Day Four: Takin' it to the Street (heh)

Today’s workshop session was on Teaching and Learning, and continues tomorrow morning. One of our Filipino partners is leading the sessions, and I hope the Vietnamese in particular get something out of it. University teaching and learning here, in a communist country, is totally different from what we are used to in the West. Here, students go into class, sit down, write down everything the lecturer says, then get up and leave; come exam time, they basically memorize and then regurgitate their notes. Group work, student/teacher interaction and discussion are pretty much unheard of, and students aren’t even really encouraged to ask questions (I think that’s viewed as disrespectful to professorial authority). It’s a very passive style of learning, and means that critical thinking is not really encouraged – and in a totalitarian state, why would it be? In that sense, what we’re offering today is new and a bit radical.

Watching the news at breakfast this morning, we discovered that there is a typhoon possibly headed our way. Oi. Typhoon Utor went over the Philippines yesterday, and is now heading out over the South China Sea. There’s a good possibility it will hit Vietnam, but may go north to China. We’ll have to keep a close eye on the forecast over the next day or two. Needless to say, it doesn’t bode well for my planned departure from here to Hong Kong on Friday night.

Yesterday, I was telling the others how I seem to have gotten over my jet-lag quite easily. Other than a woozy spell around midday on Sunday, I’ve felt quite well, and hadn’t had any trouble getting to sleep at reasonable hours. I may have spoken too soon – last night, I fell asleep by 11 pm, but was plagued by bad dreams, then found myself awake just after 5 am. After a half-hour of lying in bed, I decided I might as well get up and do some work – so I got in an hour of lecture-writing before going for breakfast and starting the day. So that was good, at least.

At lunchtime today, H. and I decided to disappear and do some of the walking tour of the Old Quarter that’s outlined in our Lonely Planet guidebook. We only had an hour, so we hopped in a taxi to Hoan Kiem lake and started seeing the sites in a whirlwind fashion (“Look! There’s some neat stuff! Take a picture of it!”). We started in an eighteenth-century Buddhist temple, and then moved on to some densely-packed shopping streets. The Old Quarter is known for entire streets whose shops specialise in certain types of goods. So today, we passed the Christmas decoration (!) street, the tin box street, the metalwork street, the wrapping paper and tape street, the paper lantern street, the mirror street, and the shoe street. Unbelievably chaotic and incredibly noisy, but fascinating nonetheless. I snapped loads and loads of pics.

When we were finished, we jumped back into another taxi to get back to the hotel for 2 pm, when our afternoon sessions were due to start. Unfortunately we made the mistake of getting into an un-metered cab. When we arrived back at our hotel, the driver told us the fare was US $3. Now, a trip anywhere in downtown Hanoi should cost no more than about $1.25, maximum, so I knew we were being hosed as tourists. The driver was quite insistent however, and not wanting to quibble over a lousy couple of bucks, we just paid what he asked. But still, it’s kind of annoying to know we were charged triple the normal price, just because the driver knew he could probably get away with it.

Afternoon sessions were very long today, and I had to work with P. for a while, to get ready for tomorrow. Earlier, she had made noises about us getting together tonight also. But I (nicely) put my foot down and told her we had already made plans to go sightseeing and out to dinner – I know I’m here to work, but I also know that if I don’t make plans to get out and see some of Hanoi in the evenings, it won’t happen. Eh well – B., who is my immediate supervisor, didn’t seem to care if I was available tonight or not, so I guess I shouldn’t fret too much.

H. and I went back to the Old Quarter to continue our tour for about another two hours of chaotic wandering, then we met up with P. and L. for dinner. We went to a fantastic restaurant close to our hotel called Emperor. By all accounts, it’s one of the best in Hanoi and (surprise!) is a bit posh. It lived up to its reputation – it was absolutely beautiful, and in a very elegant setting. We had a candlelit, open-air table on a balcony, which was very comfortable given that the evening was fairly balmy. We had a fabulous dinner, with fresh spring rolls, rice, and main courses including beef with ginger, chicken on lemongrass skewers, spicy grilled pork, and squid. We splurged on a bottle of French wine (which was crazy expensive, for Hanoi), but ultimately, our bills only came to about $18 each (and nearly half of that was the wine). For Hanoi, this constitutes a pricey gourmet experience. Well worth it for us, though – I suspect it’s the best meal I’ll have here.

Time for bed shortly. I took loads of pics today and will do my best to upload a few choice ones tomorrow. Stay tuned!