Tom cat sat on the stairs waiting to greet Lynh this morning but the person who came out of the bedroom was a male, stranger in the house. The cat look incredulously at me as I approach to touch it but Tom ran to the kitchen on the fourth floor, nary a purr. Most of the houses in Vietnam are few stories high, including Ha’s resident but hers was overlooking a big lake, called the West Lake. No wonder Vietnamese are slim – they climb up and down everyday, and also due to their genes that must have been passed down by their predecessors whose days were hard and food was scarce. But then again, they don’t overeat, unlike sinful Malaysians who indulge in gluttony more often than not. Her mother said the house was bigger last time before the government cut them into half to make way for road. They lost more than 100 square meters and a lot of money too. The compensation wasn’t enough but life goes on.  The stairs are spiral and narrow. Each floor hasn’t much space but the bedrooms are nice. Lynh’s room was comfortable, equipped with air conditioning and a solid bed with matching comforter at the center. The bathroom is green in colour because Lynh likes green. And there was the computer that we used to access the Internet. Ha’s room on the second floor was similar. The living room is at the ground floor, with a tv, sofa set and a laughing Buddha made of jade looking out through the entrance, fenced by the gate that slides vertically by a press of a button.

Ha’s mother can converse in English. She treated us well, did our laundry and a nice person to chat with. She looks beautiful for a person her age. Ha’s father, although did not talk to us, saved for the initial pleasantries, was also a kind man. Ha was always saying Lynh’s fat, like a pig, but we didn’t think so. Coming from Malaysia, we know what is consider fat and she doesn’t belong in that category. To me, she’s kinda cute. She knows English but not as well as Ha but nevertheless a pleasant girl to chat with. She just finished high school and will be going to US for further studies in August. She’s afraid but excited to go all the same.

Prior to this visit, we had always thought Ha comes from a rich family and that she was a class above – rich, spoilt and demanding. My friends, how gravely mistaken we were. The following few days with her, albeit short one (sadly), we found out that she was downright the opposite of what I’ve just said. Her father was in some sort of a car business, not a minister much less a prime minister that we assumed he was, half jokingly on the way here last night. She doesn’t live in a mansion and the lake in front of her house wasn’t hers. Back in UTP, she said we could camp by the lake, swim, fish, and do whatever we like there. It wasn’t true, not quite anyway because we never really tried. Ha is a very nice girl, and I’m not just saying it because she let us stay in her house for free, but I (and we) really mean it. She’s the nicest girl ever – pretty, charming, witty, skillful and funny. I can’t recall how many times she made us laugh with her punch lines. She’s a real gem to talk to. She said she can cook and it was a common thing for Vietnamese girls, naturally. It’s like they are born with cooking skills, you know. What made her even more of a friend was that she told us about her relationship with Da. Now this is something private, and I’m not in the position to tell it but it was pretty sad. I’ll just say a little bit. Her parents including Lynh oppose their relationship and ask her to stop seeing him for reasons I don’t want to say. That was another reason why he could not send us to her house from the airport yesterday night. Her parents want her to be with other guys, who mostly have family relations with them. But Ha loves Da, and she couldn’t understand why other guys can say they like her after a short meeting. To her, true feelings can only develop after getting to know one another properly.

Many guys go after her, and there’s no need to ask why. She said, even in UTP, many guys, both local and international, wanted to go after her. Don’t get me wrong, she didn’t tell us all that on her own like a biatch, but because we asked in our bid to get to know her more (you know la Kelvin wants to fellow-fellowship ma). Anyway, I was actually quite taken aback that she would tell us so many things about herself, as if we were good friends. She even told us she likes babies and how many children she plans to have (but I won’t tell you here). She added that she doesn’t have many friends UTP, except for a few including her roommate and Quynh. When she first came in, she thought she would have plenty but unfortunately, it turned out to be otherwise. She’s not close even to most of her own countrymen. She said some girls like to act weak and always gossiped. She didn’t like that. She was also not close to Malaysian students and she doesn’t know why. She said some people said she was…I forgot the exact word but somewhere along the line of not approachable. But she said she is actually a very friendly and sweet girl, like the sweetest drug. So don’t know why not many friends, not even classmates, not even us (we’re too busy with badminton but didn’t tell her that though). Well, perhaps it was our fault (as she puts it) that we did not take the initiative to get to know her more in the first place. Now we regretted, at least I am because she really is a very very nice girl with great sense of humour. She admitted being ‘lazy’ when it comes to uni work but only because she’s clever enough to leave important job to other groups members. So I guess that pretty explains your grouses, Ginn. But she said she like having you guys including Daniel and Guru because you can really present well, and the whole group benefited. Haih…what a joker. Forgive her ok? If you’d found her not looking your way or return your wave, forgive her too because she weren’t wearing her glasses sometimes, especially at night.

Hmm..wow, already so long and I haven’t even started on our visits. There’re many other things about her but I suppose it shall now stay between us four and our special Vietnamese girlfriend. So let’s continue our journey. We woke up to the beautiful lake view that morning. Ha and Lynh were already up and waiting for us for breakfast. We walked to a nearby stall to have beef noodle. As an Ipoh citizen, I’ve always defended Ipoh as having the best food and proud of it, but now I acknowledge that Cambodian and Vietnamese food are better. For one, the beef noodles were better – the soup just tasted great and the meat tender. We then went back home for Ha to change and get her purse, and off we went.

