Following
breakfast at the hotel, team NBK, minus
Mary, who had caught a cold, left for
school accompanied by Pam. The exciting
forty-minute taxi ride brought us to the gates of NBK where Joe marched off to
face the elementary school denizens and Sim took on the high schoolers. Pam, meanwhile, conducted a fruitless search
for Mr. Quy after which she found an exotic café for our lunch. The exotic aspect involved the removal of
shoes to enter, sitting on the floor and waiting for order-out servings of pho
which, we discovered, could not be eaten with chopsticks from ground
level. WE were then permitted to go back
outdoors and dine at a sidewalk table.
Our – or at least my – curiosity about pho satisfied and having been
granted the afternoon off by NBK. We returned to the hotel.
Joe
went to see about Mary, while I, assisted by Pam and a young man employed at
the hotel, purchased a new cell phone at a nearby store. The remainder of the afternoon was spent
getting the wifi modem in my room fixed, arranging for laundry service and
taking a walk around the lake. I heard
later, make that overheard, that during the day, Ingrid had visited ‘Uncle
Ho’s’ mausoleum and home and that Ali went to the ‘Women’s Museum’. The event of the day was the team’s
Thanksgiving Dinner provided by the hotel and served up with great pride and a
certain amount of pomp by the chef. The
team members to a person were grateful and appreciative of both the food and
consideration that went into providing this recognition of a favorite
holiday. From all reports, everyone
enjoyed a good night’s sleep.
