Cây Khế

Cây Khế is where we come for our coffee or tea breaks.
We nicknamed this place Cây Khế because of the tree you see in middle of the picture on the right.
This is the courtyard of an old French villa, quite common around Hanoi.








Cây means tree. Khế is star fruit, shown in the picture on the right. It is a tropical fruit that is sweet but sometimes a little tart if it's not very ripe. If you cut it cross-section wise, it has the shape of star, hence the name star fruit.





This story is not about the tree. It is about coffee or tea breaks.
One of the things that strikes me about Hanoi is the common sight of Vietnamese sitting at places like this drinking tea, coffee or any type of refreshments. Most of these stands are just on a sidewalk with a few tables and many 12-inch high stools. Sometimes you will be sitting next to a parked motorbike and people will be walking around or through your friends. Sometimes you are literally next to the road.

In the picture on the right, you see some of my friends drinking tea or coffee.


While you are drinking your tea, another enterprising person will come by wanting to polish your shoes. He or she will let you temporarily wear a pair of slippers and take your shoes away. In a few minutes, he or she will return with your nicely-polished shoes. Cost? 5,000 VND or about US 25 cents.
On the right is one of these shoe-shiners.



Sadly, last week Cây Khế closed. The property was sold to a developer for, I heard, US$5 million. Not surprising considering the boom that is going on in Vietnam. You have to sell a lot of tea or coffee to get that kind of money.