Last Days in Hanoi

My last days in Hanoi were full of interesting things.

On the Monday, I had organised a private tour with the Hanoikids walking tour club. Hanoikids is a volunteer organization which offers free private tours. The only expenses are during the tour; admission fees, meals and drink, as well as transportation fees both for you and Hanoikids’ member if needed. At 9am I was greeted by a delightful young student of hospitality and economics, Châu Anh.  She took me along some of the roads in the old quarter which I had previously been on and then to a beautiful old traditional home where she explained each room and how it had housed three generations. The younger generation experiencing and desiring things from the French era.

The day had warmed up even though the sun was hidden behind ominous rain clouds. We were both fanning ourselves with our hats, and then there on the road was a little fan someone had obviously dropped.  I picked it up, declaring it a provision of the Lord just when we needed it. Vi-Lay had bought herself two as souvenirs at the airport and here the Lord had provided one for me free.  Châu Anh said the Vietnamese gods must like me very much.  I corrected her by saying the Creator God, who was above every other god, it was He who I worshiped, and yes He loves me very much.

Along the way we stopped so I could buy some jackfruit which we ate when we stopped at Thap Rua Lake.  Here we met four delightful older citizens. One very outspoken 45yr old who was jogging on the spot and stretching.  I gave her thumbs up which started a conversation.  I then asked her to take a photo of Châu Anh and me before asking if I could take one of the four of them.  What a lovely encounter.

From here we headed towards the large Catholic Cathedral which the French had built after destroying and removing a Buddhist pagoda.  She asked me if the Catholic and Protestants were still fighting one another.  This was an ideal opportunity to talk to her about Christianity and the redeeming works of Christ.  She was interested but more interested in learning English so I suggested she call the Hanoi International Church to ask about some of their youth programs where she can attend and not only hear more about the works of Christ but also practice her English and possibly learn some French as she was wanting to study in Paris in three years’ time.

On leaving the Cathedral, Châu Anh took me to Train Street which I had been unable to find previously.  It happened to be on a different railway line from the one I had explored earlier.  I’m so glad we finally found it with the tracks running so close to the shops and homes.  I certainly wouldn’t like to live so close myself.

Walking along the streets, several times I had to rescue Châu Anh from traffic as she was about to walk in front of a moving vehicle.  She asked me why I, unlike other tourists, was so confident crossing the busy roads.  I explained I had lived in Thailand and Bali which I thought were worse than Hanoi.  Especially Bali which also had so many broken pavements and hazards for pedestrians.

We were both hot and tired by then and decided to head back to the air conditioning in the hotel to eat our green rice dessert which we had bought along the way.  Both the jackfruit and green rice vendors had been kind enough to give me a smaller portion so I don’t have to buy the larger amounts they were selling. The green rice was neatly wrapped in taro leaves and tied together with a twisted rice stalk.

Back at the hotel after our snack we parted company thanking each other for the opportunity to learn more from each other.  It had been an interesting morning with both of us sharing our knowledge on different topics. I went upstairs for a shower then curled up and slept an hour, I was exhausted having walked 5km, contending with traffic through bustling streets.

That afternoon I intended to buy some rice pancakes but the shop was closed.  Instead, trying to keep dry from the rain, I made my way to my favourite jelly dessert café Loc Tai House.  The satay man wasn’t there due to the rain so on my way back to the hotel I tried a Banh Mi which also used the pork satay as a filler with cucumber, coriander and what looked like carrot and green papaya.  The bun was roasted on the BBQ before adding the ingredients and sauces of chilli and mayonnaise.  This one was more like what I was used to.  Walking back, I got a little wet from the rain, the weather had been much cooler with a very slight breeze which was a welcome change.

Back at the hotel I met some guests from all different parts of the world with whom to chat, some I was able to help with understanding a few things about the hotel and places to go. Such as: is this ice safe to eat, even helping out Emma, one of the hotel managers, when people were struggling to understand her accent. She was so grateful and a friendship was formed.

