The stairwell on the way to our beautiful all you can eat made to
order breakfast on the top floor of the Hanoi La Selva Hotel .
We walked around the lake where a B52 crashed and helped some students with their English.
We walked to the opera house and discovered it was school
graduation day with group after group of students standing on the opera house
steps to be photographed with their certificates. Morning tea at RuNam Bistro near the Opera House.
We walked right across town (because we couldn’t find a cyclo to
takes us) to the Army museum. About 500m from the museum a cyclo accosted us
and Michael negotiated for him to meet us when we’d finished at the army musuem
(no specific time) with 4 of his friends as we would need 5 cyclos. We
proceeded to the Army museum to learn some of the history of the Vietnamese
fighting off the Chinese, French, Spanish and the US imperialists to regain
their country.
Amazingly the cyclo was waiting when we came out along with 4 of his
friends and we had a hair raising ride back through the insane traffic to the
hotel.
The hotel ordered taxis to get us to Quan an Ngon, 18 Phan
Boi Chau street for dinner. A restaurant recommended by Steph, Scott’s
flatmate, and approved by the hotel concierge. We drove through a lovely area
of Hanoi (wider streets and quieter) to get there and paid the driver 50,000
VND.
We bypassed the huge queue thanks to the hotel reserving us a
table. But when we started to list our choices we discovered that because it
was liberation day (the north liberated the south from the darstedly US
imperialists on April 30 1975) there was no fried anything. Not sure if the
deep frying chef was on holiday but there were no spring rolls or wontons and
only one selection from the first page of the menus available. Ronnie chose
shrimp but they too weren’t available. So I “helpfully” suggested an exotic
looking dish a waiter had wafted passed our table with little rolls wrapped in
bamboo leaves held together with chopsticks and barbequed. But when it came to
the table it turned out to be Bun Cha which we had for lunch yesterday. The
waiter watched Ronnie put all the noodles in the broth and rushed over to tell
him to wait while he replaced the noodles and broth and showed us how to
prepare it properly (everything separately dipped in the broth then transferred
to another bowl) but still a missed opportunity to try something new.
As we exited an excited taxi driver organised another taxi for us
and we had a hair raising trip through town with the two drivers vying for
space on the road. About half way there we realised we were being taken for a
ride, literally, as the metre jumped up erratically (the driver had control of it) while
the driver proceeded at a snails pace. Shayne recognised our street as we drove
straight passed it. A few minutes later the driver dropped is somewhere saying
he couldn’t drive through the holiday crowds. We ignored the 185,000 VND on the
metre and handed over 100,000 VND. He didn’t even argue. Luckily Shayne’s
good sense of direction and Ronnie’s GPS for backup meant we found our way back to
the hotel. The others were waiting in the street outside the hotel
having been taken to the door but had similarly overcharged. They’d argued with
the driver only wanting to pay 50,000 VND but in the end gave him 100,000 VND
just to get rid of him.
Exciting times.
