Thursday, March 08, 2007

Three Eight

Happy International Women's Day! The eighth of March is celebrating women everywhere, and really, where would we be without women? The Chinese and Vietnamese have a saying, that either a man or a woman is 'three-eight'. In the man's case, it means his woman keeps him on a really short leash. In the woman's case, it means she is a bitch. Just thought I'd share that. School girls all around Hanoi have roses and other trinkets given to them by their scooter driving boyfriends. The plush animal district, which we passed by on the bus, is doing a brisk business today, nearly stopping the flow of traffic from all of the diverted scooters of romantics.

For Peggy's present, we took the bus to the Ethenology Museum and went out to lunch afterwards. The museum itself was interesting enough, chronicling all of the different ethnic minorities in the region. The bus ride, however, was a good slice of Hanoi. Turns out the buses here don't stop, just slow down. In order to catch one, you literally have to 'catch' one, running along side of it as the driver opens the doors. We watched as a disembarking elderly couple didn't jump off fast enough, the husband getting his pant leg caught in the door, while the wife never made it off the bus. After some angry words and very agile hopping by the husband, everything was OK. Your bus ticket also includes some complimentary propaganda music pumped over the loudspeaker, hearalding the virtues of raising pigs or farming rice.

Lunch was an experience as well. We went to a beer garden type of place next to the museum and got a little more than we bargained for. Sitting down, Peggy pointed at the table next to us, who were eating a 'hot pot' type of dish amongst the twelve of them, saying we'd like one of those. The waiter got a bit flustered and found a back-up, who also got an additional person to confirm that this was, in fact, what we ordered. You know that there is a problem when you have to order the same thing to three separate people. They first brought out a chicken chopped up into chunks, head, feet and all, staring at us blankly. I told Peggy that this was her Three Eight gift. The staff kept bringing out ingredients for this hot pot, culminating to a feast could have fed the entire restaraunt, dozens of people.

We sheepishly prepared our chicken and additives under the constant gaze of about a dozen people. They must have just wanted to see if two human beings could possible consume that amount of food in one sitting. I've never been to a 'if you can eat it, the meal is free' type of resaraunt, but it was this kind of spectacle. We felt a bit embarassed when we tried to pay without leaving so much as of a dent in our boiling chicken medley.

posted by ncawthon at 7:49 PM