Food was quickly served to their table, as well as a pot of tea and two matching cups. The meal was fairly simple, each had a small bowl of white rice and shared a plate of steamed fish. Duy Anh didn’t say much while eating but he already had some plans in mind. Arthur might look confused and harmless but he was suspicious enough to not be completely trusted and the current times made it hard to feel safe with anybody—no one could tell if Arthur was whether lying or hiding the truth, especially because of the language barrier. That at least confirmed one thing: Arthur was, to Duy Anh and other’s eyes, a foreigner. His name might be Vietnamese, but both his clothes and speech didn’t fit the local ones.

If there was one thing both Arthur and Duy Anh had in common would be their curiosity. He didn’t openly admit to it but Duy Anh was definitely interested in Arthur. Where and when would he have the opportunity to know about foreign culture firsthand? Sure, Arthur might really turn out to be a spy, but if that’s the case, he could just lead him back to authorities. That was worth a shot, anyway.

“Where...is this?”

Arthur awkwardly broke the silence. He was thankful for the free meal but it was still uncomfortable to sit there without knowing what had just happened or what would happen to him later. He was convinced Duy Anh wouldn’t be a bad guy but still, the whole situation was unusual. Arthur also slowly started to realize that maybe he had fallen unconscious longer than he had thought, since the sun didn’t set yet. On the contrary, it only got brighter and livelier.

Duy Anh looked at him with a puzzled look and hesitated to answer for an instant before giving him a small chuckle. “This is an inn I like to have a meal at. But if you are inquiring me about the city, then you are in Dong Kinh (1), or you might be more familiar with our citadel of Thang Long.”

Dong Kinh? Was he referring to the Tonkin? Arthur was pretty sure no one called it that anymore though. As for Thang Long, he was pretty sure he had left the place earlier though. How could he have been back there if he kept running straight ahead? Did a make a turn without realizing it? The streets looked quite different from what he remembered it to be too. “Imperial Citadel?” Arthur asked, with little confidence. “The Imperial Citadel is further North. Did you perhaps come from the Palace?” replied Duy Anh.

By the long reply, Arthur understood they weren’t in the Citadel itself. But he did refer to both Tonkin and Thang Long! Which was a quite curious way to refer to the current city of Hanoi. Unless...unless something was wrong. Maybe it wasn’t a movie set, after all.

“Sir Pham?” Duy Anh asked worriedly when Arthur dropped his chopsticks, frozen in shock.

Did I time travel?!

It couldn’t be. Yet it made sense, although it was nonsense. That would explain why everyone’s speech sounded even more unfamiliar than it originally already was and why both the buildings and clothes looked like they came from a historical drama. It was because those are part of history! In its rawest form! The realest real thing!!!

“Is everything alright? You look rather pale”, Duy Anh asked as he bent down to inspect Arthur’s face from closer.

Arthur laughed in a low and monotonous voice. Maybe he did hit his head a bit too hard and everything now was an hallucination. He pinched his cheek but it did hurt, actually it even hurt more than he should because he had pinched his scratched skin. Better sure than not though—that’s why he grabbed Duy Anh’s face. Duy Anh stood up in shock, his mouth opened and frozen in place. Yup, he’s real too. Everyone is.

Holding his head with his palms propped on the table, Arthur let out a silent scream. How could that happen? What could he do now? How does he go back home? A thousand questions ran through his head. First of all! Who travels through time by falling into a well?! Can’t time travel gates be cooler than that?!! Couldn’t he at least have a heads up from the heavens so he could be mentally prepared?! And then! Why. Is. He. Still. The. Same. Movies and novels always described time travel in a much more extraordinary way, with lights and flashes, cool technology even. The person traveling time in some magical way would usually take on the appearance of locals, too! Or, in the worse case, be naked! So how could he go back in time exactly like he looked like in present time, minus all the items that were actually useful to him like his glasses or shoes. That was absolutely nonsense! A badly written scenario!

Arthur wanted to ask Duy Anh what year it was but...that would be suspicious, wouldn’t it? That would be admitting he had either serious issues with his memory or that he had really traveled through time, which was in no way believable, so it’d be the same as saying he’s an insane foreigner.

Ah.

Maybe it wasn’t too bad. Maybe it was even a god-sent opportunity. Arthur came to Vietnam to know more about its history and culture and now he got to witness and live it himself!

“Is everything alright with your meal, gentlemen?” asked a waiter, interrupting both of their thoughts. “I-it’s good”, Duy Anh quickly said as he sat back down. Arthur nodded.

“Let’s...finish our meal. There is a place I will have to bring you to”, Duy Anh said while shyly finishing his bowl of rice.

After they had both finished eating, Duy Anh left a few coins on the table and exited the inn, bowing quickly to the waiter greeting them as they passed by. Now that Arthur had realized that he was in a completely different era, everything looked even more impressive even though there wasn’t anything extraordinary. It didn’t look that much different from what he could have seen in movies but the overall mood made up for it. The bustling streets, children playing around, merchants selling produce and goods—even the occasional water buffaloes carrying bags of rice. It was a unique experience. Arthur had read about it in the museum he had visited but, due to the lack of relics, most of what he had imaged of the country in older times were made up by his imagination and comprehension of the information he had gotten in a fairly short amount of time.

He admired his surroundings while walking next to Duy Anh. However, after some time, Arthur tried to match what he saw to what he remembered sketching or noting down about Vietnam’s past eras, to at least pinpoint how far back in time he had traveled to. One thing was sure: it wasn’t Nguyen dynasty (2). At that time, the capital city had been moved to Hue and, if he remembered correctly, the most common garment was quite similar to the modern ao dai (3). Ao ngu than, was it? It had long and large sleeves—and sure, the people also had large-sleeved outfits—but it didn’t quite match the ones he was seeing. The collars and hairstyle were different from what he remembered seeing and learning about.

Then it could only mean this was before the nineteenth century! This would explain why the local dress resembled hanfu (4) as Vietnam would, at that time, still be one of China’s tributary states under the name of Dai Viet or Annam. Arthur was actually pretty delighted and excited about figuring this out. Since most findings from that era would be from either Imperial families and sites or nobles, he felt really lucky to be able to witness more common lives and people from that time.

1. Đông Kinh (東京, "Eastern Capital"), often written as “Tonkin”, is the name of the current city of Hanoi, from the beginning of the 15^th century. In the west, it can also generally be used to describe the northern region of Viet Nam while Cochinchina would refer to the southern region

2. The last dynasty of Vietnam, during which it was a unified state: lasted from the beginning of the 19^th century to mid 20^th century

3. Considered Vietnam’s representative costume/outfit but is actually fairly recent. It is composed of a long tunic with long sleeves and a mandarin collar, slit on each side up to the waist, and long loose pants

4. Traditional types and styles of clothing originally worn by the Han Chinese