Just Taking It All In ... Pause The Moment ...

Day 149 ... After a two and a half hour delay on the flight (thankfully they emailed us), we landed in Hanoi. Another huge city. We are staying in the Old Quarter as I read this is the best area to be in for tourists. It has a similar feel to Saigon but maybe not as built up. After checking into the hotel, and the guy telling us 2 nights isn't enough time to explore the city and giving us some much information on things to do we went to find some food and then back to the hotel as it was 8pm and we were feeling a bit tired.

Day 150 ... After breakfast (a plate of wet scrambled egg swimming in oil that i literally couldn't eat) we decided to go for a walk around the city armed with the map the checkin guy gave us last night circled with all the places to go and places to eat etc. We headed towards the lake for a stroll. the weather is unusually hot in Hanoi for this time of year and the sun has been in and out all morning making it pretty hot. After a pitstop at Starbucks we carried on our walk and sat on a bench for a while next to

the lake to take in the sights, reflect a little on our trip and talk about going home. Two Vietnamese guys came and stood in front of us just as we were about to leave and I thought they were going to try and sell us something but they were well dressed and they said they wanted to practice their English. The older said he was a translator and the other guy was a lot younger and he was a student wanting to practice. So we had a nice long chat with them about travelling, sport and Vietnam. They thanked us for our time and being so friendly, i guess most people just presume they want something from them so don't give them the time of day.
We then tried to find somewhere nice for lunch. There is very limited choice of 'nice' restaurants in Vietnam we have come to find. A lot of the place are average and most are small local places you can't really call a restaurant. They consist of food in pans and tubs dished out to people sat on miniature kids plastic furniture on the side of the road and although this is all 'part of the experience', Adam and I aren't too keen. Mainly, for me, because of the hygiene aspect mainly. I'm sure it's perfectly edible as all the locals eat there but sitting on the side of the road with the dirty pavements and drains that stink to high heaven isn't our idea of a nice meal. So we found a place on TripAdvisor called Red Bean Restaurant and went there for lunch. It was probably one of the very few fancy restaurants in Hanoi. The decor was lovely and they have a really nice menu which wasn't too expensive. I finally got a decent salad with some veg in it! So we're planning to go back for dinner later tonight.