My week in Hanoi (Vietnam): July 2024
Between Thailand and France, we spend a week in Hue, then a week in Hanoi to pick up my luggage (I have a huge stock of leather and books to bring back to France). At first, I plan to see no one (to rest a bit before the Olympics), but so many unexpected things come up that I end up seeing everyone in a week.
We still treat ourselves to 2 nights of rest at Daewoo, the hotel where I learned to swim and where we got married in Hanoi. But it’s the first time we’ve spent the night there. The rooms are a bit outdated, but it’s one of Hanoi’s first luxury hotels. So rare back then that they hosted Bill Clinton. The pool remains exceptional (90 meters long), and the spa (a true onsen) is old but effective. JB loves spending long hours there, alternating between the gym and the onsen, before heading down for a few laps in the pool. The breakfast is top-notch too, and many outsiders pay for this breakfast even though they’re not staying at the hotel. During our stay, we can’t use the pool on the first day because of a… birthday party for a 5-year-old boy. His parents privatized the entire garden and pool!
Leather goods
Suddenly, I feel like making a belt and to do it properly, I need to stop by my teacher’s place and use his skiving machine. By chance, other students hear about my visit, and we end up spending a whole day together at my teacher’s. It’s actually a good idea because it’s while cutting the leather for my next pink bag that I had questions for my teacher. The whole class ended up cutting and prepping the leather for me, and I left with ready-made “kits” to make my bag and the belt for JB.
I’m very close to one of the students, and during the week I’m in Hanoi, I published an article on a Vietnamese leatherworker group that went viral. It had a direct impact on the leatherworking tools seller for whom I was doing a review. A crisis cell was spontaneously organized between this student and me to analyze the impact of this viral post (she and I both work in marketing). It’s truly an enriching experience for me. We see how social media can change a life, or destroy a life.
Following this post, there was a backlash because instead of staying quiet, a direct competitor insulted everyone on the post, and it blew up enormously. Leatherworkers talked about it for a week. Me, who wanted to be left alone, ultimately there are too many unexpected events.
I ask this person to support as much as they can one of the leatherworkers I appreciate. He’s super talented, but for some reason people aren’t drawn to his products. You know, it happens very often. Between two restaurants, it’s not necessarily the one with better dishes, or better service, better location… that has more customers. It’s a strange phenomenon, and I’d love to transfer some luck to him, to make his products known worldwide. You can admire his creations for me here , and and there. His prices are extraordinarily affordable, too, I don’t get it.
Girlfriends
I suddenly saw 3 childhood girlfriends at once, no one knows how it happened. One of my girlfriends is a university professor, so what she tells me about the new generation of Vietnamese students is ultra interesting. They’re all super talented, read a lot, speak several foreign languages, know a lot, are entrepreneurs… but they also isolate themselves a lot. It’s become mainstream to refuse to “waste energy” on small talk or with people who bring them nothing. They now favor micro groups of friends and no longer seek to network like the older generation. She tells me that to talk to them, you should rather send a Zalo (the equivalent of WhatsApp), and that school bullying has become super common and significant.
The other two girlfriends give me the impression they’re barely surviving. It’s very hard for me to see them like this, but with too little info, I don’t really know how I can help them. I observe, I listen, and I wish them the best for the future.
The small shopkeepers
On a whim, I managed to order my custom solitaire ring from my jeweler. It happened quickly. I spent an afternoon at his place where he showed me several stones under a microscope, honestly, what an experience! I love this jeweler because with him I have unique experiences. Spending time in his shop lets me observe him well, how he sees potential in a customer, and how he closes the sale. Fascinating! I did some translation for him and also managed to sell a jade bracelet, ahahah.
Having created ad campaigns for him, I was able to observe the results very quickly. I got access to the stats, and thanks to that, I can now help other shopkeepers. He has a small shop but he’s ambitious, super smart, very kind and intelligent, he thinks big. He also has a very high EQ, and that’s what I lack.
I always help small shopkeepers with whom the vibe is good; I don’t take money, so there’s no expectation, no pressure, I work for them when I have excess energy. If the chemistry works, I ask for access to stats and I optimize for them from time to time. But it takes a minimum of effort for maximum impact. To thank me, they offer gifts from their shops; that’s not why I help them, but it builds bonds and I get behind-the-scenes info they don’t usually share with just anyone. I wrote an article following all these exchanges, by the way.
However, when someone isn’t very tech-savvy, like my massage therapist, I just settle for creating a Google Maps for her and making an English/French menu for her. My massage therapist really touches me; she tells me that during my absence, she often re-reads my messages on Zalo, and she counts the days until my return. She considers me family. Poor thing, her own family doesn’t find her job interesting, whereas I ask her lots of questions, because she’s studying traditional medicine (which I find very interesting) and has even visited health centers in China. She tells me that in China, these centers aren’t accessible to tourists; you have to be taken there by locals. Over there, there’s a tailored care program, featuring foot baths, customized herbal medicine massages, and doctors are on-site to adjust the program based on patients’ conditions. Since traditional medicines require great precision regarding temperature and cooking time, it’s also directly in these health centers that you take your medication. She dreams of being able to open such a center in Vietnam, but for now, she offers foot baths and massages, which is already great. JB and I spent almost an entire week at her place because JB got injured playing football in Hue. And as for me, I was mistreated by a Thai masseuse in Bangkok, and my left leg became weaker than my right leg. Of course, she got us back on our feet in just a few sessions. It’s an incredible stroke of luck to have found her.
The manager of my hotel, seeing me with a brand-new bracelet, stops me and asks me to show it to her. That’s followed by 2 hours where she tells me her life story. Her journey is super surprising, where coincidences and encounters define the key moments of her life, leading her to land here at this hotel. She’s very endearing; we hugged each other when saying goodbye, which is very rare in Vietnam. I have a feeling she’s going to teach me something, but it’s not the right time yet. Anyway, we’re bound to see each other again every time I pass through Hanoi.
I barely have time to see my parents. Just enough to give them some freshly arrived gifts. I’ve already told you about the Vietnamese silk items here. Fortunately, my father was able to receive all of that, as the packages arrived every day; I had too many things to buy before returning to France.
Anyway, I, who didn’t want to see anyone, ended up seeing a maximum number of people. JB and I returned to France with 3 huge, super heavy suitcases. Honestly, we’re no longer used to having so much luggage, and it’s starting to weigh on me. I’ll work on my small leather goods projects quietly and gradually part with the books to lighten up a bit. Just back in France, I’m moving straight from a bookbinding workshop then the Olympics.