My second last day I went out early at 8:30am for my egg coffee as I was told the power would go off in this area from 9-11am and I didn’t want to miss out.  I also wasn’t looking forward to not having my air conditioned hideaway!  While I was there a young couple, from the States, came in, he was very hesitant to try the egg coffee until I recommended it.  His partner, Megan, who was part Japanese had already ordered hers.  I indicated they were welcome to sit with me so we could chat more.  We had a long chat about our travels including my trip to Sa Pa where they were hoping to go next. I also asked her if she knew much about Japan which she did as she had lived there recently and loved it.  She suggested she airdrop some of her notes on Tokyo and Kyoto, which I was grateful for, then shared our WhatsApp contacts too.  We shared info on helpful travel apps and I told them about some of my favourite eateries in Hanoi then walked with them to the rice pancake shop before returning to the hotel which was still in darkness.

Rhianon, from the Hanoi International Church, messaged me close to midday to say she and Sue were on their way and would meet me outside my hotel.  I waited outside flapping my fan to try and keep cool while I waited.  The electrical team were right outside our hotel and at either corner of our block fitting new power boxes.  I noticed a lady using a jackhammer who was only wearing sandals!

When Rhianon and Sue arrived we walked to a Vietnamese signature dish ‘La Vong’ grilled fish cooked at the table on a hot plate. There was also an entree plate of fish which had lots of onions which I picked off. The second fish was cooked by our waitress, in a pan in the middle of the table.  She added some oil before frying the fish with spring onions leaves. In our bowls we put cold thin rice noodles with peanuts, then the fried fish topped with a fish sauce. Different but nice. I had requested some Vietnamese evangelistic tracts from Rhianon who also gave me a few book marks with scripture verses in English. It was a lovely time to get to know each other.

Back at the hotel, by 3pm after sitting in the humidity and dark, I decided I’d treat myself to some air conditioning and an ice dessert. That was fine till l left without paying and needed to walk back along the hot busy street. When I arrived with money in hand she laughed. I was relieved she was so gracious. Back at the hotel once more I decided I needed a shower as I was so hot. This was very difficult as the power was still off and my room was it total darkness due to no window or outside light. I used my phone torch sparingly as the battery was nearly flat. Setting myself up so I knew where things were I laid my phone on the bed so I could find it easily then while it was still glowing raced into the bathroom and showered in pitch black.  Praise the Lord I was able to manage and felt a lot fresher.

The power did eventually come back on close to 5:30pm.  While I sat in the semi darkness waiting for it, I had a lovely chat with Emma, she was giving out traditional hand-held fans made of Rattan to guests as a complementary gift for the inconvenience. She also gave me a sugarcane juice to cool me down. What a blessing.  She said if I was to come back to Vietnam I could stay at her home, she said she had learnt so much from me and wanted to learn more.  I felt honoured and blessed.  Hoping to stay in touch, we shared our WhatsApp contacts.

Just as she left to go home, the power came on enabling me to retreat to my room where I posted the last blog update before having an early night.

It was a bit of a restless night as I thought about the flight and all the jobs waiting for me at home. In the morning I packed my suitcase, it weighed nearly 9kg.  Too heavy for hand luggage which is only 7kg.  Because I was flying all the way with Thai Airways, with a change in Bangkok, I was confident that my luggage would go straight through to Perth.  At breakfast I met an older couple, he was from Belgium and she was Thai; when I knew she was from Thailand I spoke to her in Thai.  First of all she didn’t realise I was talking to her in Thai but automatically spoke Thai back to me.  Her husband then asked her in English what I had said. She looked a little confused till I said to him that she probably didn’t realise I was also speaking Thai. She looked surprised and asked me in English “Do you speak Thai?” It was quite a funny moment.

That morning was my last visit to my favourite coffee shop; this time for a coconut coffee which I was disappointed with as it tasted like roasted desiccated coconut (a little burnt). The young waitress made up for it by coming over for a Google translate chat, telling me it was her last day as she was returning to high school as the holidays were soon over. I took this opportunity to ask if I could give her a Christian booklet which she agreed to, and promised to read it.  She then requested we take some photos, she was such a sweetie.  Pray with me that she will seek and find the Lord.

