Now It Really Feels Like I'm Back

I woke up and lazed around this morning, went for a run, came back and vegged to a little more Alias. I met up with T around 2 pm to do some shopping. She took me to a market to shop for fabrics, which was really fun. I almost got claustrophobic as we wove our way in between the aisles jammed with fabrics, everything you could ever imagine was there – silks, wools, cottons, linens, in every conceivable color and pattern. The only problem with shopping somewhere like that is that you have too many choices and it all seems to blend together. T was great to shop with, and I wanted to make sure that she got what she was looking for as well. She’s one of those people who is so nice and so hospitable that she, like so many other people, will go completely out of her way for someone else. So, since she had said that taking me shopping was no trouble because she had things she wanted to get anyway, I didn’t want the entire process to be about what I was looking for. There were one or two things I was looking for that I didn’t find, but I think part of that was, like I said, sensory overload.

When we’d had enough, we headed outside, and found that the skies had opened up. We decided to go back and get something to drink to pass the time and hopefully wait for the rain to let up. We sat down on some small plastic stools in front of a table filled with various bowls and jugs. T spoke with the proprietress, and she chucked some ice, juice, lotus, coconut juice, and a couple other unidentified things into my glass, with a spoon and a straw. It all ended up tasting really good, if a little on the sweet side. By the time we finished our drinks, we decided to brave the rain, and we hailed cab to head to the tailor T uses. Actually – this is the tailor she uses for suits. Apparently, she has one she goes to for pants, and one for shirts as well. This is too confusing for me, so I hope the place she took me to is good, because I don’t think I’ll have the energy to find three other places!

After we went back to the hotel, which is right across the street from the main Hanoi office (I work in a project office in another part of the city), I decided to take a stroll around my neighborhood. Or at least, the place that will be my neighborhood for another day. I’ll be back here when we return from Nha Trang, and will hopefully have the chance to explore more at that time. As I was walking in and out of different stores, being peppered with “motorbike, Miss?”, soaking up the scenery, I started to really feel like I was back in Vietnam. The past week has been spent mostly shuttling between the hotel and the office, with the occasional jaunt out to a restaurant, but I’ve had very little time to actually walk around on my own. Then, as if on cue, right when I decided to head back to the hotel, it started to rain again. Hard core raining. The “soak right through your clothes inside of a minute” kind of rain. Just like they get in Saigon almost every day. Hurrah – I was back! Although I am slightly better prepared this time than last, because I actually have an umbrella in the country with me, I didn’t have it with me.

I’m sure that I looked ridiculous, because I didn’t even try to avoid the rain. If there was an overhang available, I walked underneath it, but I was wearing my flip flops, and nothing that couldn’t get wet. People were staring at me a little, no doubt thinking that I was completely insane for strolling along in the rain. Part of me thought I was a little insane as well, but a little water never hurt anyone. I returned to the hotel, squelched my way up to my room, and dried off. Every single item I was wearing was soaked through, so the change of clothes was definitely welcome.

After a nice dinner with R, during which I managed to converse entirely in French on subjects as varied as public health, politics, history, and religion, we walked off dinner, strolling down the streets that were cordoned off to traffic to allow a market. It was a lovely night, although the air was still heavy from the earlier rains, and it was fun to walk around and soak it all in. We walked by the lake on the way back to the hotel, and by the time we returned I was definitely ready to go to sleep.