Met my GF’s mom and dad last night here in Haiphong, VN. Her pops cooked some delicious pancake-like dish made from river worms and vegetables. We then got pretty lit on some cheap whiskey and eventually vodka. At some point, before I left, he gave me this awesome crystal vase that he made by hand.

Back in the day when the then U.S.S.R had tight relations with Vietnam, they shipped him off to the what was then the Eastern Bloc state of Czechoslovakia and schooled him in the art of crystal and glass work for ten years. We drank shots from his awesome crystal glasses as well. The night past was a bit blurry when I woke up. I looked in the bag he gave me and damn! there was this crystal vase.

It’s about eight inches tall and looks quite charming in the window of my $15 a night hotel here in Haiphong. Good stuff.