I’ve published several blog posts during my trip showing some of what I’ve been doing—learning about Vietnamese history at the Ho Chi Minh Museum, petting animals at the Baby Elephant Animal Park, looking at art in the Vincom Center for Contemporary Art, immersing myself in the lights of the HLC Starry Sky Art Museum, walking around inside the Vincom Mega Mall Royal City, and taking a serene stroll through the JW Marriott Lakeside Gardens, to name a handful. I also did some general sightseeing in the Ba Đình and West Lake Districts of Hanoi.

Although I’m usually a spontaneous and unstructured one-way flight kind of traveler, I booked a round-trip flight for this itinerary, not only because my Vietnamese travel visa prompted me for return flight details, but also because international round-trips end up algorithmically costing materially less than the identical flights booked as two one-ways. Because of that, I had my flights out of Hanoi already set—EVA Air flight 398 from Nội Bài International Airport in Hanoi to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport servicing the Greater Taipei Area, and then EVA Air flight 12 from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport to Los Angeles International Airport—the exact mirror flights that I took on my way to Hanoi.

Thanks to the concierge team at the JW Marriott Hotel Hanoi, I had a transport car waiting for me the morning of my day of departure. I had generally just used Grab to call rideshare services throughout my stay in Hanoi, but I figured I wanted to be extra safe in case there were issues with Grab (I had read some horror stories online of people trying to call a ride but having drivers chain-cancel on them), so that I wouldn’t miss my flight, be stranded in Vietnam, and accidentally overstay my visa. After about 40 minutes, we made it to Nội Bài International Airport and I was dropped off at departures.

After a very smooth, quick, and uneventful check-in and security process, I walked into the terminal and went upstairs to enter the SH Premium Lounge. Apparently the “SH” used to stand for Sông Hồng, which means “Red River” in Vietnamese, but at some point, they changed it to stand for “Service from the Heart” instead. … I think I like Sông Hồng better.

As boarding time approached and I was about to leave the lounge, I saw a sign by the exit saying that EVA Air flight 398 was delayed by about an hour. However, when I checked the EVA Air website, there was no such update posted online. In my paranoid fear of somehow missing my flight and being stranded in Vietnam on a visa expiring that same day, I still made my way downstairs to the gate to make absolute certain that I would not be left behind. Once I got there, I was able to confirm that my flight was indeed delayed.

To apologize for the delay, a staff member brought over a ton of complimentary meal kits to distribute to the affected passengers. I had just finished eating a meal and a half’s worth of free food at the airport lounge, so I passed on the meal and just accepted a bottle of water, in hopes that a different, extra hungry person would be able to take two meals instead. In my past decade of very frequent travel, I have never seen a United States airline do this, so it was a very pleasant surprise seeing this gesture from EVA Air.

The delay was extended by a bit and I ended up having to wait at the gate for about an hour and a half, but eventually, our Boeing 777-300ER aircraft arrived and was ready for boarding.

I mentioned this in the blog post that I wrote about my outbound flight, but I feel the need to mention this again. Yes, I flew business class for these flights. However, I paid out-of-pocket for my business class ticket. Even though I went to an event related to Tempo, I am not going on luxury trips and expensing the cost of them to Tempo. The company’s revenue is being reinvested back into further development of The Bazaar.

I settled into seat 11K in the final row of the business class cabin, which I selected because I think that it’s the seat that gives the most peace and privacy.

Because this was a relatively shorter flight, meal service started relatively promptly. As my hors d’oeuvre, I received a smoked duck, fruit, and vegetable salad.

For my main entrée, I opted for wok-fried Nile perch topped with crispy garlic and capsicums prepared Hong Kong style, with a side of rice and vegetables.

I picked two beverages to go along with my meal. From their mocktail menu, I ordered a non-alcoholic Amber Dream, made from apple juice, ginger ale, and cranberry juice. I also got a glass of Vigor Dong Shih (VDS) mixed carrot and fruit juice.

One thing I liked about Vietnam was that their juice selection includes a lot of options that are not available in the United States. I was glad to see that the trend continued into Taiwan; this carrot and fruit juice was probably one of the best juices I’ve ever had.

As a palate cleanser after my fish entrée, I received a cup of fresh fruit.

Finally, for dessert, the flight attendants distributed chocolate apricot cake.

