Self-stress and Hanoi life

Before sleeping, I made a wake up call. A guy replied and I told him the time and room number. Then he said " Yes Mr. Chan. Oh, Eudo, you don't know how to make a wake up call?". Oh shit, it 's Mr Chevet. I then replied, I don't and he told me how to do that.

I slept at 0035 and exactly an hr later I woke up, believeing it was six sth in the morning. Gee, my shift for today starts at 600, so that means I am late. I don't know how can I misread the watch but I hurried up to get change and rushed to the FO. Those night auditors were all surprised to see me at that time. And soon I realised I was not late...Perhaps I put too much stress on working and always stay in the hotel, so I better go outside.

Afterthat, I twisted and turned in the bed for the following 45 mins and then I woke up at 0500 relunctantly. When I came to the reception, those auditors made joke on me for a while. Well...let it be then....gd to make sth that many will remember...

There aren't that much to do today and there are so many receptionists. So I started reading the Sofitel loyalty program and the terms of the sofitel privilage gold and silver card. I first photo-copied some with the old machine in the reception and unexpectedly, a gal recommended me to use the copying machine in the business centre, which is much better. At first I wondered could I do that but then turned out no one meddle in wt was I doing and the business centre lady is so nice.

There were two French jounalists who wanted to take some pics of the hotel and there I am obliged to show them the room. On the way, I stressed that I only speak a little bit of French, "Je juste parler un peu Français!!!" but then that two French continued to speak. Luckily I did understand most of the dialogue, so I continued and I even convinced them to dine in our French restaurant for lunch.

It's true that the FO and HSKP do hv clash, like today, those receptionists were busy assigning rooms for four groups coming in the morning and unfornately lots of room were still dirty, So u can guess, they urged the HSKP to clean the rooms faster in VIETNAMESE. Wt I heard all the time are Hai Hai Hai, Hei, Hei, Hei (Hai means 2) That's y I can do nth about it. Well, normally it takes me 22 mins to clean a room but I hate being urged as there aren't any bonus if I clean room faster. And doing the same thing for a long time is really boring....

I don't know if I am the guy that can easily be deceived by others. Whenever I went out of the hotel, I am always being ripped off!! Like this afternoon after work, I got on a motortaxi, while strolling on the street for only 10 seconds. Tell you guys onething, as I am so bad in counting large numbers, I gt stuck with the Vietnamese currency, dong. 1 usd can exchange approximately 1,1450 dong. And it turned out I hv to give 100,000 to the driver. At first we agreed 200,000 as I though it was 20,000. (IN FACT, I am really bad in counting). He brought me to a few places and at last I realised I was being RIPPED OFF. During this two months, I hv already been ripped off for 4 times!!!! Damn it!!! Normally 1 km only costs 1000 dong...

Visited two temples, one temple of Literature and the other is the one pillar pagoda. Both of them consisted of chinese pillars and chinese statues with Vietnamese touch. I guess I should go to the southern part of Vietnam once as most of the ethics chinese are settled down over there.

After these two visits, I watched the water puppet show at 1715, which is one of the top visiting list in Hanoi. People playing traditional Vietnamese music with ppl hidden underneath the water to control the puppets. I ll now post some pics for u guys to hv a look.