A multicultural weekend

On Saturday night Jessica, her friend KP and I went to the Saigon St Andrew's Society's annual charity ball at the Park Hyatt hotel. It was a very formal affair and I immediately felt under-dressed in my $35 dress bought on Dong Khoi, the main street in district one. "Everyone will know, you see this dress everywhere!", I said to Jessica. She said "Don't worry, most people here never go down Dong Khoi, they just stay in their compounds". I thought about the girl who had offered me a lift with her family from one of the dance classes I went to in preparation for the ball. Just drop me on Dong Khoi, I'd said. "Oh, I don't know where that is, but I'm sure our driver will", she replied. "It's the Rue Catinat," her mother reminded her.

After a few glasses of complimentary champagne I relaxed and enjoyed the company of some of the people I'd met at the dance classes. The food was very good, even the haggis! Other Scottish traditions included a bagpipe performance by a group of Singaporeans wearing kilts, a malt whiskey tasting bar and a midnight snack of shortbread biscuits shaped like sheep, cows and cute Scottish terriers. The ballroom was beautiful, from the chandeliers and the flower arrangements to the photographs of Scottish scenery on the walls. I participated in plenty of the country dances and other dancers were very patient in helping me along when I frequently forgot the moves.

Jessica and I with wonderfully-dressed friends Kim and Alex

Left to right: KP, Constance, Jessica, me

On Sunday the three of us met in the afternoon, along with another friend, Constance, to have Chinese dim sum in the Renaissance Riverside hotel. This is a multi-course, all-you-can-eat event that Jessica compared to English high tea, not that I regularly partake in high tea myself. I decided to try everything that we ordered (until I became too full), so I found myself eating chickens' feet, which were glutinous and tasted okay, and thousand-year-old egg- peculiar jellied egg slices that looked beautiful, with greyish layers like a fossil. This was followed by an enjoyable afternoon shopping on the high street and in the newly-opened Vincom Centre with its beautiful façades and stained-glass windows.

With Nidi, Jessica's friend and hostess of the evening

In the evening Jessica and I went to the Diwali gala of the Indian business chamber of Vietnam, on the invitation of Jessica's friend. It was a hectic event- very overcrowded and with children running around everywhere. I fought my way through the crowd to reach the buffet and sat down with a plate of food to watch the entertainment with Jessica, which included Bollywood dance from a Vietnamese dance troupe and a performance from 'the king of Bollywood' Bappi Lahiri, whose hit 'Oo Lala' was so popular he sang it three times over the course of the evening. The event was not what I was expecting- I had hoped for some traditions of the Hindu festival of lights, but it was fun to wear a sari and there was a chance for dancing after the hall had cleared out a little later in the evening.