28/5/25
Once again our intended quick turnaround in the morning was thwarted by irritating factors. To begin with we’d had multiple emails that indicated the parcels travels. It had passed through Bangkok and, completely randomly, back west to Bangalore. Still it was on its way. The latest customs emails repeatedly said there was a lack of contact information.
It was then we realised that the Vietnamese SIM card in Frankie’s phone had expired. The one we were relying on for phone calls and data most of the time. This also marked one month of being in Vietnam. Almost half that time had been in Hà Nội. Our attempts to renew it online were fruitless. They didn’t allow foreigners to use their apps.
After faffing with the Viettel app, having a long email conversation with DHL, we fed the fish and headed to the Viettel shop. It was quick and painless. £4.50 and we had data and calls for a month. From here we walked west on the horribly anti-pedestrian streets, heat rising again.
One of the main attractions in Hà Nội, the Temple of Literature is actually dedicated to the worship of learning. It was the first university in Vietnam and established in the 10th century. Its layout is however less like a school and more like a temple. From the main gate two tranquil courtyards must be passed through. Three paths run the length of the establishment. One each for administrative and military Mandarins, then the central path is reserved for monarchs.
In the third courtyard are steles dedicated to 1300 students who had studied there. Each on a turtle plinth to emphasise wisdom and longevity. The fourth courtyard had a building containing a colourful statue of Confucius. It had all been reconstructed of course. The original buildings had long been destroyed.
Over the road was the Fine Arts Museum. We weaved our way through sculptures and paintings for an hour. We’d never seen any creations of the Vietnamese style in other galleries. It seemed odd that they’d been omitted. Some of the lacquered paintings were really quite intriguing. Techniques and materials that created depth and shimmering highlights. We’d hoped to escape the focus on war. Perhaps inevitably many of the paintings were focused on military scenes.
We took a walk further west to a Fuji supermarket. It still surprised us that prices were always more in the supermarket than at all the smaller street stalls and shops. We were careful only to buy items we were unlikely to find elsewhere.
Once we got back home we started making dinner. Frankie was making those long desired burgers from a lentil and tofu mix. An email arrived finally confirming the total import duty and tax, 5.5 million Dong. Ouch. It was £160. We’d been hit with a 35% import duty plus 8% VAT. Jonathan hadn’t realised that the UKVFTA, a free trade agreement between the United Kingdom and Vietnam, only applied to goods manufactured in the UK. It had now cost us around £500 to buy two rims and four tyres. Importing the latter was possibly a huge mistake, rather than being a side benefit of receiving a parcel. What was done was done.
We ate our dinner and watched a new show call The Stolen Girl. It took till the second episode for Jonathan to realise that he was watching a former student on the screen. A young girl who’d been in his chemistry class. He’d always been told she was a child actor but Jonathan had never seen anything other than a minimal desire to learn chemistry. At least she seemed to be good at acting.
Surly They Won't Make It 