Post from Michelle:
Tim and I are splurging and are sitting in an upscale cafe in Hanoi. While jazz music plays in the background and sunlight streams through the large open windows, we sit, write and sip coffee. All around us are Western businessmen or wealthy tourists chattering away in sharp looking suits, silk blouses, expensive watches and fancy jewelry. On the menu are gourmet items such as homemade apple chutney and butter orange sauce. We sit with our backpacks discretely hidden under our table. In our T-shirts we feel a bit shabby.
I just used the bathroom and came back excitedly whispering to Tim, "This is a really fancy place!" and then described the bathroom to him. It had a Western toilet (not a dirty squat toilet smelling of urine that I am used to), the toilet paper was in bountiful supply, no trash littered the floor, perfumed soap and towels were available for my use. Such luxury!
It amuses me that this environment, so familiar at home, seems outrageously fancy after living the life of a backpacker for the last six months. (By the way, today we have been on the road for exactly six months!) Sure the coffee is three times what we are used to paying and the only Vietnamese here are the waiters. It's not a great place to soak in the Vietnamese culture. But every once in a while it is nice to pamper ourselves to an expensive cup of coffee and remember the business world we left behind.
I just used the bathroom and came back excitedly whispering to Tim, "This is a really fancy place!" and then described the bathroom to him. It had a Western toilet (not a dirty squat toilet smelling of urine that I am used to), the toilet paper was in bountiful supply, no trash littered the floor, perfumed soap and towels were available for my use. Such luxury!
It amuses me that this environment, so familiar at home, seems outrageously fancy after living the life of a backpacker for the last six months. (By the way, today we have been on the road for exactly six months!) Sure the coffee is three times what we are used to paying and the only Vietnamese here are the waiters. It's not a great place to soak in the Vietnamese culture. But every once in a while it is nice to pamper ourselves to an expensive cup of coffee and remember the business world we left behind.