I knew that there was a city tour for half day but I didn't wanna join it. Being free in the city is more enjoyable. Why I put the half day tour for Cu Chi on the second day was because I wanted to make an Ao dai. Since I booked a round trip flight ticket for two days to Hue from the 3rd day, it had to be on the 2nd day if I want to order one, or else, I might not able to get it before going back to Japan. So, after the museum I went some sightseeing places in the city and walked to Dong Khoi area. It's like Ginza in HCMC (of course, Ginza is much greater ^_^;). Beforehand, I wanted to re-confirm my flight to Hue at the Vietnam Airline office on the way to Dong Khoi, but when I found the place, the office was already gone...what an unuseful map I had!! It seemed that they had another office in Dong Khoi, so I went there but I didn't find it as well. However, when I was walking, I found an agency which handles booking tickets of Vietnam Airline. I knew that they didn't handle confirming flights, but since I didn't have another way, I went there and told them I wanted to confirm my flight.
There were 3 girls sitting behind the counter and one of them told me I had to call them or go to their office. She gave me the address of the office, but I had no idea where it was. I asked her if the office is far from there and she told me it takes for 15 minutes by car. So I said, "so, it's easier to call them, right?" and how kind she was! She told me she would call them for me :) Maybe it was just a small thing for her, but being a tourist who can't speak Vietnamese there, it meant a lot ot me. I really appreciate her kindness. I didn't even have to pay for it. Once it was done, I said thank you to her, and left the office. Even there are bunch of troublesome Vietnamese people (motorcycle taxi drivers who I was spoken to at every single traffic on the streets, a weird guy I met at church who asked me to teach Japanese once he noticed I am Japanese even he told me he studies Korean at first), there are some kind people who help tourists :)
So, after that, I finally got time to go shopping around the area. I went into a store and told a girl I wanted to make an Ao dai dress. She speaks some English but it seemed like she didn't get what I meant. I told her I wanted to make a kind of bright Ao dai dress so that I could wear it to my co-worker's wedding party. As a poor English speaker, I knew that my English was not enough to explain things, but I didn't expect that it was that hard to make her understand what I meant, lol. I told her I wanted to make kind of traditional shaped clothes with bright materials. She asked me to show a catalogue so they could make the similar thing but I told I didn't have any. So she brought me some and then, I noticed she miss understood me. She brought me some catalogues of normal one-piece dresses! Maybe she had no idea that I wanted to wear Ao dai to a wedding party in Japan. It took some time to make her understand what I wanted to make, but it was alright. She finally got it.
After choosing the material, they measured my body. I don't know how many parts they measured. It was more than ten parts of my body. I just wished I wouldn't gain weight anymore because Ao dai is a cloth that fits the body they make for. So it means, I wouldn't be able to wear it at the party if I get fat.
Web album: A Trip to Vietnam
No comments:
Post a Comment