Vietnam- Hanoi

Ida and I flew into Vietnam. Crossing the border was one of the easiest so far; just needed a printed e-visa we got in advance online. The hostel we booked had a taxi waiting to pick us up. It was about a 45 minute drive to the center where we were staying. I actually really enjoyed the car ride; my first peak of Vietnam. I noticed all the trees immediately. I think that might be the first thing I look for when I go to a new city. I guess I just love trees! When we started to get closer to the center, traffic hit pretty hard, and I started to get anxious to get there. Once we did, we settled into our room and relaxed a bit after 2 long travel days. Ida got hungry so upon the hostels recommendation, we wandered our way over to the general viscinity of places to eat. On our way over, there was a small open restaurant and by the entrance was a local woman deep frying what looked like empanadas. Their menu called them something pillows. Since I wasn't super hungry, I wanted to give one a try instead of a meal. So good! The filling was noodles and pork with perfectly crispy wafer like outside. Ida had a bowl of pho at a place no more than a block from there. When we first saw the pho place, we weren't sure we wanted to go there because the place was so jam packed and super busy but in the end, we decided to for it. It had to be good being so busy and it was. After Ida finished her bowl, we were both exhausted and headed back for the night.

Since I had gone to sleep early (10:30pm), I was expecting to wake up early but nope I got a full 12 hours of sleep, but definitely think I needed it, especially with all the traveling and getting over my cold or whatever I had. Our plan had been to go to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum but we ended up having a hard time finding the entrance and decided to go see the Hanoi botanic garden. We both enjoyed the peace of the still water and the green trees with all their hanging branches. As we walked through we saw many locals exercising and a few even learning the steps to some kind  of dance. 

Walking through the streets Hanoi, the first thing I noticed is the locals do their own thing. In Thailand as well as other countries, we were constantly nagged to either buy something or asked if we wanted a tuk tuk. Tourism was the life. It was so nice to walk through a place unnoticed. 

After our walk through the garden, we had a bit more time to do something else. At this point we weren't interested in trying any museums again, but kinda funny we ended up walking past the entrance as well as a large grassy open area in front with paths going through making large squares. We think it might have been a memorial of some kind. We also found out that wearing shorts wasn't allowed so I wouldn't have been able to go anyway. We eventually found our way to a lookout point with a view of the lake and  the city. Even though neither the garden or the view of the lake were anything special, especially in the cloudy weather, it was so calm and peaceful.  Both Ida and I love walking so we were happy. Plus we could enjoy nature and the view of the beautiful busy city without being in the middle of it.

We started to head back as it got closer to the time of the free walking tour our hostel provides. Yep we did a whole lot of walking! But we both enjoyed every minute of it and probably made up for all the sitting in cafes we ended up doing the following day. 

The walking tour was actually great! Our tour guide was so friendly and was so happy to answer any questions to the best of his ability. He wanted everyone to have a good time. We walked through a Catholic Church built by the French when they occupied Vietnam and looked into a Buddhist temple where a service was going on. There, our tour guide showed us how Buddhist prayers are done. We made our way around sword lake to the turtle tower. There's a reason for their names but sadly I don't remember the stories plus I didn't totally catch all that he said anyway, just bits and pieces. 

He took us to a cafe where we had the specialty coffee of Vietnam, egg coffee. I didn't get one because coffee doesn't settle well with my stomach but I tasted Ida's. It was so good! It was very creamy and almost custard like in taste, stirred in with coffee. When everyone finished we walked through a couple different streets, one with lots of shops to buy clothing and souvenirs, one full of bars and restaurants (he showed a bar named the Obama bar) and one where the local market was. We saw one man skinning and gutting frogs for meat, that was gross but very much just part of what happens. 

We headed back to the hostel and Ida and I went to get dinner. Since I hadn't had the pho that she had the night before, we went back to that place so I could enjoy a bowl. Ida didn't mind having pho again since it was so good! 

I was happy to sit down after a full day of walking and let my feet rest. We went back to the hostel for the night when we finished. It had been a great day!

The next morning I woke up at 8:30. Ida and I went down to the lobby to have breakfast that the hostel provided. We had eggs, noodles, toast, cucumbers, and watermelon. It was a great breakfast! Our plan had been to go back to see what didn't see the day before but neither of us felt like walking back so we decided we'd walk around where we had gone for the walking tour and check out some of the shops we had seen. In the end, we didn't get to do either of those things because it rained all day. We tried walking around a bit but got soaked so we pretty much hung out at cafes the rest of the day. It was a long day, just sitting around but it was ok, we had done so much the day before. Late in the afternoon we actually watched a movie, The Bucketlist and my favorite documentary on Netflix, Tig. By the time we finished it was almost time for the buffet the hostel was having so we sat around a little longer. We ended up chatting with another traveler from Portugal. She gave us some recommendations of where to go in Vietnam that were her favorite places. We all went to the buffet together and enjoyed the meal. It was very good!

Later a taxi picked us up to take us to our bus; a sleeper bus to Sapa for our 2 day tour.