Vietnam - Day 3

Some random things:
Birds:  there are songbirds all over Hanoi, which is somewhat surprising to me.  Don't know why.  But even in the parks there are cages nailed to trees with birds in them, someone must come by and feed them.  And on street corners, guys with cages with dozens of little brown birds, not more than 3 inches long, what do they do with them, I wonder?  Sell them, I hope. Or set them free. I hate to think they are tasty treats, but it could be so. However, the bird songs, especially early in the morning before the traffic noise drowns everything out, are lovely.  They create a small tone of peace in a hectic city.

Passion fruit:  every morning for breakfast here at the hotel we are given a plate of fresh fruit: 4 nice chunks of watermelon, 4 nice chunks of perfect banana and a passion fruit, cut in half, with a tiny spoon.  Everyone scoops the flesh and seeds out of the passion fruit and devours all of it, making yummy noises.  Not me. There is something about it that's too perfumey and the taste is too seedy and pulpy for me. The texture is like someone already chewed it up and then put it back but left the seeds intact.   But it's cool to try something new, so yesterday I did eat half of one.  Today I didn't, hoping that someone else can eat it instead.  
Clockwise:  again this morning I was awake early and down at the lake by 6:00, joining hundreds of others in a walk around the lake.  But everyone walks the lake in one directions, clockwise.  Why is that?  Being a pretend rebel, I stopped, turned around and walked against the flow, feeling a bit salmon-ish but happy about it.  In the hundreds of folks walking/jogging there were only about ten of us, total, going against the flow.  There must be some innate reason for the clockwise agenda.  Who knows, maybe south of the equator it happens in a counter-clockwise manner.

TV: I don't watch broadcast TV at home, but there are some things on here in English that I check out in the evening.  One is the National Geographic channel, which I watched a bit last night, about Cesar Millan, the dog whisperer and his biggest behavioral challenges in the dog training world.  Fascinating stuff, actually, how he manages to get dogs to submit and thus obey.  Very few voice commands ("how can you expect a dog to stop yelling at you if you are yelling at him?") but a lot of patience and firmness.  Anyway, that's not relevant to anything but general animal interest, just thought I would throw it in.
 
Hotels: this is a fine little hotel, but is totally booked up for the next several weeks and I needed a night in Hanoi after the boat trip and before the train trip.  I seriously thought about springing for the Hotel Sofitel Metropole, very high end, very luxurious, and in a different area than I am staying now.  My finger was poised over the "Book Now" key, justifying the $200 per night cost with "hey, why not?"  when my sense of frugality caught up with me.  (But honestly, it took a half day of going back and forth, should I or shouldn't I, what to do?)  My latent Catholic guilt must have risen to the surface because I chose a 4 star hotel instead.....  also rather luxurious but it was only $55 for the night.  Plus I could picture me walking into the Sofitel lobby dressed like a chubby California bag lady and being a tad embarrassed.  I actually walked into their lobby yesterday (thus the desire to stay there) and it was lovely.  Outside the hotel are servants men in finery opening doors for people and they have classic Rolls Royce cars parked under the porte cochere, such a nice touch.  Maybe next time, when I win the lottery and come back to Vietnam.  Or not. But man, it was tempting. I mean, really, $200 for a night in a hotel that would no doubt cost at least $800 in SF.

Computer:  I must say I am really loving having a computer in my room.... not only can I type this anytime but I can look stuff up, like passion fruit, any time I want.  Such a great asset when traveling.

Today:  I am going to the Temple of Literature today, the oldest university in Vietnam.  Will report back.

cheers!