Hanoi - Day 2

We're up early and the smell of smoke permeated the room unfortunately. Hopefully that clears by the time we hit the streets. But first, let's see what the hotel's buffet breakfast has to offer. We head up to the top floor and are greeted with a cool but hazy view. Very south east Asia. We take it in with a side of toasted egg sandwiches, yoghurt, muesli and coffee with sweetened condensed milk. It won't be long before this sweetened condensed milk addition becomes an addiction for Courts.

We've got a food tour booked but it's not till noon. We've got a few hours so we decide to tackle the Hoa Lo Prison or Hanoi Hotel as it was referred to by the USA prisoners of war. The streets feel very different in the day but still as busy. The food markets are already up and trading. The street our hotel is on seems to be a pretty big market place for the buying and selling of fruit, veg, meat and seafood. We continue on and our heads are about to snap off our necks. We can't take it all in fast enough and don't know where to look. There's so much going on. Many people sitting on stalls outside shops slurping down soups and sipping coffee and red bull.

We make it to the prison feeling pretty chuffed we've made it in one piece. We buy our tickets and headphones for the audio tour. The general conditions plus the torture the political prisoners faced sounded absolutely, well, torturous. There were artefacts from the time on display as well as prison cells you could go into. The thing that was clear throughout was how passionately the Vietnamese fought for their independence.

Next step is our walking food tour. We go via our hotel to pick up jackets, as it's a bit cooler this morning, being winter and all. We meet our guide a short walk away. We're a small group; 5 including the guide. First and foremost he tells us the last group he just had were the most boring he's ever had, so we better be chatty. No pressure. The other two people in our group are a Singaporean guy living in Thailand and an American living in Japan.

And we're off! Our first stop is a small and narrow restaurant for bun cha. We just had this last night but we're happy to be having it again. Still yummy, less sweet today, which was an improvement. Our next stop is a restaurant where we're directed to sit upstairs and are served cold rolls and dry chicken pho (pho without the broth). Both are fresh and delicious and the American suggests washing it down with a beer seeing as we shouldn't drink the table water and who are we to argue?

We need a break from eating and it's time we tried the famous egg coffee. It's basically a Vietnamese coffee (black coffee and condensed milk) with a whipped raw egg added. Courts is pumped and Jeff is nervous. Everyone loves it. We wander a bit more until we reach our last food destination, the highly anticipated Banh Mi! It's a little different to how we do it in Aus. The bread is toasted (way better) and they go a bit simpler with the ingredients, so it's more a snack than a meal. It works! We wash that down with mango sticky rice and ice cream and we're done with the food part of the tour.

We continue out tour, walking through the streets, each named after the main goods that were sold on the street historically, although many still it today. Chicken, Steel, Sour, Shoe, Hat etc. We seem to walk down what looks like "Xmas street", but there is also plenty of Lunar New Year paraphernalia as well, a bit of a bet each way here in Vietnam.

Our last stop for the tour is train street. We grab a prime seat and order beers, ready for the 3:15 train to roll through. It's basically a very narrow street that the train comes through, with cafes and bars on either side, with just enough room for a chair on the path to watch the train drive past. It's insane. The train comes, we cheer, we say goodbye to our tour group to go and check out the lake in the day time.

We need a break from walking and get on a cyclo, a 3 wheeled taxi type bike with a canopy. We could have both fit in one but they separate us into 2 cyclos. We're not going far but it's a relief to not be navigating the traffic ourselves. Five or so minutes later and we've arrived. One of the guys tells us the price (about $30 aud, which is already incredibly expensive when we find out later a 10 minute car taxi ride costs about $6). We reluctantly pay and then he tries to tell us that's EACH! That explains their eagerness to put us in separate bikes. Jeff's not having a bar of it so we tell them no more and run away.

We buy a soft serve to calm the nerves and take a walk around the lake. There's lots of girls decked out in traditional dress doing full on proper photo shoots. It's a nice spot with orange sun trying to peak through the hazy atmosphere.

Its been a day trying to stay alive in the traffic so we head back to the hotel for a rest and freshen up before the dinner shift. We spied a rooftop bar earlier in the day and that's where we head. It's a great spot for people watching. We order beers, spring rolls and pork and lemon grass rolls that we put together ourselves (after the waiter gives us a crash course). Lovely stuff. We have another round before seeing what else we can find.

Not surprising to anyone that knows us, we find ourselves in beer alley again. Tonight we are partaking. At less than $2 a beer, how can we not? The beer is fresh, local, cold and low alcohol and goes down a dream. More people watching and we're amused at the street sellers and the things that people will buy. Grab (the company that beat out Uber in south east Asia, you jump on the back of the scooter) jackets anyone? We succumb to the woman who is selling deep fried sweet bread and have no regrets. Another round then its time for us to hit the hay, eager to do it all again tomorrow.