Hanoi Day 1

After a lightening show to welcome us we arrived in Hanoi at ~ 8pm in the rain. We arranged for the hotel to send a driver which worked well. Darcy had arrived early afternoon & it was fabulous to see him again after 12 months of Penguins, texts & phone call. Darcy had already roamed the nearby streets so took us to a yummy restaurant near Hoan Kiem Lake.

Day 1 a walking adventure around the lake - saw Den Ngoc San temple (shouldn’t have paid for that one), negotiated the insane road system (don’t think one exists), went to St Joseph Cathedral - Darcy’s comment “wow breathtaking, just like the ones in Europe.” There was a long queue at a street Bahn Mi so we tried the one next door - very tastey. Tried egg coffee pretty nice, Darcy had egg beer. My next job was to navigate back to the lake took a right turn instead of a left & ended up checking out the cathedral again but got a cheap cold beer on the way. At night walked a couple of K’s (nearly killed Craig) to have a snack & beers at Train Street - Nam Vy’s cafe. How crazy an idea is that putting cafes along a train track in about a 5m space and even crazier that we think it’s something we should see! Good fun though. Finished the day at a quaint French Vietnamese fusion restaurant- great food & my first wine in a while.Read more