Finally we slept until about 7 (with the aide of drugs). We had breakfast at the hotel and sat next to a couple who we were pretty sure were part of our tour. So I struck up a conversation. Sure enough they are on our tour. Their names are Cheryl and David and they are from Washington and North Carolina. We enjoyed talking to them for a while.
Returned to the room and Rick found a place for lunch on the CNN website so we figured it was safe. We started walking in that general direction. It’s another overcast, smoggy day with temperatures in the low 70s. On the way we stopped in the Metropole Hotel where I stayed when I was here 25 years ago. It’s a beautiful hotel, very calm compared to the frenzy of the Hanoi streets.
Today we really felt the chaos that is Hanoi. The traffic was gridlocked in some places. Often we had to walk in the street because the sidewalk was crowded with product for sale, little tables and chairs for street food vendors or motorbikes. Here are some pictures of the sidewalks to show you what I mean.
Crossing the street is an experience. There are motorbikes everywhere. Often the stop lights are irrelevant for the motorbikes. Here are the instructions from our guide. “Crossing the street is not so difficult as it looks. You wait for red light when most of them stop, and raise you hand to cross steady, don’t go too fast or too slow, they will go around you. You also can join a local when she/he crosses the street.” By now we are getting pretty good at it. Here are a couple of short videos from YouTube about crossing the street and the traffic in general.
We decided we’d had enough and would just head to the restaurant. Here are just a few pictures from our walk.
It seems these little restaurants/street food vendors often sell just one dish and often the restaurants offering that dish are clustered together. So we thought we had found the CNN recommended restaurant because it was serving the dish we wanted. We went in, ordered and the food was quite good. On the way out Rick was trying to show the restaurant staff the CNN listing. It turns out that the restaurant we were looking for was 2 store fronts over. The issue is the hygiene is questionable. We can’t drink the tap water so if they use tap water to wash the vegetable s or to cook with we could have a problem, I guess we’ll find out if the food agreed with our taste buds as well as our stomachs.
After lunch we walked back to the hotel and a stop at the lake for a cop of coffee for Rick.
We returned to the hotel and Rick relaxed and I took a nap. It was very hard to get up for dinner but I did. We actually went out for pizza and it wasn’t bad.
During free time, we and many in our group went to high tea at the Metropole. The bar at night was pretty fun, too.
Looks like you’re having a fantastic trip! I was able to visit Vietnam in 2019 and loved everything about the place!
Getting caught up with your blog. You are more adventuresome with food than I thought! The chaotic streets are nuts! Love seeing the food vendors.