Also on the bummer list is that my camera broke the other day when I was touring Hanoi with ‘my friend’ Dong the motorbike scammer. I dropped it in the market and haven’t been able to turn it on since, but luckily all my new (real) friends on the Intrepid tour lent me their cameras to build a book of memories of Halong Bay. So today’s mission was: rest and get a new camera.
After getting back to Hanoi Mark (the Englishman) helped me navigate the motor-biked filled streets to get a new camera. Quan mapped out some places for us to go and we ultimately visited a Best-Buy equivalent with no luck. Luckily Quan wrote me a Vietnamese note to use that read, “Hi. My camera is broken and I’m hoping you can help me fix it? If not, can you point me where I can go to get it fixed or buy a new Panasonic?” It was quite funny: two very white, taller than the majority, people walking around with this note.
Our second stop was a canon store and, like the first, the clerks didn’t speak any English. They did however understand my note and said they could fix the camera by Monday. Mark and I spent the next 10 minutes trying to explain we were leaving today and couldn’t get it Monday. We ended up using the universal language, numbers, to write out a calendar with the city names of where we would be between today and monday. It was kind of like charades, but they eventually understood and I left feeling fulfilled for having a conversation across languages, but concerned I would have to shell out cash I didn’t have for a new camera.
The next place pointed us in the direction of a repair shop- third time was a charm! We walked in between some restaurants on the main street into a disheveled store filled with reinvigorated hope, namely, broken cameras and camera parts. I handed over my love to a woman sitting at a computer and she passed it to her son (?) who immediately went to town. Mark and I took two small stools and sat waiting while he conducted his investigation. We sat for about an hour and watched this guy completely take it apart; he welded, soldered, air-blew, screwed, and unscrewed.
At one point he put it back together and it turned on (hurray!), but the screen was all grayed out and not working (boo). He pulled it back apart and went back at it. After another few short minutes he put Humpty Dumpty back together again, turned it back on, and it worked!!! I couldn’t believe it really, but after taking a picture of the very happy moment, playing it back on my camera, and giving the guy a big hug (my first one here!), I walked out feeling like I could start my trip again. Mark and I agreed that was an experience neither of us would forget.
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