Woke up early, up to breakfast, back to tourist fare; horrible sausages, cold meats, white bread, fruit and local dishes. A bit of a change from the cruise. I managed a couple of the sausages, a bit of bacon and some toast. Song had fruit, cold meats, tea and beef noodle soup.
Decided to go to the market, weather was better than the other places, about 24c and overcast but no humidity. So much more pleasant than the last couple of weeks where it was too hot and sticky to do anything.
I avoided the hotel coffee and planned to get one on the way. Vietnam is famous for coffee and every third shop was a cafe, but looking at what other people were drinking it looked much too strong so I thought I’d better go for a Starbucks or similar. Found a shop that looked like a chain so chanced it.
It cost 79000 local Dong, about $5, similar to home. It tasted like slightly flavored hot water.
Carried on walking, the place was absolutely packed, scooters parked on the pavement as well as people sitting on the steps or small stools, some selling stuff and others just sitting there on their phones or smoking. There was still a lot of traffic, with constant tooting of horns. Crossing the road was a gamble, cars and scooters criss-crossing and just driving around each other, we just had to go and watch every direction hoping to find a gap. I had no idea what crap we were breathing in, some of the scooters looked as if they were from the 70s.
There were lots of shops, mostly selling cheap stuff and quite a few selling fake LV, Gucci and Chanel bags as well as fake Rolexes.
There were also several old ladies carrying fruit or food in huge dishes at the ends of a pole which they carried on their shoulders, also wearing the traditional straw conical hats – I thought this was a historical stereotype but nope, it is still in use.
We were heading towards a market, which we found easily, it was under cover and absolutely packed with stalls but every stall was selling cheap plastic crap or clothes. There was one stall with hundreds of hats all piled up. I left Song to go around while I sat down, there was nothing there to interest me.
Decided to head back to the hotel and get something to eat on the way, I inadvertently turned down a street which appeared to have all the jewelry shops in the area, so I had to wait for Song to visit every one. Found a banh mi place around the corner from the hotel and ordered what I hoped was a roast pork one. It tasted OK, different from the Melbourne ones.
I was surprised at how many tourists there were – a lot of Americans in particular. For some reason I didn’t think it would be that popular.
Went back to the room to drop some shopping then went for a walk to the French Quarter – we were staying in the Old Quarter. The French Quarter was very different, wide streets, large buildings spaced apart and less traffic, almost like a different place. It was more commercial, not nearly as hectic, plus the French-influenced buildings. We walked around the lake and had a look around a temple on an island then carried on. There were lots of young women in traditional dress having their photos taken, must be a local custom, but the weather was overcast and rainy occasionally so not the best day for it
Did a complete circuit of the lake and came across a shopping mall and all the high end shops like LV, Burberry, Chopard etc, I don’t think they sold fakes.
Found a French cafe that looked nice (Le Faubourg), opposite the Metropole Hotel which looked very flash, so stopped for a coffee.
Got back to the hotel and watched some TV, then went out for dinner. We’d seen a place yesterday which had a lot of seafood, being cooked in the street over some coals by a guy, and Song wanted to try that so we did.
When we got there, all the seats were taken (they were on the pavement), but the bloke just got another small plastic table and chairs and plonked them down in the middle of the pavement so that’s where we sat.
I had 6 Tiger Prawns which had only recently been happily swimming in a tank, Song had some shellfish which looked like snails and some scallops.
The food was good, and it only occurred to me afterwards that eating seafood from a street stall cooked over hot coals in Hanoi may not have been a good idea, but I suppose I’ll find out tomorrow.
Went back to the hotel and watched TV, another full day tomorrow then back to Singapore the next day.
