268. | Hanoi asked for another day

There were two more programs in Hanoi that I would have liked to see.

I decided to watch only one of them.

The program I missed would have been very interesting, but I don’t feel any regret that I didn’t watch it.

The experience I did not miss, I would forever regret not seeing, now that I know what it was like.

Coffee and photo

This story is about a working Friday, mostly the end of it. I spent the morning in my small 19 m2 room.

When I went to have breakfast, I took my laundry from my room on the 5th floor to the reception. I waited patiently for 10 minutes for someone to come there, but then it seems the lady had something else to do.

So I looked for a pen on the counter, saw the hotel business cards and wrote on the paper “please wash my clothes. Room 502.” I added a smiley face next to it, indicating that I was sorry that I couldn’t tell you my request in person.

Around lunchtime, I went out to become an attraction.

There are a lot of cafes in the area. I try to visit more of the cafes if I can. That day I went into a small cafe at the end of a small dead end. I welcome every experience with joy, so I wasn’t put off by the fact that the young waitress told me they didn’t have coffee Americano, but they did have Vietnamese.

I hadn’t had one anyway. I thought it was about time. It was a very delicious coffee. With milk. Those who know me a little better know that I don’t like or drink milk. However, in this form I got a really tasty drink. I don’t know what had made her crazy, but it was insanely delicious.

So, I was drinking my coffee peacefully when suddenly the young girl appeared next to me. With a Polaroid camera in her hand. And she very kindly, a little shyly, but terribly politely asked if she could take a picture of me.

It was such a cute scene. Of course, that’s not why I agreed. After all, that kind of thing has never bothered me. To tell the truth, in Laos and Vietnam, a lot of people want to take pictures with me, the Western foreigner.

She took the picture, then handed it to me, which became visible when I held it in my palm. For fun, I made a video of how this little photo was born.

And the little girl immediately pinned it to a cork board – which I hadn’t noticed until then – where she already had quite a few photos of the guests. But there was no picture of a Western foreigner on it yet.

As a small cultural digression, I have to describe the following.

In Thailand, I was a farang, in Laos, I was a falang. This is not a pejorative adjective, it means something like a Western foreigner. Not simply a foreigner, but a Westerner. The origin of the word is the word Frank, which refers to French people.

The word Western in Vietnamese is Tây, which is pronounced “taei”, but you can also hear it as “thai”. This is me too, I sometimes hear people talking about me and using this word.

So, here in Vietnam I am both a Falang and a Thai! Haha. Okay, I know this is a linguistically abused pun, but I couldn’t help it. And, if I want to be really delicious, I’ll be pad thai.

After coffee, I went home. The receptionist happily said that the laundry was ready and put the clean clothes in my room.

The clothes were not waiting in my room. For a moment, I imagined that I would live in the last T-shirt I had for the next few months. Then I quickly realized that I was not living in 502, but in 501.

I tried to make sure that the person in the other room did not have to enjoy my used clothes for long. I went back to the reception and corrected the mistake. I received my clothes shortly after.

X Space Immersive

I waited for it to be late afternoon so I could leave. I walked to a huge plaza a little further away.

I went to see the X Space Immersive experience exhibition.

I enjoyed the experience through several rooms. Leaving one, I entered the next. I could also say that I went from one world to another.

The first room was my favorite. It was a room with an endless space filled with mirrors. All the walls were made of mirrors. With the help of LED light strings, a small park was arranged in the approximately 4×4 meter room. A little way around a silver tree – standing in the middle of the room. Such strings also hung from the ceiling. And they constantly changed their color.

As I entered the room, my breath caught. The atmosphere of the room was so wonderful that I simply stared out of my mind for a long time and thought about how nice it would be to sit in such a world.

I took a lot of photos, it was very interesting how the room was endless in different directions. Then I sat down on the glass floor, leaned my back against the “tree trunk” and was simply there on this super planet.

The next room was a jungle.

Elephants, tigers, and buffaloes roamed the walls. In colors dreamed up by their creators, not in their natural habitat. Birds showed their grace. Snakes slithered in the grass on the floor, scaring other small creatures with their presence.

