Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Gooooood morningggggg Vietnam!!

Since the 9th was a Wednesday, both Matteo and Rachael had to work. Rachael works at an international school and was up and out quite early. Matteo is an instructor at a gym so he had a morning class to teach but then came back to the apartment and got showered and we were able to hang out together for the day. 

We went for brunch and I had my first taste of Vietnamese food, I instantly knew I was going to like this country.



Next Matteo navigated us on his moto (a feat far more impressive in HaNoi than in Pathum Thani) to The Old Quarter, an area popular for tourists and littered with hostels and travel agencies and therefore perfect for booking my tour of Ha Long Bay. 

After getting that squared away, we explored a couple local markets in search of dad's playing cards and Uncle Ralphy's flag (funny, I buy those items for them everywhere I go, but not always something for myself). Again the flag was a success but all the cards were plain playing cards with no indication of where they were from. Sorry again dad. 

Next we went for a walk around a lake and stopped for a photo of this very accurately scaled globe.



There was also a pagoda or temple (not sure which is which or what the difference is) we explored and it was interesting to see the vast differences between Thai and Vietnamese temples. This particular temple has a legend surrounding a turtle that retrieved a sword from the bottom of the lake and brought it to the king (I think it was the king.... Maybe). As we walked around we actually encountered a turtle going for a stroll through the temple. Hi there Mr. Turtle. 



Next was the flag tower where you could climb about halfway up to get a decent view of the city and of the collection of planes below. The planes were those that Vietnamese captured during the wars with France and the US. It was quite interesting and Matteo and I discussed how it seemed odd that they were all outside, exposed to the elements and with no protection from people climbing on them. 





After some people watching and delicious iced coffees, we headed back to the apartment so Matteo could get ready to teach a class at the gym. 




Rachael was going to attend the class that night and they invited me to join, but from the beautiful rooftop they have I spotted the lakes with a long stretch of road that ran between the two lakes and I swear I actually heard it calling me to come run. 


The small lake was about 2.5k and I made the first two loops as the sun was going down. No gps, no hr monitor, no music, just me and Lake Truc (and the hundreds of people on the street doing tai chi, selling food, selling other crap or trying to get you to come eat at their reataurant). By the end of the third loop it was dark and I ran the last with just the lights from the streets and restaurants. As I finished and walked up to the apartment I thought to myself, "I just ran a 10k in HaNoi, Vietnam. Yep, this is my life."

That night we went to dinner with some of Rachael's coworkers who also live in the building, and I got to experience beer hoi for the first time. Beer hoi is "fresh beer" brewed daily in nearly every little roadside restaurant in the area. Because it's brewed that day, the alcohol content is very low, but at about $0.25/glass you can afford to drink loads of it to get your buzz on. 

Family style eating is also quite common in Vietnam, so we ordered several dishes and everyone just dug  in. At the end of the night we were all well fed and the beer hoi had not stopped flowing. The waitress brought the check and I just laughed when for the five of us the grand total came to about $13USD. Have I mentioned I kinda love Vietnam?

Total for the day about 180,000dong + $120 USD (Ha Long Bay tour) ~ $128.57 USD. Two pricey days in a row. Yikes!

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