I had an early lunch, as I was getting bored after checking out of my cosy room at midday.  I went across the street from the hotel to the rice pancake place.  Then an hour later to the ice dessert shop before looking for the vendor selling the only banh mi I liked. It was closed. I was so disappointed, I had been looking forward to having my last one before leaving and didn’t want to compromise by buying a different one.  I returned a bit later and praise the Lord it was in full swing. I put in my order and was told to sit on a little squat stool on my own. I said to an Aussie family sitting nearby that I’d been put in the naughty corner. They laughed, saying I probably deserved it. Don’t you love the Aussie banter?  When my bun was ready I was handed it in a paper bag and I gave her the cash. As I was walking away she started shouting at me. At first I didn’t think it was me she wanted but then others started shout too (was I to go back into the naughty corner?) No apparently I’d paid too much or she thought she had forgotten I’d ordered more so called me back to give me two more pork satay sticks. Wow! Ok. Thanks.  What a bonus. Thanks Lord. Not only had He provided what I wanted for my last lunch in Hanoi but I got abundantly more than I’d asked for.  I felt so blessed.

The tracts Rhianon gave me from church, I handed out to the lady at ice and jelly shop, also to staff at the hotel. The jelly shop lady was surprised I was giving her something, politely accepting but when I went to leave after going to the toilet I saw she had put it on the counter. Maybe she thought I wanted it back.  I left it there and returned to the hotel.

I had put a little something together for Emma, who was coming to work after I’d left the hotel.  I gave her a pen with the church info on it plus a tract and the remains of my oats with the recipe how to make muesli. Anna the other manager pulled me aside just before I left to give me two souvenir fridge magnets.  All the staff have been such lovely hosts, even the cleaning staff waved and smiled when they saw me during the day.  Maybe because I had a ‘do not disturb’ on the door which let them off the hook every day from cleaning my room.

Living in hotel rooms and being a light sleeper has its challenges. Every room is different of course but generally, at night, there is a constant glowing of lights from various electrical equipment such as the TV, Wi-Fi, air con, water heater and the like.  Thank God for eye masks.

Then there’s the toilets, no toilet paper goes down the toilets as they get easily blocked, instead it goes into a bin beside the toilets.  The toilet in my cosy room gurgled and bubbled, some of the water heaters thumped or clicked on and off, the fans, if we were blessed with one, whirling or clunking, sometimes our neighbours thump and talk loudly as they walked down the corridor or on other occasions it’s your room mate who with a lot of consideration very quietly tries to go to the toilet in the middle of the night. Oh the challenges we light sleepers have. Still it’s all an adventure.

My little cosy room had additional little quirks of its own.  With normal hotel rooms when you remove the key from the box inside the door all the power goes off but in my little room only the lights in the room went off. The bathroom light and extractor fan stayed on which was great as without the fan it smelt very stuffy.  The room also had a portable fan which I turned off when I went out.  It came in handy when I needed to dry clothes quickly. I was grateful there was no traffic noise as there were no windows to the outside world.  This is what made showering with the power off a bit of a challenge.  During the nights, light shone through the opaque glass doors from the entrance hallway and also on another opaque glass door which had an extractor fan, this door was locked and led into what looked like an open stairwell / storage area.  I eventually turned this extractor fan off because it was so noisy plus it also sucked out all the cool air conditioned air rendering the air conditioning semi-useless.

Before leaving the hotel a young French couple, who stayed in the room beside mine, were also leaving and were going to the airport around the same time.  I suggested we go together. They were going to the domestic airport and Anna asked them to pay the driver whereas my ride was complementary thanks to Anna and Emma. I was dropped off first with plenty of time to wait for the Thai Airways check-in to open.  I found a spot to sit and wrote a few notes on my mornings activities so as not to forget.  Getting to be one of the first at check-in asked if my baggage was able to go straight through to Perth and was relieved to know it would.  I was also able to change my seat out of Hanoi to an aisle but not on the longer journey home.  I was grateful that I had pre booked a window seat (which I was also trying to change to an isle seat but couldn’t). I then realised, having the window seat meant l wasn’t disturbed as much and could sleep a bit.  Meanwhile I breezed through immigration and customs even when they missed a full bottle of water in my backpack.  There was then plenty of time to relax and wait for my flight.

