In the morning, I woke up at about 7 AM. I had heard from the front desk guy that someone was going to come and fix the key problem at 8 AM, so I went downstairs around that time. When I got there, the front desk guy was sleeping on the couch. As soon as he noticed me, he woke up. I felt bad about that.
Since I started this trip, I have stayed in hostels a few times, and I found out that working at a hostel seems like a really nice job. Staff members can stay at the hostel and communicate with people from all over the world. Back in Japan, I applied for a job at a hostel, but I failed to get it. Since I was a university student, I was not good at making a good impression during interviews. That is probably why I could not get a job at a big company either. That is definitely one of my weaknesses.
Anyway, since I was going to watch a judo competition at 9 AM, I wanted to check out as soon as possible. I asked the nice young front desk guy when the repair person would arrive, and he said, “I don’t know.” So, I just sat and waited on the couch.
About 10 minutes later, the manager of the hostel came in. The previous night, he had checked the security camera footage to see what had happened to my room key. According to the footage, I had not brought the key back to the lobby, so he understood my situation. I explained that the drunk guy from England, who had been sitting right next to me, might have accidentally taken my key to his room. Then, we started waiting for him to wake up.
Since I did not want to stay in the lobby, I went back to the room I had been temporarily allowed to stay in. I asked the manager to knock on the door once the guy woke up.
A couple of hours later, someone knocked on the door. I immediately got up and opened it. There he was — the manager standing at the door with my room key. It turned out that the British guy had accidentally taken it. As frustrated as I was with him, I was also frustrated with myself. I should not have left my key on the couch in the first place.
I finally got back into my room. I quickly packed my stuff and went downstairs. In the lobby, there was a guy from Romania whom I had talked to the previous night. I explained what had happened, and he laughed about it.
As I left the hotel, I said goodbye to him, and he gave me some advice. He told me that I should not stop competing. I had told him that I was a judo teacher in the U.S. and that I had stopped competing as an active athlete. He explained that I could become a teacher later, but I would not be able to compete once I got older. That hit me hard for some reason.
I tend to think of myself as already old as a judoka. However, there are many Japanese judokas in Japan who still compete at my age. He told me that I should compete all over the world, which honestly sounded exciting to me. If I get opportunities to do that during this trip, I will definitely give it a shot. I learned something valuable from the Romanian guy, and I appreciated it.
After leaving the hotel, it was already 11 AM, so I quickly called a taxi. I was much later than my original plan. I arrived at the competition venue at 12 PM. When I entered the stadium, it was lunch break time.
The reason I knew about this competition was because I had gotten an opportunity to teach judo in Singapore at the beginning of June. The coach from the dojo suggested that we meet at the competition since his students were also competing there. We met up and had some conversations. I watched a few matches and left the stadium early.
At around 3 PM, I went to a nearby coffee shop, updated my blog, and decided what to do next. Since I was tired of the heat in Hanoi and the temperature was expected to rise even more over the next few days, I decided to avoid staying there. Instead, I bought a bus ticket for that night to Sa Pa, a northern city in Vietnam where the temperature is much cooler.
I went back to central Hanoi by taxi and explored the city at night. While walking around, I found a huge street market. I bought a few pairs of socks since I only had two pairs with me. They cost 50,000 VND (less than $2).
Later, I settled down at a modern-looking coffee shop. One thing I have loved about Hanoi is that there are coffee shops everywhere. A cup of black coffee (cà phê đen), which I usually order, costs around 30,000 to 60,000 VND ($1–2), depending on the shop.
I stayed there until it was time to leave for the bus. I arrived at the bus stop 30 minutes before departure at 11 PM. The waiting area was actually inside a coffee shop. I am pretty sure the people who run the bus company also own the coffee shop.
The bus itself was bright pink. I did not care about the design, though — I just wanted the cheapest ticket available. The ticket cost about 430,000 VND ($16).
The structure of the bus was similar to the one I had taken from Lao Cai to Hanoi. The main difference was that there was no toilet on board, so the bus stopped at rest areas for bathroom breaks.
At one stop, I got off and used the bathroom. As soon as I came out, I was charged 3,000 VND ($0.10) for using it.
For the rest of the trip, I slept.
