Shopping in Hanoi

10/03/06 - After getting in late, the morning came soon. Never the less, Tim and I got up around seven o'clock. We dressed and went downstairs to greet the staff and enjoy breakfast.

Nghea is the hotel manager. He is a university graduate, and unmarried. Nghea speaks fluent English and serves to be the shining star of the Win Hotel. He ensures that each guest's every need is satisfactorily met. Nghea arranges tours, orders taxis, and even goes to a café next door to pick up our chicken noodle soup for breakfast. He cooks the eggs and makes the tea. American hotels will never know such personalized service.

Today, Tim needed to touch base with one of his shippers. The plan was for me to loaf around until Duong arrived after her classes. She, Tim and I would then do some shopping and finish the day with dinner, at yet another favorite restaurant. As it turned out, Tim and I sat in the hotel lounge area for a while visiting with Nghea and his co-workers. We then retired to the room for some TV watching, reading, and napping. This had turned into a very lazy day.

Tim and I never figured it out. Duong would show up on her motorbike, after a full day at school, bursting with energy. She arrived around four o'clock. I had long since put down my book, titled Up Country. This is a story of an ex-army CID detective, wrapped up in a return to Vietnam thirty years later. The detective had hopes of locating a native eyewitness to a murder during the war. The hero retraces all of his memories as he travels from town to town. Ironic, I had no idea when I started the book on the airplane that it would be loaded with histories of the country I was traveling to.

We spent the late afternoon, and early evening, walking from one shop to another. There seemed to be no end to the variety in this part of the old town. Well after dark, we joined the patrons dining upstairs at a restaurant new to each of us.

For some unknown reason, before we ordered, Tim recommended that we not use the packaged towels to wash-up with. It was his belief that we would be charged for their use. As it turned out, he was right. The meal ticket showed we had not used the towels. On the walk back to the hotel, we finalized the plan for my visit to Duong's school. A bit of TV later, Tim and I were both asleep.