January 23, 2017

Although we had a late night last night, we were both awake by 7:00 a.m. We had another good breakfast and then made a list of things we had to do today.

The people at reception are always very helpful with directions and the best places to get things.

We headed out at 10:00 a.m. with a map and list in hand. Bank, Sim Card, supermarket. Some of the sights of Hanoi are very funny, this dog with his jacket on did not look impressed.

We are millionaires again. The exchange rate is 16,893 Vietnamese dong (vdn) to 1 Cdn dollar! One million dong is $58.00! It makes it hard to try and work out in your head what you are actually paying for something, we bought a cheap and cheerful Casio calculator for 125,000 vdn – about $7.36.

We went to a local supermarket, we decided to take some food with us on the road just in case we can’t find anywhere for lunch or breakfast is not included at the guest houses. We bought some muesli and a jar of nutella – the peanut butter was not what we are used to – ingredients included sucrose and palm oil – yuck.

Near the supermarket they were setting up a small fair with rides for kids. Although Ralf is convinced that this is where they train their construction crews.

We got a sim card for the iPad with 7 gbs of data on it – we will only need the data if there is no wi-fi. However, the wi-fi is supposed to be really good across the country.

We decided to try and find a paper map to supplement the garmin and google maps. We headed into a very posh shopping mall – six floors of big name brands – Rolex etc. However, there was no Indigo or Chapters bookstore selling maps.

We could only find one store that sold maps – they only had one and it only showed the main roads. I think we will stick with google maps and maps.me which we can view off-line if necessary.

We had lunch today near the lake, which was expensive as it is a touristy area. Two coffees, a ham and cheese toasted sandwich with some fries $18.00. 10% service charge was included, but if you didn’t like the service you didn’t have to pay.

Also from this area you can get Domino\’s Pizza delivered. I am not sure how much they were.

Ralf almost bought some Keen sandals for $44, but they didn’t fit quite right. His look a little ratty and every time we pass a guy who fixes shoes they try to stop Ralf and glue them for him. They don’t need gluing they need sewing.

There are a lot of hawkers trying to sell to tourists. One scam are the ladies who sell small donut type treats. They offer you one to taste and then charge you a ridiculous amount of money for it.

We heard on the first night that they can cost over 150,000 vnd for six small balls – that is over $8.00. We politely refuse all the offers of “donuts” pineapple, fruit etc. However, there was one clever lady who very quickly put her “yoke” on Ralf’s shoulder and encouraged me to take a photo.

Of course we both knew we would have to pay for this privilege. She quickly put a bunch of bananas in a bag and a sliced pineapple and hung it onto Ralf’s hand. Ralf asked how much 50,000 vnd about $2.50. Ralf offered 15,000 vnd about .83 cents. She took the 15,000 and the bunch of bananas – muttering to herself. Very enterprising but not quick enough for two savvy Canadians.

Tomorrow we head out on our bikes.