Two More Nights In Hanoi

Two more Nights in Hanoi

 

After a great few days in Sapa , an uneventful overnight train trip back to Hanoi and a  4.30am check-in, we just went to bed and slept until lunchtime then went out and explored this wonderful city. We found the lake area and people watched, and generally soaked up the bustling atmosphere that epitomises Hanoi. On one occasion as we were waiting to cross at one of the rare traffic lights, there were at least a hundred motorbikes queued and some impatient ones started to ride on the footpath towards us. Of course as soon as one does it they all do it and we had to flatten ourselves to the wall as they rode by. Thankfully the footpath was quite wide. As I have said before, Hanoi is safe to go out at night, it is an interesting mix of old and new, the number of bikes is staggering and the place is alive. Well not at 4.30am, but they too have to sleep.

In need of a cold beer we called in to a place on a corner with plastic tables and chairs on the footpath. We ordered two beers and the young chap raced across to another shop on the opposite corner and we watched as he helped a girl uncover a beer barrel and put in a hose. It took some time and I figured it was not going to be cold enough so wandered over to check. I touched the first glass, a pint, and it was alright so went back and sat down, it’s all good. Seems the three ‘restaurants’ on the corners were all related in some way and served really cheap local made beer. It was so nice we had another one each. In the mean-time this old lady with gross teeth, came and sat with us and ordered some peanuts in the shells and insisted we eat them. I thought it was a scam and we would have to pay for them, but no she was just being friendly and we found out her age was 84 but nothing much else. The beer was so cheap and nice we went back for more. The only downside was on the forth corner there was an engineering shop grinding cast iron on the footpath. It was rather noisy and wouldn’t have been allowed in NZ. But sitting in small plastic chairs watching the antics of cars, bikes, motorbikes and pedestrians whilst sipping a cheap cold pint in the heat of the day, was somehow really relaxing.

I really like the place and would return again sometime. All of our Hotel staff were excellent young people. They were well trained and had good English skills. Cathie wanted to buy some of their chopsticks and a staff member was sent to the market to buy them for us. We paid 10,000Vnd but we saw them in a shop later for 25,000, so they really looked after us. We had to leave after breakfast the next day and one of the girls came in early to work to say goodbye to us. Hugs, kisses and photos in the restaurant, really sweet.

Now off to the Airport for our flight to Hong Kong and Paris.