Day Six: Culture and Fashion!

Another heavy work day. Today’s sessions were on curriculum development, to which I needed to pay close attention. Also spent quite a bit of time with my (not altogether efficient) local equivalent here in Hanoi, sorting out the various expenses for the meetings, and getting bills paid.

Today was the first sunny day of our stay! Temperatures balmy and wonderful – well over 20 degrees C. B. and H. went swimming in the hotel pool at lunchtime, though I was too busy to join them. :-(

As soon as we finished up for the day, I grabbed my purse and jumped in a cab to the ao dai tailor. H. came along with me for the ride. The seamstresses were ironing my ao dai as I arrived, and I had a quick fitting. Everything looked great, and fit wonderfully (though the trousers are snug – were I to gain even 2-3 pounds, they mightn’t fit properly!). The ao dai is just so beautiful, and the fabric I chose is even lovelier than I remembered – it sort of shimmers blue and green, depending on the light. I had the trousers made up in pale green to go with. They did a nice job on the sewing, too (though they were so rushed, they forgot to take out the basting stitches on the cuffs of the tunic, so I had to do that back at the hotel). After I paid the remainder owing to the tailor, H. and I had to walk for a bit before we found a taxi to take us back to the hotel – it was rush hour by then and the traffic was fierce.

As soon as we got back, it was time to jump into my ao dai and then meet the bus that was taking our whole group to dinner. I hadn’t told any of the Vietnamese that I was having the ao dai made, and they were all very surprised. We ended up having an unexpected night-time tour of Hanoi – our bus driver got mixed up as to where we were having dinner, and we ended up on the outskirts of the city, at the wrong restaurant, before the problem was sorted out. But it was OK – one of the sights we passed on the way back into the city was the mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh. “Uncle Ho” (as the Vietnamese call him) is preserved and on public display in Hanoi, a la Lenin or Chairman Mao, and I had hoped to visit him during this trip – but alas, the mausoleum is closed each year from Sept-Dec. so Uncle Ho can undergo preservative maintenance. (!)

Finally got to our restaurant, Brother’s Café, an hour late. But it was worth all the trouble – it’s housed in a beautiful converted, 18^th century temple, and is open-air. The food was excellent – there’s a large dinner buffet and they have several stations set up to mimic the street food vendors of Vietnam (which of course was very touristy, but it takes a brave tourist to risk authentic street food here – you never know what you might get, or the conditions under which it was cooked). Unfortunately, just after our group settled in and started to eat, our enjoyment was marred by the arrival of a large, rude and obnoxious group of Western tourists – we thought they were European at first, but later found out they were Israeli. They quite literally stampeded the buffet, pushed others out of the way, made absolute pigs of themselves, and cleaned it out – it was appalling. I felt like apologizing to the chefs and wait staff, on behalf of all tourists!

Once dinner was over, H. and I headed back into the city centre, to see a performance of the famed Hanoi water puppets. They have their own theatre, and it’s quite a popular thing for tourists and locals alike to do. We really enjoyed it – there was live traditional Vietnamese music accompanying the performance, and the puppeteers themselves were really talented – the ‘stage’ is a large pool of water and the puppets dance across it. I took loads of pics, and a couple of videos too, which I’ll try to post here when I get home.

Afterwards, we got a cab back to the hotel, and had a bit of an ‘adventure’ when the driver seriously tried to rip us off. We made sure to get into a cab with a meter, but unbeknownst to us it was not an official cab. The driver drove off in the opposite direction from our hotel, took us all over hell and creation, then put his hand over the meter so we couldn’t see the fare. H. was sure he was fiddling the meter, and as we neared our hotel, she asked him to move his hand away. Sure enough, the fare had soared to over 100,000 dong (about US $6.50), when we knew it should have cost no more than 15,000-20,000! We immediately insisted that we would not pay any more than 20,000 and the guy argued with us about it, but we got quite angry with him and told him off – he had some English so I’m sure he knew what was up. In the end, neither of us had small change, and so we gave him US $2 (about 32,000) – so he still got about twice what he should have. Swindler!!

*addendum, 1 am, late Friday night*

OK, so now after a long last working day, I’m finally in Hong Kong. I travelled here with B. and P., and we got a coach into the city from the airport, and checked in about half an hour ago. We’re at the Salisbury Hotel, which is run by the YMCA – I tell you, compared to where we’ve just come from in Hanoi, this place is a bloody palace! It’s nothing special in North American terms, I suppose, but it’s totally Western, and so a complete contrast to where we stayed in Hanoi. It’s also far cleaner and better-equipped – feels positively luxurious.

B. and P. are heading to the airport tomorrow morning, and carrying on home, but I have the whole day here tomorrow to do my own thing. Apparently, the weather forecast is for rain…booo! That may put a serious damper on my sightseeing plans. I may just be forced to hit the gargantuan shopping centre down the street, Harbour City/Ocean Terminal – it has 700 shops, apparently. ;-) Perhaps the weather will be better in the afternoon, or on Sunday morning. I’d really like to take a trip across the harbour on the Star Ferry, and go up to the Peak to check out the view. We’ll see.

Anyway, must sleep. I’ll see about activating the wireless connection here in my hotel room tomorrow morning – I’ll do it for just a few hours, as it’s a bit expensive, but I need to check my work e-mail, and post this blog entry, of course. Stay tuned for my next Hong Kong update!