This story started out in Matamoros, Mexico, crossed the oceans to Singapore and ended here in Hanoi.....all in 10 days.

Tradusir's a english-spanish translator and was on a job with a client from Singapore in Mexico and one thing led to another, he took a huge leap of faith and handed off a bomb loaded with vintage sticks to said client for me.

Friend, when I get to Cigarro's in HK, you shall feel the pain of retailiation.

Picked up the hand-off on Monday night in Singapore and I packed along the ERdM Lonsdale for my trip to Hanoi on Tuesday morning.

I smoked a couple of other cigars during the first day over a business lunch and dinner....decided early on to save the friendship smoke for a loooong delayed reunion dinner with a group of close personal friends.... mostly press photographers and photo-artisans.

We hugged each other like brothers did, not having seen many of them for more than a year.

In Vietnam, particularly in Hanoi, the city is dotted with literally thousands of beer shops....locals call them Bir Hoi (pronounced Beer Hoi meaning Beer Shop) from little 5-table affairs to 100-table beer stadiums.

They are found on every street in the city and are very male-dominated.... women do patronize Bir Hoi's .... but not many.

Rendevous was at 6pm and the 12 of us parked ourselves at a table.

Here the adventure began.

Out of the freezer a half gallon bottle of almost frozen Cuervo Gold tequila first came out. Oh god, these guys were looking to play rough.... The way they drink tequila here is scary...on top of the salt and lime, sits a nasty slice of red chili (this stuff sets your toungue on fire).

30 minutes and six rounds later, Cuervo was history. Next came 8 bottles of Hanoi Vodka. This was one technology copied wholesale by the Vietnamese from the Russians. I dont think they refined that technology in vodka production because it was some of the harshest vodka I'd ever drunk. It just felt like air-conditioning coolant.

To help kill the harshness, my friends (I wonder now) ordered dog. A particular delicacy was stewed dog's liver... it tasted like...shit. This was dinner and by 7pm, barely an hour into the gathering, I was on a different planet.

By then I'd lit up the ERdM. Through my half-blind stupor, I could feel the smoothness of the smoke. Three phrases describes the experiene.....Delicious mellowness, subdued but wonderful flavors and happiness.

Those flavors...... its wafting flavors attracted all around. And like true brothers, the cigar was handed around the table amongst the 12 of us and smoked to its very nub. Each took generous puffs of the cigar, strengthening the brotherly bonds among us, saliva and all. I wouldnt have it any other way.... I wasnt going to smoke it all by myself.... as Leo spread the love to me... I passed it on within our gathering.

I really could not remember what we were all talking about, by then it was all gibberish and laughter....

By 8pm and 6 bottles later, Hanoi Vodka took its final curtain call....next came 3 gallons of murky home-distilled alcohol that came in plastic gallon-sized mineral water bottles.

If Hanoi Vodka was bad, this stuff brought harshness to new lows..... I think you call it moonshine in your country.

To offset the bad taste, they drink it mixed with local beer (yes, the brilliant logic of these guys).

By 9.30pm, I was carried off like a prize pig (no pun intended to its CF namesake) back to the hotel.

Today, I conducted an in-house workshop at the Bank that lasted from 9am to 4pm.... the younger fxxks were having a field day ribbing me about my breath.

Never again will I want to drink like this

The cigar helped tremendously in strengthening our bonds and I would like to thank you again Leo.