G- Good morning, Gladys. Are you enjoying the singing children?
P- I like it, but I'd prefer if they would wait until 9:00 AM to start their singing.
G- Hmmmm. It's already 7:30 AM. I consider that Asian-late.
P- Since we're up this early, we might as well go eat breakfast.
While we ate breakfast, we spoke to the owner who advised us that a bad storm was about to hit Ha Long Bay and the government has forbidden all overnight stays on the bay. In fact, the people who had boarded the boats yesterday we're only allowed to cruise during the day and could not spend the night. He congratulated us on our great timing. We considered ourselves very fortunate to have been able to stay overnight on the boat.
After breakfast we began our search for a sweatshirt and pair of long pants for Phyllis.
Our hotel was located in, and we went shopping in, Hanoi's Old Quarter which dates back almost 2,000 years. The streets are named for the guilds or goods sold along the streets. The first word of many street names is Hung, which means merchandise or shop, and the second word indicates the items sold along the street. Bac means silver which was sold on Hung Bac Street. On Hang Be one could buy bamboo rafts or silk on Hung Dao.
Things have changed and one cannot necessarily purchase items of the street's namesake, but similar items are still sold in shops clustered along the same street. We passed different streets where shops sold zippers/items for sewing, bedding, glass & metal boxes, noodles, toys, and dumplings. If you knew which street contained which goods, shopping was easy. After walking through the wren of narrow, motorcycle filled streets, we finally found blue jean street and started looking through the sizes.
G- Hmmm. The average size seems to be 28 or 29. I have yet to see anything over 34.
P - Well since you don't even fit into that average size, you know my ass isn't getting into them.
G- Excuse me, do you have bigger size?
Girl - For you?
G- No, for her.
Girl - (leans around me and looks at Phyllis with very rude eyes) Oh, No! (then she started talking, in Vietnamese, and laughing with the other sales girl)
G- Well that's rude. Do you know what that word means?
P - (to me as we walked away) Kiss my fat ass, bitch!
For most of the morning we scoured the shops looking for pants. Some people tried to help and were polite, some simply ignored us and others looked at us as though we were insane when we asked if they had jeans to fit Phyllis.
P- I'm over this! I hate to shop to begin with and it's even more depressing in this land of pencil people.
G- We have to find you a pair of warm long pants. Let's look in the shops until we get to the end of the street, then we'll go get some lunch. I'm getting hungry.
P- And I'm tired of walking in this drizzle.
We walked into the next shop along the row and looked through the jeans hanging along the wall.
Sales girl - Hello.
G & P - Hello.
P- Do you have any jeans in a size that would fit me?
Sales girl - (eyes widening like a deer caught in headlights) For you? (she began to back up) Oh NO! We don't have size to fit you. (she looked terrified and continued to back away from us) No! No! Only small size.
G- Ok.
P- You don't have to run away, I'm not going to try to eat you! (to me) That's it! I've had enough of this.
G - Alright muffin. I'm sorry. You should have lunged at that last one just to scare her more. I wonder if she would have shrieked and run away.
P- I'd like to throw hamburgers to them so they can eat something that'll put a little meat on their bones.
G- They're so thin because their diets are so minimal and so much healthier than ours. It's virtually fat free.
P- I know that! Let's go eat at KFC. I'm sick of rice and I need to stay beefed up, because I'm going to sit on, and crush to death, the next skinny Asian person who looks at me like I'm trying to buy pants for a buffalo!
We sat on the third floor of a building, in the middle of a traffic circle, along Hoan Kiem Lake. The weather had been cool, cloudy and rainy since we returned from Ha Long Bay and there was no indication that it would change before we left Vietnam. We were told that this was the common weather for this time of year and had been lucky that it wasn't raining before we left for Ha Long Bay. We sat eating our chicken sandwiches and savoring our cokes with ice.
G- Look at that sign! It's an advertisement for chicken wings. Look at the city.
P- It says New Orleans! Wow!
G- I wonder if it says something about Cajun spicy wings. (it actually said: delicious new life)
P- It's odd that New Orleans is used in an advertisement because when we tell people we're from New Orleans, no one has ever heard of it.
G- I know. They know New York and Washington D.C. That's why I've started telling them we're from California. That, they've heard of.
After lunch we walked briefly along the lake, purchased a Lonely Planet China guide book from a boy schlepping a box of books, then headed back in to the Old Quarter. We found a shop that sold leather gloves and belts where we each selected a pair of gloves and I a belt. My pair of long pants was far too lose. Unfortunately, we were unable to reach an agreeable price, so we left the items with a pissed off sales lady and headed down the street. A few shops down we stopped at another shop where I selected a belt.
G- I like this one, but it's a little too big.
Sales lady - I fix.
G- It's too big. Let's go.
Sales lady - I fix. I fix.
P- She says she can fix it.
G- What does that mean, she can fix it? How is she going to make it smaller?
P- I don't know. What I do know is that the lady from the first shop is drilling holes through your back for looking at this lady's belts.
