Part 3: More Hanoi

After we parted ways with Phoebe, Ryan and I walked around a little, exploring the area around our hotel. Eventually we started thinking about dinner, and our hotel called us a taxi to go to Old Hanoi - a restaurant that Ryan had read great reviews about.

It was pretty fancy. Beautifully decorated, and we were the only ones there. Our server didn't speak much English, and we spoke zero Vietnamese, so ordering food was an ordeal. Ryan ordered some beef skewers with pineapple. The server turned the page and pointed at a list of sides. Ryan was like "Oh, do sides come with the meal?" "Yes yes" with nodding and smiling was the answer. Ryan picked out two.

By the time our tea came out exhaustion had hit us...hard. It was only 6:30pm, but I was about to fall asleep into my "Pork in clay pot." We were so tired that we barely said a word to each other the whole meal. As we sat there and ate like zombies, the server stood in the corner watching us. It was a little uncomfortable. Finally we were done and she cleared our plates. And didn't come back.

We found this to be a trend in Vietnam. Once your table is cleared, the server doesn't come back with the bill until you ask for it. So we sat there for what seemed like forever and eventually just stood up. They got the picture and brought the bill. Ryan was charged separately for each additional side - ha! Pretty sly, Old Hanoi.

We paid and took a taxi back to the hotel where we went straight to bed.

I woke up again with my rooster friend at the crack of dawn. After emailing back and forth with mom and eventually sleeping a little more, Ryan and I headed out. We had breakfast at "Paris Deli." Ryan ordered Pho and I had a western breakfast with eggs and OJ.

We decided to start a walking tour of the Old Quarter. The streets were packed. Packed. Be bounced between walking on the side walk and walking on the road because people were sitting on stools eating all over the place. Motorbikes were parked right in the middle of the sidewalk too.

We strolled further and bought a bookmark here, a doo-dad there. I saw a guy carving wooden stamps and just had to have my name carved. I paid and was told to come back at 2 for my stamp. He carved my name, but I expected it to be embellished in some way. You know, like a dragon around it or something. It was just a rectangle with my name in it. Oh well.

Every now and then we'd see a chicken run along the sidewalk, but I'd say one of the stranger things was a kid dragging a speaker on wheels behind him as he sang loudly to music. No one was paying particular attention to him.

Soon it was time to head back to the hotel to meet Phuong, a friend of the owner of Lac Viet here in Columbus, for lunch...