January 18, 2016

To avoid jetlag, it is always best to adjust your time to local time as soon as possible. If it is day-time when you arrive, try and stay awake until it is time to go to bed. If it is night-time go to sleep. We definitely went to sleep when we settled into our room at 1:30 a.m.

Breakfast is served between 7:00 and 9:30 a.m. and I thought we would sleep later and miss breakfast. We were awoken by the cacophony of Hanoi traffic at 8.00 a.m. Scooters and cars all hitting their horns, either to tell other users that they are there or a toot to get out of my way.

I was awake at 8:00 a.m. and thought I might be able to get back to sleep, but that wasn’t going to happen. We showered and went downstairs for breakfast which was very nice. A wide variety available of crepes, eggs-any way you like from fried to omeletes, fruit, and of course Pho –which is the traditional Vietnamese noodle soup.

After breakfast, I updated and posted the blog while Ralf put my bike together. He put his bike together later in the day.

At 12:30 we left to investigate the Old Quarter and take our lives into our hands with the traffic. The theory is you step out in traffic and keep walking. Praying to the saint of scooter riders may help. Surprisingly this suicidal technique works. You wait for a lull in the traffic and head across the road, you don’t hesitate, you just keep walking and like Moses parting the Red Sea the traffic goes around you, tooting their horns for good measure. Even at cross walks with lights for pedestrians, no one takes notice and will not stop for pedestrians. You cannot wait for a scooter or vehicle to allow you to go across, we would still be standing on the first street crossing.

We had a nice walk around the lake. Near the tourist office there were a few display boards showing what they want to do to improve this area. Just like a Community Improvement Plan in Ontario.

They are planting flowers ready for the Lunar New Year. I saw the strangest flower bed, Poinsettias and Geraniums in the same bed! A Christmas plant and a summer plant in the same bed.

Ralf and I took a lot of photos, unfortunately Ralf is still getting used to the iPad and when he wanted to delete a couple of the photos he actually deleted all of the photos on his card. He was really annoyed.

A strange thing happened to me as we walked around. I was looking at the flower beds and this young girl came up to me. I thought she wanted to take a photo of the flowers but she indicated that she wanted a photo of me. She put her arm around my waist, smiled at me and then pointed to her boyfriend who took a photo. No idea why!

For lunch we had baguettes, with meat and vegetables and a beer each for the grand price of $5.25 CAD.

We arrived back at the hotel about 4:00 p.m. and Ralf tried to get the air conditioning to work. It wouldn’t work. He went down to reception. The staff at the hotel are young Vietnamese and are very keen to help. First one guy comes up to our room, presses all the buttons on the remote “No its not working” then another guy comes up to our room, presses all the buttons on the remote “ No its not working” by the time it was all done and dusted five different guys had comet to the room to try the remote. One guy did bring a ladder and opened up the face of it, closed it all back up. We were moved to another room, which is very nice.

Tonight we went to the restaurant down the street for Pho, the staff here recommend it as the best place to eat Pho in the neighbourhood. Pho is a traditional Vietnamese meal, it starts with a tasty broth, add a good helping of rice noodles, beef and vegetables. We thought it was going to be a fancy restaurant, but it was a small hole in the wall place that was packed with Vietnamese and a few tourists. There were little kiddie seats on the side walk and inside were about four tables that sat about six people and one long communal table in the middle that would seat about 20.

Ralf ordered the Pho while I found us a seat and we ate with chopsticks and a spoon. It was very tasty and filling. Dinner cost a grand total of $5.80, we had two beers at the little place across the street for $2.32.