White Eye Bird Club Cafe: A Unique Musical Experience in Hanoi

If you're thinking of where to have coffee in Hanoi, go to the cafe which is home to the White-eye Bird Club. Locals know the place well, a street cafe near Thien Quang Lake, a very tranquil place to have your morning coffee. But as soon as the bird owners come with their birds in cages, the tranquility is replaced by a symphony of birds who had been trained by their owners to sing. Birds love to sing in a company so they tweet their hearts out as their owners share stories with their coffee.

We read about this place in the Vietnam Airlines Heritage Magazine and so we headed to this place. Many people in Hanoi love to raise birds. They have cages in their homes and in their stores. They take care of these birds, choose them very well and train them to sing. Their favourite is the white-eyed bird as they have strong voices, a competitive spirit and their songs seem to last longer. We saw this competitive spirit in one of the birds. The owner hanged the cage on a hanger on a tree close by and not on the string where all the other cages were. The bird was not happy. It was jumping up and down trying to tell its owner that it wants to be closer to the others.

You should see some of the bird cages for these birds. For serious collectors, they pay up to $10,000 for some of the old and well-designed ones made of ivory, tortoise shells, exotic wood, or other horns. The competition does not stay with cages. They go into the bird food holder they call the "coong" which must match the cages well. One "coong" made of elephant tusk can cost you over a thousand dollars.

Caring for these birds is not easy. Our friend's husband has to wake up very early to clean the cage, bath his birds and feed them. To bathe them they are transferred into a bathing cage so they can be bathed without holding in your hands.

Training them to sing requires time, patience and sensitivity. Those who are serious about their birds say they don't anymore travel for long holidays as their birds require full-time attention. To keep the birds on their singing, bird owners bring them to friend's house or to this cafe so they can compete with the bird having the most range, variations in tones and even the ability to change voices to mimic the other birds as the winner.

View Other Posts on Hanoi:
Hoan Kiem Lake
West Lake

Turkish Airlines Istanbul Lounge: The Best Airline Lounge

I am right now sitting in the Turkish Airlines Lounge at Istanbul airport and enjoying every minute of it. I had been here before and was really impressed at the space, the variety of food this lounge is offering.

The illusion of space with the self playing piano is just the right ambiance after a long flight. The orchids and other flowers in the washroom make it really a very pleasant place to be in. Look at this picture:

Having been to so many airport lounges, this is for me the top. What a change from the less generous offering of other lounges. Try is next time you travel.

Our travel destination this time is Hanoi but we like cutting our trip into shorter segments. It is more tolerable. The only drag is the long wait in-between flights but with this kind of lounge, one doesn't really mind the long wait.

Cottaging in Canada

Summer in Canada is often enjoyed in cottages. It has been a tradition with many Canadian families to go to their cottages in the summer. The cool mornings on the dock, the early morning fishing, the kayaking, the water skiing, the quiet read in the dock, the walks in the woods all complete the experience. The call of the loon and the visits of the families of ducks are charming memories of times spent in the cottage.

More special than all those is the bonding that takes place among families, often multi-generation, bringing with it memories treasured for years.

Here are some pictures of Summer Cottaging:

Medical Tourism in Bangkok

Have you ever tried to go to another country for your health check up or treatment? We recently went to Bangkok to have our annual check up as it is closer to go there from Hanoi than to go home to Canada. We were there last year for my husband's colonoscopy as we were not able to do this in Canada because of lack of time. We were then working in Phnom Penh so it was easy to take an hour flight to Bangkok.

We knew of Bumrungrad from SOS International and from friends who have been there. Our first experience was impressive. A limo picked us up from Marriott  (the hotel has this arrangement with Bumrungrad) and when we arrived, we filled up the form, paid for the service we wanted and immediately they started the check up. We were there at 8 a.m and by 3:00 p.m., we had a conference with the doctor who explained the results to us. It was very comprehensive. So this year, we went back again to have a a comprehensive check up for both of us.

We booked our appointment by telephone and in their website you can choose the services you want. The fees are listed as well as the requirements for the check-up.

The whole experience is not that of going into the usual hospital. This one is there to serve and to make you, the client, happy and satisfied. The facility is like a hotel complete with a bookstore, Starbucks, and restaurants.

More and more people from various countries go for medical tourism. For some, because such service is not available in their country. For others, it is the price. It is cheaper to have cosmetic surgery in Bangkok or Malaysia than in Singapore.

Our German friend and his wife have their dental work done in Bangkok. For the price of what they'll pay in Germany, they can have their dental work done in Bangkok at the same time enjoy a two week holiday on a beach in Thailand. Others go for medical treatment to another country for privacy reasons. They don't want anyone knowing they have their face fixed.

Countries are now vying for medical tourists. I see how much it has built the economy of Bangkok by just looking at all the development around this very popular hospital.

Airline Special Services

In our previous travels, this is one thing we have never worried about. But, in a recent flip to Bangkok, my husband's knee gave up as we were going down into the Robinson Supermarket on Sukhumvit and he just collapsed like a paper plate of Pad Thai.  Within seconds, the ladies in the Flower and the Foot Massage shops along the stairs flooded out to help.

We moved Grumpy to where he could sit,  cool off and moan a bit alone. The Flower Shop leader quickly found a pack of ice to address the swelling and also produced a tube of linament to help ease the pain. After a good rest and seeing that only pride and not bones were broken we decided to just go back to our hotel room and assess the ruins. Again, our flower lady surprised us with a wheelchair and together with her husband wheeled my husband to the back of the Mall where we could take a taxi. She also helped me find a Pharmacy that sold walkers and pain killers. Grumpy was in motion!

Once we reached our hotel,  one of the bell boys saw the problem and came sprinting with a wheelchair. Staying in a hotel with years of experience in the business is really a good choice. You never know what you'll come into in grumpy travels and age does NOT add to spriteliness!

In the room, I began to plot our course back to Hanoi with a crippled Grumpy. Luckily for us, we had business class seats. I called up Thai airlines and they immediately vowed that they would take care from the check-in at BKK to Taxi stand in Hanoi. Our hotel concierge in Bangkok...the IN Residence Hotel..... assured us that at the Suvarnabhumi airport,  attendants always have wheelchairs on the ready and they would bring us to the check-in.

When we arrived at the airport, the guard immediately initiated the process to help us to the check-in where a Thai Airways rep met us and arranged what was needed for Mr Badleg to get on that plane. Their attendant just whisked us through check-in and on to the Lounge. For boarding, they put the wheelchair on the food truck and lifted us on to the plane.

After landing in Hanoi, yet another attendant with a wheelchair whisked us through immigration and out to the Greeting Area where our serviced apartment here, the Somerset Grand, had sent a driver with a wheelchair.

It was really all professionally done. What I thought would be a nightmare had turned into a great experience based on the direct kindness of Thai shop owners, an absolutely first-class airline, two really professional hotels and a willingness on our part to pass our destiny more than usual to strangers.

Next time you travel, read about your airline special services. Make sure to stay in hotels which have
delivered service professionally for years. Have a strategy for emergencies beyond bellowing "Help" which was about all we had.

Not to worry. As you've read from our experience, there are always people around ready to help if you keep your wits about you and get your Grumpy to look pathetic!