Breakfast cut short this morning, our bus arrived exactly at 645, the time we were told. Shoved a couple of bites in and we are off. Mr Hung actually came by at breakfast to wish us a good trip, didn't think we would see him again. He is quite the entrepreneur 2 restaurants, a 3rd on the way. A hotel, not sure how many cars he has for tourists and motorbikes for rental. Pre covid he also had 2 sleeper busses, I don't think those are back yet.
It is a rainy misty morning, we feel so bad for any bikers going out today. It would be miserable in this weather and you can hardly see the mountains.
Our last crazy bus ride is done. This one was a limousine bus that held 13 people, pretty new, I think it's the first or second bus we have had that had working seat belts. 5 of us started the bus trip, I think we picked up 3 more along the way. 2 comfort stops and we are at the hotel in Hanoi by 130pm.
The bus drops us off about a block from our hotel, if this would have been our first day in Vietnam we would have been so overwhelmed. He apologies and points us where to go, we say we are fine and off we go.
Welcome home greeting at the hotel. Can't believe they remember my name, but this is our third stay here in the last few weeks.
Laugh when bellman takes us to our room, we say 302 in elevator, he says no higher floor 802. Exact same room exact same furniture, exact same window to the hall view. But, I won't miss the lobby music in the morning that we heard from 302, guess this is our upgrade for staying here 3 times.
Drop off our last load of laundry for pick up tomorrow, I didn't want a totally full suitcase of dirty clothes brought home.
Walking into town and pass by hotel again and a scooter pulls up and says welcome back Wendy. It is Bruce from front desk, again what a memory!
Off to book tickets for the water puppet show for later this afternoon. Tickets booked and time to find something to eat. Walk around in circles for a bit, then decide spring rolls will be fine and we will go out for a meal later.
Spent some time wandering looking for souvenirs for grand kids, a basically impossible task that is always left to the last minute. Last minute it will be again as no souvenirs were purchased.
Hang Buon street has some art exhibits that we take a look at. One had some old black and white photography from this street, it certainly has changed.
Grabbed a cafe sou da to help stay awake then off to water puppet show. We went to Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre, our hotel recommended this one as it is the original, and basically around the corner from the hotel. We were in row 5, I can see why people want 1st row, but 5 was fine. We checked for tomorrow as well when we were buying the tickets but tickets were no better so decided to do it this afternoon. We bought the audio guide as well, glad we did as the show is all in Vietnamese and we got more from the show with the guide. We both really enjoyed it, lots of laughs and it actually brought back lots of memories from our entire trip.
Next we decided we better walk around the lake. We have been all around every side but never walked around it. Lots of women out line dancing at this time of night. We think we came across some kind of camera club out taking pictures, lots of lens envy from Andre.
There was a concert in the square by the lake. A large stage is setup, we caught the end of the concert. Wondering if it will still be there tomorrow for the holiday.
Ready for a cocktail so decide on Terraso Skybar which has 30% off on cocktails and beer between 5 and 7pm. 30% off but they add 15% service charge. Nice views of the lake, and a good Mojito, and Andre really liked the Barett craft beer he tried.
Enough arguing about someone picking supper spot, I said let's try Nam Bittet. We are walking along the little night market that is set up on the closed streets and run into the couple from the Netherlands that we kept seeing in Ha Giang. It has happened to us a few times this trip now, amazing how often you run into the same people.
Finally make it to Nam Bittet. I'm still half pretending I am vegetarian so fried rice with vegetables for me, Andre of course orders the pigeon. My fried rice is the best fried rice we have had in 2 months, I even asked what one if the veggies was, this took consultation with chef and google translate and they came up with mustard greens. I'm not so sure, it was a cross between the most delicious onion and celery? On to Andres pigeon, when it arrived he asked if I minded if he just put the head in the garbage, a little wasteful but I said OK. When I first looked at his plate I noticed the feet, not the head, I didn't focus too much on him eating it. The pigeon comes served with nothing else, my fried rice dish was huge, plenty to share. Our waiter came by at one point to tell me in Vietnam they use a spoon to eat rice, I told him I was practicing using chopsticks. No way could he have been upset about all the rice on the table, this is one of those places with trash cans under every table with 90% of the trash missing the trash can. Plus if I was supposed to be using a spoon where was I supposed to get it, none in the little carrier at our little table. Two things I loved about this place, there is another colour of stool that they brought out for me about 5 inches higher than the normal tiny stool, and disposable chopsticks wrapped up. Andre loved that there was another new beer to try, Truc bach, which he liked. End of meal, Andre decides to dip his fingers in bowl of vinegar the cucumber came in to get the grease off his fingers. Waiter comes over again to say there is a sink in the bathroom, our poor server must think we are total idiots.
Walk back to our hotel through closed streets, beer street is up and running at full steam now. Another early night, tomorrow may be a soggy wet day in Hanoi, no alarm needed, no plans, except looking for souvenirs , urgh.
Todays Pictures:
View from our balcony
At the traffic circle
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