On Monday (18th Oct 2010), I took a flight to Hanoi, Vietnam again.
This is the 2nd trip I took for this upgrading project and I am book into a different hotel. I am enjoying the advantage of holding the Silver Card of an airline where I need not to queue up to check in as they have special counter for me to check in.
Perhaps I am too used to travelling for work, I did not pay special attention to the flight departure time. I told my regular cab driver to come and pick me up at 0700, but my flight is only at 1045am. If I were to pay more attention to it, I would have booked the cab at 0745 instead. So I am an hour too early to be at the airport.
Therefore, I ask my cabbie, which is also a friend of mine, to go for breakfast instead of going straight to the airport. He took me to a shop near the airport which serves 'wan tan' noodles with add ons like steam chicken, BBQ pork, roast pork etc. We had our breakfast there and then departed to the airport and still much time to spare.
As I arrived in Hanoi, two of my local Vietnamese colleague (Short as his name means short in Chinese, not because he is short and Pail as his name means pail in Chinese) pick me up from the airport with our company driver and company car. We came to the hotel and then went for a cuppa local Vietnam coffee which I never miss whenever I come here.
We had our discussion in the coffee shop and I took a short rest in my hotel room and at 1830, both my local colleagues came and join me for dinner. We went to a shop which Short took me previously. It is a shop where they have a good variety food which is some kind like 'economy rice' I get back home. We ordered a few dishes and have it with rice. One thing I found special is that one of the vegetable we ordered is basically cabbage which is simply boiled in hot water. Then, my colleague requested for a hard boil duck egg. Yes, duck egg.
Where I come from, duck eggs are normally salted in which they are marinated in salt water for approx 40 days to make it salty. But, they way they have it here is different. They just add on a very very salty fish sauce to it to make it salty and it is used to dip the boil cabbage. Something special / different. FYI, the locals here eat their vegetables in a very health manner. Most greens are simply boiled with plain water and dip in fish sauce for taste. No oil use in the process, hence their greens as they serve on the table are a bit yellowish. Perhaps that explains for the slender bodies of the ladies here.
Then, as usual, I never miss to scroll into DVD shops to see if any movie series catches my attention. I bought a very popular Hong Kong cartoon - McDull, which my lovely fiancée recommended to me when I went to visit her in the UK previously.
After walking for about an hour scrolling down the busy streets of Hanoi City Center, we adjourned and both Short and Pail went back home.
This morning started early. I woke up at 0630 am and took my breakfast at 0700 and left the hotel at 0730. The drive from the hotel to site is only about 40 km (max) but this drive took an hour to arrive. Its because they drive at a very low speed as streets in Hanoi is full of motobikes and there is virtually no traffic rules. People ride and drive from all directions and one amazing thing is that they are able to coordinate themselves so professionally and never bump into each other. At least I have never seen it before - touch wood.
Spend the whole day at site today, had meeting with the customer and followed by the contractor. Had lunch at the industrial area canteen where they serve you 4 dishes and just charge VND20,000 per person (approx USD1 per person) and unlimited amount of rice - eat all you want.
After lunch, we went back to the site for some discussion and left site at about 3pm and reaching back to hotel an hour later. Upon reaching the hotel, I catch up my work e-mails which have been sitting in my inbox for the whole day and at 1830, Short came over and we went for dinner together.
This time, he took me to a noodle restaurant. It seems it is very famous here in Hanoi. Basically, they use marinated slices of fish and when you order, they serve it in a small little wok with fire and fry the fish in the wok as you eat.
Then, there is just unlimited amount of dill and spring onions for you to "cook" or rather fry together with the fish and eat together with the noodles - Vietnamese noodles. Its kinda nice and something different, but its a bit too oily as the fish is frying inside oil and when you pick up the dills and spring onions out from the wok, it will be drench in oil.
After dinner, we took a walk at the night market, and after walking for about an hour, we ended up in a stall to have some coconut water to quench our thirst before I came back and update this blog.
Will be working full day at site again tomorrow and will be leaving Hanoi back home on Thursday afternoon.
