In case you missed it from my previous blog posts, I spent a day of my trip in Hà Nội, Việt Nam exploring the Vincom Mega Mall Royal City, an underground shopping and entertainment complex.
I’ve been having a tough time dealing with the high heat and intense humidity in Hanoi, which is a starkly different than what I’m used to back home in Las Vegas. The heat itself is mostly fine, but when coupled with the humidity, I feel like my body isn’t able to properly cool itself down and it ultimately translates into physical exhaustion. Because of this, I’ve been trying to seek out indoor tourist activities, and the Mega Mall seemed like a great place to see a lot of stuff all at once in a single area.
Over the past few days, I’ve shared my thoughts about and photographs from the Baby Elephant Animal Park, Vincom Center for Contemporary Art, and HLC Starry Sky Art Museum, all found in units inside the Mega Mall. Obviously, the Mega Mall has much more than that, but nothing else seemed to warrant its own dedicated blog post. I still wanted to share what I saw elsewhere in the mall though, so I figured a reasonable way to do that would be to do a round-up post of all my miscellaneous Mega Mall photographs.
I actually enjoyed my time walking around the Mega Mall quite a bit. The sheer number of different things inside the mall, in addition to the very wide breadth of what was available to look at, was actually quite surprising. I was aware that Vietnam is not quite at the level of economic development as the United States, but you would never know that from looking at the Mega Mall. The inside was very nice and technologically advanced, and it was air conditioned (which is apparently not always a common thing in Vietnamese buildings).
Another thing I found unexpected was the number of flags. In the United States, you’ll see some places have a large United States flag or two by the entrance or hanging on the wall. In the Mega Mall, there were literally a total of thousands of miniature flags—both the national flag of Vietnam and the flag of the Communist Party of Vietnam—hanging in pretty much every other store. I thought the United States was pretty patriotic, but I guess Vietnam has got us beaten there.
Another thing I liked about the Mega Mall at Royal City was the fact that it basically created a little campus with the high-rise apartment buildings. With the Mega Mall having an absolutely gargantuan WinMart, being a resident of Royal City seemed like it would be pretty convenient. The courtyard area seemed to also double as an event venue, considering that I saw some light construction going on that appeared to be associated with an upcoming convention of some sort.
Here are some photographs I captured around Royal City, starting with the apartment buildings outdoors, then of some visually interesting spots inside the complex:
For one of my tourist activites while in Hà Nội, Việt Nam, I visited the Vincom Mega Mall Royal City, an underground shopping and entertainment complex, to spend a day getting away from the heat and humidity outdoors.
Over the past few days, I already shared some photographs I took of the Baby Elephant Animal Park and the Vincom Center for Contemporary Art, two attractions located inside the Mega Mall. My next batch of photos is from the HLC Starry Sky Art Museum.
This reminded me of a less-developed version of the Arte Museum Las Vegas that I visited earlier this year. There wasn’t really anything interactive at the HLC Starry Sky Museum, and most importantly, there was a lack of scent integration, which was my favorite part of the Arte Museum. Instead, HLC basically just relied entirely on lights and visuals. With that being said, Vietnam has lower economic development than the United States, so within that context, I still think the HLC was not too bad.
I don’t remember how much it cost for admission because they accepted cash only, so my co-worker who I went with was the one who paid for both of our tickets. On top of that, I have been having currency conversion issues in my head this entire trip so far because of how significantly different the currency denominations are and how much higher buying power the United States dollar has over the Vietnamese đồng. With that being said, I do recall that it felt a little bit expensive relative to other comparably similar attractions, especially considering the somewhat short length of the HLC experience.
Here are some photographs I took while walking through the various rooms of the museum:
It seemed like the general theme of this gallery was taking plastics and other waste products and transforming them into sculptures and other three-dimensional art pieces. I don’t have a particularly sophisticated comprehension of art theory, so I sometimes get bored in art museums that display only paintings; I liked the Vincom Center for Contemporary Art because it felt like I was able to appreciate both the visuals as well as the underlying message of the art without needing to have a deep initial background understanding on the topic.
Here are some photographs I took around the art gallery:
The heat alone in Hà Nội, Việt Nam during my trip hasn’t been too much of an issue, but paired together with the insanely high humidity, going outside has been an uncomfortbale experience for me. Because of this, I’ve been trying to find tourist activities that involve staying indoors, preferably in areas with air conditioning.
One of the spots I found was the Vincom Mega Mall Royal City, an underground shopping and entertainment complex. I scouted out a few museums inside the complex that I wanted to visit ahead of time online, but while walking around, I came across Vườn thú Chú Voi Con, which translates to the Baby Elephant Animal Park. I peeked inside and saw a bunch of animals in the format of a petting zoo, so I figured I would make a spontaneous stop to check it out.
This was very fun. I had an opportunity to get closer to some of these animals than I have ever been before, and got to pet some of them for the first time, such as the alpaca and sheep.
