Temple of Literature

Awake from 3am, will have to push through tonight and stay awake for as long as I can. The tea house is lovely and I sat with Trang (host) and drank a dozen thimble sized cups of tea this afternoon as we talked. But the bed is ROCK hard and the princess in me is struggling!

I got to listen to my very close neighbour do his morning ritual this morning. First his singing bowl meditation, and then the daily cleanse. Which is a cacophony of coughing, snorting and throat clearing and then he closed with a little more singing bowl. I wonder if tomorrow will be the same. I slept through yesterdays!

After a delicious bowl of Pho at my local, which they must watch with delight, as I struggle to make my numb fingers manage the chopsticks. Takes me half the bowl for brain and fingers to connect and I still manage to have a shower of broth all around the bowl. It’s so good though, this morning I added an egg to poach in the broth.

Detour back to room and then to meet Nguyen for my morning adventure. And then whilst I waited for him, I realised how cold I was and whipped home for more clothes. Glad I did.

Nguyen is a photographer I found that takes you out and about to the spots you want to see and takes photos of you there. I had asked him before hand if he’d help me get reacquainted with my SLR, that hasn’t been out of the cupboard in 3 years and yes we did that too, but he was also really good at setting me up for photos. I felt like I should have had hello kitty ears on, peace fingers raised and a pout! He got the hint pretty quick that I wasn’t terribly fussed about that. I’ll get the photos in a couple of days, at least there’ll be some photos with me in them I guess. He was great to chat too and we had a great nearly 4hr, 2hr session.

I asked him about Christmas and New Year - he said it was just for us! Meaning the tourists … I really wish they (every non Christian country in the world) wouldn’t, and I told him that. It’s death by Christmas carol and tacky plastic Christmas decorations, and we get enough of that at home. He said “Sadly yes but we must do it for the others.”

A much better coffee experience with a local before continuing to wander. He showed me a part of train street that is the best place to be without the tourists and had me promising to be up early to get there without the throngs of people. The IG famous section is now local access only and guarded after 1 too many accidents between tourists/influencer and train.

At the end of our morning, he offered me two routes back to the tea house. “That way is to the end of the block turn right and straight ahead. This way is more adventurous.” as he pointed me in the general direction of home down some alley ways. Well of course off I went, not a tourist in sight. The street view with all its busyness vanishes pretty quick when you move into the centre of the block down these alley ways. It’s quiet and clean and not a bit of greenery, until you see into some courtyards or looking up, you see pots and plants attached to anything and everything scaling the walls and high fences. Occasionally you’ll get a peak into the first floor of a home- it’s like a mud room, shoes, motorbikes, storage, stuff, and then there might also be a tv, couch and a snoozing pop.

Trang, after the thimbles of tea, sent me off with vague directions for an 8 min walk for lunch, but I couldn’t bring myself to commit, so went up the street and zigged and zagged and found a little stall in another alleyway for some diy rice paper rolls. The very helpful maître de made me the first one and the cook waited for the thumbs up before he went back to his 8 little frypans on the go making the bean sprout pancakes. Delish.

Lazy afternoon reading and planning and now after a short walk down the street for a bowl of steaming veggies and rice in a delicious coconut cream sauce, I’m out.
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