A Day of Firsts!

After being here for nearly five months now, it's hard to believe that there are many "firsts" left to be had.  But today I had a few, the highlight of which was my first Vietnamese wedding.

My first Vietnamese wedding invitation

The "first first" wasn't so fortunate.  Chi's grandfather (and the father of Air Mekong Chairman, Mr Viet) was admitted to the hospital early this morning after vomiting blood during the night.  He's generally been in good health, but they're afraid it may be stomach cancer and are running tests.

As is customary in Vietnam, Les and I made a visit to see him this afternoon at the Military Hospital in Downtown Hanoi.  If circumstances permit, I'll write more about our visit at some point in the future.  For now, he seems to be doing well, but I'm sure he, Chi and their family would appreciate your thinking of them in your thoughts and prayers.

The second first was that Les, our CEO, upgraded Scooters earlier this week, and, like a little brother who gets the hand-me-downs, I've inherited his Scooter.  It's a red, automatic Yamaha Nouvo and, compared to the manual Wave I've been driving, rides like a limousine!  Tonight was my first trip out and it, as my friend Thanh would say, "was fantastique!"

My third "first" was that my initial outing on my new Scooter took me out of Tay Ho during rush hour at 5:30pm.  Normally any driving I do is well after rush hour if I travel into town or is over the weekend when there's less traffic.

Tonight we travelled west of town and there were cars everywhere.  In an attempt to avoid construction, we took what I think was a shortcut on a very narrow street which was clogged with Scooters.  As we sat idling, there were folks on both sides of the alley selling fruit and live chickens and sunglasses and brooms.  Definitely not your typical rush hour. 

After driving for 20 minutes or so, we arrived at my "last first", the wedding (or wedding reception, I'm still not quite sure) of one of my fellow co-workers, Mr Liem.  Mr Liem is a very nice guy with a big smile and happy demeanor and works in our Cargo Sales Department.  He married one Ms Phuong from Saigon and they've spent the last week travelling around Vietnam, holding receptions in Ho Chi Minh City, here in Hanoi and last in Mr Liem's hometown outside of Hanoi. 

We arrived at what looked like a commercial hall which looked like it hosted wedding events as a business.  Outside, the bride, groom and their families greeted guests as they went inside.

Outside the wedding hall
(you can see Mr Liem in his suit in the upper left)

The groom and bride

Once inside, there were dozens of dinner tables around which guests sat, waiting for whatever was next.  After everyone had arrived, the wedding procession began.

  

It was quite the production!  Glitter cannons, fireworks, balloons, a procession of men with things on their heads (see stage left) and free food!  It was almost as good as a Las Vegas show!

After the couple had exchanged a toast, everyone began eating...and drinking.  There was plenty of good food to be had and Chi thought it was especially funny that anything which had a head happened to be pointing in my direction. 

Once everyone had finished eating, it was pretty much a race for the door (for the most part, very much like most receptions I've attended in Utah!).  Aside from the Air Mekong group, the place was empty by 7pm.  

I work with a young, lively bunch, however, and my group wasn't finished drinking or toasting the happy couple.  In the Vietnamese tradition, several traditional "Mot, hai, ba, Yo!" ("One, two, three, cheers!") toasts were given, followed by beer guzzling to the bottom of one's glass (this would be the part which is very much unlike most wedding receptions I've attended in Utah).   I was able to hold my own largely due to the fact that Hanoi Beer really isn't all that potent.

Curiously, the more my Vietnamese buddies drank, the redder they became.  We talked about this and apparently between the more common Vietnamese blood type (O) and/or the yeast content in Vietnamese beer, it's not unusual to turn very red with every beer you consume.  By the end of the night, several of my buddies were beet red. 

You can see Mr Thanh, left, who doesn't suffer from beer redness much. 
Our friend, Mr Truong, however to his left looks to be ready to burst he's so red.

Of course, the evening wasn't yet over.  There was karaoke to be had!  We left the wedding reception and motored through Hanoi to a nearby karaoke hall (which, in Hanoi, is really not hard to do.  They're like Starbucks in New York City; there's literally one on every corner). 

While the crowd requested yet another Celine Dion, I deferred this time in favor of Abba ("Mamma Mia") and a Michael Jackson song ("Heal the World"?) chosen for me by Chi and Mr Minh, respectively. 

Mr Minh singin' his heart out while Chi and Ms Dzung listen

All in all, it was a great evening spending time with my friends here in Hanoi.