Today at Lunch

Noontime at Air Mekong is like the lunch bell going off in junior high school.  There is no bell, but the minute the clock strikes noon, there's a frantic dash to the elevator.  I'm not sure where everyone goes, but they sure can't wait to get there. 

Today was actually a pretty nice day by Hanoi standards, so I decided to walk down the street, enjoy the haze-shine and grab something to eat. 

Ok, so Tay Ho (West Lake) doesn't look much different today than it did on Sunday when I last posted a pic.  Gray, but definitely less hazy today than over the weekend (which is not to say sunny) and there was a nice breeze blowing so even the humidity didn't seem too bad.

With nothing but gray skies day after day after day, it's no wonder folks around these parts could use a little color.  And one of the best things around my neighborhood are the Flower Bike Ladies (and, today, a single Flower Bike Dude).  They park their bikes at various points along the street side and sell their flowers to passersby. 

Bargain bin Flower Bike Lady



Flower Bike Dude

As I took the last pic below, I couldn't help but notice in the background one of the weirdest things about Vietnam.  In a country where 98% of the population moves around on bikes of every variety and where traffic is nothing but a daily knot ball, there's an amazing number of nice wheels.  Sure, it's just a brand new BMW 7-Series...

...sitting right next to a brand new Mercedes!  (They're the only two cars in sight). 

I've never seen so many Bentley's, Lamborghini's, Porsche's and Rolls in one place.  Isn't Vietnam supposed to be Communist?!  Where there's an equal distribution of material wealth?!  And why anyone would want cars as nice as those here is beyond me.  "Yeah, I opened 'er up last night on the Nghi Tam Expressway and got 'er all the way up to 30mph!"

Anyway, back to the flowers.  They're a very nice touch for a place that seems terminally drab.  Someday I should probably buy some.  If my mom was here, I would.  But she's not. 

And besides, why do that when there's Jicama Bike Lady instead! 

Jicama on the left, sweet mini-pineapples on the right

It seems there are also quite a few entreprenuer-iettes who, instead of flowers, sell vegetables and fruits.  I was especially glad to see Jicama Bike Lady today because the last time I saw her out, I was on my way to lunch and thought I'd buy some on the trip back to the office.  But by then, she'd moved on and I've been out of luck for weeks.  The pineapple ladies, mango ladies, ginger ladies, lime ladies and every variety of other strange fruit and veggie ladies show up without fail every day, but Jicama Bike Lady apparently pedals her wares all over town (no pun intended) and doesn't frequent Tay Ho often. 

No sooner had I pounced on her and picked out three jicama, I realized I had no idea how much they cost and in spite of my half fluency in Vietnamese, don't know a single number.  So I pulled out a 100,000 dong bill (that's about $5; in Vietnam, every American is a millionaire!) and handed it to her not knowing how much I'd get back. 

First she handed me a 50,000 note.  And paused.  When I looked at her expectantly, she pulled out 10,000 note.  And paused.  When I looked at her again, she reached for a 5,000.  At that point I realized I had paid all of about $2 for my afternoon snack and told her to keep it.  (I'm sure she spoke no English, but quickly understood what I meant and snapped back the 5,000 note).  I shared the story with one of the Vietnamese women I work with and she told me that had she made the purchase, it would have cost all of about 2,000 dong...or about 25 cents.  Obviously I don't know squat about buying vegetables.

My pride and joy...and well worth the $2 I paid for them.  I think. 
I still have no idea, would that be a lot at home?