G- You can fix? (we agreed upon a price before I let her alter it)
Lady - Yes. I fix. (She looked at us as if we were idiots for not knowing that it could be customized for my waist.)
We stood in disbelief as she unscrewed the bolt securing the strip of flapped over leather that was holding the belt buckle. Then she removed the buckle, cut off the end of the leather, made a new hole, flapped the leather through the buckle, and screwed the bolt. Then she handed it to me with a smile. My mouth hung open.
G- That is amazing!
P- I'd like to see that happen anywhere in America.
The lady looked at us with mild amusement. She was probably thinking "these people are supposed to live in advanced countries and they act shocked that I can do something so simple as make a belt smaller". She was kind, and amused, enough to pose for a few photos with me, and I wore my new belt away. Around the corner we found a tailor.
P- I think I should just get a pair of pants made. I'm never going to find a pair to fit me.
G- Yes. Good idea.
We walked into a shop with beautiful silks along the wall and 3 ladies sitting in the back hand stitching little flowers on blouses. The detail in the work was exquisite. Within 15 minutes we had agreed upon a price of $30.00 for a pair of khaki, heavy cotton pants, ready for pick up the next night. It was a rush job, but we had to leave the country on the 17th. Phyl's precise measurements were taken and the sales lady did not run screaming. I left my pair of khaki pants with her to hem for $3.00.
P- I wish we had done this sooner. It would have saved us a lot of trouble.
G- I agree, but how could we have known we would not be able to find a pair of jeans to fit you.
P- We should have been able to figure that out by looking at these twig people.
G- I'm just glad that's done. Now we can't leave until the 17th. That sure is cutting it close.
P- How much did the hotel owner say it would cost for the bus to China?
G- I think he said $27.00 for the tourist bus which takes 6-7 hours to get to Nanning instead of the slightly cheaper local bus which takes 9-10 hours.
P- We're definitely paying extra for the nicer, faster bus.
G- I agree, but let's stop at another travel agency to confirm that that's a good price and that there is no train that we could take. I'd prefer a train.
The Old Quarter was like a beehive of activity. It was noisy, crowded, lively, and everything and everyone seemed in constant motion. We really enjoyed the vibe, but the rain seemed to have made the motorcycle drivers a little crazy, and several times we were almost run over. After one such near collision experience, we stood in front of a travel agency, waiting for the man to get off the phone, while live chickens pecked at our feet.
G- What in the hell are these chickens doing in the middle of this busy city?
P- Why have they not been run over by a motorcycle or car?
We weren't the only ones surprised by the sight of chickens in the Old Quarter and several passing tourists stopped to take photos. A brief discussion with the travel agent revealed that our hotel owner was 100% correct about our transportation options to China, so we returned to the New Century and booked a bus trip from Hanoi to Nanning, China on February 17, 2011, the day our Vietnamese visas expired.
The early evening was spent watching rush hour motorcycle traffic from the balcony of our favorite little bar where we drank draught Halida beer. Taking advantage of the 'ethnic' foods in the Old Quarter, we ate a yummy dinner at an Indian restaurant and returned to our room to watch News Channel Asia's reporting of the Japan earthquake, tsunami, and possible nuclear explosion. We had been watching things closely because we had to decide if we would enter China and head west or east to Shanghai. We were completely safe in Hanoi, but Shanghai was much closer to Japan and we didn't want to go there if the Japanese nuclear plant exploded. It simply was not necessary to run the risk of radioactive material raining down on our heads while we explored Shanghai.
 |
| Having a new key made |
P- I like it, but I'd prefer if they would wait until 9:00 AM to start their singing.
G- Hmmmm. It's already 7:30 AM. I consider that Asian-late.
P- Since we're up this early, we might as well go eat breakfast.
While we ate breakfast, we spoke to the owner who advised us that a bad storm was about to hit Ha Long Bay and the government has forbidden all overnight stays on the bay. In fact, the people who had boarded the boats yesterday we're only allowed to cruise during the day and could not spend the night. He congratulated us on our great timing. We considered ourselves very fortunate to have been able to stay overnight on the boat.
After breakfast we began our search for a sweatshirt and pair of long pants for Phyllis.
Our hotel was located in, and we went shopping in, Hanoi's Old Quarter which dates back almost 2,000 years. The streets are named for the guilds or goods sold along the streets. The first word of many street names is Hung, which means merchandise or shop, and the second word indicates the items sold along the street. Bac means silver which was sold on Hung Bac Street. On Hang Be one could buy bamboo rafts or silk on Hung Dao.
G- Hmmm. The average size seems to be 28 or 29. I have yet to see anything over 34.
P - Well since you don't even fit into that average size, you know my ass isn't getting into them.
G- Excuse me, do you have bigger size?
Girl - For you?
G- No, for her.
Girl - (leans around me and looks at Phyllis with very rude eyes) Oh, No! (then she started talking, in Vietnamese, and laughing with the other sales girl)
G- Well that's rude. Do you know what that word means?
P - (to me as we walked away) Kiss my fat ass, bitch!
