A Little Nuance - but just a little

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Jane Fonda and Joan Baez. We all know what they have in common. They were great looking when they were younger, they went to Hanoi during what the Vietnamese call the American War. They both came back to a lot of derision in the US. They both stayed in our hotel at different times in the early 1970s during the bombings and they both are revered in Hanoi. There is a bunker under our hotel and last night we took a tour. Interesting. Cozy. Not a place you’d like to spend much time. But Joan Baez did spend some time there and she did go to the roof of the hotel and record the sounds of the B52s and the explosions. And she did write a song about it, "Where Are You Now My Son?” and used some of the recorded sounds in the album. She even painted a picture of a guy and it hangs in the lobby of the hotel. This tour was intense for the propaganda, but the truth is that we bombed the crap out of this city and most of the people killed were not soldiers. Still, there is only one side of this story in this town.

After the tour we almost got scammed. It wouldn’t have been the worst scam but were it not for or devoted clinging to what our eyes told us, we would have become victims. What we heard was different from what we saw and the strange thing was we almost went with our ears over our eyes. Did you ever hear that joke about the woman who walks in on her husband in bed with another woman and he says blah, blah, blah and she says but I saw you, and he says who are you going to believe your lying eyes or me? Well here it was surprisingly close. Had we fallen for it, my guess is that the major ramification for us would have been embarrassment. Here’s the story. I’m sure I can’t do it justice.

A visit to Hanoi is not about the dining. We can speculate as to why; slavish adherence to communism, relative isolation, poverty, historical and traditional differences, but to our western taste buds, so far, nothing memorable. We did decide to try Cafe L’Opera however. The internet ratings for this restaurant are very good, it was recommended by both our guide and the concierge, and it was in walking distance from the hotel. The concierge made a reservation. I plunked the name into Google Maps and it identified the location and off we went. When we arrived at the spot on the map there was a restaurant there but not Cafe L’Opera. Google maps can be off a bit so we went up the street some and off a couple of side streets but no Cafe L’Opera. So we asked the guy in the front of the restaurant. Oh yes, this is the Cafe L’Opera.” But what about the sign? He didn’t understand or chose not to. So we went to another restaurant in a side street and asked, “where’s the Cafe L’Opera?” Gary gave the guy the business card for the restaurant that had the address on it that we clearly were not at. He said, “here,” and he walked us back to the other restaurant. So we went in and asked the hostess. And she said yes, this is it. But the sign outside says something else, I said. The name was changed, she replied. How long ago did it change?. About a year she said. I almost gave in but our skepticism prevailed. We decided to go back and ask the concierge for directions. She told us it was down the street and around the corner, not where Google Maps said it was and not where the restaurant was that we were getting sent to. Scam over. We went to the real Cafe L’Opera. I take away a couple of lessons. First, wow, can they lie convincingly! Henry Kissinger should have warned us before we went. Second, our mentality is to trust first and that almost didn’t work. At least in this case, from this restaurant’s perspective, the end justifies the means. Third is google maps is not foolproof but what we don’t know is whether they scammed google maps or whether it was just coincidence that it was wrong by two blocks. I’m guessing scammed. We failed the test to be State Department negotiators i'm afraid. Or maybe not. The State Department has a long history of getting scammed. The real Cafe L’Opera was ok, but it was annoying that they only played Joan Baez albums.

New subject, dancing in the morning. 6:30 AM we walked to this big park with a huge statue of King Lai Tai. Hundreds of people of all ages go dancing from about 6 to 7:30 before work. There are aerobic type groups, couples dancing to everything from the twist to ballroom music, Thai Chi groups, modern dance groups but the group that Gary and I found most interesting was the group that laughed for exercise. They all made faces together and laughed together an then pounded gently on each other’s backs. It was really cool. They invited us in but we were too uptight. Fran plans to join in tomorrow. She posted a video of this group on Facebook.

No pictures today. Maybe later.

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