After finishing my meal, I put in my earbuds so I could listen to music and relax for the remainder of the flight.

After a little over two and a half hours of travel time, we arrived at our gate at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport.

Because this is the same airport in which I had my previous layover, I was more familiar with the layout and didn’t walk around aimlessly in circles this time. I went straight upstairs to the lounge area, passing by the Oriental Club Lounge that I was previously in on my way to Hanoi. To be clear, there was nothing bad about the Oriental Club Lounge; I just wanted to try a different lounge this time to expand the breadth of my experiences.

Because my flight from Hanoi to Taoyuan was delayed, my layover wasn’t quite as long as it would have been, but I still had about an hour to relax and get some snacks in the EVA Air: The Infinity lounge.

With about half an hour to spare before departure, I made my way downstairs to the gate. After a smooth and uneventful boarding process, I sat down in seat 11A, again in the last row of the business class cabin.

The sun had already set over an hour prior to the departure of this flight; it was on the tail end of astronomical twilight, and was already pretty dark outside. Presumably to match the outdoors, the cabin lights were dimmed for takeoff, showing the sparkling ceiling lights resembling a starry night sky.

For my meal, I picked the “celebrity chef’s banquet,” a multi-course tasting menu designed by Wen-Kuang Hsu, an executive chef with a Michelin guide recommendation.

The prelude came with two small bites: a spicy sausage and mushroom tomato tart, and smoked salmon with avocado mousse.

The starter consisted of lotus root and okra with Sichuan pepper sauce, scallop and vegetables with passion fruit sauce, and Chaozhou-style crab aspic.

Next up was chicken soup with apple, dried scallop, and white jelly ear.

The first of the main course was braised abalone with shiitake mushroom in soy and oyster sauce.

The second plate of the main course was steamed lotus leaf rice with braised pork belly and preserved mustard greens.

For the sweets course (which is different than dessert), I was served a sakura blossom encased in Aiyu jelly.

And finally, for dessert, I got some ice cream. The menu said that this was Häagen-Dazs, but it was served in its own miniature glass bowl, so I guess I technically can’t fully confirm what brand it was.

After this hearty and filling meal, I reclined back in my lie-flat seat, replied to some emails and messages (because, by this point, it was already the morning in the Pacific time zone and people were waking up in the United States), and got a solid seven and a half hours of surprisingly restful sleep.

As I was about to complete my eighth hour of sleep, the cabin lights gently illuminated with an orange, red, and blue hue of colors that I imagine were designed to emulate a natural sunrise. This was actually quite pleasant, and I appreciated EVA Air’s nice touch to try and encourage passengers’ bodies to find a new circadian rhythm for the new continent.

To help me wake up, my flight attendant delivered a caffè latte with a crystallized brown sugar stick. I don’t get affected by caffeine so this didn’t quite work as she intended, but I was already pretty well-rested from my session of sleep anyway, and it was a nice warm beverage to sip on while meal service was being prepared.

For breakfast, I was served Chinese plain congee with wok-fried diced chicken and cashew nuts, green bean frittata, and other traditional delicatessens.

To wrap up my meal, I was served a plate of fresh fruit.

After about twelve and a half hours, we approached Los Angeles County. We were approaching eastbound, but our runway faced westbound, so we did a loop around the airport first; during the loop out, I looked out my window and snapped a photograph of the Sawtelle, Westwood, and Century City areas.

We landed about half an hour later than scheduled due to the flight path we had to take over the Pacific Ocean, but I obviously didn’t mind the delay, considering the relative comfort of business class seats.

Overall, I’d consider my trip to Vietnam to be pretty successful. I had originally been hesitant to travel by myself to a country where English is not spoken as the primary language. However, things went a lot more smoothly than I expected, and the language barrier didn’t really cause much of an issue. All the staff in my hotel spoke English, which obviously made things easier, but another major factor that helped a lot was just the advancement of technology. With mobile apps for rideshare and translation, I felt like I was able to handle pretty much any situation, albeit with a little bit of patience.

I had been eyeing a trip to Japan and Singapore at some point in the future, but I did not seize my latest opportunity to go to Japan because I wanted to wait until I was able to travel together with someone reliable, and preferably someone who spoke at least some amount of Japanese, who I could depend on if something were to go wrong. However, considering how well my solo trip to Vietnam went, basically all of my reservations have been relieved and I am far more inclined to take more spontaneous international trips now.

