Part 4: More Hanoi

We had time to run up to our hot, tiny room to "freshen" up. Soon Phuong was at the front desk talking to a staff member about where we should go for lunch. She explained that she lived in a different part of Hanoi and didn't know our hotel area very well.

We began heading over to the recommended restaurant, with Phuong holding my arm as we crossed the impossibly busy streets.

We stopped in front of a small store front where a woman was grilling meat and boiling noodles right on the street. She was squatted down low, maybe on a small stool with all sorts of ingredients in front of her. The room behind her was full of locals bent over their bowls chowing down on whatever it was she was making. "there's no room for us," I thought. Phuong led us up a very narrow stairway about 3 floors, each floor we passed was just as crowded as the one below.

Finally we stopped on the 4th floor and were shown to seats at the end of a long picnic table. The server put a large bowl of noodles in front of us, with a blob of noodles falling off onto the table. What did the server do? Why, she picked it up with her bare hands and threw it back in the bowl of course!

Soon there was a large plate of herbs and bowls of pork in front of us. Phuong helped us pick out a decent pair of chopsitcks from the holder on the table and we ate. The food was very good, I could see why it was so crowded. It was about 99 degrees in that room, but we were so consumed by blending in with the city that we forgot out the temp soon after sitting down.

We enjoyed out meal and talking with Phuong about our plans. She gave us the number to a taxi company she recommends (tourists have to be careful about getting ripped off my cab drivers). She walked us back to her hotel and buzzed away on her motorbike. We were glad to have knows our friend back home who owns Lac Viet, it was neat to be put in touch with someone.

We decided to finish the Old Quarter walk that we'd started the day before. We ended up at "Fanny's" for ice cream, which hit the spot. They also had a decent bathroom in there which means it gets an "A" in my book.

That's all for now...to be continued