Today I opened an email from some friends I made in Vietnam this January.
The story of our meeting is a strange one. It was my first full day in the capital, Hanoi, and I was exploring the Old Quarter. While walking through the narrow streets crowded with vendors, motorbikes and people, a phone fell in front of me. I thought it had fallen out of the passing car, so I ran after it and knocked on the window, only to see the man in the car on his phone, with no passengers. As I waited at the intersection I realized no one was coming back to search for their missing phone…so I continued my exploration of the city, now with two Samsung Galaxy’s in my pocket.
A few hours later, the stranger’s phone rang and I picked it up and began speaking to the phone-owners girlfriend. She spoke English and asked me to meet her at their hotel, about a 10 minute walk from where I was. At the hotel I returned the phone to it’s owner Tomi, and his girlfriend Sylvia, both tourists from Finland. As a thank you they offered to take me out to try some of the famous (and cheap) street rice beer. I said yes, (of course) and while the beer was cooked behind us I discovered why the mystery phone found its way to the middle of the street.
Bustling Street in the Old Quarter (Hanoi, Vietnam)
Tomi and Sylvia had been taking pictures off their balcony on the fifth floor of their hotel when the phone slipped and raced inches away from my head onto the rocky pavement in front of me. They were so scared they might have hurt someone, they didn’t look down to see me pick it up and walk away. When they asked the receptionist what to do, they were told it was probably long gone. On the way down the phone was still taking pictures and caught me in some very theft-like poses.
What started out as an uneventful morning (as “uneventful” as traveling can be) turned into the most fun I had in Hanoi, full of good food, lots of drinks and getting lost.
Cheers to unexpected friends, and that strange glare on my tooth
Thanks for reading ya’ll,
Love,
Loveday