And with that, here is my updated travel map:

I made this map somewhere around a decade ago now, and as you can probably clearly tell, it was designed specifically to keep track of how many states I’ve been to in my home country of the United States of America. I obviously need to update this framework at some point, but until I find a chance to do that, I guess this will have to suffice.

Now that it is safer to do so, I can verify that I did indeed select the JW Marriott Hotel Hanoi for my time in Vietnam. I heard that they had a reputation for offering excellent service; considering that I am a foreigner who was traveling for the very first time to a country that does not speak English as their primary language, I figured I could take advantage of and lean on the hotel staff to help get me through my stay if anything were to come up. (Luckily, I didn’t have anything go wrong throughout my entire trip, but it was still good peace of mind to know that the staff was there to help whenever needed.)

The hotel overall was fantastic, and I especially appreciated the executive lounge where I was able to get free meals, snacks, beverages, and filtered water all day. Another thing I liked about the hotel was the Lakeside Gardens, a serene and well-manicured garden on the hotel property.

Here are some photographs I took in and around the Lakeside Gardens:

During my walk, I noticed that the staff brought out boxes of documents at some point and began throwing them into a fire pit. I suspect that this was their equivalent of when people shred confidential documents in the United States.

Within the gardens, there was a special section called the Herb Garden. I saw on the JW Marriott website that they had cooking classes that took place in the Herb Garden, with the curriculum focusing on different kinds of herbs and the roles they play in Vietnamese cuisine. I considered trying it but ended up never getting around to it because it was very rainy and humid most of the days of my stay, and on the sunnier days, I went off-property to be a tourist out in the city.

Here are some more photographs from in and around the Lakeside Gardens:

After walking all the paths of the Lakeside Gardens, I circled around to the front and side of the hotel.

This was the view that I had from my hotel room’s window; it overlooked the Lakeside Gardens, as well as the lake and a portion of the Hanoi skyline.

I figured this was also probably one of the most relevant blog posts for me to share pictures of my room as well. I just had a regular guest room, but it was very nice and exceeded the quality of many other hotels’ higher-end suites. It was very spacious, and the design was a nice balance of minimalistic simplicity and elegant comfort. My favorite part about it was the floor-to-ceiling windows, which allowed me to let in plenty of sunlight during the daytime and enjoy the sparkling city lights during the night.

The pricing during my stay was surprisingly affordable—around US$150.00 per night on average. It was still very expensive relative to Vietnam’s cost of living, but if you compare it to hotel prices in the United States, $150 a night is basically just a regular hotel, and high-end resorts under Marriott’s luxury brands (like the JW, Ritz-Carlton, and St. Regis) will be at least several hundred (if not over a thousand) dollars per night.

Overall, the JW Marriott Hotel Hanoi fulfilled everything I could have possibly wanted from my lodging in Vietnam. It was a tranquil retreat away from the bustling city, and it had enough amenities that someone could theoretically never leave the property and have plenty of food and activities to last them an entire two-week vacation.

… It didn’t exactly stay leisurely, but at least it started pretty peacefully.

I started my day at Double B’s Specialty Coffee and Brunch. It is right on Hồ Tây, which translates to West Lake; here is the view of the lake from the restaurant.

While deciding what to eat, I ordered some of their “must-try” signature juice. The juice was very unique and unlike most juices in the United States. It wasn’t too sweet, which allowed the rich flavors of the fruits and vegetables come out. The flavor combination was also interesting and gave the beverage a multi-faceted element to it.

The banana bread was relatively mild compared to what I usually have in the United States, which I actually preferred. I often see banana bread made closer to being a thicker cake, but this banana bread at Double B’s was special in that the outside was denser and thicker like banana bread, but the center was much softer and more supple in texture.

I also sipped on some egg coffee. To be clear, this isn’t regular coffee with an egg cracked into it or anything; I believe the significance of the “egg” is closer to what eggnog would be, as this was a very rich, creamy, and custardy coffee.

This is what the front of the restaurant looked like. The idiot sitting on the bench in the covered patio started smoking a cigarette while I was eating, so although I enjoyed my brunch, I ended my meal with a horrific headache.

Afterwards, I started walking southwest on a pedestrian walkway in Phường Yên Hoa, which translates to the Peace Blossom Ward.

