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Ha Noi

Day 23

Today was melancholy for me. It was to be our last day in Vietnam. And my last day with daughter Lauren for some months. And our last breakfast at the beloved Hanoi Exclusive Hotel. I ate my fill of dragon fruit.

After breakfast, I went to the flower vendor lady down the street. She had maybe a 2 meter by 2 meter section of the sidewalk she commandeered for her business, and I had to walk through it everyday we were in town. I arranged to purchase a dozen red roses for the fabulous Ms. Lien at the Hanoi Exclusive Hotel.

Our trip was not through a tour company. I had arranged the macro outlines of the trip – days in Hanoi, hotel in Hanoi, flights to/from Danang, 11 days motorcycles from Tigit, days at Ha Long Bay, and days in Ha Giang – but some details simply cannot be done remotely via the internet. For that, I needed a trusted local advocate. Although I had never met her before arranging the hotel in Hanoi, that trusted advocate turned out to be Ms. Lien.

I had tried a different hotel strongly recommended in the Vietnam Coricle blog. When I tried to make the reservation, I met Ms. Lien via email. She was very professional and explained that the property that I was trying to reserve was closed for renovations and would I consider staying at another property, one already renovated, and only a couple of blocks away. I agreed. After many emails back and forth across the vast distance and time difference, I came to trust her. At a certain point, I held my breath and wired some money for deposits. Wells Fargo warned me repeatedly that I could not get the money back if it was a scam.

My trust in Ms. Liem was well-placed. She handled everything perfectly and fiercely I imagined advocated for the best accommodations for us for the local transfers and tour bits we booked through her. I am a huge fan and wanted to show our appreciation.

The Hanoi Exclusive Hotel was home-base for our operations.

Ms. Lien and Michael Hake invited us to be their guests at a luncheon at the hotel on our last day. I inquired with Ms. Lien as to how many women worked at the hotel and I went back to the flower lady. I had been walking through her shop section of the sidewalk off and on for 3 weeks and my request for 6 individually wrapped roses was not going well.

She had a young assistant, a student I think, who knew a little English and was interested in whatever I was trying to say. With several rounds through Google Translate I finally was able to get my request across. When she realized what I was asking, the flower lady’s demeanor changed instantly, she laughed, and set out to over-deliver on my ask – which was an individual rose for each of the ladies working at the hotel.

The luncheon was at 12:30 PM and Lauren and I were the guests of honor. Also attending were Ms. Lien, Michael Hake, his son, and another lady. Michael Hake’s son was magnificent. He is a second-year college biology and chemistry major. He was handsome and articulate. As stated before, Vietnam is going places in the world economy and this young man is one of the reasons.

He sang for us!!! Michael joined in. Whitney Houston is their favorite artist.

It was a wonderful experience. Too soon, the luncheon was over and I was melancholy again.

My boots were still covered with jungle mud from the slime on the shortcut. So I went out to the street to get them cleaned. At last, I accepted an offer from one of the guys who caries a shoe shine kit on the street – I had always declined multiple offers each day in Hanoi. The guy secured me one of the ubiquitous plastic chairs from a nearby restaurant, removed my boots, and took them across the street to clean them. He did a fantastic job and I felt I might be allowed to board an airliner that night.

The Hanoi Exclusive Hotel offered us a 3 PM checkout. Our departing flight was a few minutes after midnight. At 3 we stored our luggage and walked to the lake. There they offer electric bus (think giant golf carts) tours of the Old Quarter. Raining again, it was a nice way to get out and spend an hour cruising around the places we had been walking.

Back to the hotel to rest and recover in the lobby for a few minutes. Then we walked down the street to the Lantern Cafe, sitting on the balcony overlooking the street and enjoying beverages. Lauren had a headache, she took some Tylenol, and we chilled for some recovery.

Famous Beer Street

We then walked to Circle K for Magnum ice cream bars. Convenience stores in Asia, Vietnam no exception, are the best. We found a quiet section of street with a step on which to sit, enjoy the ice cream, and watch the world go by.

The sun was down and Hanoi nightlife was starting. A well-lit home or apartment was open to the street across the street from our resting step. The place was ruled by an obese cat (unusual to see) Lauren named Fat Ernie. We amused ourselves watching as Fat Ernie took care of his cat comforts.

We mustered the courage to walk to Hanoi’s beer street. It is famous. Search for Hanoi Beer Street on YouTube. It is sorta a G-rated version of Bourbon Street and is usually packed with young tourists, the backpacker set. Barkers work the street with laminated cards trying to entice walkers to settle in their respective venues.

It was early, barely dark, and beer street was just coming alive.

I had no interest except as a sight to see while killing time before my flight. Not yet crowded, we found a place that looked good and took a couple of chairs facing the street so we could see the goings on. We were instantly swarmed by good-looking women. I thought they were waitresses at first. Instead, they are hired by the breweries to induce customers to order their respective brewery’s beers from the menu. I was either oblivious or immune from their pleas and ordered what I preferred. They vanished as quickly as they had appeared.

We enjoyed our beers, relaxed, and watched the revelers gather and move through as if schools of fish.

We walked back to the Hanoi Exclusive Hotel, sat in the lobby, and charged our phones. By now Ms. Lien was home with her family. Michael Hake enlisted my help in setting up a Facebook page in English for their new Hanoi Exclusive Travel Services. It was nice to be able to help them as they had helped us so much.

Soon enough our airport transfer taxi shows up to take us away from all this. The ride to the airport was loud and noisy – lots of horn action – but otherwise uneventful with no drama.

We were early to the airport for our flight that was to depart at 25 minutes past midnight. We went to a Burger King for a Whopper and a Coke, our first Western food in over 3 weeks. Honestly, I had not missed it.

Goodbye Vietnam

It was a 4:35 flight on All Nippon Airways to Tokyo. We sat in the back across the aisle from on another, but otherwise alone in our thoughts.

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