After school on Monday I went to the Backpacker area, Pham Ngu Lao, to do some shopping with Donna (our art teacher) and Elizabeth (our counselor) on Bui Vien Street. I had a lot of fun hanging out with these two. :)
The wiring in this city is almost as crazy as the traffic!
Ha... this shrine was above the entrance to an alley... and Elizabeth and I liked the disco ball included!
We had dinner at a great Indian restaurant called Baba's. There was a family there - father is from England, mother is from Australia, and they have two young boys - one is almost 5 years-old and the other is one. They have been traveling for 5 months... (been to Thailand, Burma, Laos, and now Vietnam) and plan to travel for another 7 or something!
The 5-year old had an awesome conversation with us... and at one point he told us that if we were speaking Vietnamese, he would not be able to understand us. We laughed and said that we cannot understand people speaking Vietnamese either! He then wanted us to teach him every Vietnamese word that we do know (a very short list...). We counted to five (mot, hai, ba, bon, nam), said hello (xin chao), goodbye (tambiet), thank you (cam on), etc... but our favorite (and the phrase that impresses the Vietnamese the most) is han gap lai (see you again).
This little boy practiced saying han gap lai a few times... and when we left a little while later we were saying goodbye to the family and he asked how to say "see you again"... the next moment was one of those moments that I hope to never forget and I hope it comes across even somewhat as amazing in words as it really was...
As this little boy asked us how to say "see you again" in Vietnamese, he was standing in the entrance to the restaurant and we were just stepping out onto the sidewalk. We all replied, Han gap lai to him... and he then waved and yelled, Han gap lai! to us... to which we all replied, Han gap lai! back... and ALL the Vietnamese around just started cracking up, smiling, and speaking to each other in rapid Vietnamese about what had just happened. :P
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