Ive officially reunited with mum and dad after over a year! It been great to see them again, so much has happened this year and theres been lots to catch up on. Weve been in hanoi for the past 3 days which has been super fun. Our first day was spent roaming around the old quarter where we're staying, we went to an egg coffee cafe (i got an egg beer which was quite weird but tasty), checked out den ngoc son temple and st joseph cathedral, and then had a really nice street bahn mi for lunch. On the way home Mum fell victim to the classic backwards blue direction radar on maps which meant we got to experience the cathedral a couple of times while we walked around in circles. After a year of that little blue thing sending spencer and i the wrong way constantly it was funny to see mum and dad struggle with it for the first time ahaha.
For dinner we went to an alleyway bar where you sit right next to a train track! The alley is really narrow, probably only 5 or 6 metres wide, so when the trains came through they almost completely filled up the space. The bars set out tables and chairs over the tracks and then 5 minutes before a train was scheduled all the waiters would frantically pack everything up and make everyone squeeze right up against the wall, it was very crazy. Id love to meet the maniac local that decided itd be a good idea to open the first restaurant there, everyone mustve thought they were completely daft.
The next day mum and i went for lunch at a restaurant thats very famous because obama and anthony bourdain had a meal there together. The restaurant is very busy and they have loads of copies of the same photo from anthony bourdain's instagram up on all the walls.
In the arfternoon we went on a guided walking tour around the old quarter which was very interesting. The guide was really informative and took us to loads of intersting places including the cho dong xuan markets, "the best street donut stall in hanoi", some deep dark alleys where poor locals live, and a rooftop bar. We had no idea about the rooftop bars before the tour but ended up going to several more during our stay coz they were amazing! We also learned all about the billion different times vietnam has been invaded during the last 200 years, theyve been at war constantly which i never knew. For dinner we went to the insanely lively beer street and had a lovely time people watching from a bar with a balcony.
Our third day was spent largely just retracing our steps from the previous day because mum and dad saw a shop on the walking tour they really liked but couldnt remember where it was. We never found it but the day wasnt a total waste coz we got to see a digger driver put his digger back on a truck using a technique thats going to put all ramp makers out of business. At night we went for a fantastic dinner at a michelin selected restaurant called highway 4, which we all absolutely loved. We ate crickets and ants and all kinds of weird stuff and it was delicious! I think well probably go back it was so good, we tipped the waiters and everything ahahah.Read more