For most of the morning we scoured the shops looking for pants. Some people tried to help and were polite, some simply ignored us and others looked at us as though we were insane when we asked if they had jeans to fit Phyllis.
P- I'm over this! I hate to shop to begin with and it's even more depressing in this land of pencil people.
G- We have to find you a pair of warm long pants. Let's look in the shops until we get to the end of the street, then we'll go get some lunch. I'm getting hungry.
P- And I'm tired of walking in this drizzle.
We walked into the next shop along the row and looked through the jeans hanging along the wall.
Sales girl - Hello.
G & P - Hello.
P- Do you have any jeans in a size that would fit me?
Sales girl - (eyes widening like a deer caught in headlights) For you? (she began to back up) Oh NO! We don't have size to fit you. (she looked terrified and continued to back away from us) No! No! Only small size.
G- Ok.
P- You don't have to run away, I'm not going to try to eat you! (to me) That's it! I've had enough of this.
G - Alright muffin. I'm sorry. You should have lunged at that last one just to scare her more. I wonder if she would have shrieked and run away.
P- I'd like to throw hamburgers to them so they can eat something that'll put a little meat on their bones.
P- I know that! Let's go eat at KFC. I'm sick of rice and I need to stay beefed up, because I'm going to sit on, and crush to death, the next skinny Asian person who looks at me like I'm trying to buy pants for a buffalo!
We sat on the third floor of a building, in the middle of a traffic circle, along Hoan Kiem Lake. The weather had been cool, cloudy and rainy since we returned from Ha Long Bay and there was no indication that it would change before we left Vietnam. We were told that this was the common weather for this time of year and had been lucky that it wasn't raining before we left for Ha Long Bay. We sat eating our chicken sandwiches and savoring our cokes with ice.
P- It says New Orleans! Wow!
G- I wonder if it says something about Cajun spicy wings. (it actually said: delicious new life)
P- It's odd that New Orleans is used in an advertisement because when we tell people we're from New Orleans, no one has ever heard of it.
G- I know. They know New York and Washington D.C. That's why I've started telling them we're from California. That, they've heard of.
After lunch we walked briefly along the lake, purchased a Lonely Planet China guide book from a boy schlepping a box of books, then headed back in to the Old Quarter. We found a shop that sold leather gloves and belts where we each selected a pair of gloves and I a belt. My pair of long pants was far too lose. Unfortunately, we were unable to reach an agreeable price, so we left the items with a pissed off sales lady and headed down the street. A few shops down we stopped at another shop where I selected a belt.
Sales lady - I fix.
G- It's too big. Let's go.
Sales lady - I fix. I fix.
P- She says she can fix it.
G- What does that mean, she can fix it? How is she going to make it smaller?
P- I don't know. What I do know is that the lady from the first shop is drilling holes through your back for looking at this lady's belts.
G- You can fix? (we agreed upon a price before I let her alter it)
We stood in disbelief as she unscrewed the bolt securing the strip of flapped over leather that was holding the belt buckle. Then she removed the buckle, cut off the end of the leather, made a new hole, flapped the leather through the buckle, and screwed the bolt. Then she handed it to me with a smile. My mouth hung open.
G- That is amazing!
P- I'd like to see that happen anywhere in America.
The lady looked at us with mild amusement. She was probably thinking "these people are supposed to live in advanced countries and they act shocked that I can do something so simple as make a belt smaller". She was kind, and amused, enough to pose for a few photos with me, and I wore my new belt away. Around the corner we found a tailor.
P- I think I should just get a pair of pants made. I'm never going to find a pair to fit me.
G- Yes. Good idea.
P- I wish we had done this sooner. It would have saved us a lot of trouble.
G- I agree, but how could we have known we would not be able to find a pair of jeans to fit you.
P- We should have been able to figure that out by looking at these twig people.
G- I'm just glad that's done. Now we can't leave until the 17th. That sure is cutting it close.
P- How much did the hotel owner say it would cost for the bus to China?
G- I think he said $27.00 for the tourist bus which takes 6-7 hours to get to Nanning instead of the slightly cheaper local bus which takes 9-10 hours.
P- We're definitely paying extra for the nicer, faster bus.
G- I agree, but let's stop at another travel agency to confirm that that's a good price and that there is no train that we could take. I'd prefer a train.
The Old Quarter was like a beehive of activity. It was noisy, crowded, lively, and everything and everyone seemed in constant motion. We really enjoyed the vibe, but the rain seemed to have made the motorcycle drivers a little crazy, and several times we were almost run over. After one such near collision experience, we stood in front of a travel agency, waiting for the man to get off the phone, while live chickens pecked at our feet.
P- Why have they not been run over by a motorcycle or car?
We weren't the only ones surprised by the sight of chickens in the Old Quarter and several passing tourists stopped to take photos. A brief discussion with the travel agent revealed that our hotel owner was 100% correct about our transportation options to China, so we returned to the New Century and booked a bus trip from Hanoi to Nanning, China on February 17, 2011, the day our Vietnamese visas expired.
