Today was also Christmas Eve – and the hotel had organized a Christmas Eve Gala Dinner – and really put an effort into it. The tables were arranged around the pool, nicely decorated, candles floating in the water, a small stage set up and a massive buffet prepared (with a great selection of food and live barbecue); there was even a guy in a Santa Claus costume. Things seemed perfect – until the entertainment started …

Entertainment seemed to consist of a weird combination of speeches, strange (at least from a Western perspective) games and karaoke. Things started to get strange straight after the speech of the hotel manager (most guests still eating at this point) – when they were looking for volunteers for the first game (which had a karaoke feeling to it, though – I think, no one really fully understood, what the game was about). Short to say – no volunteers could be found, so things moved on to the next speech and a draw. There were also no volunteers for the following set of singing – so now the hotel staff had to take it and we witnessed the various hotel departments come to stage.

Another game was on thereafter … kind of the Vietnamese version of a Piñata. I volunteered and got rewarded with fridge magnets and glitter down to my underwear (the Vietnamese Piñata is filled with glitter – and I ran straight into the glitter shower after I had hit the thing). More singing was to come after the game and the tables started to empty. We were some of the last ones to leave.

Lessons learned:

• culture shock can be two ways … here we had a Western holiday (and one which traditionally is one of the more contemplative ones) – and the Vietnamese concept of celebration clashing. For the Westerners the program simply did not fit the occasion (this would have been perfect for a New Year’s Eve party after dinner), while our Vietnamese hosts could not understand that we would not volunteer for some fun on this happy day … mutual culture shock …
• the folks from accounting actually could sing – house keeping though would easily go through as torture per the Geneva conventions.

Looking back – it was actually a fun evening – the food was great and – while the show may have been unexpected, it was still entertaining – so, what more to ask for!?

We were after a bit of activity today, so decided to go for a bike tour around an island in the river. Our guide did pick us up at the hotel, from here we made it to the tour company’s depot, where we got to pick our bikes

We were now on bikes – made our way to the ferry to cross over to the island. Here we had a leisurely bike ride through villages and rice paddies. Traffic around us with very limited, so riding a bike was really enjoyable. We had a number of stops during the ride to get a glimpse of life on the island and its industries – from sleeping mats, rice wine (or better rice liquor) to rice noodles. We also met the owners of those businesses and had some good discussions – and of course we also got to try their products.

While traveling I usually try to also get some insight into the local cuisine, its ingredients and ways of preparation. A cooking class is usually perfect for that and we had the time – so here I was …

The class did start in the morning with a visit to the market with an introduction to the local fruits and vegetables, as well as spices. In the evening the actual class did take place. We were essentially cooking dinner together with our teacher, everyone helping in each and every step during preparation. Needless to say – preparation and cooking was good fun – and the result was delicious (we started with a green papaya salad, followed by spring rolls, fish grilled in a banana leaf and caramelized egg plants).