This was the second annual King Hung Day. As best I can understand he was kind of the George Washington of Vietnam only 600 or 700 hundred years before Europeans made it to what would be the USA. Apparently there has not been very many holidays except for Reunification and May Day and this one was added in the last year. The day is based on the lunar calendar so it is a movable feast day in that it will change from year to year and is not fixed as on our Western calendar.
I thought there might be a parade; but I might not just have known where to look. The hotel restaurant was short staffed and there was definitely less people on the street than usually. I took a walk around the city and did find The American Club which is apparently what the name suggests. I have been on the search for a newspaper. There isn’t much English language stuff to read and I have run a little short. You can read about the news on the internet but it is not the same. Unfortunately, I don’t know if The American Club has any newspapers since they were closed to celebrate King Hung. I walked on down the street and there is a quite spectacular Hilton Hotel. I though surely they would have a store and news stand but none to be found. Off to the Opera Metropole and it was the same. I did find a wonderful park to sit and rest in and watch people play badminton. After the storms it is cooler and a little more breeze and I do feel that there was a lot of energy that was built up waiting for the rainy season to begin that has been released.
While sitting their and older gentleman came over and asked greeted me in French to asked to sit down. He was hoping I spoke French because he wanted to practice. His English was fair and with my little Vietnamese we did get a small conversation. He was 72 and of course asked me all the obligatory questions. He asked about Hillary Clinton and I said I was hoping for Obama but he was clearly a Clinton partisan. I told him that even small children came up and wanted to practice English and he said yes it was the language of the world and he had only learned French because they had been in control of the country when he was growing up.
I have been a little weak in the stomach today and although I found some restaurants that I might come back to I retreated to dine at the hotel. The dining room was full and the waitress told some one standing behind me that there would be a wait. I am tired of eating alone and so I offered my table if they wanted to join, Terri and Emily and little Tri came to eat. I had seen Terri around obviously here to adopt a baby. Tri is a little boy and she has been waiting for 3 weeks for papers to take him home. Her mother was here at first and now her cousin to help with the baby. They all live in the San Francisco Bay Area and know the Ambassador Toy store that Amanda is an assisted manager of. I told them that they would like the new changes she has made so I am sure they will check it out. I also got to hold Tri when he was tired of the stroller and needed to be tended to. It was nice to hold a baby. The staff gave me an extra stamp on my card toward a free meal since I let them sit at my table and was nice to babies. I think this is called karma.
2 comments:
So this is only the second year for King Hong Day. Good for him, we have way to many here. It must be hard to be without any thing to read. Do they have a Library some where you get something to read. I do not like to eat alone either, some times it is not worth it to cook. you know all babies like you, remember how Hunter takes to you when we see them. just 2 more days before I leave for Terry;s and I still have way to much to do. Will just throw everything in the car and sort out later. Mom
The SF connection is funny- what a small world! And it's interesting about the man speaking French- sometimes I forget how much of the world is still second or third-generation Francophone. I should keep this in mind when I have the time and money to travel.
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