Lucky Hotel Hanoi

... cha is served deconstructed, and then you kind of put it all together - a bowl of broth with the grilled pork in it, a pile of rice noodles to plunge into the broth, a plate of lettuce and mixed fresh herbs to cool the palate and sweeten the meat, and a small dish of sprouts... because... sprouts are good. It was super delicious, and totally hit the spot. Total damage for two huge portions of Bun Cha and a fried spring roll: 42,000 Dong, or ...

... relaxing and postcard hawkers too. I met lovely people. I walked a bit in the old city for some quick shopping and hired a cyclo to run me back to the Hanoi Elegance Hotel to get ready for the afternoon.

I had not inquired as to the normal cyclo rates. The cyclo driver asked for 100,000 Dong or about $6 for a 5 minute ride. I bargained down to 50,000 and agreed ...

... at beer corner, a busy crossroads where we pulled up tiny plastic chairs on the edge of the road and sampled the establishment’s home brew - at 15p a glass it was worth nearly every penny…

We’ve also visited the Ho Chi Minh complex, to which many Vietnamese make something of a pilgrimage to pay their respects to their revered leader lying in perpetuity in his palatial mausoleum. He was currently out of town, however ...

... die wir bisher
kennengelernt haben, sind die Vietnamesen mit Abstand die muehsamsten
Artgenossen. Man muss immer aufpassen, dass man in keine
Touristenfalle tappt, Hilfsbereitschaft wird nicht sehr gross
geschrieben und im Verkehr verhalten sie sich wie besoffene
Amoklaeufer. Natuerlich gibt es auch hier Ausnahmen, aber die sind so
rar wie der aussterbende zweiruesslige Ameisenbaer :-) Mal schauen,
ob die ...

... to burn off afew calories. We found our way to lake Hoam Kiem and after a walk around the foreshores it was time to do a little shoe shopping There never seems to be enough time do and see everything you wish and we have just enough daylight to make it back to the Platium 2 Hotel. Another sccessful day in Hanoi tomorrow early start for day trip to Mau Chau and maybe dinner at Brother's Cafe.

... for the taxi or mini bus taxi to pick us up by 6AM at Venus Hotel since we have given Tuyen the hotel’s address. It was already 15 minutes passed six in the morning and no taxi yet. We waited, called the phone numbers which Tuyen gave and asked several cabs passing by if it was our assigned taxi showing the receipt of Sinh Café Travel, but nay. By quarter to seven after asking help from the Venus Hotel’s manager, she advised that she was not sure if our taxi was coming ...

... of trekking. My guide, Khu, was amazingly cute and I loved her to bits! Shes from one of the local tribes and taught me so much about the local culture - showed me all the different plants they use for medicine, how they make and colour their clothes, everything really. We got followed everywhere by another woman from the tribe who I thought was just Khu's friend, but oh no, she wants to sell me stuff. And tat at that. Its so hard ...

... was called the Love Wine ***. Fermented rice was stored in a jar. When brought to our table, the cover was removed and there was a lotus leaf at the top covering the fermented rice. Long straws made from rottan were inserted through the leaf into the jar and a bottle of mineral water was poured into the jar. We were invited to start drinking. It was pleasant to drink and we all agreed that it taste like our local dayak "tuak" but a ...