I feel possessed (Hà Nôi, Vietnam)

Hello again dear reader, it has been a busy couple of days. Currently we are on a bus, heading for Ha Long Bay, but that is the future. Let’s return to the past.

It is officially our last day of freedom, tomorrow evening the tour commences. While an organised tour has its benefits, we like our freedom, so today we decided we would tie up a few loose ends and have a relaxing day.

The historic tour of the hotel was interesting but it didn’t allow enough time for us to read all of the information on the boards. After breakfast, that is where we headed. The posters detail a potted history of the Metropole Hotel from its beginnings in 1901. It covers French occupation and wars, international and civil. One of the more interesting posters listed ‘famous visitors’. Generally, they were politicians and celebrities like Brad Pitt or more classically Somerset Maugham.

One of the posters

The Metropole became a pseudo activist centre during the American War. Famous American anti-war activists like Jane Fonda and Joan Baez stayed here. As did war correspondents from many different countries. It has been the centre of social and political life in Hà Nôi for many years.

An historic phone still in use.

Happily there were some Australian names on the ‘important persons’ list. Distressingly one was Scott John Morison. He was full-named. When your mum does that you know you’ve been bad, so it’s quite fitting, I guess. He was a bad PM. If I’d been his dad, I would have wiped that smirk of his smug little face when he was still a child.

Sorry, I digress. One excellent quote from Alfred Cunningham (I have no idea) was, “After a visit to Hà Nôi one is curious to learn what the French would have done with Singapore or Hong Kong if they had possessed them”. He sounds impressed and I love the colonisers’ use of the word ‘possessed’. Which of course inspired today's title. I feel possessed by Crowded House

A painting by Joan Baez completed while staying at the Metropole.

I haven’t checked, dear reader, because the hotel was booked for us as part of the tour, but I assume it is 5 star. The giveaway is that the staff hover like ringwraiths, waiting to swoop without notice. They can be walking down a corridor and will change direction to open a door for you, or push the elevator button. At breakfast, after selecting some delectable pastries, they stealthily sneak up behind you and pull your chair out as you are about to sit. Everywhere you go, you are met with ‘bonjours’ and ‘bonsoirs’ and bowing. All a bit disconcerting for a working-class boy. Sometimes for amusement value after I’m greeted in French, I continue with “ Comment ça va”? Usually I get a smile, but occasionally there is mild panic. Very few Sofitel staff speak more French than “hello”.

Jayne, not known for her powers of observation, is able to spot a Pandora store from 500 metres through haze, heavy traffic and crowds. Not here and she actually remarked on it. A quick question to Dr Google suggested the Pandora store was next door to the hotel and that we would have walked past it a dozen times. No way. I was shocked. Armed with our trusty paper map, we went in search for a trinket to represent Hà Nôi to commence the next bracelet (the original one is now fully occupied).

Oh what an adventure! Around the block and around the block we wandered without success. It appears that the Pandora store that was next door is no longer. Renovations. Jayne’s Pandora-detection sense had not failed her after all. Relieved, we adjourned for a beer, although we were probably drinking for different reasons. Ho Chi Minh City will have to be the first Vietnamese city to grace her new bracelet.

We found a wedding.

The afternoon was still ours to determine, before the tour officially commenced in the evening. On the food tour yesterday, we had asked Sinh, our guide, where we might find a place to purchase an Ào Dái as a birthday present for our oldest granddaughter. In the course of our meanderings around the Old City, Sinh took us down a street that contained a number of shops jam packed with these Vietnamese long dresses. He waved at all of them and then said, “We would go to Vinh Thang if we want one. Made on the premises from top quality silk.” This became the focus of our last free afternoon.

And another wedding.

We set out around the now very familiar lake to retrace our path to the Ào Dái street. A quick reconnoître of the other ready to wear shops led us into Vinh Thang’s shop, with sewing machine positioned right at the front door and the walls festooned with samples of silks, all colours and intricately embroidered, hanging from the ceiling, ready to be selected and sewn into the elegant Ào Dái.

And a car, but no Pandora.

A little elderly lady greeted us animatedly, waving her hands around and offering to retrieve samples from up on high. Unfortunately, she spoke no English and trying to communicate that we were shopping for our granddaughter, not Jayne, became a comedic but unsuccessful charades exercise. Jayne tried French to no avail and so we were forced to leave without securing the coveted order.

Luckily, we were also en route to collect the dresses from Daisy, and when we arrived at her shop, we asked her whether she could make an Ào Dái before we had to leave Hà Nôi. She showed us various designs and colours (on her phone this time – no trip to paradise) and we settled on something we liked. It would be delivered the next evening to our hotel, our last night in Hà Nôi.

Another walk around the lake and back to the hotel for a quick shower and change of clothes before dinner. We had a briefing with Tea (not Thi as I had assumed) and went to the Spice Restaurant in the hotel with the rest of our travel companions or family as Tea refers to us.

Then it was bedtime. I’m not sure whether the early nights are a product of the time zone shift, the humidity, the distance walked each day or a combination of all three. 

Until the next time I have an internet connection.