Karaoke: The Universal Language

It’s difficult to truly get to know Vietnamese locals.  We’re curious about them, they’re curious about us, but there are many barriers to making a meaningful connection.  For one, there’s a language barrier.  Less obvious is the fact the Vietnamese can’t travel outside the country (apart from well-connected members of the Party, it seems). And then there is the fact that many locals just see us tourists as a source of income. So while they’re fascinated by foreigners, they simply can’t relate.

In the unlikeliest of places - the most remote place we’ve visited so far - we had a truly amazing opportunity to spend time with a local family.  And it all started with karaoke!

We took a boat trip from Hanoi to visit the Halong Bay…very touristy but worthwhile.

A Rock

Storm Coming

Our Halong Bay boat  

Dusk dip in the water

After that, we went to a further, less popular bay called Bai Tu Long, where we cruised for a day, kayaked and then slept on an island called Quan Lan.  It’s remote and peaceful, especially at night because there is no electricity on the island.



On the first night in the local village, we heard karaoke coming from around the corner of our homestay (powered by generator).  We riled up a few people from our tour to go check it out.

Initially, they offered us a private room for us foreigners to sing. But there just weren't enough of us (See footnote 1).  As we were getting ready to leave, a guy from a room full of locals next door waved us in.  Inside, we found three families, singing their hearts out while toddlers were falling asleep all over the room.  It was spectacular - they handed us the mic and we belted out Barbie Girl like pros.

Needless to say, we stayed for a while.  The guy who invited us in is Michael, he’s a little younger than we are; his parents were born and raised on the island but had immigrated to Canada, where he was born.  He spoke English and was our link to the rest of his family.

The next day, when the tour group had left, we opted to stay another night on the Island.  We were quite possibly the only tourists there.  We spent the morning on a gorgeous beach, which we had to ourselves.
In the afternoon, we randomly ran in to Michael’s family and were very warmly invited to his uncle Phuong’s house for food and we hung out all afternoon and evening, which obviously ended with karaoke.

Our host

The boys

Delicious feast

Illegal gambling

The babysitter

As far as Alina understood it, this game consists of taking turns fiercely throwing down cards 

Michael and Alina performing a Richard Marx classic

Jeremy and Ha singing a Vietnamese classic

Other than that, we explored the island by bike and reveled in being the only tourists there!

Tough mudder

Mud  1 - 0 Jeremy

Alina and Jeremy,
Karaoking our Way Into Your Hearts

Footnote 1:
Everybody knows that you cannot Karaoke if you have not reached the Universal Karaoke Threshold of 3.24.
As a reminder, the Universal Karaoke Threshold is calculated as follows:
Logarithm(Number of People) x (Amount of Alcohol Consumed) x (Karaoke Talent)

Where:

• Number of People is exclusive of children under the age of 4
• Amount of Alcohol Consumed is expressed as liters of Vodka equivalent
• Karaoke Talent is determined by the Universal Singstar Index (a number between 0 and 1)