My movement, touching the wall, conjured up a multitude of butterflies.

The sounds of the jungle made the experience complete. I really liked the atmosphere of this room too.

To be honest, I could have imagined such an environment as my natural habitat.

It’s usually quite warm in the jungle.

So it was especially nice to dive into the sea in the next room.

And watch a whale, a shark, or a school of rays swim around me.

Here I was the one who scared the living creatures. When I tried to touch a jellyfish, they quickly disappeared in alarm.

I spent quite a bit of time in this room too.

And the best part was that I didn’t even have to think for a second about how I was going to breathe underwater.

From there I was in another place where, let’s say, there was quite a limited amount of air available.

Space was waiting for me.

Next came a room where short 3D films were projected on a small dome. Under the dome, there were quite a few beanbags inviting me to rest on them.

I lay down on one of them and enjoyed the world spinning and turning around me for half an hour.

First, I visited a space station. It was an incredible experience to see it inside and out. The experience must have been like flying freely in space. I was completely captivated by the atmosphere that only space can create.

In the next story, I visited a special planet with the help of a flying car. We were driving among dinosaurs while I was neither an adult nor a child, simply a traveler enjoying the journey.

Two more rooms were waiting for me.

One of them seemed simple because it only had lights in it. But because of the mirrors, the musical effects, and the atmosphere created, this room was also beyond imagination. I loved being there.

Finally, I found myself in space again, but now I could see the spaces from the perspective of stars and entire universes.

This was on a larger scale than before. I felt happy to be here. I didn’t feel small or lonely among the stars. I was simply a part of it all for a long time.

Until a dragon chased me away.

Well, no one chased me away. It was simply time to leave this exhibition.

I was just getting ready to leave when a family came into the room. Up until then, I had been completely alone in all the rooms.

It was really cool to see how the children immediately took possession of the entire universe. It was a stark contrast to my slow steps and inquisitive attention to see how the young people were conquering the space by running and jumping.

They had the same interest – I felt – as I did, only they were discovering it all at a faster pace.

Other adventures awaited me

I left the exhibition.

I returned a few minutes later.

I wanted to listen to music, but I realized with regret that I had lost my earphones.

Again.

The good news is that there was only one place it could have been. I was almost certain that the messy thing had left me lying on the beanbag.

The guys were helpful. But they didn’t have the device. There were already two families in the room. Not suspecting anyone, but not trusting sublimation in this case, I gave up trying to find it.

One of the guys asked if I was okay with it not being found. I told him that on the one hand there was nothing I could do, and on the other hand I could. It was just okay. I try not to get too attached to things.

At least not so much as to make a problem out of something like that.

I was already very hungry, so I had dinner in the mall.

Slowly it was closing time, people started to file out. I simply followed the crowd.

That’s how I arrived at the garages, where there was nothing to look for.

I went back to get lost in the huge building.

Because only the emergency exits were marked with signs. Of course, there was definitely a sign saying where the exit was, but I couldn’t read it.

After walking around the entire complex two or three times and spending half an hour looking at the same closed shops and restaurants over and over again, I finally met a security guard. He rescued me from the endless mall.

Headphones plus, keychain minus

My time in Hanoi ended the next day.

I packed my things in the morning. I threw all my new memories with them and left the hotel.

The old quarter, which I had already gotten to know, was waiting for me to take a bus from there to leave this exciting city.

But before that, I was lucky enough to find a large tech store where I could buy my third pair of headphones this year. I bought the same ones I left the first time, for the same price I bought the second one for.

So I actually got a better quality device again for a very cheap price.

I didn’t even regret that I lost my previous one yesterday.

While I was waiting for the bill in the store, a small family appeared around me.

Two very cute little girls were playing around me.

I unhooked my little plush keychain and gave it to the older girl. No words were needed. She didn’t understand why, but I showed her to take it. She took it and thanked her without words.

I was very happy for her that I could leave Hanoi without the key ring.

I will take much more valuable memories from here.