yourselves. Come find me and I’ll buy you a beer. I’m the big western one.

It starts at 6.30pm – Thursday November the 11th at 61 Van Mieu, Hanoi. Food will be free.

For more information on KOTO go to the link on the right hand side of the page.