THE FIRST FLOWER FROM A GIRL IN HANOI

(mail to my friend on my day in Hanoi...I am still in Hanoi and I'm enjoying it)

Dear Queen,

Hope you’re fine.
Yesterday after the lunch I headed to the Hoan Kiem Lake.
I got the usual smiles from people, not forgetting the smiles that I get from wonderfully beautiful girls.

As I was sitting down, every hawker was harassing me, and I just gave them the smile and said "no" in Vietnamese language.
But this one little girl was practically begging me to buy her Wrigleys Spearmint gums for almost ten minutes.
Every one passing by was looking at me and was laughing at me.

I looked at this sweet looking girl, gave her 10,000 dong and I said “You just keep it, I don’t need the gum.”
She was very happy and she said thanks and she went away.

What I didn’t expect is that, she came back with a stalk of rose in her hand and presented me with it. It was so sweet of her to ever think of doing it.
She spent another at least half an hour sitting beside me and talking to me. It was like chicken and duck talking, because I was talking in my elementary (or worse) Vietnamese language and she was talking in her elementary English to me.
She is 13 years old and she lives in Nam Dinh and her name is Huong(All this I got to know using my elementary Vietnamese).
She is such a sweet girl.

After that I headed to Dakshin Restaurant for my Dosa for dinner. I met some Indians from India and had a chat with them.
Later I was invited for a tea in one of my friend’s house in Tran Duy Hung and by the time I got back it was 11.30pm.

I had a fun day yesterday, how was yours?