Tam Dao

As I mentioned in a previous post, David's friend Duc (journalist turned coffee house/gallery owner) graciously let us stay in his incredible house for New Years Eve. With two taxi vans full of people, we headed 85km north of Hanoi to the mountains. Duc designed and built his house with the help of local craftsmen. Since he has a business in the city, he is usually only there on weekends. The place is a two-parter - the upstairs house is a traditional Vietnamese long house where his mother lives, while the downstairs house is a ultra-modern/stone/glass/open single room with one wall made entirely of glass that overlooks the mountains, trees and fog. My photos don't do it justice but the New York Times did a piece on the place last year. French Elle and Vogue were out photographing the house earlier in the week. Pretty incredible. We ate the most amazing chili that Dave's friend JC made (who knew sundried tomatoes and cinnamon would make for bomb-ass chili?!) and danced to soul music all night. A good way to ring in 2010.