Travelogue :  The Indian Contractor visits Vietnam and China on a Shoestring

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We woke up in time for lunch. Actually in time for tea.The pestering rain was still there! It was 1530 when we left the house. We reached the shopping centre around 4 and wondered whether to eat. We walked into an indian place and the prices were forbidding so we left and went into a Pizza parlour. Papa Jones I think it was. I had the only vege pizza on the menu. After that wewent to the shopping centre that was famous for selling fake stuff. You could get a rolex for 30$ or less. We passed by the science and technology meuseum. It had nice architecture so I took a few pictures of that. My friends were more interested in the shops underneath the building so we did not visit inside the museum.

When we reached the shopping centre my friends went on a shopping spree. I bought a shawl for my grandma and was done with shopping after that. When we came out of the complex Gilbert, my buddy (especially)and gifford were loaded with bags. We deposited the bags in Gilberts car and his dad drove us to the Bund.

The bund was a road along the river that had some fantastic colonial buildings with even more fantastic lighting at night. I had my camera but no tripod. Sad. And worse still it was still raining! We were given a choice to pick up some umbrellas from Gilberts place, but being the Garang(aggresive in Malay) soldiers that we were, we chose not to.

When we reached the bund we realised our folly. Our cameras were too precious to drench in the rain. So we bought an umbrella to cover overselves and click pictures.

Then came the second problem. My buddy and gilbert's brother shared one umbrella and gilbert's brother was not shooting so my buddy conveniently clicked away. Me and gilbert were both holding cameras but we had only one umbrella. We did not want to buy the second umbrella. So I held the umbrella while gilbert took pictures then we swapped roles. We were working with shutter speeds of 1/8th of a second hence the pictures are not so sharp. I still curse myself for forgetting the tripod that day.

After the pictures I was looking forward to a good nights sleep. There would be no sleep.... Read on to find out what happens...