Riding on Hai's baby blue Minsk (vroooom!) through a light rain in Hanoi made me wonder why so many people want wings when they can just have wheels, and that maybe birds are jealous of us.

But sometimes, you need to slow down, and get to know a city at the pace of your feet. This morning I got up at 5 am and took a jog around the West Lake, Hanoi's sky just waking up, looking just like skim milk. It was raining and I jogged behind shirtless (healthier) old men, and with my stretches I tried to make my body look like the trees and multicolored buildings sprouting across the lake. There's so much to take in here, and I want my body to memorize this place, I want to look at my fingers and remember them clutching a giant jack fruit, I want to put on my vans and remember walking on water puddles in a meat market, bloody beef and pig heads all around me.