I approached Chùa Trấn Quốc, which translates to the Tran Quoc Pagoda; unfortunately, they appeared to be closed due to some parades and celebrations that were happening for Cách mạng tháng Tám và Quốc khánh nước Cộng hòa Xã hội chủ nghĩa Việt Nam, which is the August Revolution and the National Day of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

I crossed over Đường Thanh Niên and took some more photographs of the buildings surrounding West Lake.

Đền Thủy Trung Tiên was also closed, but I managed to peek inside through the spaces in the door. I believe that name roughly translates to the Temple of the Fairy in the Middle of the Water.

I believe this was the Nhà Hàng Bánh Tôm Hồ Tây, which roughly translates to West Lake Shrimp Cake Restaurant. There was a dog randomly roaming around.

Here is Nhà Ga Thủy Phi Cơ Hồ Tây, or the West Lake Seaplane Terminal.

I eventually made my way over to Vườn hoa Mai Xuân Thưởng. In the center, there was a statue of Mai Xuân Thưởng, the man after whom the flower garden is named. He was known as a leader of Phong trào Cần Vương, a movement that roughly translates to “Support the King” which aimed to expel French colonial forces from Vietnam.

Here is the đài phun nước bông sen, or the lotus fountain, inside the aforementioned flower garden.

At this point, more and more roads were closing in preparation for the parade and celebration. I wanted to make my way back to my hotel soon, so I slowly started walking away from the busy area and tried to find a decent spot to get picked up by a Grab driver.

Unfortunately, the more I walked, the more I realized that the scope and breadth of the road closures was a lot greater than what I expected.

Comically, I would find a spot on my Grab app that was available for pick-up, so I would walk over there, but by the time I made it over to that location, the road closures had expanded even more and Grab no longer permitted pick-ups from that area anymore.

Eventually, after over five kilometers of walking, I made it far enough away from the busy area that I was able to call a Grab driver.

It obviously wasn’t the most pleasant experience having to trek a long distance in the heat and humidity, but I actually really enjoyed my walk through and around the West Lake District. It also made my shower feel extra refreshing after getting back to my hotel.

I feel like having all these road closures and celebration preparations greatly enhanced my day of sightseeing, and it allowed me to get a much more genuine and special Hanoi experience. I didn’t stick around for long enough to actually see the parade’s dress rehearsal or anything else that was happening that evening, but I did have an opportunity to see some helicopters flying overhead, presumably carrying some important government figures.

The scale of this parade seemed astronomically large. I’m glad I was lucky enough to have the timing line up with my trip, because I’m pretty sure I would not have been able to see anything quite like this in the United States.

I’ve been having a tough time dealing with the high heat and intense humidity in Hanoi, which is a starkly different than what I’m used to back home in Las Vegas. The heat itself is mostly fine, but when coupled with the humidity, I feel like my body isn’t able to properly cool itself down and it ultimately translates into physical exhaustion. Because of this, I’ve been trying to seek out indoor tourist activities, and the Mega Mall seemed like a great place to see a lot of stuff all at once in a single area.

Over the past few days, I’ve shared my thoughts about and photographs from the Baby Elephant Animal Park, Vincom Center for Contemporary Art, and HLC Starry Sky Art Museum, all found in units inside the Mega Mall. Obviously, the Mega Mall has much more than that, but nothing else seemed to warrant its own dedicated blog post. I still wanted to share what I saw elsewhere in the mall though, so I figured a reasonable way to do that would be to do a round-up post of all my miscellaneous Mega Mall photographs.

I actually enjoyed my time walking around the Mega Mall quite a bit. The sheer number of different things inside the mall, in addition to the very wide breadth of what was available to look at, was actually quite surprising. I was aware that Vietnam is not quite at the level of economic development as the United States, but you would never know that from looking at the Mega Mall. The inside was very nice and technologically advanced, and it was air conditioned (which is apparently not always a common thing in Vietnamese buildings).

Another thing I found unexpected was the number of flags. In the United States, you’ll see some places have a large United States flag or two by the entrance or hanging on the wall. In the Mega Mall, there were literally a total of thousands of miniature flags—both the national flag of Vietnam and the flag of the Communist Party of Vietnam—hanging in pretty much every other store. I thought the United States was pretty patriotic, but I guess Vietnam has got us beaten there.