With that being said, this is probably the most unethical zoo I have ever seen in my entire life. The two alpaca and the sheep were confined together as a group of three in a pen that seemed too small to even accommodate one of them. A lot of the animals looked malnourished. Some of them looked like they were infected with something, or at the very least, extremely unclean. There were no attendants carefully supervising the petting areas, so there were children in the animal park that had free reign to yank at animals’ limbs and otherwise inflict distress on them.
In a vacuum, I enjoyed my time here, and it was very amusing seeing a bunch of farm animals inside an underground shopping center. However, I cannot fully recommend visiting the Baby Elephant Animal Park. If you’re not too concerned about the morals and ethics aspect of zoo animals, that is fine, but it is personally conflicting having this fun activity in the Mega Mall but also not wanting to encourage supporting their business model of making profit at the expense of what seemed to me like animals that weren’t really having a nice life.
The animal park had glass that allowed passersby in the mall to look in, so that is one alternative if you want to check it out but don’t want to purchase an admission ticket.
Here are some photographs I took of the animals during my visit:
Visiting the Ba Đình District was one of the first tourist activites I did after arriving in Hà Nội, Việt Nam. It’s one of the most popular tourist areas in the city, and there was a lot to look at in a fairly condensed area, so I figured it would be a good place to start.
I already published a blog post a few days ago from seeing Bảo tàng Hồ Chí Minh, which translates to the Ho Chi Minh Museum, located inside the Ba Đình District. I gave that location a dedicated blog post because I had a lot of photographs from within the museum, but for everything else, I figured it would make the most sense doing a single Ba Đình round-up.
I believe this is Chùa Diên Hựu, which translates to the Dien Huu Temple.
On the opposite side of the walkway, there was this water featured labeled as đài phun nước, which translates to “fountain.” I’m not sure if it actually really is a fountain that was just turned off, or if it mislabeled, but it had an interesting rocky centerpiece to it.
This area had a little marketplace where people were selling apparel and other merchandise. I was getting thirsty, so I purchased a cold beverage from one of the stalls; I found it funny that they stocked Monster energy drinks there, so I got a Zero Sugar Ultra Paradise.
Afterwards, I looped around to Chùa Một Cột, which translates to the One Pillar Pagoda.
After enjoying looking at the temples, I came out into the sunlight and walked towards the gardens.
This is an interesting fountain I saw next to the offices of Ban Quản Lý Bảo Tàng Hồ Chí Minh, which translates to the Ho Chi Minh Museum Management Board.
Here is a photograph I took while standing on Hùng Vương Street facing south towards the intersection of Lê Hồng Phong Street.
The city was setting up for the 80th anniversary celebration of Cách mạng tháng Tám và Quốc khánh nước Cộng hòa Xã hội chủ nghĩa Việt Nam (which translates to The August Revolution and the National Day of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam). There were extra bleachers being set up and signage being installed in preparation for the events.
I was able to see Lăng Chủ tịch Hồ Chí Minh, which is Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum. Apparently Ho Chi Minh’s body is on display here, but they are only open for tourists during certain hours, and I was a bit too late that day to be able to go inside.
Once in a while, the guards in front of the mausoleum will be swapped out. I managed to catch two new guards in the distance headed towards the mausoleum to relieve the current guards and take their place.
After finishing my exploring, I headed back towards the entrance/exit. On the way there, I saw the outside of Phê La Ngọc Hà, a coffee shop.
For my meal in the neighborhood, I had bún chả ăn kèm với rau sống, which was a highly-recommended famous dish in Vietnam. To my understanding, this roughly translates to “white rice vermicelli noodles and seasoned minced pork patties served with fresh herbs.”
And no, I do not know why my noodles look so radioactive in the picture…
Here are some more photographs I took around the neighborhood right outside the fenced tourism area:
This is probably very unsurprising to hear from someone who lives in Las Vegas, a city located in the Mojave Desert, but it is excruciatingly humid in Hanoi. My hotel feels fine when the air conditioning and dehumidifier are both running at full power, but stepping outside feels like it requires more effort even just to breathe because of how much moisture there is in the air.
One of the concerns I had prior to arriving in Vietnam was the pedestrian crosswalk situation, i.e., how vehicles don’t really stop for people and just drive around you. I might have just been lucky so far in only having needed to cross streets that aren’t too busy, but it’s been a lot easier than I expected. As long as you telegraph your movements clearly, remain at a consistent pace, and opt to use marked crosswalks where possible so that your motion is predictable, it seems like Vietnam’s traffic system sort of has it figured out.
In general, sightseeing has been very interesting so far. I’ve never seen temples like this before in-person, so it was nice being able to go inside one and experience it first-hand.
I already mentioned this in my blog post reviewing my flights on EVA Air from Los Angeles to Hanoi, but one of the major reasons I decided to travel to Hà Nội, Việt Nam was because my company Tempo’s game The Bazaar was having its very first community-run in-person esports event at PK Gaming Ngoại Giao Đoàn. This event happened earlier today (or yesterday, if you convert Hà Nội’s local time zone to my home time zone in Las Vegas).
As you probably expected, while I was in attendance, I took a lot of photographs.
The entryway to the gaming café had a banner advertising the tournament, which invited competitors to wander the bazaar in a paid event with a total cash prize pool of US$750.00.
