As they days went by, we slowly felt more and more comfortable in Vietnam. We spent much of our time shopping. Shopping in Hanoi is an experience. The state-run stores were big, but empty. Empty of people and empty of products. We shopped in all the little, privately owned stores. Yes, the government turned a blind eye to all of the private enterprise and black-market goods. Let me tell you, black market Coke is good! We learned how to bargain. It seems ridiculous to bargain when they went to sell you a full-sized flag for $3. But we learned. And my French came in handy, though most people spoke broken English. The last thing we wanted to buy was a doll for Doug’s grandma who collects dolls from all over the world. We walked into the shop, spied a doll we wanted. The woman wanted $5 for it. We offered $3. She said, “No, $5 already discount.” We proceeded to walk towards the door. She hollered after us, “Monsieur, Madame, come back, come back. $3? O.K.” (I LOVED being called Madame, BTW!)

When we couldn’t walk somewhere, this was our main form of transportation. Business cards overcame the language barrier.

When we weren’t shopping, walking around Ho Hoan Kiem Lake

or taking our daily siesta, we ate. The hotel offered free breakfast. The first day we went in there, we were told there were eggs. How would we like them? We told him we wanted them scrambled. He didn’t know what we meant. We used signs to show him how to crack the eggs and whisk them. And we got great scrambled eggs, freshly squeezed orange juice, tea, and warm French bread. The trouble is, every day after that, when he saw us coming, he ran ahead and prepared our scrambled eggs! Now I like scrambled eggs, but two weeks of it… For dinner, we found some Western style restaurants. We weren’t brave enough to try a Vietnamese restaurant. I’m sorry now about that. It was our first trip abroad and we were timid. We also didn’t try anything from the roadside places. That, I’m not sorry about!

We alternated between the three restaurants.

Though we have our children in the picture above, the people felt we couldn’t eat with a child on our lap, so they came and took the babies and held them while we ate, always in full view of us. They loved to serve us. We ate at the Pacific Cafe the most because it was within walking distance of our hotel.

It was run by a man from Hong Kong. One night they had a steak sandwich on special and so we tried it. The meat was red in the middle. In the States, I would order it that way, but we had been warned about not eating meat cooked well done and I was recovering from a bout with Montezuma’s revenge, so I didn’t want it. I really wasn’t hungry, so I left it on the plate. That wasn’t good for them. They insisted they would bring me another. I told them I didn’t want anything else to eat. They offered a grilled cheese sandwich. I felt I couldn’t refuse, so they brought me one. Doug told me I needed to eat it, which I did.

All of the soda we drank was warm, outside of what we bought on the street and chilled in the refrigerator in our room. Because we couldn’t drink the water, that meant no ice, either. All of our servers insisted our glasses stay full. One night Doug ordered bottled water, which they brought, then poured into his glass. When his glass was half empty, they came to refill it – with 7-Up. Woops. He didn’t say anything.

That’s just one example of how welcoming these people were.

They always wanted to help. Old women would stop us on the street and tell us we needed to have socks and hats on the babies. Okay – it was about 100 degrees with 100 percent humidity. When you stepped out of the hotel, it was instant sweat. Needless to say, we didn’t take their advice! People waved at us and flashed us the peace sign from across the street. When we were out shopping we had our own little entourage of kids following us, trying to speak English, trying to sell us postcards. I felt sorry for these children and would have bought something from them, but we had been warned that once we started buying, we wouldn’t be able to stop. But we were quite the celebrities.

We fell in love with Hanoi and it’s people.

Because we were some of the first Americans back in the country after the war, and especially because we were going to the north, we were warned that the people would be reserved. We were told to expect a cool reception. Instead, we were warmly welcomed. Some of it, I think, had to do with the Embassy opening. The Vietnamese told us they were excited about having the Americans in their country. They knew there would be more opportunities for them now. Clearly, communism wasn’t working for them, and the common man on the street knew it. I would love to go back and see what, if any progress, has come to the country and its people.