On the move

We slept in a bit today. Unfortunately, I’ve contracted a cold and am a bit under the weather. The heat is a bit much on top of a slight temperature, but we made the most of our morning.

We walked about half a mile to Hoan Kiem Lake but ducked into Notes coffee shop for an egg coffee first. The coffee shop has a huge Instagram following. It is plastered with sticky notes on every single thing, and some were several layers deep. We grabbed a pen and sticky note, as is the custom. It was difficult to find a place to adhere the stickies, so I eventually just covered up someone else’s post-it. As for the coffee, we all had iced egg coffee. During the war, milk was difficult to obtain, so the egg coffee was born. Topped with a rich foam, it is only slightly less thick than the salt coffee. Where the salt coffee has cocoa sprinkled, this one has a dash of cinnamon. It took some effort to get it stirred up, so I could drink it without leaving a thick mustache.

We didn’t stay long. The coffee shop didn’t have AC, and it was obnoxiously hot. We descended the stairs and walked across the street to the lake. On our side of the lake, Kinh Tu Dinh Temple sits on a small island, connected to the park via a red bridge, specifically the Huc Bridge. We paid our $2 to walk the bridge and visit the temple. I assume there is a celebration happening or coming, as there was an enormous sign made out of thousands of yellow and red roses. The fragrance could be experienced before you could even see it. We weren’t properly dressed, so we didn’t go in the temple. Instead, we went into a small building to the left. Inside were two, preserved specimens of Raefestus sinhoei turtles. They are huge, flat turtles that legend says lived in this lake. They are better known as Sword Lake turtles. Lucky for me, two 12 year old kids wanted to practice their English. After the obvious questions (where are you from, what’s your favorite Vietnamese food, etc), the young man asked if I wanted to hear the story of Sword Lake. Since I was standing directly under the air conditioner, I said yes. Here’s my rendition of his rendition. There was a king that was given a magic sword from the turtle God. It was used to defeat an invading army, but the king had to return it. He sailed out to the lake and gave it to the Golden turtle. The young man wasn’t sure if the Golden turtle still swam in the lake, but I suspected not. I later looked up the story, and the king lived in the 15th century.

I glance over at Kim and Nikki, who were both patiently engaging with a few kids each; however, they weren’t near the AC and looked as if they were melting. Luckily, the teacher wrapped it up, and the kids gifted us with stickers. Super sweet!

We walked back to the hotel to cool down for a few minutes before checking out. I asked ChatGPT for a close restaurant with AC and was pointed to a Japanese restaurant at the end of the block. I had the most delicious, fried shrimp ever. Light and flaky, they were tasty with just a dollop of Japanese mayo. It also came with a refreshing, shredded cabbage salad. Nikki had a salmon bowl. and Kim went for the yuzu fried chicken. If you’re in Hanoi and need AC, check out Yoshiya.

Following our lunch, we hopped on our flight to Siem Reap. I almost cried when I saw the air temperature in the taxi dashboard, 81 degrees. It hasn’t been South of “feels like” triple digits in a week. I’m hoping it stays cool for our time here.Read more