She saw me coming!

 Saturday in Hanoi in the old quarter.

Today was a relaxing day. We had only two main areas to see and then “relax time”

First off we went to a famous street here in Hanoi. It is not very far from our hotel. The train line passes right through a commercial area so the local people have built very small cafe’s and eating spots right beside the tracks. Both ends of the block where we wanted to go had guards not letting us pass unless, of course, a local person let us in, in which case we were shown our spot to sit and order off the menu!!

We were sitting beside two people from Germany. They gave us lots of hints and information on Angkor Wat as they had just been there.

So we are drinking a beer (me) and some kind of weird coffee (Caro) and 20 minutes later came a whistle and everyone cleared off the tracks, and were told to stand back (!) . Soon the train came by and was it moving! We have video of how fast it was. We could easily have reached out and touched it. Wow, that would not be allowed in Canada!

From there we walked back to our hotel and they were able to exchange $C60 for us. We also made arrangements to come back to reception later today to arrange a cab for tomorrow.

While walking back to the lake I decided I wanted a local donut type food (think Tim Bits). A lady came by selling some so I asked for two but she kept putting more and more in a bag. I thought that perhaps you couldn’t buy just two. HMMM  Dummy me. 

‘She saw me coming” because the bill was $10 for about 20 of these Tim  Bit type things and of course when I give her a large bill she “doesn’t have correct change”and has to give me a couple more “Tim Bits” to make up the difference (so $11 was my cost). We can eat a good meal here for that kind of money. On a good note they have some kind of filling and were quite tasty!

In penance for my stupidity when we stopped later for something to drink Caro ordered her frappa chappa who knows what fancy drink and I had a coke!

We walked around the lake like we did last night.

LOTS of young women in traditional dress getting photos taken (just like last night). Those two kids were adorable (and their Mom was taking their photos beside the lake earlier), Caro is actually on her knees in the photo.

There is a high end shopping Center there as well with all the Cartier’s and Tiffany’s etc of the world . The only thing missing was customers. Really no one shopping at all.

The park (with the lake in the middle) has a massive sidewalk all around it so people can just take their time and meander around. The streets in the area are closed to traffic today was well.

In the afternoon we realized my clothes weren’t drying quickly enough for packing in the morning so we improvised a bit.

Tonight the plan is to go to the same restaurant we have been a couple of times before  (although I am quite full from “Tim Bits” and some other street food we bought later).