Little Hanoi 2

So here is the report from my voyage to Little Hanoi 2 at 21 Hang Gai street. I cost 60,000 VND to get there and in true Hanoi-style taxi, a mere 30,000 to get back. It must be the prevailing winds. It was at the corner of Luong Van Can which sounded like Minh's jazz club street. Across the street were a plethora of sunglasses outlets that would put the Sunglass Hut to shame. It was block 68 of Luong Van Can so could not have been far away from the sweet sounds of jazz.

They have been there since 1994, and the breakfast pho (pronounced "phir") was 87,750 VND. It had veggies and beef floating in a broth and was lovely. As the national food of Vietnam they have us beat big time. Canada's national dish is anything highly caloric and fattening :). The place had dark wood tables and chairs, something that always impresses this ferenge, and featured western and local fare. They were playing western folk music and I made out Judy Collins amongst others.

The surroundings with their medium narrow streets invite walking. The walls contain tall casement-like windows and the place is clean and bright. The streets in the immediate area of Little Hanoi are clean and spotless, which makes me wonder if that was because I was there Sunday. Hopefully it is that clean during a work week. There were a few air conditioners on the wall but they were mainly using ceiling fans. The menu was in English too and the server spoke English well.

I walked for about an hour after until the soak-factor kicked in and grabbed a cab back to the Horison. I think I may have learned how to ask for the bill in Hanoi as the server yelled "check check" to a colleague when I asked for the bill. It was the same in Addis, nothing fancy, simply a high-pitched "beel beel" and the invoice would arrive shortly thereafter.

When the bill arrived, at the bottom it said 6.60 USD or 12540 VND ... there was a "0" missing from the VND total which, without that last trailing zero was only 66 cents; I think I prefer to pay in VND currency if it is that much cheaper, you?

I surfed "pho" for a while and now feel confident going to a road-side emporium and asking for pho ba (beef), pho ga (chicken), pho lon (pork), or pho ___ (for fish with blank filling provided by Trangslator). I will also get the correct pronunciation.

I got the explanation from Trang for the extra-terrestrial transaction at the store Friday for my 3 shirts, and I quote ...

"Do you remember a lady at the shirt store and went with us to the cashier? She also bought a shirt which costs roughly 1.6 million VND or something. But that store has a policy of 10% discount for a bill with amount greater than 3.8 million VND. Your 2 Valentino shirts cost about 2.8 mil VND. She proposed to include her shirt into your bill to make the total amount to become greater than 3.8 million VND to enjoy 10% discount for each, you and her. Then with her shirt, the bill became more than 3.8 mil. Great! She paid for hers but it is included in your bill. That's why you see 4 in the bill but you get only 3."

My response was "Thanks ... I would not even understand that transaction in English so no wonder I missed it in Vietnam". Thus the 3 shirts cost me 3.6 million VND or about $55 each before tax. Was that too much to pay? Ask me Monday afternoon when I get home carrying 2 litres of perspiration rather than 3 litres.

I also ran into something today which amused me to no end ... a self-discounting street vendor. I stop and ask a lady in a small storefront how much the fans are ... she says 35,000 so I say no, and she immediately says "10". I did not have to bargain or even say a word, The price dropped itself by over 70% and I had nothing to do for the discount.

Two final measurement indicators for Little Hanoi 2 (not Zagat style ratings but better) ... for both factors, a 5 is best for the first and a 1 is best for the second:

BTRF ... body temperature raising factor --> 3.5
FSF ... ferenge stupidity factor, a measurement of how stupid I look when ordering --> 1

I will use BTRF and FSF for all the places I go and hope that will assist others who have nothing better to read than my BLOG when trying to figure out where to eat in Hanoi. Upon further investigation, Zagat and Frommer are planning to use there 2 factors once their patents expire in 7 years (rumour has it).

Another achievement today I am pleased to announce ... I now know how to get from Horison to the O building. One heads out of hotel and hangs a left. Proceed down to the temple I visited with the tour guide last Sunday and hang a right at the next street. Poof ... one is now on the O building street that leads to the World Bank building.