Another thing I liked about the Mega Mall at Royal City was the fact that it basically created a little campus with the high-rise apartment buildings. With the Mega Mall having an absolutely gargantuan WinMart, being a resident of Royal City seemed like it would be pretty convenient. The courtyard area seemed to also double as an event venue, considering that I saw some light construction going on that appeared to be associated with an upcoming convention of some sort.

Here are some photographs I captured around Royal City, starting with the apartment buildings outdoors, then of some visually interesting spots inside the complex:

Over the past few days, I already shared some photographs I took of the Baby Elephant Animal Park and the Vincom Center for Contemporary Art, two attractions located inside the Mega Mall. My next batch of photos is from the HLC Starry Sky Art Museum.

This reminded me of a less-developed version of the Arte Museum Las Vegas that I visited earlier this year. There wasn’t really anything interactive at the HLC Starry Sky Museum, and most importantly, there was a lack of scent integration, which was my favorite part of the Arte Museum. Instead, HLC basically just relied entirely on lights and visuals. With that being said, Vietnam has lower economic development than the United States, so within that context, I still think the HLC was not too bad.

I don’t remember how much it cost for admission because they accepted cash only, so my co-worker who I went with was the one who paid for both of our tickets. On top of that, I have been having currency conversion issues in my head this entire trip so far because of how significantly different the currency denominations are and how much higher buying power the United States dollar has over the Vietnamese đồng. With that being said, I do recall that it felt a little bit expensive relative to other comparably similar attractions, especially considering the somewhat short length of the HLC experience.

Here are some photographs I took while walking through the various rooms of the museum:

A couple days ago, I posted some photographs from Vườn thú Chú Voi Con, which is the Baby Elephant Animal Park. While still at the Mega Mall, I also stopped by Trung tâm Nghệ thuật đương đại Vincom, which translates to the Vincom Center for Contemporary Art.

It seemed like the general theme of this gallery was taking plastics and other waste products and transforming them into sculptures and other three-dimensional art pieces. I don’t have a particularly sophisticated comprehension of art theory, so I sometimes get bored in art museums that display only paintings; I liked the Vincom Center for Contemporary Art because it felt like I was able to appreciate both the visuals as well as the underlying message of the art without needing to have a deep initial background understanding on the topic.

Here are some photographs I took around the art gallery:

One of the spots I found was the Vincom Mega Mall Royal City, an underground shopping and entertainment complex. I scouted out a few museums inside the complex that I wanted to visit ahead of time online, but while walking around, I came across Vườn thú Chú Voi Con, which translates to the Baby Elephant Animal Park. I peeked inside and saw a bunch of animals in the format of a petting zoo, so I figured I would make a spontaneous stop to check it out.

This was very fun. I had an opportunity to get closer to some of these animals than I have ever been before, and got to pet some of them for the first time, such as the alpaca and sheep.

With that being said, this is probably the most unethical zoo I have ever seen in my entire life. The two alpaca and the sheep were confined together as a group of three in a pen that seemed too small to even accommodate one of them. A lot of the animals looked malnourished. Some of them looked like they were infected with something, or at the very least, extremely unclean. There were no attendants carefully supervising the petting areas, so there were children in the animal park that had free reign to yank at animals’ limbs and otherwise inflict distress on them.

In a vacuum, I enjoyed my time here, and it was very amusing seeing a bunch of farm animals inside an underground shopping center. However, I cannot fully recommend visiting the Baby Elephant Animal Park. If you’re not too concerned about the morals and ethics aspect of zoo animals, that is fine, but it is personally conflicting having this fun activity in the Mega Mall but also not wanting to encourage supporting their business model of making profit at the expense of what seemed to me like animals that weren’t really having a nice life.

The animal park had glass that allowed passersby in the mall to look in, so that is one alternative if you want to check it out but don’t want to purchase an admission ticket.

Here are some photographs I took of the animals during my visit:

I already published a blog post a few days ago from seeing Bảo tàng Hồ Chí Minh, which translates to the Ho Chi Minh Museum, located inside the Ba Đình District. I gave that location a dedicated blog post because I had a lot of photographs from within the museum, but for everything else, I figured it would make the most sense doing a single Ba Đình round-up.

I believe this is Chùa Diên Hựu, which translates to the Dien Huu Temple.