The interior also had a banner, this one being significantly taller and larger.
Tempo’s Lead of People and Culture was also in attendance, and he was responsible for bringing over a bunch of prizes for the competitors.
There were some embroidered hoodies…
… some specially-branded mousepads in partnership with PK Gaming…
… and the grand prize trophy, a Founder’s Edition collectible statue of Dooley, one of the characters from The Bazaar.
I showed up pretty early, so while the venue was still almost empty, I had an opportunity to walk around and explore the rest of the gaming café.
As the players started trickling in, some of them got set up on the computers in the competition area and started warming up.
After everyone found their way to the café, the tournament started with a small opening ceremony by the casters.
Once all the rules were explained, the players took their positions and started playing.
The event was live streamed on Tempo’s Twitch channel from the “Alaska Zone” streaming booths.
This is a shot I got of the person who eventually went on to win the entire tournament.
As a reminder, I work solely on the corporate side of Tempo and have no involvement in game design or game development pretty much whatsoever, to the extent that I have literally never even played a single game of The Bazaar. It was an amusing experience going around and looking at people’s screens, only to be completely clueless as to what’s actually happening in the game.
The main stage of the gaming café was used to play the live stream for in-person spectators.
One of the spectators, of course, was the Dooley statue.
Once in a while, players would be brought into the casting booth after finishing a round so that they could get interviewed about their most recent game.
The tournament was going on for longer than I expected, so I decided to order some food from the on-site kitchen.
Their menu was in Vietnamese, and I couldn’t understand what their entrée options were, so I just went with the recommendation of one of the staff members at the gaming café. I ended up with some grilled chicken, vegetables, and white rice. This actually ended up being pretty unexpectedly delicious.
A handful of hours into the tournament, we were approaching the end, with only a couple players left needing to finish their final run.
I believe some people left early, but those who wanted to stick around gathered around the stage area to watch the final moments of gameplay.
Upon the conclusion of the tournament, the winner was crowned, and he received his limited edition Dooley statue.
In addition to the trophy, both the first place winner and the runner-ups received an envelope containing their cash prizes, and pretty much all participants got some form of consolation prize, be it a set of earbuds, a desk mat, or apparel.
After all the prizes were distributed, the casters gave their closing speech.
The tournament organizers hired an actual, professional photographer to take pictures throughout the event. I’m not sure what his name is so I can’t give proper credit at the moment, but I found these on PK Gaming Ngoại Giao Đoàn’s Facebook page in the Cộng Đồng The Bazaar group.
He captured this shot of me helping set some of the technical specifications of the live stream software to ensure a smooth broadcast…
… as well as this shot of me joining the casting booth for a little bit while the Vietnamese caster was busy helping tally up the final results.
Here’s a screenshot taken of the live broadcast from the short period during which I was filling in for one of the casters.
It is very amusing (and quite difficult) trying to be a commentator for a game that you’ve literally never personally played before and hardly even know the mechanics for. The other caster next to me hard carried both the play-by-play and color commentary, while I mainly contributed by telling stories of Tempo’s past and how The Bazaar came to become what it is today.
Before parting ways, we took a group photograph with everyone who stayed until the end of the event.
During my time at Tempo, I’ve been a member of the production teams behind a decent number of live events, so this one wasn’t particularly special for me. However, I could tell that everyone else in attendance was very excited for it, which was nice.
I went into this thinking the turnout would be in the low multi-hundreds. I didn’t know how or from where I established that expectation, but as you can see from the photographs, there were nowhere near even a single hundred competitors. With that being said, I might just be used to running events taking place in larger cities for more well-known games, and it’s possible that the turnout for “Catch the Cash” was still considered a success given the circumstances.
I thought the gaming café was decent and comparable in quality to some of the smaller and lower-budget gaming cafés you might find scattered throughout less populus areas of the United States. The food, though, was incredible. I found the chef and the literal full-blown kitchen to be amazing and comparable in quality to a very good street food vendor or a small family-owned restaurant that focuses on replicating authentic flavors derived from their local cuisines. I had two meals there—one on tournament day and one on the day prior during a walk-through preview—and both entrées were delicious.
With that being said, I had a persistent headache and an overall miserable time being in PK Gaming’s facility due to the smoking room.
Cigarette smoking is far more common in Việt Nam than it is in the United States. It is also far more socially and culturally accepted, so this gaming café had a designated smoking room indoors, directly in the center of the café. The smoking room had a door, but every time someone opened the door to go in or out, waves of cigarette smoke would escape and spread throughout the rest of the building.
As long as there’s good ventilation, it’s fine, right? Well, from what I could tell, it felt like they had no ventilation. They had fans running everywhere, so the cigarette smoke would expeditiously get blown around into all corners of the building to make sure everyone would smell it, while none of it got sucked up into the vents to be exchanged with fresh outdoor air.
Marinating in cigarette smoke for about 7 hours was horrific, and that alone was single-handedly enough to make me hate the entire thing. It is insane to me that everyone who showed up to compete had to be subjected to degrading their health from fairly dense second-hand smoke because some people were too lazy to spend one extra minute walking outdoors before smoking.
