We slept in on New Year’s day and then decided to take it easy the whole day and relax a little for a change. The idea behind such a long stay in Hanoi was to spend some days just relaxing, eating and drinking, and watching the world go by. Today we put the plan into action.
The weather on New Year’s day was clear and sunny, a contrast from the cloudy but warm weather that we had grown accustomed to. We spent most of the day walking around the lake, buying the occasional fake pair of sunglasses, and sitting on one of the benches to take in the view. Around us Hanoi was alive with scooters, tourists (both foreign and domestic) and street peddlers trying to sell their wares. We decided to go to a touristy sandwich shop for a change of culinary pace, and enjoyed some pretty good sandwiches on baguettes. The bread in Vietnam was really good – one of the lasting influences of the French in this country.
We also spent a long time at a grocery store in the area. Hain had showed us a few when we first arrived, and today we spent a lot of time exploring the aisles and trying to figure out what everything might be, and what things would be fun to take home. Everything was cheap in the stores, so it was really more a matter of weight management than what we could afford.
We spent a long lazy couple of hours on the patio of a coffee shop overlooking one of the busiest intersections in Hanoi. The coffee place was a Starbucks clone called “Highlands Coffee” – and the menu was clearly aimed at foreigners, mostly it was in English, and the prices of coffee were about ten times what you would pay in a typical cafe on the street. The location couldn’t be better though, and ten times regular price was still much cheaper than what we would pay in Japan.
In the evening we found ourselves back at the street stalls eating dinner, and then at a Bia Hoi drinking cheap beer to wind up the day. There was kind of weird moment at the restaurant when one of the street vendors walked up and tried to sell us Vietnamese style donuts. These ladies were always trying to sell us donuts – for some reason foreigners were good customers, I guess. On impulse Kuniko said sure, we’ll eat them for dessert, and asked for a small bag of donuts. The lady passed them over, and then came the tricky part of trying to figure out what the price was. Usually in stores people would indicate the price by typing into a calculator and showing us, but street vendors (especially the mobile ones) didn’t have calculators. The lady told Kuniko the price, and she had a thick accent so it was tough to understand. I heard “15” and I figured it meant 15,000 dong (about $1). I’m not sure what Kuniko heard, but she looked through her purse and then handed over a 50,000 dong bill (about $3). The donut lady took the bill and walked away, and some other customers of the restaurant that had casually been observing started yelling at the donut lady. One lady managed to ask Kuniko in English if she was expecting money back, and Kuniko and I, sensing something was amiss said that we were fine. I guess $3 is a lot to pay for donuts in Hanoi, but Kuniko had a great attitude about it. Maybe we got ripped off, but the stakes were pretty low and it was all part of the adventure. Just another reason why I love traveling with Kuniko. I was also impressed that the people had jumped in to try to help us.
It was a relaxing day and our last day in Hanoi – finally we could check out of our hotel and fly out to Hue. As a precaution I settled up the bill tonight just to make sure there were no delays in the morning when we leave.
