So after seeing how a pearl is extracted from an oyster, we went back to the boat for a much more delicious lunch. Hot rice, omelette type stuff, and bok choi. Our Iranian friends, Ali & Hussein, explain to us Faaloodeh is their custom dessert of skinny Sweet noodles! I also learn men may have 4 wives, and they laugh when I ask if the same applies for women. It wasn’t a joke 😉 women are forced to wear hijab, and Ali tells me some are protesting by rolling the sleeves up or pushing the veil back just an inch to show a tiny bit of hair. Maybe a suffragette movement needs to happen over there.
We have to make a 4hr coach journey once off the boat, and we are all a little sad, as have made friends, and only just getting to know one another. I find out the Singapore ladies are on our same flight tomorrow, and have an invite to go stay in Budapest and Iran. These people are so kind and genuine and I am lucky to have met them on this tour.
We go back to Golden Sun Palace to cheekily use the WiFi to book an Uber to the HAAP transit hotel near the airport in readiness for the flight to Singapore tomorrow. They make us a hot drink and tell us we are always welcome. Whoah the hospitality has blown me away. We have a long chat about future ambitions, and how we may change after this journey together. No decisions, of course, but travelling is high on both our agenda, although Leon is really missing a place to call our own and is keen to buy a house again in 2018. Me, I don’t want to rush. My boss, Allan, and this journey, have taught me the meaning and value in not rushing. I mean, what are we rushing towards? The grave? The moon hanging low in the sky tonight, like a giant burning copper disc. It it mesmerising and near full, if not full. The journey in the Uber takes a long time. Rush hour traffic in Hanoi. Hundreds of mopeds and motorbikes weaving dangerously between the slow moving traffic. I can see how my friend Kiki could have got ran over here! They don’t have many paths, and you seriously mustn’t run or dash. The Uber driver doesn’t speak English and takes us to the wrong HAAP hotel, only a few metres from the correct one. The kind staff take us in one of their personal cars to the correct hotel, and we are seen to our room.
