The Official Dinner

So there was a work dinner to be done at one of the hotels in Hanoi. A full buffet spread a la Singapore style contained a good mix of Vietnamese and Singapore food. Chicken rice, laksa and rojak were on the menu. However, the laksa was watered down to suit the palate of our Vietnamese guests. They usually eat really light dinners and given their rather healthy soupy preferences, the laksa gravy contained very little coconut milk.

Naturally, I didn't bothered about eating. The food didn't interest me at all. It was much better that the other guests were rather taken by the food. This was work and I preferred to keep it that way, to make conversation and lurk around to make sure everything was going on fine- i.e. everyone who wanted a beer, had a beer.

I was very mindful not to bother too much with the networking; but to check out possible contacts and built on the relationships that stemmed from the meetings in the day before passing all the information to the others. This was a job best left to be done by other more appropriate colleagues since I wouldn't be around to continue these vital links.

There was no wild drinking to be done. Only beers were going around. No wine or any sort of hard liquor. Whew. While the colleagues shared a can of between between three glasses, they still left half of that can of beer for me! Tsk. So cannot drink one meh? But all good. Some of the colleagues went out for a massage and the rest simply stayed in, exhausted from the day's activities. Of course, as usual, I snucked off elsewhere with the friends for a good spot of music and single malts at Minh's Jazz Club (moving to a whole new location now!). The night out felt really good, although the tumbling into bed after at 1am wasn't too kind to the 7am roll call.