Hanoi - Last Day

Our final full day in Hanoi was more jam-packed than our normal two-adventures-per-day schedule. First stop, after yet another amazing breakfast buffet at our hotel, was to find a sports bar to watch Game 7 of the NBA Finals with my beloved Warriors facing the Cavaliers. Anne posted a query on a TripAdvisor forum, and the owner of the Puku bar responded that - yes indeed - they would have the game playing.  Due to the time change, we were watching the game in a room full of expats at 7 AM Monday morning.  More and more people showed up, and by game’s end there were maybe 200 people crammed into a viewing room.  Despite the unfortunate outcome of a Warriors loss, it was still fun to watch.

NBA Finals in Hanoi

Next adventure was a Hanoi Street Food Tour.  Eighteen of us went traipsing through Old Hanoi, led by a  charming 22 year old woman named Phoenix.  Over the next three hours, we sampled seven dishes at six different places.  We started with a pork ball soup with vermicelli rice noodles, followed by a green papaya salad with dried beef and mint (my favorite), then rice noodle crepes filled with beef, a sampler of fried things, a variety of desserts (including a tasty green sticky rice ice cream), some Banh Mi sandwiches, and a Vietnamese egg-drop coffee.  I’m not a coffee drinker, but the egg drop coffee was great. As a bonus, some of the Vietnamese words now make sense: Bo is beef, Bun is rice noodles, Che is “sweet things”.

Well stuffed from the afternoon tour, we visited a traditional Vietnamese Water Puppet show.  The stage is a shallow pool of water, and the puppeteers stand behind a wooden screen and use long use sticks to control the puppets.  This art form evolved from rice-patty culture, as the people were used to standing in knee deep water all day long anyway. They had a variety of scenes, including a dragon scene with real live waterproof sparklers, and a re-enactment of the Legend of the Recovered Sword, for which the neighboring lake in Hanoi is named.  Everyone enjoyed the show, even the kids.

After the show, we walked through the nicer part of Hanoi, and looked at a few shops, including a store that sold ukuleles and one that had traditional propaganda posters, and settled for a dinner near the “church”.  I didn’t eat, but Sue and the kids fueled up.  The drinks were particularly well presented.

I think we finally have Hanoi figured out.  We can cross the street and not get hit by a scooter, and between knowing a few landmarks and using Google Maps, we are able to return to our hotel from anywhere.  The one final discovery for me was that I was overpaying for taxis by 10x, as I didn’t see the decimal point on the meter.  At 20,000 dong per dollar, the meters read 20,000 as 20.0.  So a couple of $1 taxi rides cost $10, but since the average monthly income in Vietnam is $300, I think I’ve earned some good karma points by bonusing a few lucky drivers.

Tomorrow we head for a three day cruise on Halong Bay. Can’t wait!