Preparations and Long Walks

After realizing I had written that last post on Wednesday, I realized how much I would cram in to this one. This weekend has been extremely busy so I've decided to just focus on the highlights and general going-ons. Next weekend is the Mid-Autumn Festival to celebrate the full moon as it is associated with an old tale. Dung told me the legend that inspired the celebration but I think I'll leave it for next week when the whole post will be focused on the Mid-Autumn Festival.

For the celebration, Dung's company has organized a series of activities that will take place in the Ecopark next weekend. One of them is a bicycle parade where kids who've decorated their bicycles, will ride through the Ecopark. At the end, judges will vote on whose is the best and they will win a prize. To prepare for this, Dung, Anna, and I spent all of Thursday night decorating Anna's bike. Dung created the theme that the bike is a tree and there are many small butterflies in the tree. Anna will be dressed as a butterfly and will be

the biggest butterfly in the tree as she rides her bike in the parade. We had a very fun time decorating the bike and Dung's mother even got into it when she found the feather boas. Unfortunately the photo I got was quite blurry.. but I posted it anyway since I think most of you view these on your phones and thus can't tell how blurry it is. Everyone thought we went a little overboard with the decorations and the girls across the hall thought it looked messy but we had fun.

Friday was uneventful so I'll skip to Saturday. After my morning language class, Viet and I went out for bun cha (again). It was very good and this time I managed to take a photo of how they cook the pork. When walking on the street in Vietnam you'll see many old women cooking meet this way over blazing coals but it certainly doesn't happen in the US. Of course in the US, the sidewalk is used for walking, not selling goods and eating/cooking food..

After lunch we went for a very long and roundabout walk around the city. Our first stop was at a Yamaha store and as a "shortcut" we walked through the train station to get there. "Ga Hanoi" is the largest and oldest train station in the North of Vietnam and it was one of the places my mom and I saw pictures of when we first researched Vietnam. The main building has since been rebuilt with a new facade but the station part is the same and we were able to walk along the train tracks and see a few passenger trains that were stopped at the station. When we got to the music store, the one pad they had was unfortunately, essentially the same price as the other. It was the equivalent of about five US dollars cheaper so I declined and we went on with our walk. It was probably the most random walk I've ever been on and we must've walked about 5 miles but we didn't really have any specific plans so I got to see a lot of cool things including the old Northern gate to the city and the largest wholesale market in Vietnam. From Viet's description and my observation, you can buy anything you would ever need at the wholesale market. Though it was crowded and messy, I'll definitely be returning there to explore before I go back to the US for this kind of market only exists in places like Vietnam. I also included some funny shots like the "Seventeen Cowboys" Restaurant and a backpackers hostel sign. The sign offered stays for $5 a night with free wifi, free beer, and free breakfast included. Right before I took a picture, I saw a very tired looking backpacker go inside.

On Saturday night because Dung and Anh were busy until late, we went out to dinner in the Ecopark. We went to the pizza place though I tried a hamburger instead and Anh had lasagna. Dung just had some vegetables since she had already eaten a small meal with her work friends and after dinner we walked around and experienced the different events taking place like a small concert and kids carnival-type area. It was a very nice night.

On Sunday morning I had another language class with Viet and after class we went out for lunch. Viet had recommended a banh my place near the language school but when we went, they weren't open. We ended up having pho on the street; Viet had his with chili so I put just a little bit of chili sauce in mine and it was delicious. After lunch we took the bus to Vietclimb and climbed until 3:15. I met a few new people including a woman from Italy, a man from England, and a guy from Korea who was just visiting Hanoi on a company vacation. It's always cool to meet people from all over and just as we were leaving, a group of kids from Canada showed up. After we made it back to the language school, I met the driver and we headed to the downtown house to pick up everyone else. There was horrible traffic and so it ended up taking a very long time but we eventually made it back to the Ecopark. Now it's Monday morning and I'm off to get ready for school. Thanks for reading and enjoy the photos!