We booked the driver for the whole day, so like it or not, he was stuck with us. We dare not ask Da to join for fear the driver will report back to home. Anyway, Da had to work. Our first stop was the pottery village in Bat Trang. Here, lots of very affordable pottery and ceramic products are available. We stopped by a shop and bought some souvenirs of necklaces and wristlets. They were inexpensive, only priced at about RM2 for a nice necklace. For the same item back in Malaysia, it could easily fetch above RM15. Ha was such a joy to have with us. It was her first time there as well and she helped to choose the beads for our souvenirs and also gave suggestions. She was having as much fun as we were, and that was brilliant. We spent nearly 2 hours there, and all the while the driver had to wait for us – poor guy. After some sugarcane drink, we gave a try at pottery making. For an interesting activity like this, it cost only RM6 per person. First the expert demonstrated how to go about it and then we were given a dome-shaped clay each to start with. Jesse and I screwed up the most, having to restart again few times, whereas Kelvin, Chunaki and Ha were more skilful. Jesse’s first trial ended looking like a toilet bowl. I just couldn’t make it taller so in the end satisfied by just make a heart shaped cup, so did Ha. Chunaki’s one was star shaped and Kelvin a lopsided cup that was considered an artistic piece deserving praise from the expert. I’d say he screwed up but too lazy to start again. Just joking….. Then we decorated our cup however we like. See pictures. After decoration, our clay products were put on fired stove to harden it. That process took about 30minutes. While at it, we enjoyed the tea provided and chatted. Before long, we were hard at work painting our cups. Voila, after nearly 2 hours we’re done with pottery making. Although no where near perfection, everyone was proud with his or her own masterpiece.

Much to the driver’s relieve, we finally leave Bat Trang after spending what felt like half the day there. Little did we know, Ha was trying to arrange our travel to Ha Long Bay tomorrow all along, but we didn’t know because she spoke in Vietnam language. We thought they were calls to/from Da or other friends. Actually, we were supposed to go to Thang’s hometown at Haiphong first instead of Hanoi, but he himself was at vacation in Ha Long Bay. Back in KL, he asked to join his group but unfortunately we couldn’t because flight was too expensive as it was also last minute. The correspondent he gave didn’t work out so Ha and Da found us another travel agency. We were so grateful that they took the trouble to make sure our trip to Ha Long Bay was settled. We got a $55/person deal for a 2-day cruise.

It was already near 4pm when we had our lunch. There we tried more Vietnamese food – herbal chicken soup, noodle, fried rice and something like ‘chee cheong fun’, and all tasted good. Hoan Kiem lake was our next visit. Many people were leisuring around and taking pictures. Ha said wedding photos were also taken here. The lake scene was picturesque with a red bridge leading to the Ngoc Son temple. A minimal fee was charged to enter and we took more pictures there. Ha became our willing camera gal but we liked most to include her in the picture.

By five something the road was swarmed with vehicles. We also left for home to shower before dinner. We got ready and waited for another UTP friend to join, Tuong (hope spelt correctly). Since he didn’t have his own motor it took quite some time for him to arrive. During the waiting period, we chatted with Ha,  her mother, sister and also ate lychee, while the driver chatted with the father. When everyone was present, 10 of us got into the van and left for a restaurant, specialized in snake delicacies. Unless you travel with a local, you wouldn’t find the place because the road leading to the restaurant was quite narrow and so unlikely for tourists to come across.

The path leading to the restaurant was narrowly dark, with bamboo shooting from the sides. Walking towards it felt like it was infested with snakes and rats. Of course none was seen until we reach inside the premise. Snakes were pulled out from the caged and weighed and butchered in no time, all in full view of visitors. As first timers, we began snapping our cameras away, partly to document the process and partly as proved that we ate snakes, and drank their blood and bile – for real! The blood and bile were mixed with vodka, so when drunk (bottoms up at one go), it tasted more of alcohol. Each of us only had one cup of each type – it was enough for trial. The snakes were made into 7 dishes as can be seen in the photos. Even the bones were not spared. After the sticky rice and wild boar dish, we were very full already. The meal was a great experience and the restaurant was actually quite nicely decorated. We don’t know how much the meal was, but I bet it wasn’t cheap. Thanks uncle!

At night we chilled out at Ha’s house enjoying fruits and drinks while the breeze from the lake blew occasionally into the kitchen. The rest of the Dois were in the room except Ha, who accompanied us. The setting was warm and calm in this summer night, and was conducive for a get-to-know-each-other session. Such was that, and we found a friendship that was long due. As Kelvin said, it was never too late. We’re glad to have travelled hundreds of kilometres and fostered a relationship that we never appreciated when we were physically closer. And I’m happy to have known the true nature of Ha, a girl once misconstrue but now seems like the perfect girl and for the same reason her email was deliberately abbreviated “dhp” or Doi Ha perfect!