Weekend

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Getting up without the alarm clock is so nice!


Today we enjoyed a local Vietnamese style breakfast of rice, vegetables and eggs. It was delicious. We washed it down with coffee and got to play with one 'super cute' puppy before catching the 34 bus to the centre.

First stop today was the temple of literature. We thought we had entered from the correct gate but actually we were walking inside another park. We eventually found a way in but it appears this was actually an exit. The temples were very pretty and we enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere of the gardens. More gardens were waiting for us at the next stop on today's tour.


We headed across to the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum. Even though it was closed we could explore the one pillar pagoda and the gardens that surrounded it. It was closed last time we came about 16 years ago too!

We were thinking that we would probably travel south by train as the scenery along the coastal track looks stunning. The train station was our next stop to find out all about different tickets. It turned out that some of the trains had new carriages and these were quite expensive. The old carriages were a little cheaper but more expensive than we had expected.

We walked around the lakes in the centre of Hanoi. We looked at ancient pagodas, tiny back streets, people fishing and enjoyed the weekend life of Hanoi. We stopped in a tiny cafe for lunch and tried bun ca. It was pretty good. However the girl behind us had something different so we asked what she was having. The restaurant staff didn't speak English and didn't quite understand what we were asking - so another meal arrived and this time it was quite an expensive one! We ate it, enjoyed it and paid for it but we didn't really want it. We just wanted to know what it was. C'est la vie!

A dessert was required to help it go down so we headed to the cute little cafe we had visited yesterday. We chose another option from the pictures on the wall and 5 minutes later it arrived. It was great once again but this time it contained something that resembles frog spawn. It was really wierd. We asked the owner what it was and she showed us the fruit it came from, similar to a grapefruit. She also sat and spoke to us about Vietnam in her best English with Google Translate to assist and she played UB40 on YouTube for us all to enjoy. It was pretty surreal to hear UB40 but the whole ambience was wonderful. Unfortunately for us she is visiting her parents tomorrow so the cafe will be closed.


Evening arrived and that meant the centre of Hanoi becomes a huge walking street. It was pretty crowded and quite lovely. The favourite pastime in Hanoi seems to be drinking beer on the side of the street. It is really inexpensive compared to everything else. The local folk seem to drink a lot.

Following walking street we went to see if we could remember where we stayed in about 2005. We found the street but didn't recognise anything else. Now we started to head back to the bus stop as we were quite far away. Along the way we found a small vegetarian restaurant amongst the crowded streets of Hanoi. It was like an oasis offering us respite from the chaos outside. The owner was adorable she explained all about the food and how the menu changes everyday. The food on offer was totally unlike anything else we had discovered in Hanoi and was fantastic. In fact it was so delicious we might be heading back tomorrow. As we were leaving an older couple from India arrived. We spoke to them briefly and they told us their travel companions had to go home early as one was suffering from a respiratory disorder. What a shame. We hoped the polluted air of Hanoi hadn't caused it!

Bus number 34 is a little elusive. One went straight past as another bus sat in the bus stop. A little later another zipped on by before we had chance to hail it. The same happened yesterday too. We decided we would just start to walk to the next stop but after a while we turned back. We were not 100% certain which route the bus took so thought it best to stay put. Not longer after it arrived and whisked us off home.




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