Well, okay it was in the 80s, but after a month of 90+ including a week of 100+, the 80s is almost relaxing.
I went to a place called Hanoia, which had advertised as an art show but turned out to be a grand opening. It was interesting seeing Vietnamese lacquer pieces, but it is going to be quite awhile before I can afford to shop there. But getting there and back did involve a nice walk around Turtle Lake.
Then I had some time before my Vietnamese lesson, so I explored around and found a café called Vui Studio. The sign proclaimed their motto “Poetic order as an ethos” so I just had to go inside. It was one of the nicest smelling cafes I’ve ever been in, and inspires remarkable silence in its customers, most of whom seemed to just want to work in a nice, art deco atmosphere. I ordered “butter mint tea” which unfortunately tasted more like mint than butter, and looked through the art books on the shelves for customers to read.
So then I met with my Vietnamese tutor, and then we went to English Corner. It was a small gathering today, but that’s okay because it gives the people who show up more of a chance to talk. The assigned topic was “Is love blind?” but our conversation hardly remained within the boundaries. Talking about sex lead to a lot of embarrassed laughter, too. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that pretty much everyone preferred fewer, longer relationships to a lot of short ones.
After the English Corner, I went out to hot pot with a Vietnamese college student and a Japanese website designer. The basic premises of hot pot are the same everywhere, but in this restaurant the ginger flavor in the broth was more noticeable, and one of the ingredients the college student put into pot was clams, shells and all. It was the first time I’ve had hot pot in Hanoi and I rather pigged out, but then I had a 45 minute walk home to burn off the calories.
Paulliver's Travels 