On the opposite side of the walkway, there was this water featured labeled as đài phun nước, which translates to “fountain.” I’m not sure if it actually really is a fountain that was just turned off, or if it mislabeled, but it had an interesting rocky centerpiece to it.

This area had a little marketplace where people were selling apparel and other merchandise. I was getting thirsty, so I purchased a cold beverage from one of the stalls; I found it funny that they stocked Monster energy drinks there, so I got a Zero Sugar Ultra Paradise.

Afterwards, I looped around to Chùa Một Cột, which translates to the One Pillar Pagoda.

After enjoying looking at the temples, I came out into the sunlight and walked towards the gardens.

This is an interesting fountain I saw next to the offices of Ban Quản Lý Bảo Tàng Hồ Chí Minh, which translates to the Ho Chi Minh Museum Management Board.

Here is a photograph I took while standing on Hùng Vương Street facing south towards the intersection of Lê Hồng Phong Street.

The city was setting up for the 80th anniversary celebration of Cách mạng tháng Tám và Quốc khánh nước Cộng hòa Xã hội chủ nghĩa Việt Nam (which translates to The August Revolution and the National Day of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam). There were extra bleachers being set up and signage being installed in preparation for the events.

I was able to see Lăng Chủ tịch Hồ Chí Minh, which is Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum. Apparently Ho Chi Minh’s body is on display here, but they are only open for tourists during certain hours, and I was a bit too late that day to be able to go inside.

Once in a while, the guards in front of the mausoleum will be swapped out. I managed to catch two new guards in the distance headed towards the mausoleum to relieve the current guards and take their place.

After finishing my exploring, I headed back towards the entrance/exit. On the way there, I saw the outside of Phê La Ngọc Hà, a coffee shop.

For my meal in the neighborhood, I had bún chả ăn kèm với rau sống, which was a highly-recommended famous dish in Vietnam. To my understanding, this roughly translates to “white rice vermicelli noodles and seasoned minced pork patties served with fresh herbs.”

And no, I do not know why my noodles look so radioactive in the picture…

Here are some more photographs I took around the neighborhood right outside the fenced tourism area:

This is probably very unsurprising to hear from someone who lives in Las Vegas, a city located in the Mojave Desert, but it is excruciatingly humid in Hanoi. My hotel feels fine when the air conditioning and dehumidifier are both running at full power, but stepping outside feels like it requires more effort even just to breathe because of how much moisture there is in the air.

One of the concerns I had prior to arriving in Vietnam was the pedestrian crosswalk situation, i.e., how vehicles don’t really stop for people and just drive around you. I might have just been lucky so far in only having needed to cross streets that aren’t too busy, but it’s been a lot easier than I expected. As long as you telegraph your movements clearly, remain at a consistent pace, and opt to use marked crosswalks where possible so that your motion is predictable, it seems like Vietnam’s traffic system sort of has it figured out.

In general, sightseeing has been very interesting so far. I’ve never seen temples like this before in-person, so it was nice being able to go inside one and experience it first-hand.

As you probably expected, while I was in attendance, I took a lot of photographs.

The entryway to the gaming café had a banner advertising the tournament, which invited competitors to wander the bazaar in a paid event with a total cash prize pool of US$750.00.

The interior also had a banner, this one being significantly taller and larger.

Tempo’s Lead of People and Culture was also in attendance, and he was responsible for bringing over a bunch of prizes for the competitors.

There were some embroidered hoodies…

… some specially-branded mousepads in partnership with PK Gaming…

… and the grand prize trophy, a Founder’s Edition collectible statue of Dooley, one of the characters from The Bazaar.

I showed up pretty early, so while the venue was still almost empty, I had an opportunity to walk around and explore the rest of the gaming café.

As the players started trickling in, some of them got set up on the computers in the competition area and started warming up.

After everyone found their way to the café, the tournament started with a small opening ceremony by the casters.

Once all the rules were explained, the players took their positions and started playing.

The event was live streamed on Tempo’s Twitch channel from the “Alaska Zone” streaming booths.

This is a shot I got of the person who eventually went on to win the entire tournament.

As a reminder, I work solely on the corporate side of Tempo and have no involvement in game design or game development pretty much whatsoever, to the extent that I have literally never even played a single game of The Bazaar. It was an amusing experience going around and looking at people’s screens, only to be completely clueless as to what’s actually happening in the game.

