Hanoi — city of delights

yeswanth
yeswanth
Jul 22, 2017 · 3 min read

I was travelling in Hanoi, Vietnam and it was my last day (I already stayed here for 5 days) and I was feeling very lazy. I thought I wouldn’t do anything touristic and explore the Hoan Kiem Lake and nearby places. I was also lagging on my kindle reading for this trip.

Hoan Kiem Lake is a popular city attraction both for tourists as well as locals. It is also in one of the busy areas of the city.

With not much of a plan, I walked down from my hostel towards the lake. When I reached the road I realised that the busy road adjoining it was devoid of traffic and quickly realised that I was in for a treat.

There was a parade and also band-singing Vietnamese songs, sponsored by Kwality Walls, as part of their marketing campaign to attract customers. There were kids driving cars and bikes on the road. It was a different vibe altogether. I was already delighted by the funfair vibe around lake. My so-lazy day turned out to be fun. Little did I know, that a better surprise is just around the corner.

Band singing Vietnamese songs

The better surprise

I spent some time walking on the road adjoining the lake, also enjoying the funfair vibe. I finally sat down at a bench, took out my kindle and started reading. After a little time, couple of high school kids came and started talking to me. They asked if I had some spare time and that they wanted to practice their English. I thought to myself,

“Wow! That’s something I have never done in my school days… We were always told never to speak to strangers”

I was naturally delighted and therefore told them “Yes”. They told me that one of them will interview me while the other person takes a video of us. It was for an assignment at school. I gave them permission to start.

My interviewer, a high school girl studying in Hanoi is confused about going to college. She wanted to understand if going to college is such an important thing to do. She wanted to debate with me pros and cons of going to college. It was pretty interesting to have this conversation with her. I also realised that Vietnamese kids are very studious towards their studies, much like kids in India. To my delight, after the interview ended, the kids asked to join them for ice-cream! Yo!

I started walking with them and very soon I was surrounded by some of their friends. They were pretty excited to meet a foreigner and very curiously asked me a bunch of questions, including personal questions like my relationship status and my date of birth. I was also invited for dinner at one of kid’s house. Unfortunately, I had a train to catch that evening and declined the invitation

“I’m travelling alone in an unknown country and suddenly I’m a celebrity here! Woah! Truly an experience!!”

We all got ourselves ice creams to eat. Then my interviewer went ahead to a shop and bought me a key-chain. Guess what? It had my sun sign on it! She didn’t just do what she just did! I felt deeply humbled. It was the sweetest and most wonderful thing that happened to me this entire trip.

Isn’t it cute?

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