Both my flight to Bangkok and flight home were on time.  There was a very chatty little girl on the first flight which I was relieved to see wasn’t on the flight to Perth.  She just didn’t stop talking all the one and a half hours while I was trying to get a bit of shut eye!  When I arrived in Bangkok, I hurried off the flight into the terminal where I inquired with the attendants which gate my next flight was. I only had 90mins to find the departure gate.  I then ran what seemed to be the full length of the terminal (fortunately there were walking belts which means I got to the other end quicker). I finally found the departure gate for my flight and sat down, unbeknownst to me amongst a group of people from Bhutan.  I struck up a conversation with a young guy, Tashi, who was moving to Australia to join his wife who was studying in Perth. His English was very good, he told me that the travel agent had put the small group together so that they could travel together as none of them had been to Australia before.  Some very mature (one older than me) women were joining their daughters to take care of the babies, other young girls were going to study. Tashi doesn’t have a trade but hopes to be employed as a labourer.  I suggested he attend a tradies course at TAFE and then apply for an apprenticeship.  He will be living in Leeming so I suggested he take my WhatsApp number to stay in touch.

It wasn’t the best of nights trying to sleep in a cramped position in a window seat. My neck pillow helped a little. We were served some sort of sausage just after take-off but by this time I had taken a sleeping tablet to help me get some sleep during the flight. There was another meal for breakfast just before we landed, a frittata, not my kind of breakfast so I just ate the little bit of fresh fruit and sweet croissant and two of my little bananas I’d brought with me.

Australia immigration is simple as our new passports have a chip which means we can move quickly through the check points, pick up our bags off the turnstile and head to customs.  I’d filled out the form declaring the things I was hoping to bring in.  Unfortunately unlike Jen who was permitted to bring in her vanilla pod and nutmeg, I was not.  I also had to forfeit my kefir which had originally come with me from Perth. The customs office said if they had been in their original packaging they might be accepted.  I told her the spices were bought from the side of the street and kefir is a culture acquired through friends.  My shoes and sandals were checked too.  The shoes, which I had tried to clean were still carrying mud from the walk in Sa Pa, they passed inspection but the sandals needed to be cleaned with the high pressure hose.  They were returned to me later looking fantastic.

Ordering an Uber I was home by 9am having landed at 7:46am, I thought that was pretty good timing.

Photos:  1. Orchid flower    2. Old traditional wall hangings    3. Four ladies in the park    4. Satay for Banh Mi    5. Three Aussie ladies    6. Emma    7. Waitress, school girl with tract    8. Rice pancakes    9. Banh Mi and satay sticks    10. Tashi    11. Sunrise over Australia

Prayer & Praise Points:

I praise God for this amazing adventure both in Bali and Vietnam.  For His protection and provision. I have seen His hand at work in so many areas during this time and I’m so grateful.

Praise the Lord for answered prayer for my last days in Hanoi and my safe return home.

Please pray for Ngoc, Châu Anh, Anna, Emma and the others who received the tracts, that the Word sown may bring fruit.

Please continue to pray for Gayle’s ongoing health concerns, especially for her eyes; she is back in Victoria visiting her daughter who is about to give birth to her second child.

Pray also for Anthony Higgs who will have a reverse shoulder replacement in October, for Elsie and Ross Winchester as they continue their cancer treatment. Believe with me for the Lord’s intervention and total healing for all of them.

Continue to pray with me for world peace both in the Middle East, Ukraine and Russia, South Brazil, PNG and all countries dealing with major disasters, wars and the unbelievable hardships they cause.  Pray for all those caught up in the suffering these events have caused.  Pray that God’s peace may be known by all people especially for those who live in despair, that they will find hope in Christ Jesus.

Please keep my sisters, Tricia, Jen and Kat, in your prayers.  Pray that they will come to know the love of Jesus.