The main stage of the gaming café was used to play the live stream for in-person spectators.

One of the spectators, of course, was the Dooley statue.

Once in a while, players would be brought into the casting booth after finishing a round so that they could get interviewed about their most recent game.

The tournament was going on for longer than I expected, so I decided to order some food from the on-site kitchen.

Their menu was in Vietnamese, and I couldn’t understand what their entrée options were, so I just went with the recommendation of one of the staff members at the gaming café. I ended up with some grilled chicken, vegetables, and white rice. This actually ended up being pretty unexpectedly delicious.

A handful of hours into the tournament, we were approaching the end, with only a couple players left needing to finish their final run.

I believe some people left early, but those who wanted to stick around gathered around the stage area to watch the final moments of gameplay.

Upon the conclusion of the tournament, the winner was crowned, and he received his limited edition Dooley statue.

In addition to the trophy, both the first place winner and the runner-ups received an envelope containing their cash prizes, and pretty much all participants got some form of consolation prize, be it a set of earbuds, a desk mat, or apparel.

After all the prizes were distributed, the casters gave their closing speech.

The tournament organizers hired an actual, professional photographer to take pictures throughout the event. I’m not sure what his name is so I can’t give proper credit at the moment, but I found these on PK Gaming Ngoại Giao Đoàn’s Facebook page in the Cộng Đồng The Bazaar group.

He captured this shot of me helping set some of the technical specifications of the live stream software to ensure a smooth broadcast…

… as well as this shot of me joining the casting booth for a little bit while the Vietnamese caster was busy helping tally up the final results.

Here’s a screenshot taken of the live broadcast from the short period during which I was filling in for one of the casters.

It is very amusing (and quite difficult) trying to be a commentator for a game that you’ve literally never personally played before and hardly even know the mechanics for. The other caster next to me hard carried both the play-by-play and color commentary, while I mainly contributed by telling stories of Tempo’s past and how The Bazaar came to become what it is today.

Before parting ways, we took a group photograph with everyone who stayed until the end of the event.

During my time at Tempo, I’ve been a member of the production teams behind a decent number of live events, so this one wasn’t particularly special for me. However, I could tell that everyone else in attendance was very excited for it, which was nice.

I went into this thinking the turnout would be in the low multi-hundreds. I didn’t know how or from where I established that expectation, but as you can see from the photographs, there were nowhere near even a single hundred competitors. With that being said, I might just be used to running events taking place in larger cities for more well-known games, and it’s possible that the turnout for “Catch the Cash” was still considered a success given the circumstances.

I thought the gaming café was decent and comparable in quality to some of the smaller and lower-budget gaming cafés you might find scattered throughout less populus areas of the United States. The food, though, was incredible. I found the chef and the literal full-blown kitchen to be amazing and comparable in quality to a very good street food vendor or a small family-owned restaurant that focuses on replicating authentic flavors derived from their local cuisines. I had two meals there—one on tournament day and one on the day prior during a walk-through preview—and both entrées were delicious.

With that being said, I had a persistent headache and an overall miserable time being in PK Gaming’s facility due to the smoking room.

Cigarette smoking is far more common in Việt Nam than it is in the United States. It is also far more socially and culturally accepted, so this gaming café had a designated smoking room indoors, directly in the center of the café. The smoking room had a door, but every time someone opened the door to go in or out, waves of cigarette smoke would escape and spread throughout the rest of the building.

As long as there’s good ventilation, it’s fine, right? Well, from what I could tell, it felt like they had no ventilation. They had fans running everywhere, so the cigarette smoke would expeditiously get blown around into all corners of the building to make sure everyone would smell it, while none of it got sucked up into the vents to be exchanged with fresh outdoor air.

Marinating in cigarette smoke for about 7 hours was horrific, and that alone was single-handedly enough to make me hate the entire thing. It is insane to me that everyone who showed up to compete had to be subjected to degrading their health from fairly dense second-hand smoke because some people were too lazy to spend one extra minute walking outdoors before smoking.

One of the spots I checked out was Bảo tàng Hồ Chí Minh, which translates to the Ho Chi Minh Museum. Not everything had English translations so there was a lot of information I couldn’t understand, but all the exhibits on display were still nice to look at and were fairly unique and different from what I’m used to seeing in museums in the United States.

Here is a collection of photographs I took of the building, exhibits, and gift shops: